The early days in the life of a movement, as in the life of an individual, are shaped and influenced by those few who conceive and develop the ideas which give it birth. As a movement grows up, it must begin to accept the responsibilities of maturity, to learn to meet the inevitable situations of adult life, to learn to mourn the death of a comrade, but to take new strength from the spirit he displayed. Irv Sternberg, who died early in June, was one of those who contributed to the conception and development of Habonim.
Irv, though only thirty-one when he died, was a veteran in Habonim and its predecessor, the Young Poale Zion Alliance. One of the first organizers, a member of the National Executive, and later the Merkaz, he contributed inestimably to the formulation of the program and policies of Habonim.
A halutz who knew that because of his serious illness he could never realize life in Eretz Yisrael, Irv nevertheless translated his Socialist Zionism into his personal life. He combined his deep love for the printed word and the cooperative way of life in the establishment of a cooperative printing shop for Habonim in Philadelphia. His exceptional ability in artistic handwork led him to organize Habonim crafts groups. His knowledge of the essence of the movement led him to create programs, conceive new ideas, seek new methods of educating others in it.
At the founding convention of Habonim in Buffalo, those who were with him will remember Irv's insistence that we not water down the ideas of the Young Poale Zion Alli- ance but make them the basis for Habonim and devise the methods by which this new movement of younger people might be taught the ideas of the Poale Zion: Self-realization as ha- lutzim in their homeland and the eventual achievement of Socialism and a more productive Jewish life throughout the world.
Irv was a haver with diverse and intense interests, and all of these he applied in his work for Habonim. His love of literature and art, his passion for the unique, were reflected in those things he wrote, the type of material he assembled when he served as editor of Haboneh last year, the background that molded all his discussions of our problems.
In 1939 Irv received some measure of reward for the work he had done so devotedly for so long, when he was elected on the Poale Zion list as a delegate to the World Zionist Congress. Habonim will remember Irv, long regret his untimely loss to us, and long be grateful for the share he contributed to Habonim.
Furrows, July, 1944