ZANGWILL, ISRAEL. Typed Letter Signed, to Charles

"AMERICAN JEWS NEED TO ORGANIZE THEMSELVES" ZANGWILL, ISRAEL. Typed Letter Signed, to Charles Schwager, explaining that his views are laid out in the letter previously sent to his president [Abraham S. Schomer, president of the International Jewish Congress], and recommending that he organize American Jews before attempting to organize all Jews everywhere. 1 page, 4to, "Jewish Territorial Organization" stationery; faint scattered soiling, folds.London, 6 September 1907

". . . I have already sent to your president Mr. Schomer a complete exposition of my views. . . ."Apart from the question whether it is possible or desirable to organize the 12 million Jews of the world, the task which faces you first is the organization of the million and a half Jews of America. When you have got a good organization there you would be in a different and better position in approaching the Jews of the rest of the world. For undoubtedly the American Jews need to organize themselves for their own purposes apart from the necessities of organization for international purposes."On August 29, 1897, Theodor Herzl convened the first international Jewish congress in Basel. Utilizing the momentum that Herzl had helped to build, Abraham S. Schomer made various attempts to create a formal international Jewish organization beginning in 1907. Although Zangwill had been a collaborator with Herzl, whose movement increasingly concentrated upon Palestine as the site of a future Jewish state, Zangwill founded the Jewish Territorial Organization in 1903 with the intention of locating alternative territories for the Jewish state. The JTO ceased operations in 1925.