Volume 2 — APPENDICES (continued 6)

4. The Federations in Various Countries

The name “Federation,” as far as the Zionist movement is concerned, is frequently synonymous with the amalgamated organizations in any particular country. But, on the other hand, it sometimes designates an organization consisting of a number of societies and groups which have federated, for the purpose of propagating Zionism on certain defined lines. The Smaller Actions Committee is authorized to grant recognition to a federation in any country, providing such a body comprises not less than 3000 shekel payers and satisfies them as to such other requirements as the Smaller Actions Committee may impose upon it.

5. The English Zionist Federation

The English Zionist Federation was established in 1898, and according to its constitution, amended and revised in 1907, its object and constitution are:

“The English Zionist Federation as ‘Landes Comité’ of United Kingdom shall carry on its operations in accordance with the constitution adopted by and in sympathy with the decisions arrived at from time to time by the Zionist Congress.

“The Federation shall consist of such Jewish Associations and Bodies in the United Kingdom as desire, subject to the general sanction and direction of the Executive Committee, to promote the acquisition of a publicly recognized legally secured home in Palestine for the Jewish people, or in addition thereto, any of the following objects:

(a) The fostering of the National idea in Israel.

(b) The support of the regular International Congress of duly accredited representatives of the Jewish people, for the consideration of the position of Jews in the different countries of their dispersion, and for taking such measures as may be deemed conducive to their general welfare.

(c) The support of existing colonies, and the founding of new colonies by placing as many Jews as possible living in Palestine as settlers on the land, and encouragement, guidance and assistance of new settlers anxious to establish colonies, or any handicrafts, industries or arts in Palestine and neighbouring lands.

(d) The study of Hebrew literature and the use of Hebrew as a living language.”

The functions of the Federation are: to be the medium of communication between affiliated societies and the Executive Council (Actions Committee) and with Zionist Associations in other countries; to advise on the steps necessary for the furtherance of the general movement, and adopt such means as may be approved for carrying into effect the resolutions adopted by Congress held from time to time; and to initiate, in connection with the various objects of the Federation, propaganda, which shall partake of one common character throughout all the federated bodies.

The Constituent Societies affiliated to the Federation now number sixteen in London, twenty-seven in the Provinces, and four in the Dominions and Colonies. Of these forty-seven ten are Women’s and Girls’ Societies and six Junior Societies.

The general government of the Federation is vested in a Central Committee, consisting of delegates from all the federated societies. The Executive Power of the organization is vested in a Council consisting of a President, two Vice-Presidents, Honorary Secretary and twenty other members of the Council.

For the purpose of carrying out the work of the Federation a number of sub-committees deal with various special matters (Propaganda, Literature, Palestine, Finance, etc.).

6. The Order of Ancient Maccabeans

This is a Friendly Society, established in 1894, and registered on the 8th of May, 1901, under the Friendly Societies’ Act, 1896. When Herzl came to England before the first Zionist Congress the members of the Society, who then belonged to the “Lovers of Zion” movement, pledged their adherence to the Zionist cause. The Society is an avowedly Zionist Order, and every member on admission has to declare his willingness to be a Zionist, to pay the shekel and to assist generally through the Order in the work of resettling the Jews in Palestine.

Since the Zionist Congress of 1909 the Society has been recognized as a separate Federation, having a membership of over three thousand, as required by the regulations of the Zionist Organization.

The Executive Power of the organization is vested in a Grand Council.

7. The Palestine Society

The Palestine Society is an association of Jews who desire the establishment in Palestine of a centre of Jewish life, which shall offer a full opportunity for the free development of the Jewish religion, Jewish ideals and Jewish culture. It is not formally associated with the Zionist Organization.

The activities of the Society include the following:

(a) Propaganda for the purpose of creating among Jews and Jewish Institutions in England a public opinion favourable to the furtherance of Jewish activities in Palestine.

(b) The collection and dissemination of information concerning the work that is being carried on by existing Palestinian institutions.

(c) The support of Palestinian Institutions and activities.

(d) The organization of visits to Palestine.

In the spring of 1912 a Palestine Exhibition and Bazaar was held in London, in aid of two Jerusalem institutions—the Bezalel and the Evelina de Rothschild School. The Exhibition had the effect of exciting interest in Palestine among all sections of English Jews. It was then felt that a systematic effort should be made to press the claims of Palestine upon the Anglo-Jewish middle-class. Accordingly a body known as the Palestine Committee was founded for this purpose. This Committee held a series of drawing-room meetings, which met with a fair measure of success.

In order to undertake activities of a more extensive and more varied kind, a properly constituted society—the Palestine Society—was formed in the autumn of 1913. During its brief existence it performed useful work, as, for instance, the arrangement of a series of drawing-room meetings, at which lectures were delivered by eminent speakers. The speakers and chairmen included: the Chief Rabbi, the Rev. M. Adler, the Rev. A. A. Green, the Rev. Dr. J. Hochman, the Rev. Morris Joseph, Dayan H. M. Lazarus, the Rev. W. Levin, the Rev. E. Levine, the Rev. D. Wasserzug, Lady Swaythling, Dr. A. Eichholz, Mr. H. R. Lewis, Mr. J. Prag, and Mr. Israel Zangwill.

Fifteen of the London Jewish ministers are members of the Society, and have preached a number of sermons with sympathetic references to the Society and its aims.

In the course of the year 1914 the Liverpool Bezalel Association became affiliated to the Palestine Society. A branch of the Society was also formed at Glasgow, and when the War broke out branches were in course of formation at Leeds, Brighton and in several of the suburbs of London.

At the outbreak of the War the membership of the Society numbered approximately 250, though no widespread propaganda was ever attempted either for the enrolment of members or for the collection of funds, as it was intended from the outset that the work of the Society should be limited to those circles which other agencies had not succeeded in reaching.

Among other activities of this Society were:

(1) An effort to induce literary and kindred societies to include a discussion of the Palestine question in their programmes for the 1914 to 1915 session, the Society providing the speakers, of whom it had compiled a list.

(2) An attempt was made to organize a tour to Palestine in the spring of 1914. Owing to difficulties that arose in respect of the choice of date and the time available, an organized tour on a large scale had to be abandoned; three members of the Committee, however, visited Palestine during that year. A tour was projected for the spring of 1915; that had, of course, to be abandoned owing to the War.

(3) The first two pamphlets of an intended series were prepared, dealing with the agricultural colonies in Palestine and the work of their educational institutions respectively. A summary account of general Jewish activities in Palestine in 1913‒14, and of the measure of support it had received from English Jews, was also in preparation when the War broke out. It had been intended to publish all this matter in a Palestine Annual, and to reprint most of it separately in due course.

There is reason to believe that in the brief period of its active life (it suspended activity on the outbreak of the War) the Society succeeded in arousing an interest in Palestine as a centre of Jewish aspiration among a large circle of Jews whom other agencies have left untouched, and in creating in certain quarters an atmosphere more favourable than had existed heretofore. It must be added that the Society has merely suspended its activities and not abandoned them. This was explained in a letter from its President, Dr. Eichholz, which appeared in the Jewish Chronicle of December 3rd, 1915.

The Officers and Committee for 1913‒14 were: President: Dr. A. Eichholz; Vice-Presidents: the Very Rev. the Chief Rabbi, the Very Rev. the Haham, the Rev. Morris Joseph, Sir Isidore Spielmann, C.M.G., F.S.A.; Treasurer: Albert M. Hyamson; Committee: Mrs. A. Eichholz, Miss H. M. Bentwich, the Rev. Dr. J. Hochman, Dr. M. Epstein, Harry R. Lewis, Leon Simon, Robert B. Solomon, F. S. Spiers; Hon. Secretaries: Miss A. Stein and Leonard Stein; Hon. Corresponding Secretary in Palestine: Michael E. Lange.

8. Poale Zion

The national idea forms the premiss of Zionism. To bring this idea to life, to provide a durable foundation for the national unification of the Jews upon their very own, old historical ground, that is the aim of Zionism. In its tendency, therefore, it comprises the whole Jewish people; its immediate object, however, apart from the self-evident conservation of the ideal of national unity, bears upon fragments, so to say, of the people; upon more or less considerable parts of population, individuals, groups, and classes. Their specific attitude towards Zionism hinges on two main points, of which one is more of spiritual, and the other more of material nature. Both must be equally considered, for both are effective, although in varying degree. However, when a particular class is considered in its relation towards Zionism, it behoves to examine first of all the point of view to which this class itself attaches most importance. It may of course be open to discussion whether when forming an estimate of national and social questions the economic aspect ought always to be considered foremost, but there is no doubt that it is so regarded by the working-class. Let us also admit it for the Jewish workmen. If we take class interest into account the workman may speak first, then the Jew within him. It will appear that it is precisely from a closer examination of the class interest of the Jewish workmen and the interrelations between them and the general working-class, that their position towards Zionism results most simply, as we already see this clearly indicated, and as it will be evolved in the near future, given certain conditions.

Jewish workmen may be divided into two categories, apart from several intermediate divisions. The one is nationally indifferent, class interest alone carries weight with it. By entering into the general working-class the workmen of this category are, so to say, engulfed by it; they retain no trace of national needs and wishes. The numerically by far larger category comprises the actual masses of Jewish workmen in Russia, Galicia, and America. These Jewish workmen also join the general working-class, but they occupy within it a very distinctly noticeable separate position. Where the amelioration of the economic condition of the working-class is concerned, the obtaining of higher salaries, the reduction of working time, in short, in all questions falling within the sphere of class interest they hold together with the other workmen. Just as they suffer from unemployment like these, so they make common cause with them on special occasions, for instance, strikes. But beyond the material questions of existence there is much which separates them. They are sociable enough to come together for a short time with the other workmen where need and interest demand it, but they are not sufficiently ♦homogeneous to unite socially with them. They cannot shake off a certain feeling of alienage in the camp of the general working-class. Critical points soon arise on the boundaries of economical questions, deep contrasts become manifest which are not brought about by ill-will, but are rather caused by historical forces which even to-day are still at work. What will it profit if, in order to proceed summarily, one ascribes this segregation of the Jewish workmen to a thousand years of atavism? The disclosure of the cause, whether acceptable or not, does not do away with the fact. And it is a fact that these Jewish workmen wield a strong national and religious influence, that religion is no “private concern” for them, as it is designated by the workmen’s programme, or only private concern inasmuch as religion is prudently left undiscussed by the labour party.

Probably from such differences and sentimental contrasts it is to be explained that voices became loud which demanded the independent organization of the Jewish workmen. Such a demand might be considered by the leading party as an anomaly, since the Jewish workmen are not at all taken into account nationally but pass as appendages of the various nations. And if it was not merely euphemism when the Jews were accorded the same right to exist, when the name or the nation in whose country they became settled was conferred upon them, wherefore an independent organization? Now, the course of evolution of the Jews up to the present, especially its last phase, has revealed that not only the masses of Judaism which are not yet on a high plane of cultural development feel nationally. It is just in the Zionism of the educated Jews that the full justification of the national movement shows itself. We may point out without fear the difference between the conscious Zionistic action and that part of Judaism which is unconsciously national through the power of historic conditions.

The Jewish workmen are the natural allies of Zionism, but they will become the actual and co-operating allies only through independent workmen organizations. The Jewish workmen, independently organized, would go hand in hand with the labour party in all single claims dictated by class interest, but otherwise they would be independent. National as the Jewish workmen are distinctly enough in life, national in consequence of their education, their peculiarities—why should they not be so as a working-class? Do then the workmen of other nations lay aside their nationality when they take their stand to the social question? And do they give up their nationality when they have done for the moment with debate and action? And the Jewish workmen alone should renounce their nationality, they who are not even yet capable of sharing properly in the culture of another nation? Although it is not out of love for Zionism that the Jewish workmen, for the greater part, feel nationally, they may yet in time become national even in a Zionist sense. And that through the natural community of interests, passing from the unconscious to the conscious, which will establish a more and more intimate relation between them and Zionism. The whole political development of recent times has made it clear to the Jewish workmen how powerful the national thought is among workmen. Even in the event of the victory of the collectivistic idea it could hardly become different in regard to race contrasts. And when Eduard Bernstein in the epilogue of the translation of Mr. Webb’s History of the Trade Unions observes: “Class struggles manifest themselves only seldom so acutely as national ones,” we may add that race contrasts may still exist long after class contrasts will have disappeared.

It is evident of what extraordinary importance for Zionism the Jewish working-class would become. The workmen if they became Zionist would, so to say, constitute the solid effective force which could be relied upon at any moment. On the other hand, it can well be assumed that the Jewish nation will meet as far as possible the claims of the working-class. It is only with the attainment of the Zionist aim that the condition for the prosperity and unfolding anew of national life will be realized for the first time. Judaism, united as a nation, will hereby be confronted by the question with the solution of which all civilized nations are so anxiously preoccupied. The difficulties may be ever so great, occasional crises and storms may break forth, but the nations will not be permanently depressed thereby, nor paralyzed. Like other nations the Jews hold the unshakable belief in a continually progressing economical amelioration, in a prosperous development of all. Even that party which has developed class contrasts into a theory of society, is seen to be receding ever more from the revolutionary principle and paying homage to the evolutionary. To the principle of evolution Zionist Judaism also holds fast, and will, surely, as soon as it is nationally consolidated, not be willing to lag behind other nations as regards social legislation. And if one may conclude from the historical past of a nation what its conformation will be in the future, so, doubtless, a breath of that gentle spirit will be felt in the modern Jewish community which pervades the Mosaic legislation. And this not only as regards the future but also the present. The Jewish National Fund is the model of a broad Mosaic-socialistic institution which has for its object the nationalization of the soil.

The Poale Zion was established in 1901. It originated in Russia, and has now adherents in America, Palestine, Austria, Russia and the United Kingdom. At the time of the Zionist Congress at the Hague in 1907 an International Conference of the Poale Zion was held, which led to the establishment of the General Union of the Poale Zion Societies in America, Russia, Austria, Palestine, England, etc., on federal lines. The programme of the organization represents a synthesis of Zionism and Socialism on the basis of the Basle programme.

The principles of the Poale Zion have been fully expounded in a book written by Dr. Pasmanik, entitled The Theory of the Poale Zion. Among its official publications may be mentioned The Jewish Worker, Cracow; The Jewish Fighter, New York; Forward, Vilna.

It is not easy for the Gentile workman to understand and appreciate to the full the position taken up by the Jewish workmen who support the principle of the Poale Zion. The Gentile workmen have no national problem to solve; they have only an economic question to deal with. The Jewish workmen are face to face with two problems, the economic and the national. The Poale Zionists are convinced that although a nation may love its traditions it must concern itself also with immediate economic needs. It is for this reason that they are primarily Zionists, although supporters of Socialism. Unlike other Socialists they deem it their duty to devote themselves mainly to their own national cause. Apart from this, they have a great love for Jewish tradition, and are in the fullest sense of the term nationalists.

9. The Mizrachi

The Mizrachi (a composite word derived from “Merchaz Ruch’ni,” which means Intellectual Centre) is an organization of religiously orthodox Zionists.

After the fifth Zionist Congress, where a lively debate took place on the question of national Judaism on a religious basis, the desire arose among those Zionists who maintained orthodox views on religious questions to organize themselves for common purposes. The object of the Mizrachi is therefore of a cultured and not a political character. It strives to champion, within Zionism, by means of a sound organization, the standpoint of orthodox religious belief, and further, to show clearly that a conservative tendency in religious matters can go side by side with national aspirations. Politically the Mizrachi has no special aim, but desires to work in unison with all other Zionists.

Soon after the fifth Congress Russian Zionists of Mizrachi conviction assembled at a conference in Vilna and officially founded the Mizrachi. Subsequently support was also forthcoming from Mizrachi Zionists in other countries, and at the sixth Congress the organization was represented by a group of over one hundred delegates. From the 19th to the 21st of August, 1904, a general Mizrachi Conference took place at Pressburg. This conference was called by Rabbi I. J. Reines of Lida, Russia, and was attended by a large number of Rabbis from Russia, Roumania, Galicia, Hungary, Germany, England and America. Rabbi Reines was elected president of the entire organization. The regulations of the organization maintain in general the Zionist principle, but lay particular stress upon the necessity of the Mizrachi cultural tendency. Already at this conference three centres of propaganda were created, an East European centre for Russia, Roumania and Galicia, of which Rabbi J. Reines became the president; a West European centre for the other European countries, with its seat in Frankfort, of which Rabbi Dr. Nobel became president; and an American centre at New York, of which Rabbi D. Klein became president.

In addition to the usual shekel and the local contributions, the Mizrachi members pay a further contribution to cover the expenses of an office and propaganda. The Mizrachi carries out its aim by organizing mass meetings, issuing from time to time periodicals, pamphlets and leaflets, and arranging lectures and debates for its members.

The fear expressed on the beginning of the Mizrachi movement, that the Mizrachi as a section might destroy the unity of Zionism, has proved unfounded. From the past activity of the Mizrachi it is now certain that their propaganda is not detrimental to the interests of Zionism—that on the contrary their principal aims, such as the fostering of belief in the laws of our forefathers, the maintenance of ancient rites and customs, and the revival of the Hebrew language, are such as to obtain for them continually new supporters among strictly orthodox Jews.

Among a number of books written to explain the standpoint of the Mizrachi, there should be mentioned Zionism from the Standpoint of Orthodoxy (1904), by Rabbi Dr. Roth of Papa (Hungary); The Voice of Zion (1905), by Rabbi Reines, and Mizrachi (1907), by Dr. Feuchtwanger.

10. Women Zionist Societies

In the measure in which the Jewish national movement had begun to expand the question was raised more and more frequently what the attitude of the Jewish woman would be towards this movement. In the Jewish nation woman occupies a pre-eminent position.

At the time of the existence of the Jewish state the whole inner life rested upon family organization. Woman is the entirely coequal ruler of the home, and truly regal is the description which the Bible traces of her. She is prophetess and bard, the inspirer of all that is good and strong, and the bestower of the prize of combat. She is the first to display that wonderful enduring heroism which is the heritage of the Jewish race. She initiates the great national works; it is significant that tradition traces back the liberation out of Egypt to the merit of noble women. At the time of the erection of a spiritual country after the loss of the homeland, at the time of formation of the Talmud, the high appreciation of woman rose still more. In the writings of that time she appears as the naive leader whose untrammelled and unsophisticated mind grasps the nature of things, and who, quick in discernment, settles matters resolutely. But the highest importance woman attains during the period of the “Ghetto.” Here all life concentrates in the family. Free civic life is replaced by the narrower but pleasurable family life. Here woman becomes the creator of a self-contained family culture. She relieves man of a great part of his business dealings and makes it possible for him to devote himself to his intellectual pursuits. In the midst of the heaviest persecution she inspires him with courage and confidence. She brings up her children to be valiant and steadfast Jews. She carries into the home a wonderful natural freshness which replaces as far as possible the tender verdure of the lost country. The Jewish woman it is who, in this time of suffering, encourages man to persistence in the faith. Spanish-Jewish women urged their husbands to seek death together with them. In all the massacres and persecutions of the Middle-Ages Jewish women gained the highest crown of martyrdom.

But the disposition of the Jewish woman has radically changed since complete or partial emancipation. The cause lies in the change of the whole situation. At the time of the Ghetto the sufferings of the Jew were as unspeakably heavy as his joys were profound and intimate. For good and for evil he was under the shadow of a great fate, and therein he developed. Suffering destroyed his strength, the passive heroism peculiar to him, home happiness, his kindness of heart and joy of sacrifice; both united made him true, true to the past and true to his nation. This grew gradually different. With the advance of so-called civilization persecution became more petty and perfidious; it no longer threatened existence itself at any moment, but it crept into every hour of life, into each everyday activity. The one stab of the dagger had become a thousand pinpricks, out of the great fate which drew heroism out of man, and an abundance of passions, virtues, resolutions, renunciations, struggles and victories of all kinds, a painfully dragging, tortured and harassed existence had come into being. And with lesser sufferings the joys got lesser too. The beautiful unity of home-life became loosened through the great gulf between old and young, such as is not met with in any other nation of the world. The increased struggle for daily life separated married couples and impeded the education of the children, the apparently greater absence of danger operated against the strong national resistance and the welding and segregating special customs.

This state of dissolution was reinforced to a great degree by the declaration of the legal equifranchise of the Jews. Their instinct of self-preservation adapted itself to the new conditions of existence in just as extreme a manner as their seclusion had formerly been extreme. In the now arising fanaticism for assimilation the women, who adapt themselves most easily to their surroundings and assume their nature, shared most intensely. While all strove after non-Jewishness the inner structure of Judaism was crippled, all innate power discarded, Jewish solidarity dispensed with and independent culture destroyed.

The rigid family organization upon which the vitality of the Jewish nation reposed, collapsed under the impact of the extraneous; with Jewish customs the Jewish home began to break up, with the evanescence of fidelity love too faded. An attempt was made to stupefy through an outward life of luxury, as bustling as possible, the feeling of forlornness brought about by the want of inner contentment. Thus it frequently happened that the assimilated Jewish woman became ever more estranged from her sphere of activity. She who had formerly been mistress in her own house was often the slave of her servants; she gave herself up to a dull, nervous idleness; with her the old charitableness of the Jews became snobbishness. The desire for beauty which formerly animated Jewish woman, was distorted by her into a tasteless and unhealthy love of finery, as if someone transformed a beautiful national costume into the gaudy robe of a carnival pierrot. Sincere, devoted faith has gone without making room for a new and strong conception of life; the more burdensome religious practices have been given up, a few easier ones have been outwardly retained, without apprehension of their meaning and without the feeling of their sanctity. The synagogue and the sermon, the only religiously stimulating momenta, which one attended ever more seldom, were not sufficient to counteract a thousand other influences of life and surroundings.

Therefore Jewish woman, more so than man, needed a great, inspiring Jewish ideal. And on the other hand, the realization of this ideal needed the collaboration of woman no less than the collaboration of man. For national rejuvenation in its innermost core can emanate from Jewish woman to a considerable extent. For a nation without a land and for a nation in dispersion, home is the pillar of life. In the Diaspora the Jewish home is the Jewish nation. In the first instance it was found desirable that Jewish woman should become active for Zionism, that is contribute in speech and writing to the diffusion of the national idea, and exhort to self-help. Through her warmth of feeling and freshness of will she is to help to reunite the divergent members of the nation, and from her love of the nation a community of souls is to resuscitate. She must recognize that she can only then become a whole personality if she values highly the peculiarity of her race, and if she tends and develops the Jewishness in her. She will then again make home and family life what they once were: the hub of life and the spring of ever new energy. One will see there Jewish works of art on the walls, Jewish books upon the table, and Jewish customs being practised with deep, gladsome understanding. Then the quiet force which overcomes laughingly everything inimical will again gather in the family. True, living love for the great destiny of the Jewish nation, strong, helpful love for its present, hopeful and cheery readiness to work for the future of this nation, and preparation of this future through energetic collaboration in the Zionistic organization, which acknowledges no difference of duties and rights between man and woman—with this message the modern Jewish national idea appealed to the Jewish woman.

To be sure, Jewish woman did not enter the national movement in numbers, nor at once: nevertheless she joined the first pioneers of the Chovevé Zion as well as the first Zionists. At all Zionist congresses Jewish women took part as delegates, and in Palestine they have unfolded a particularly beneficial activity in the domain of home industry for women.

B. Financial

1. The Jewish Colonial Trust

The Jewish Colonial Trust is the financial instrument of the Zionist movement, and its main object is the industrial and commercial development of Palestine and the neighbouring countries.

Among the prominent Jews who supported the formation of the Company from its inception were the following: S. Barbasch, Odessa; Herbert Bentwich, London; M. T. Eliasberg, Pinsk; T. H. Ellman, Braila; M. Farbstein, Warsaw; Leopold Kahn, Vienna; Samuel L. Heymann, London; Theodor Herzl, Vienna; Isidor Jasinowski, Warsaw; J. H. Kann, The Hague; Stanislaus Landau, Lodz; Gregorie Lurie, Pinsk; Max Mandelstamm, Kieff; Alex. Marmorek, Paris; Oscar Marmorek, Vienna; Moritz Moses, Kattowitz; Max Nordau, Paris; Samuel Pineles, Galatz; Heinrich Rosenbaum, Jassy; S. T. Sachs, Dwinsk; Leib Schalit, Riga; Moritz Schnirer, Vienna; Heinrich Steiner, Vienna; W. Temkin, Elizabethgrad; E. W. Tschlenow, Moscow; David Wolffsohn, Cologne; and Oser Kokesch, Vienna.

According to the Company’s Articles of Association it was permitted to commence business as soon as an eighth part of its capital, viz. £250,000, had actually been paid up. This stage was reached at the beginning of 1902.

The subscribers to the Memorandum and Articles of Association were: David Wolffsohn, Jacobus Henricus Kann, Samuel Leopold Heymann, Samuel Barbasch, Gregorie Lurie, Salomon F. Sachs, Heinrich Rosenbaum. For the last four the Haham, Dr. Moses Gaster, acted as Attorney. The first Council of the Company consisted of Dr. Theodor Herzl, Dr. Moritz Schnirer, Dr. Oser Kokesch, Dr. Leopold Kahn, Oscar Marmorek, Dr. Max Mandelstamm, Dr. Richard Gottheil, Dr. Israel Jelsky, Isidor Jasinowski, Dr. Max Bodenheimer, D. J. Bernstein-Kohan, Samuel Pineles, J. H. Ellman, Dr. Alexander Marmorek, Wladimir Temkin, Dr. Samuel Schur, Carl Herbst, Dr. E. W. Tschlenow, Dr. Salomon Rosenheck, and M. Ussischkin.

The first directors were the aforementioned subscribers to the Memorandum, and the first Governors were: Dr. Rudolf Schauer, Leib Schalit, Abraham Hornstein.

The first Secretary of the Company was Mr. James H. Loewe, who resigned his post in May, 1903, on his appointment as Manager of the East End Branch of the International Bank of London, Ltd.

For the first business year (1902) Mr. David Levontin was Manager.

The Company carries on ordinary banking business at its Head Office in the City of London (10‒12 Walbrook) and its East End Branch (41 Whitechapel Road, E.), and is registered at Somerset House as bankers, in accordance with the requirements of the law.

The nominal capital of £2,000,000 is divided into £1,999,900 ordinary shares of £1 each and 100 founders’ shares of £1 each. These latter shares are jointly held by those persons who for the time being are the members of the Council of the Company. The members of this Council are appointed by the Actions Committee of the Zionist Congress from the members, and are entitled at any General Meeting of the Company on all questions, with the exception of that relating to the declaration of a dividend, to as many votes as all the holders of ordinary shares present and voting at such General Meeting. The capital issued, including the aforementioned 100 founders’ shares, amounted, on the 15th May, 1916, to £261,658. The Company is controlled by a Council consisting at present of twenty members, who are at the same time the joint holders of the founders’ shares referred to above, and by a Board of Directors consisting at present of thirteen members, of whom four are Governors (Representatives of the Council). Until his death in September, 1914, David Wolffsohn was President of the Council and a Governor. He succeeded the late Dr. Herzl in these positions on his death in 1904. Previous to that Wolffsohn was Chairman of the Board of Directors, which position he had held since the formation of the Company in 1899.

The members of the present Council are Professor Dr. O. Warburg (Vice-President), Dr. M. J. Bodenheimer (Reporter), M. M. Ussischkin, I. A. Rosoff, A. Podlischewsky, Simon Rosenbaum, I. Naiditsch, J. H. Kann, L. Kessler, Jean Fischer, Dr. V. Jacobsohn, M. Hornstein, Dr. A. Marmorek, Julius Simon, L. Motzkin, Dr. A. Hantke, J. Kremenetzky, Dr. A. Friedemann, Dr. A. Klee. The members of the present Board of Directors are: Dr. V. Katzenelsohn (Chairman), J. H. Kann (Vice-Chairman), S. Barbasch, H. Urysohn, Joseph Cowen, I. A. Rosoff, M. M. Ussischkin, Jean Fischer, Julius Simon, L. Kessler, M. Feldstein, Dr. V. Jacobsohn, J. Kremenetzky. The last four members are the Governors.

2. The Anglo-Palestine Company, Ltd.

This Company was registered on the 27th January, 1902, and began its business operations in the spring of 1903. Its Head Office is at Jaffa, and it has Branches at Jerusalem (Manager: Dr. Isaac Levy; Sub-Manager: S. Gordon), Hebron (Manager: S. Slonim), Haifa (Manager: V. Kaisermann), Beirut (I. Lipawsky, who died in October, 1915, was Manager before the outbreak of war), Safed (Manager: J. Karniol), Tiberias (Manager: Mr. Bentovim).

The Managing Director of the Company is Mr. David Levontin, who is assisted at the Head Office by S. Hoofien, Assistant General Manager, and J. Grasowsky and M. Arwas, Sub-Managers.

The Company is the mainstay of Jewish colonization in Palestine. It advances money to Land Societies for buying land, which is then sold to new immigrants, also to building societies for establishing modern hygienic quarters in the vicinity of towns (Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, etc.). It also makes advances for the installation of water supplies in the Jewish Colonies, and grants loans on long terms for the development of plantations. It has further organized with its own means Co-operative and Loan Societies for the purpose of buying agricultural implements and selling the products of the soil, especially oranges, lemons and wine. The Company has also elaborated various projects for public enterprises, such as tramways, irrigation works, electric lighting, etc. The Company also carries on every kind of banking business, dealing with all elements of the population regardless of race or creed. Thus the Company has become an important factor in the economic life of the country.

The nominal capital of the Company is £120,000, divided into 120,000 ordinary shares of £1 each. The paid-up capital on the 15th May, 1916, was £99,727.

The Board of Directors of the Company consists of the following members: J. H. Kann (Vice-Chairman), Dr. N. Katzenelsohn, S. Barbasch, H. Urysohn, Joseph Cowen, M. M. Ussischkin, L. Kessler, M. Feldstein, J. Kremenetzky, I. L. Goldberg, D. Levontin (Managing Director). The last Chairman of the Company before the war was the late David Wolffsohn.

3. The Anglo-Levantine Banking Company, Ltd.

This Company was registered on the 8th May, 1908, and has since then carried on banking business in Turkey.

The nominal capital of the Company is £100,000, and the paid-up capital on the 15th May, 1916, was £25,038.

The Board of Directors consists of the following members: Dr. N. Katzenelsohn (Chairman), J. H. Kann (Vice-Chairman), S. Barbasch, Joseph Cowen, M. Feldstein, Dr. V. Jacobsohn, L. Kessler, J. Kremenetzky, D. Levontin, S. Mitrani, H. Urysohn. The Constantinople Managers are: S. Mitrani (Director) and Dr. V. Jacobsohn (Director).

4. The Jewish National Fund

The Jewish National Fund was established in accordance with a decision of the second Congress, its object being to acquire land for the Jewish people in Palestine, such land to remain for ever the property of the whole Jewish nation. The management of the Fund has deemed it its duty to promote all undertakings of public utility in Palestine, assisting thereby to the utmost the general progress of the work of colonization. The Jewish National Fund is the most popular of Zionist institutions.

The Jewish National Fund was legalized in this country on the 8th of April, 1907, as an “Association Limited by Guarantee, and not having a Capital Divided into Shares.” By the constitution of the Association the permanent right of control is vested in the representatives elected by the Zionist Congress, who are identical with the holders of founders’ shares and members of the Council of the Jewish Colonial Trust, Ltd. (referred to above).

According to the Articles of Association, only 75 per cent of the assets of the Fund may be invested in Palestine; the remaining 25 per cent must always be left in the shape of money on deposit or investment of an easily realizable nature. The Bankers of the Association are the Jewish Colonial Trust, Ltd. The Fund amounted at the end of the year 1914 to £209,243 18s. 6d.

The means of collecting contributions to the Fund are numerous and varied. They include: General Donations, Collecting Sheets, Collecting Boxes, the Golden Book, National Fund Stamps and Telegrams, Olive Tree Donations, Contributions to the Workers’ Dwelling Fund, etc. The Golden Book has been instituted for the purpose of entering the names of Zionist workers and supporters, on payment of the sum of £10 or more. The first Golden Book, containing 5000 names, has already been filled. It is an elaborately executed work of art, and is generally exhibited at Zionist Congresses. The second Golden Book, now in use, was produced by the Palestinian Art School “Bezalel” at Jerusalem. On the entry of a name in this book, an artistically executed certificate is issued.

A few years ago another book, called “Memorial Book,” was instituted for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of Jews who have defended the honour or property of the Jewish people in Palestine, or have been permanently and successfully occupied in the interest of the Jewish National Fund, or have left by will, according to their means, a considerable legacy for the benefit of the Fund.

The Fund has also received from time to time considerable sums for the purpose of foundations, principally to build homesteads for the workers. The principal contributions under this heading have been: The David and Fanny Wolffsohn Foundation, about £3000, and the Halperin Foundation (Vienna), about £4000. Besides the foregoing sums other contributions towards the Workers’ Homestead Fund, amounting to about £17,000 in all, have been received.

The total income from every kind of contribution to the Fund was about £25,000 for the year 1915, contributions having come from about thirty different countries in all parts of the world.

By the end of the year 1914 the Jewish National Fund had invested in Palestine close upon £150,000—70 per cent of its entire assets.

The members of the Company are the holders of founders’ shares of the Jewish Colonial Trust, Ltd. (see above).

The administration of the Fund is in the hands of a Board of Directors, consisting of five Directors elected by the members, and two Governors appointed by the Controlling Committee. This Committee consists of the persons who for the time being form the Smaller Actions Committee of the Zionist Congress, and its functions are merely those of vetoing or prohibiting any act of the Directors that the Committee may deem to be detrimental to the interests of the Association.

The present Directors are: Dr. Max Bodenheimer, L. Kessler, J. Kremenetzky, and Dr. A. Hantke.

The only Governor is Professor Dr. O. Warburg (the second Governor, D. Wolffsohn, having died in September, 1914). The Secretary of the Association was H. Neumann, and its registered office is at 10‒12 Walbrook, London, E.C.

The Administrative Office of the Association is situate at the Hague, and the principal officials at that office are: Engineer J. Kaplansky, N. Gross and S. Hallenstein.

Central offices exist in many countries for the collecting of contributions and donations to the Fund. The addresses of these officers are:⁠—

Argentine: Federacion Sionista en Argentine, Buenos-Aires, Sarmiento 2086.

Australia: The Brisbane Zionist Society, c/o J. A. Blumberg, Hon. Sec., Brisbane-East, Wellington Road.

The Victoria Zionist Association, “Hatchiah,” Melbourne, 313 Drummont Street, Carlton.

The Sydney Zionist Society, c/o M. B. Michelson, Hon. Sec., Sydney, Pett Street 64.

Belgium: Oscar Fischer, now at Scheveningen, Cornelius Jolstr. 105 Sam. Schmeidler, Scheveningen, Stevinstr. 142.

Brazil: Associacio Zionistat Tiferes Zion, c/o Jaime Horowitz, Rio de Janeiro, Rua Visconte Itanna.

Bulgaria: Comité Central Sioniste, aux bons soins de Mr. le Dr. Benroya, Philippopoli.

Canada: Bureau Committee of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada, Montreal, P.O. Box 912.

China: E. B. Ezra, Esq., c/o the Bank of Territorial Development of China, Shanghai, Nanking Rd. 33.

Denmark: S. Skorochod, Kopenhagen, Bordergade 30.

Egypt: Jacob Caleff, Heliopolis-Le Cairo, Rue Zagazig.

Germany: Jüdischer Nationalfonds, Zentrale für Deutschland, Berlin, W., 15 Sachsische Str. 8.

England: Jewish National Fund Commission for England, 15 New Broad Street, London, E.C. 2.

France: J. Salzmann, Paris, 41 Rue de la Tour d’Auvergne.

Greece: Syllogue Sioniste “Poale-Sion,” Volo.

La Commission Mixte de Fonds National des Sociétés “Bené Sion” and “Nordau” aux bons soins de Mr. J. Usiel, Salonique.

Holland: Alfred Polak, Tilburg, Telegraafenstr. 1.

Italy: Mademoiselle Emma Coen, Verona, 14 Via Gran Czara.

Croatia, Bosnia, Slavonia: Frau Clara Barmaper-Jacobi, Agram, Boskovicg 23.

New Zealand: The Auckland Zionist Society, Auckland Park Rd. 42.

United States of America: Jewish National Fund Bureau for America, New York City, 44 E. 23rd Street.

Norway: Norske Zionist Forening, p. Adr. Aron Grusd, Christiania, Karl Johan Str. 7.

Austria: Jüdischer Nationalfonds, Sammelstelle für Österreich, Wein ii Zirkusgasse 33.

Eastern Asia: Josef Levy, Singapore, 10 Robinson Road.

Portugal: W. Terlo, Lissabon, Rua St. Nicolau 59.

Roumania: M. Heinrich Schein, Galatz.

Switzerland: W. Simon, Zürich, Neugasse 11.

Serbia: Dr. D. Alcalay, Belgrad.

Sweden: J. Abel, Stockholm, Storkyrkobrinken 8.

South Africa: South African Zionist Federation, Mr. B. J. Chaimowitz, Johannesburg, P.O. Box 18.

Tunis: Association Sioniste Tunisienne, Tunis, 52 Rue des Glacières.

Hungary: Zsido Nomzoti Alap magyarorszagi irodaja, Budapest Kiraly utca 36.

In England the collection of funds is entrusted to the National Fund Commission for England. This commission consists of two representatives of the English Zionist Federation and two representatives of the Order of Ancient Maccabeans. The office of the Commission is at 15 New Broad Street, London, E.C. 2, which has a number of sub-commissions in London and the principal provincial towns. It organizes frequently house-to-house collections, flower days, collections at public meetings, places of worship and entertainment, etc.

The English National Fund Commission has recently published a small pamphlet, giving full particulars of its activities. A larger pamphlet, entitled The Jewish National Fund, is now being issued in the English language by the Head Office of the Fund, and by the time that this book reaches the public will no doubt be obtainable at the Office of the National Fund Commission in London.

5. The Palestine Land Development Company, Ltd.

This Company was registered on the 20th of January, 1909. Its main object is to encourage the settlement of Jews in Palestine by the purchase and parcelling out of the land and by preparing the soil for the successful settlement of a larger number of small holders.

The nominal capital of the Company is £50,000, divided into 40,000 ordinary shares of £1 each and 200 founders’ shares of £50 each.

The Secretary of the Company is W. Wolf, and the Office at 10‒12 Walbrook, London, E.C.

6. Jüdischer Kulturfonds Kedem (Kedem Keren Hatarbuth Hoiwrith), Ltd.

This Company was established for the purpose of developing and promoting and assisting in the development and promotion of Jewish knowledge and learning, the cultivation of Hebrew literature and Jewish history, and the revival and use of the Hebrew language in the prescribed region (which expression means Palestine, Syria and the Peninsula of Sinai). In order to carry out these objects the Company aims at establishing an Academy (Sinhedrijah) as a central institution of Hebrew and Jewish learning. It further intends to publish all kinds of books, useful for its purpose, and distribute them among individuals, academies, colleges, universities, schools and other institutions. It also proposes to establish and maintain all kinds of schools and teaching establishments, to promote the main object of the Company. Among its many ancillary objects are the granting of scholarships, and the subsidizing of funds, pension schemes, etc., for maintaining Jewish authors, teachers and artists.

The foundation of the Company is due to the initiative of Mr. Moses Feldstein of Warsaw, who contributed the sum of about £1500. In commemoration of this fact a Fund was created under the name of “Feldstein Foundation,” which is to comprise the aforementioned sum and all other capital donations given to the Company from time to time towards this Fund. Since the establishment of the Company several other similar contributions have been made to the Fund, but the outbreak of the war has prevented the founder of the Company, Mr. Feldstein, and his co-directors from carrying out the vigorous propaganda which they intended to set on foot in all parts of the world. The members of the Company consist of the joint holders of the founders’ shares of the Jewish Colonial Trust, the Directors of the Jewish National Fund, and the President of the Odessa Committee (the Committee of the Company for assisting Jewish Agriculturists and Handicraftsmen in Syria and Palestine).

The Directors of the Company are M. Feldstein (Chairman), Dr. A. Hantke, Dr. S. Levin, A. Podlischewsky, N. Sokolow, M. Ussischkin, Dr. Ch. Weizmann.

The Secretary of the Company is W. Wolf, and the office is at 10‒12 Walbrook, London, E.C.

7. The First London Achuzah Company, Ltd.

The First London Achuzah Company, Ltd., was founded by Dr. J. M. Salkind, with the assistance of Mr. M. Rosenblum and Mr. T. Z. Teacher, in April, 1913, when fifteen members joined the Company. Towards the end of 1913 the number of members amounted to fifty. It has now increased to eighty, about fifty of whom live in London, fifteen in Edinburgh, one in Russia and the rest in provincial towns in England.

The Company was incorporated as a limited liability company in England at the beginning of 1914. The members decided to pay 25 per cent of the amount subscribed by them (a full member’s share amounting to £300). At the same time the Company sent two delegates to Palestine to make investigations with a view to the purchase of suitable land. This was in February, 1914, after fifty members had paid up an aggregate sum of £4000. The two delegates who proceeded to Palestine were Dr. J. M. Salkind and Mr. H. Sterling. The nominal capital of the Company amounted on registration to £15,000, but was increased in August, 1914, to £25,000, and it is now intended to increase it again to £50,000. Most of the members have already paid the Company more than one-third of the amount of their shares (£120 on each £300 share). Some of the members have taken more than one share—one and a half, two, two and a half, and in one case three shares. About half of the members belong to the artisan class, while the other half consist mostly of merchants. The Company intends to establish also an industrial Achuzah, for the purpose of encouraging and establishing industrial undertakings in Palestine.

When the delegates came back from Palestine, they proposed the purchase of the second half of Kerkur, the first half of which belongs to Mr. Schlesinger (a Zionist of Chita, Siberia), and covers an area of 5134 dunam (about 1280 acres). The proposal was accepted in May, 1914, and the Company paid half of the purchase price, which amounted to £8850. The purchase was made through the Palestine Land Development Co., Ltd., London.

From that time onwards the membership in London, Cairo, and the two small branch companies in Paris and Antwerp, increased considerably. The progress thus achieved induced the Company to increase the extent of its holding in Palestine, and it purchased in 1914 a large area of land called Rabia, in the neighbourhood of Kerkur, measuring about 4000 dunam (1000 acres), the purchase price being £6030. The first instalment of £2000 has already been paid to the Palestine Land Development Co., Ltd., in connection with this transaction.

Owing to the outbreak of the War, the work of the Achuzah Company had to be suspended, and, consequently, the branch companies in Paris, Antwerp and Cairo collapsed. In the United Kingdom, however, and particularly in Edinburgh, the activities of the Company have recently been revived, and a number of new members have joined, in spite of the unfavourable general conditions. In view of this unexpected success, the Directors of the Company intend in the near future to remove the restriction which prevents the Company from having more than fifty members (it having originally been registered as a private company).

The present Directors are: L. Eisen, W. Kirsch, Ch. Inwald, Ch. Kaufman, H. Teacher, Abraham Bendas, Ch. Warschawsky, Dr. J. M. Salkind (Managing Director).

The land purchased by the Achuzah in Palestine is most favourably situated from the point of view of communication. From the Arabah (Dothan) station it is only one hour’s journey by car to Toul Kerem, a station on the new railway line from Merchawia to Lud and Beersheba. Thus the Achuzah settlement will be in a position to keep in touch with Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and other places, by means of railway communication.

8. The Maccabean Land Company, Ltd.

The Maccabean Land Company is registered as a limited liability company, with a capital of £52,000, divided into forty founders’ shares (reserved for subscription by the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, its Beacons and Allied Societies) of the value of £50 each and 1000 land shares, offered for general subscription, of £50 each, each entitling to an allotment of land in the proposed Maccabean Settlement. The object of the Company is to enable its members, by the accumulation of small periodical payments, to acquire landholdings in Palestine, either for personal occupation or for profitable development. For this purpose it is proposed to acquire forthwith a large area of land (preferentially in the south of Palestine, in the district of Modin, the ancient home of the Maccabees), capable of being parcelled out in allotments and profitably cultivated. The minimum subscription of £10,000 has already been assured, and the Company proposes to enter into negotiations with one of the existing public bodies engaged in the acquisition of land in Palestine for the purchase of an area of land sufficient to provide allotments for all the subscribing members. Unfortunately, the War has compelled the Company to suspend its activities for the present.

C. Hebrew Schools in Palestine, and Other Institutions of the New Colonization

The new Jewish colonization movement in Palestine has led to the establishment of more than fifty primary schools, two high schools, two agricultural schools, one handicraft school and one school of arts and crafts. A polytechnic institute on a large scale, for the training of engineers and chemists, was about to be opened when the War broke out. Particulars concerning the Agricultural Experiment Station are given elsewhere in this volume.

The principal schools under the care and supervision of the Zionist Organization are the following:⁠—

The Hebrew Teachers’ Seminary and School of Commerce at Jerusalem, attended by ninety pupils. This school is situated in the centre of the Jewish Settlement, with sufficient space for classrooms, the teachers’ room, collections of specimens and instruments for instruction in natural science. The garden is used for drill and instruction in botany. All graduates of the Teachers’ Seminary are teachers in Palestine, and some of the graduates of the School of Commerce have also found employment as teachers. The students have organized evening classes for mothers, where they teach them to speak Hebrew, while their children attend the Kindergarten. (The Director is M. David Yellin.)

The Hebrew School for Boys at Jerusalem, attended by 205 pupils, including a great number of Sephardim (55 per cent). This number is continually increasing. Instruction is given in all Jewish subjects, as well as in Mathematics, History, Geography, Botany, Singing, Drawing, Gardening, in the Arabic language and some European languages. (Director: M. Sutta.)

The Girls’ School at Jerusalem is attended by 280 pupils, 55 per cent of whom are Ashkenazim, and 33 per cent Sephardim, the rest belonging to Georgian, Yemenite and Persian Jewish families. The subjects of instruction are: Hebrew, Bible, History, Arithmetic, Geography, Zoology, Botany, Drawing, Singing, Gardening, and Modern Languages. More than half of the regular pupils are boarded at the School.

The School for Kindergarten Teachers at Jerusalem is attended by thirty-three pupils. Here the girls are trained to become Kindergarten teachers. The instruction is practical as well as theoretical.

The Hebrew Boys’ School at Jaffa has eight classes and is attended by about 150 children. Pupils who have passed through this School enter the Teachers’ Seminary at Jerusalem, the Hebrew Gymnasium (High School) at Jaffa, or the Agricultural School at Petach-Tikvah, or take up their parents’ trade. (Director: Dr. Marschak.)

The Hebrew Kindergarten at Haifa is attended by seventy children, and is developing satisfactorily.

The Hebrew School at Haifa has 104 scholars (ninety-seven Ashkenazim, seven Sephardim), and consists of three elementary and four other classes. A preparatory course has also been established, which is attended by twenty-six children. As in all other Zionist schools, the instruction is given in Hebrew. The syllabus is that of a Continental secondary school.

The Agricultural School at Petach-Tikvah has about fifty pupils, children of the local colonists. Besides instruction in Jewish subjects, modern European languages and Arabic, practical instruction is given in agriculture and horticulture. Some of the pupils work with the colonists, and in that way not only acquire a good practical knowledge, but are able to earn their own living. This School has endeavoured to establish a special department for every branch of agriculture, each with its own plot of land for experimental purposes.

The Jewish Music Schools at Jaffa and Jerusalem, called “Shulamit,” and founded by the late Mrs. Ruppin in 1912, are attended by several pupils of other schools, and have gained great popularity in the country.

The Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts is an important element in the Palestinian Hebrew revival, and has already influenced the Jewish communities of Europe and America. Many Jewish homes possess specimens of the new Palestinian handicrafts, which remind them that in the home of the Jewish people deft handicraftsmen, inspired by the Jewish spirit, are giving a new expression to the genius of their race in metal-work and wood-carving, in carpet-weaving and embroidery. Hebrew characters and emblems enter into the woof and the warp of a Bezalel carpet and give character to the design.⁠¹ The School and Workshops, founded by an enthusiastic Zionist artist, Boris Schatz, are supported by several Committees on the Continent, in this country, and in America, and form a means of most successful Zionist propaganda among all classes of the Jewish and Gentile population. Many Bezalel exhibitions and bazaars have been held, one as recently as 1912, in London. The Bezalel includes also a beautiful little museum of Palestinian antiquities and specimens of Palestinian flora and fauna, as well as of modern Jewish art (including Glitzenstein’s masterpiece, Messiah, Joseph Israels’ portrait—one of the last works of his life, painted for the Bezalel, of which this great master, a sincere friend of the Zionist movement, was a patron). This museum has also the largest existing collection of old Jewish coins, described in M. S. Raffael’s (Raffalowitsch) Matbeoth Ha’ibrim Ha’kadmonim Jerusalem, 1913.

¹ Palestine and the Hebrew Revival, by E. Miller. p. 15.

The Jaffa Hebrew High School (for boys and girls), the so-called Gymnasiah Ibrith (Herzliah, founded in 1906), is first and foremost among the institutions of the Hebrew revival in Palestine. No institution has proved so triumphantly the vitality and significance of the modern revival of the Hebrew language and of Jewish national education as the Gymnasiah Ibrith has done with its staff of pioneer-teachers, graduates of various European universities, and its eight hundred pupils from all parts of the world-wide Jewish Diaspora. The great merit of establishing this institution belongs to Dr. Methman-Cohn, who was assisted by the late Dr. Leo Kahn of Kishinew. The most vigilant and generous friend and patron of the Gymnasiah Ibrith, Mr. Jacob Moser, M.P., of Bradford, provided the institution with the means to erect the impressive building which forms the centre of the little Jewish town Tel Aviv, near Jaffa. This institution, equipped with everything that is necessary for the teaching of all branches of science, has attracted the best of the younger Zionist intellectuals, who have made it their life-work to inaugurate a system of national education in a modernized living Hebrew. (The most important workers in this institution are mentioned elsewhere in this volume.)

The Jaffa Hebrew School for Girls (Beth Sefer Le’banoth) was founded by the Odessa “Lovers of Zion” Association in 1894, and is attended by a few hundred girls. The principal is that most able pioneer and Hebrew educationist, Dr. Tourov. It is the best school of its kind in the country.

The Seminary for Women Teachers at Jaffa, also maintained by the Odessa “Lovers of Zion,” was founded in 1913 in a house built for the purpose, the means having been supplied by the Russian Zionist M. Isaac Feinberg, in the shape of a donation.

The Tachkemoni Secondary School at Jaffa, founded in 1905, and attended by a few hundred pupils, is chiefly supported by the strictly orthodox section of Zionists, the Mizrachi, and is doing important educational work on traditional lines, but with a modernized syllabus. Instruction is given in science, Arabic and modern languages. (The school was under the control of Rabbi Kuk and a Mizrachi Committee.)

The Jerusalem Gymnasium (High School), attended by about 150 pupils, boys and girls, was established in 1911 by a group of teachers interested in national education. Although it has not so far achieved its full development, it bids fair to produce good results.

The Odessa “Lovers of Zion” Association maintains Kindergartens in Safed, Tiberias and Jaffa; schools for children in the colonies of Chederah, Bir Jacob, Wadi el Chanin, Artuf, Moza and Kastinie; and schools at Tiberias, Haifa and Gaza. It contributes also to the support of the Tachkemoni and the Handicrafts School attached to the Talmud-Torah (religious school) at Jaffa, and of the Bezalel at Jerusalem.

The “Free Association for the Defence of the Interests of Orthodox Judaism” at Frankfort supports a number of schools in the colonies, which have also accepted Hebrew as the language of instruction. To this category belong the Talmud-Torah schools at Petach-Tikvah, Rishon Le’Zion, Ekron, Rechoboth and Haifa.

The Jewish Colonization Association maintains almost all the schools in the colonies, but the management of the schools is left to the colonists themselves. As we are confining ourselves mostly to “Lovers of Zion” and Zionist work, we refrain from giving full statistics of these schools, which are important from the standpoint of numbers as well as from that of efficiency. To mention just a few of them, the schools in Upper Galilee (at Rosh Pinah and other colonies) are excellent, both from the pedagogical point of view and in the teaching of living Hebrew, which is the language of instruction.

The Alliance Israélite Universelle of Paris has a long and important record of school work in Palestine, and the Hilfsverein der deutsche Juden has also established a large number of schools, etc. In 1913 the Alliance requested its schools in Palestine to give more attention to Hebrew. The Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls of the Anglo-Jewish Association, under the headship of Miss Landau, is doing very useful work.

Mention should be made also of the numerous religious old-fashioned schools and colleges (Talmud-Torah schools and Yeshiboth) for boys and young scholars at Jerusalem and in the provinces, in which thousands of Jewish children are educated in knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud. In spite of its defects, the old Jewish settlement in Palestine was instrumental in paving the way for the new colonization, and in this respect the old schools, notwithstanding their out-of-date methods, deserve the highest appreciation for having preserved in the children the knowledge of religion and ancient Hebrew literature. Gradually the new spirit is penetrating into some of these schools, as, for instance, into the Cheder Torah (founded in 1906), where the Hebrew language has been adopted as the language of instruction.

In connection with the ever-increasing and extensive work of national education in Palestine the “Union of Teachers” (Merchaz Ha’morim) calls for mention as one of the most important organizations. It was established some years ago for the purpose of fostering educational development in the new Jewish settlement, of providing means for the further training of teachers, and for completing the education of those engaged in school work, by such means as holiday courses, lectures, excursions, research work, discussions and debates dealing with the curriculum and methods of instruction, and so on.

The Merchaz has also established the nucleus of an Education Museum, with sections for history, pedagogy and hygiene.

The “Language Board” (Vaad Ha’lashon) at Jerusalem (including D. Yellin, E. Ben Jehuda, Dr. Maze, Sutta and others) plays an important part in the national awakening. The rebirth of the Jewish nation being impossible without the rebirth of the national language, the work of modernizing and enriching the national language is as essential and as indispensable for the realization of Zionism as the purchase and cultivation of land or the financial arrangements for that purpose. To unearth the treasures of our ancient language, to reveal to our people the wealth of our national intellect, to broaden national thought and to guide it towards clear expression in its own way—this is fundamental Zionist work. Prosperous and happy nations have established academies for this purpose, which are maintained out of public funds; our more unassuming task is still in a preliminary stage, although much useful work has already been done. The “Language Board” is publishing a series of pamphlets containing suggestions for new idioms, etc.

The good work of the two last-named institutions has earned the appreciation of the Zionist Actions Committee, which has decided to provide them with the necessary means.

The Public Hebrew Library “Bait Neeman,” “Midrash ♦Abrabanel” and “Ginze Joseph” at Jerusalem, founded by Dr. Joseph Chazanovitsch of Bialystok, is also worthy of record. It is the only big library in Palestine which is of use to scholars, and it is therefore of immeasurable value for the revival of Palestine. (There are also collections of rare Hebrew books and MSS. in some Sephardi Yeshiboth, and a Hebrew Library, “Shaar Zion,” founded in 1891 by the new Jewish settlers at Jaffa.) It is far from being adequate—it requires extending and systematizing—but this beginning must win the admiration of all those who fully conceive the immensity of the Zionist task.

The Gymnastic Societies (Maccabee) at Jaffa and Jerusalem, with branch societies in Rishon Le’Zion, Zichron Jacob, and other colonies, are doing useful work for the physical development of the new generation. All these Societies have been founded during recent years by Zionists, and are supported by the Zionist Organization.

Mr. Nathan Straus, the well-known philanthropist of New York, who has identified himself with the Zionist Organization, has established a number of useful institutions in Palestine, partly of a philanthropic and hygienic, partly of a pedagogical character. His “Health Department,” which is assisted by some other Jewish Societies on the Continent, has become a real blessing to Jerusalem, likewise his “Soup Kitchen,” his classes for instructing girls in handicrafts, and his workshop for manufacturing articles of mother-of-pearl.

To the hygienic institutions belongs also the Pasteur Institute at Jerusalem, which is controlled by the well-known Russian Zionist, Dr. Arji Behm, for vaccino-therapeutical work.

The People’s Hall (Bet-Am) at Jerusalem is a sort of Toynbee Hall for popular lectures in Hebrew, and for concerts and amusements. Institutions of this kind exist also in Rishon Le’Zion, and other colonies.

The best known of the Hebrew Publication Societies, and of the periodicals, newspapers and magazines founded by Zionists in Palestine and devoted to the revival are the following:⁠—

Kohelet, founded by the Association of Teachers for the publication of Hebrew text-books;

Le’am, for popular pamphlets and pamphlets on scientific subjects;

Yefet, for the translation of classical works of European literature;

Moledet, a literary periodical for young people;

Ha’chinuch, a periodical for teachers, dealing with pedagogical questions;

Ha’chaklai, a Hebrew monthly devoted to agriculture, gardening, etc.;

Yerushalaim, a year-book containing useful information regarding Palestine, by A. M. Luncz;

Luach Erez Israel, a Palestinian calendar with a literary section, by the same author.

Hebrew journalism was represented during many years by the old weekly Chabazelet (editor: M. Frumkin) and by the modern Hashkafa (editor: Elieser Ben-Jehuda). During recent years Ben-Jehuda has edited a daily paper, Ha’or. Until recently Palestine had two daily papers: Ha’cheruth and Moriah, and two weekly papers: Ha’poêl Ha’zair and Ha’achduth.

D. Miscellaneous Institutions

The most important institutions for the conduct, support and control of colonization work and companies for practical undertakings are:⁠—

The Zionist Office. Chief Administrators: Dr. Ruppin, Dr. Thon; Agricultural Engineers: Oettinger, Zagorodzki, Vilkansky, and others.

The Chovevé Zion Office (Dr. Chissin).

The Jewish Colonization Association Office (M. Frank, M. Brill, and others).

The Palestine Wine Company “Carmel,” and The Syndicate of Vine-Growers. (The “Carmel” Company has branches in Warsaw (1896), in America (1898), the “Carmel Oriental” in Alexandria (1902), with sister companies—The Palestine Wine Company (“Carmel Oriental”) in London (Manager: A. Günzburg)—and branches in several countries. The centre is at Rishon Le’Zion, under the management of M. Gluskin).

The Geoulah, for the purchase of land (founded in Warsaw, 1902, in the names of Goldberg, Gluskin and Oettinger, with a branch in Odessa).

The Pardess, a syndicate of orange-growers; the Ha-shaked for almond growing, and some other companies of the same kind.

The Ahuzat Bait, for house-building at Jaffa (this Company founded Tel-Aviv), and other Companies for the purchase of land for house-building, etc.

The Agudath Netaim (Association for Plantations), established in 1905 in Palestine, is a Company incorporated at Constantinople for promoting Jewish plantation work in the Holy Land. (The principal manager of the Company is Mr. Eisenberg of Rechoboth, who has achieved a reputation as a writer and organizer of great practical experience.)

The Histadrut Ha’moshavot, a union of the landed proprietors in the colonies.

The Lishkat Modiyim, an office for information established by the Odessa Chovevé Zion, managed by M. Schenkin.

The Bureau of Information, managed by the Poalim (the labourers), and

Ha’poêl Ha’zair (the Young Worker)—an organization of nationalist workers and intellectuals who have given an impetus to the enthusiasm and determination of the young Zionists in Palestine, as well as far beyond the boundaries of that country. The programme of the organization is a synthesis of Jewish Nationalism and Socialism, in which the Nationalist idea is more accentuated than in the programme of the Poalei Zion. They started their work during the first years of this century, and their organ was the Hebrew weekly Ha’poêl Ha’zair, of which Mr. Aronovitch was editor.

The Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station at Haifa

The Sixth Zionist Congress held at Basle in 1906 accepted a scheme presented by Professor Warburg to found an agricultural experiment station in Palestine, and the Zionist Organization started collecting money for that purpose. M. Aaron Aaronsohn,⁠¹ the son of a pioneer colonist of Zichron Jacob, a distinguished agronomist who had been some years engaged in colonization work, and particularly in connection with the inquiries and preparations undertaken on the initiative of Professor Warburg, who was at that time busy with all the schemes concerning Palestine, was commissioned by the Professor to study the question of the hybridization of wild wheat. In 1906, M. Aaronsohn had found, after painstaking investigation, a few ears of wild wheat growing on the declivities of Mount Hermon. The scientific world was very much interested in this discovery, because of its relation to the possibilities of dry farming in arid regions. M. Aaronsohn travelled on that scientific mission as a delegate of the Zionist Organization, in Northern Africa and Southern Europe, and came to America in 1910. While there, he established relations with the United States Department of Agriculture, which took an interest in his ideas, and published a Bulletin by him entitled Agricultural and Botanical Explorations in Palestine. Through the United States Department of Agriculture, M. Aaronsohn and his work were brought to the notice of a number of prominent American Jews, who at his initiative established, February 18, 1910, the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station, a New York corporation with Julius Rosenwald, of Chicago, president; Morris Loeb, of New York, vice-president; Paul M. Warburg, of New York, treasurer; and Henrietta Szold, of New York, secretary. The objects of the corporation are “the establishment, maintenance and support of Agricultural Experiment Stations in Palestine and other countries; the development and improvement of cereals, fruit, and vegetables indigenous to Palestine and neighbouring lands, the production of new species therefrom and their distribution elsewhere; the advancement throughout the world, and the giving of instruction in new and improved methods of farming.” Funds were raised by the Corporation for the installation and the running expenses for a period of five years. The demonstration fields are situated at Atlit, at the foot of Mount Carmel, on land belonging to Baron Rothschild. Sub-stations are situated at Chedera, in the neighbourhood of Petach-Tikvah and elsewhere. The Station occupies itself since its establishment with the hybridization of wild cereals and with plantations of fruit frees, vines, mulberry trees, various sorts of fodder and ornamental plants. The Jewish colonists resort to this Station for advice and information.

¹ He was killed in an aeroplane accident while on his way to Paris in May, 1919.

LXXXIII.

David Wolffsohn’s Autobiography

“My biography offers nothing of special interest to the general public. It may be divided into two parts: Zionist and personal. The Zionist portion is closely bound up with the history of our movement during the last ten years, and the facts concerning my modest work can hardly be distinguished from the general history of the movement. The personal portion of my career, on the other hand, contains nothing that transcends the ordinary. It is the simple story of a man of the Jewish people, of the Jewish Ghetto.

“I was born in the year 1856, in the village of Dorbiany, in the Government of Kovno, in the Province of Lithuania in Russia, close to the German frontier. My parents were poor, pious Jews. My late father, Isaac, was a talmudic scholar, and devoted his whole life to study and teaching. He earned a precarious livelihood from his lessons. My late mother, the type of a pious, good, clever Jewess, had to bear the burden of the household and the education of her children. Life in my parents’ house was thoroughly Jewish. Zionism at that time was, of course, not known under that name, but, so far as the ideal of Zionism is concerned, I can say that in our home our lives were thoroughly inspired by the Zionist ideal. Till my fourteenth year I studied, according to the old Jewish custom, in the Cheder and Beth Hamedrash of my native town. In the early seventies I went to Memel, where my oldest brother was then residing. Here I made the acquaintance of Rabbi Dr. I. J. Rülf, who had great influence on my future career and way of thinking. Shortly afterwards I went to West Prussia, where I served several years as apprentice in a pious Jewish business-house. I also spent six months in Lyck, where I frequently met in his own house David Gordon, the editor of Ha’magid, who was one of the earliest Zionist pioneers. In 1877 I returned to Memel, where I set up in business for myself, and married. After some time I removed to East Friesland, and in 1887 to my present home in Cologne.

“I can hardly give any data concerning my Zionist work. Zionism for me is hardly a thing that can be put into chronological, historical order. Zionism has been, rather, my life. Ever since I learned to think and feel I was a Zionist. I took a lively interest in the Chovevé Zion movement and was in active correspondence with all the leaders of this movement in Germany. In 1894 I delivered in Cologne my first address on Zionism and helped to found the local society for the promotion and support of Jewish agriculture in Syria and Palestine, which was established in the same year. The appearance of Herzl’s Judenstaat (in 1896) was epoch-making for me. This pamphlet made such a deep impression on me that I at once went to Vienna to introduce myself to Herzl. I placed myself entirely at his disposal. From that moment till the last days of his fruitful life, unhappily so prematurely ended, I remained in uninterrupted intercourse with our never-to-be-forgotten leader. To devote my strength to the continuance of this work I regarded as the task of my life. When, in the sad time after Herzl’s death, the Presidency was offered to me, I was surprised and embarrassed. It was only out of a sense of duty that I accepted this high dignity.”

LXXXIV.

Some English Press Comments on the London Zionist Congress (1900)

Spectator: “As to the Jews being able to live on the land in Palestine there can be no doubt. Those who have seen a Jewish colony in Syria will testify to the excellent physical and moral and agricultural results achieved. Merely to see the children there is ample warrant of what is done for the Jew by release from the Ghetto.”

Saturday Review: “Restoration to Palestine symbolizes the recovery of self-respect, the reattainment of nationhood.”

Globe: “Zionism answers the aspirations of the majority of persecuted Jews, but it is important to those Jews who have become completely assimilated to their Christian surroundings, and who ought to have an interest in the raising of the economic, moral and intellectual status of the mass of their unhappy brethren, which raising of status will necessarily be the first outcome of their gathering in the land of their fathers.”

Daily News: “Whatever difference of opinion may prevail as to the policy of the Zionist movement, there can be no doubt as to the intense and fervid interest of those who, at no small self-sacrifice, are doing this work of revival.”

Daily Graphic: “Zionism appeals to many sides of human thought, but perhaps the final impression it leaves upon the public mind is something akin to Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones which lived again. Is it possible that the dispersed nation, whose career is one of the standing marvels of history, is about to gather itself again and open a new chapter of its romantic annals? It looks very like it. The movement is in the hands of practical and courageous men; it has behind it a stimulus, not only of subjective enthusiasm, but also of objective strife, and it entirely responds to a practical need.”

Yorkshire Post: “The striking feature of the meetings was the unity of purpose and enthusiasm which seem to characterize all the delegates. Persons who speak quite different tongues nevertheless fraternize and grow enthusiastic over the prospect of returning as a nation to the land of their fathers.”

Leeds Mercury: “This is not wholly a dream.... Several colonies have settled down within their historic territorial limits. A few of them are already self-supporting. The movement is essentially democratic.”

Nottingham Guardian: “The movement the Zionist Congress represents is an important one and it may possibly produce momentous results.”

Newcastle Courier: “This movement in Jewry is one which readily commands the sympathy of the outsider. It is the voicing of that inarticulate feeling which has for ages silently swayed and sustained forlorn and seemingly forsaken Jews. The inextinguishable hope and the unshaken faith of these stricken people as to their future constitutes a striking object-lesson in these days of scepticism.”

Liverpool Echo: “From every point of view, political, social, and religious, Zionism has much to recommend it, and the enthusiasm with which it has been taken up by many of the most prominent thinkers of the Hebrew race affords the best augury for its ultimate accomplishment.”

Glasgow Evening News: “Such a scheme as the re-peopling of Palestine, while demanding careful handling at every stage, must be gradually evolved.... If the Zionist movement creates a Jew with the tastes and aspirations of his forefathers it will not have been started in vain.”

Glasgow Evening Citizen: “It is a matter of considerable importance, looked at from what side we may. Should any effective system be found of dealing with it, then the present Congress will probably have operated to the advantage of this country quite as much as to the Jews in whose interests it is being held.”

North British Daily Mail: “There is no reason why Christians should not wish them well. The movement should provide a refuge for the Jewish race from the Anti-Semitic hate which pursues them in so many countries, and it should help somewhat to restore to its former prosperity the land of Palestine, towards which the Jewish heart ever turns with love and devotion.”

Review of the Week: “Why should not this homogeneous, intelligent and powerful race (the Jews) form a State of their own, and thus free themselves from persecution in other States, and enforce respect for their nationality? Millions of Jews have probably asked themselves this question. Trustworthy leaders having been found, a movement has been set on foot for the establishment of a Jewish centre in Palestine. The idea is glorious enough to take possession even of the minds of such a practical, prudent and commercial race as the Jews.”

LXXXV.

Colonel Conder on the Value of the Jewish National Movement (1903)

“Enthusiasm is the power of feeling a strong interest in something that is not of personal material advantage. It is not a very common feeling anywhere, and is perhaps as rare among Jews as among others. It is generally regarded with suspicion: for it often upsets repose, and leads to unexpected and disturbing events. Ignorant enthusiasm has been the cause of many great troubles: but enthusiasm founded on real knowledge of events and of national movements has produced, in our own times, some of the greatest changes in history. It was the enthusiasm of the few which created a United Italy, or again which has made Japan the leading power in the Far East. It is the unexpected that comes to pass, because men’s attention is fixed on large and conspicuous objects, and because they find it so difficult to judge whether the new cause, advocated by the few, is based on reality, or whether it is merely a craze. Thus, while endless diplomacy and observation are directed to the management of affairs on the supposition that the facts are evident, there constantly comes a surprise which renders futile all the schemes of anxious Politicians, due to the silent action of some unsuspected element. The blind desires of the people find at length a definite expression, and the direction given by a few enthusiasts leads to new and startling events.... Enthusiasm for one’s own race and country, when genuine, is regarded with general favour: but when George Eliot raised her protest against the everlasting ‘Hep!’ which hounds the wandering Jew from land to land, people asked what she had to do with Judaism. Like Cain, we ask: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ and especially when it is the poor brother whom we so much dislike. We can, however, understand that the great mass of poor and persecuted Jews feel for those who devote their time, money and thought to the raising up of their own people an amount of real affection and gratitude which renders them willing to be led to their realization of hopes that are not commonly regarded by the great mass of the prosperous and contented.... Among the higher class of those broad-minded Jews who sincerely believe in their ancient traditions, very noble efforts are made not only to help the poor and stem the tide of persecution, but also to raise the tone of the nation by appeal to its ancient memories and ideals. These men are the natural leaders to whom the destitute and oppressed turn for counsel and guidance, and it is among them that it has now become a fixed belief that the nation can only be raised from its misery by the creation of a national centre—a home to which all those who are scattered over the earth may turn their eyes: which must be one bound up with all that is best in the historic memories of the race, and which therefore must be the old home in Palestine itself. The Jew, they say, is tired of wandering and tired of being an alien. Emigration has not settled the eternal question, and a nation without a country must be content with toleration as all that it can expect.

“As regards ourselves, we should be only too glad to see Palestine increasing in civilization and prosperity as an outpost in the neighbourhood of Egypt.... It is clear that if the question of the Near East should again be raised, the Jews will have to be considered by statesmen in any settlement of the Syrian question: and that the solution of the question ... may be ... a ‘legally assured home for the Jewish People.’”

LXXXVI.

Lord Gwydyr on Zionism and the Arabs

One of the most important factors the Zionists will have to reckon with in their further activity in Palestine is that of the Arabian population of the country. This population might consider the development of the Zionist movement undesirable: if the immigration of Jews into Palestine were to bring additional poverty into the land—if the Jewish element were restless, adventurous and inclined to disorder—if the country had or might have a homogeneous Arabic culture, and this new element were to disturb its uniformity through the introduction of its own cultural aspirations—or if that same element were threatening to oust the Arabs from their own position. But these and similar suppositions which might have led to the adoption of strong measures, or at least to a sentimental antipathy against immigration, are non-existent. The Jews bring no poverty into the land; nor is the immigrating population adventurous; Arabic culture does not already prevail in the country; and the Jews will not drive the Arab population from an established position.

The Jews who have been or are coming to Palestine have created considerable new economic values which are not only sufficient for their own maintenance but also contribute essentially towards the economic strengthening of the Arab element. Not only has the Government derived profit from the greater taxation returns of the Jewish colonies, but also from the enhanced taxability of the country, in consequence of the better methods of cultivation introduced by the Jews. The Arab population has also been considerably enriched, partly because the same masses which were formerly unemployed in large numbers found occupations and earnings with the Jews; partly through favourable sales of land, and also because they have learnt from the Jews how to obtain a greater yield from the soil.

Of course there can be no lack of competition in isolated cases, especially between Arab and Jewish traders, or Arab and Jewish artisans. But on the whole this competition can only bear upon individual cases. In general the new immigration can only maintain and support itself in the country if it creates new values, for the very simple reason that industrial conditions in Palestine are in a very low state of development, and that consequently the supplanting of those who hold established positions is practically impossible.

Therefore, from a comprehensive economic point of view, it is not only unnecessary to protect the native population against the immigration, but the latter should be encouraged in the interest of the country and its present inhabitants. The immigration brings about an increase of production as well as of consumption, and the greater part of the native population is thereby relieved from economic distress.

It is also possible that the native population, on having risen from its present state of depression to a higher level, may endeavour, in a measure, to better its economic position by settling down in neighbouring provinces. Colonization of the lands to the east of Palestine by Arabs would considerably reduce the Arab population of Palestine. Already, since the centre of gravity of the Arab race is not situated in Palestine, the area of friction arising from national-political motives is considerably reduced. The national-political relations of the Jews and their Arab fellow-citizens must be directed into the right channel from the very beginning. In this respect the Zionist programme is quite clear, simple and natural. The Jews wish to collaborate with the Arabs towards the elevation and strengthening of the country; but, in all they do, they want to appear as the Jewish nation, and always to show openly and freely their Jewish nationality. If it be a question of assimilation, Palestine is the only country in the world where the Jews, instead of being assimilated, are themselves the assimilating factor. It has, however, to be added that there can be no question of compulsory assimilation enforced by the Jews; they themselves have suffered too much from assimilation to wish to enforce it in any direction. But the Jewish culture will have an instructive and ennobling influence over others, through the force of example.

Lord Gwydyr wrote as follows on the question of the Turks and the Arabs in connection with the Jews:⁠—

“The difference between the Turkish and Arabic race is a curious subject of study and reflection. The Arabs, taken individually, are superior to the Turks. But in the struggle between nations the superiority of individuals is nothing: what gives ascendancy is the quality not of the individual but of the man: it is the spirit of ensemble, the aptitude to command or obey, which, after all, is the same thing. In this point of view the Arab is inferior to the Turk. Enthusiastic, witty, delicate, made for poesy and adventure, sober, inured to fatigue, as gay and as variable as the Turk is serious and grave, the Arabic race is still what we see it in history. But when, forgetting for a moment the brightness of their conquest, we closely examine, even in history, the character of the Arab race, what do we see? A race whose religious enthusiasm created an army rather than a nation, and incapable of founding an empire, as the Romans had done, it gave rise to I do not know how many empires and how short lived. What a chaos, and in this chaos what a rapid and tumultuous nation! Unity and duration were ever wanting in the governments created by the Arab race. These governments enjoyed the life of tropical plants, brilliant and brief, whilst the Turkish race has founded an empire, now expiring indeed, but which has lasted five hundred years or more. For an empire like the Turkish one, and in those countries, five hundred years’ duration is eternity. What is Palestine worth to the Arabs? Nothing. They did not appreciate its value, until the Jewish enterprise that forms a striking contrast with the dulness of the natives began to utilize this old garden of the human race, left desert and barren by the misfortunes of time. The Arabs will be useful when guided by an active and intelligent Jewish settlement.

“Racial rivalry is natural in every country, and is not to be disapproved so long as the aims are good, as, e.g. emulation in acquiring of knowledge in its multiple domains, such as agriculture, industry, etc.: but as soon as rivalry exceeds these bounds, it is to be deprecated. The legal power must resist with all its power this nefarious kind of rivalry, as nobody wishes to differentiate between the inhabitants in their liberties. All must be equal before the law, without the least distinction. But misunderstandings may always occur, and people with interested motives will try to make capital out of these misunderstandings. Everything depends on the goodwill and tact on both sides. Even the Bedawi may be won over to friendship more easily than he may be driven into subjection. And he is worth the winning over. Besides being a fighting man in his own style, he is, as history proves, quite capable of making valuable contributions to the welfare of the country, if he is properly treated. Experience shows that he responds more readily to appeal than to command, and is more easily led than driven. They must be given the blessings of a good administration and trained to take a gradually increasing share in the government of the country. Friendliness will replace inveterate mistrust: the inhabitants of the country will be bound together in close harmony by the ties of common interest. From a strictly Christian standpoint such a course is clearly the highest and wisest: while from that of the Moslems the old fears that closer intercourse with Christians might sap the religious earnestness of the followers of the Prophet are now generally seen to be groundless in the light of a longer and more intimate acquaintance. But there are reasons of a more practical nature than these ethical considerations. The position of Islam in the world’s political and religious geography supplies the followers of both faiths with a motive for common action that is yearly becoming better understood.... If it is true that a new spirit is stirring in the East of Asia, that the scientific knowledge by which in the past Europeans have held their own can no longer remain their monopoly and that the increase of the population in the Far East remains steady while that of Europe declines, then it is time for the Near East, when the inevitable struggle must take place, to put her house in order: and the first and most obvious requirement is that the tradition of misunderstandings between Christians and Moslems shall be replaced by a sympathy based upon community of interest.”

LXXXVII.

Consular Reports

The movement of progress and hope which has awakened to consciousness in Palestine was born in the colonies, where the land began to yield a ready harvest in return for the husbandman’s toil, where the vine and the fruit tree began to surround with natural beauty a land that had all too long lain desolate, and the old joys of country life have brought anew to the toilful workers a spirit of independence and dignity which have penetrated from the country into the towns. Again the Jewish race has developed some of the fine physique that generations of the Ghetto life had threatened to destroy for ever.

The British Consular Reports show signs of a steady development of Palestinian trade:⁠—

Year. Exports. Imports.

1885 £132,579 £287,740

1886 119,555 240,880

1887 186,371 232,045

1888 204,315 253,065

1889 244,561 275,622

1890 447,010 259,811

1891 410,530 288,290

1892 258,466 342,597

1893 332,628 349,540

1894 285,604 273,233

1895 282,907 275,990

1896 373,447 256,090

1897 309,389 306,630

1898 306,780 322,430

The increase of trade in 1890 and 1891 was due to the good harvest in oranges and sesame. In 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1897, all the wheat and the barley were exported via Gaza, and are therefore not included in the above table. The value of some of the goods exported and the growth of new industries is indicated in the following table, which shows the exports of wheat, maize, soap and oranges from 1885 to 1898:⁠—

Year. Wheat. £ Maize. £ Soap. £ Oranges. £

1885 3,600 7,875 13,722 26,500

1886 3,325 9,000 8,960 29,400

1887 15,000 21,000 38,000 36,000

1888 7,800 16,960 45,000 55,000

1889 16,950 18,200 33,600 51,200

1890 19,920 11,240 44,700 83,120

1891 3,300 17,300 124,000 108,400

1892 — 420 46,800 62,000

1893 — 2,580 112,000 96,500

1894 — 2,000 114,000 51,000

1895 3,560 3,200 93,240 65,000

1896 1,920 14,178 113,114 72,600

1897 — 8,450 81,900 75,800

1898 14,000 3,000 62,000 82,500

In the earlier reports some reference is made to the export of wine, but it is not worth special mention until 1894, from which date the following figures may be given:⁠—

Wine and Cognac.

1894 £3,000

1895 2,600

1896 4,032

1897 4,340

1898 20,500

Comparative tables of imports and exports at Jaffa according to countries during the four years 1909‒1912.

Imports

Country. 1909. £ 1910. £ 1911. £ 1912. £

United Kingdom 321,348 128,730 146,000 155,000

British Colonies 4,629 3,105 49,000 54,000

Turkey 107,842 328,965 340,000 305,000

Austria-Hungary 92,244 83,840 114,000 126,000

Russia 96,038 97,000 108,000 110,000

Germany 87,308 68,615 74,000 80,000

France 64,773 103,000 112,000 84,000

Egypt 69,445 58,095 70,000 61,000

Belgium 39,635 49,185 60,000 54,000

Italy 25,232 24,940 16,000 5,000

United States 13,483 10,400 25,000 12,000

Roumania 10,565 — 22,000 17,000

Netherlands 10,555 10,141 8,000 7,000

Bulgaria — 11,950 15,000 8,000

Other Countries 9,848 24,485 10,910 12,000

973,143 1,002,450 1,169,910 1,090,000

Exports

Country. 1909. £ 1910. £ 1911. £ 1912. £

United Kingdom 158,090 173,085 185,000 190,000

British Colonies 77 698 9,000 10,500

Turkey 56,850 83,015 78,000 95,000

Austria-Hungary 19,630 12,103 21,000 24,500

Russia 18,370 29,589 33,000 45,000

Germany 7,325 8,384 17,000 21,000

France 15,080 22,255 46,000 50,000

Egypt 255,215 277,328 270,000 290,000

Belgium 1,863 1,101 15,000 12,000

Italy 10,337 15,332 12,000 6,000

United States 3,765 4,272 10,000 1,000

Roumania 1,375 — 2,000 2,500

Netherlands 418 1,192 1,000 2,000

Bulgaria — 5,221 6,000 4,500

Other Countries 12,630 2,575 5,660 10,162

506,935 636,145 710,660 774,162

Hindrances to the Prosperity of Palestine

(From the British Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 4850. Annual Series: Turkey. Report for the Year 1911. London, 1912):⁠—

“The principal causes which impede a rapid increase in the prosperity of Palestine are three, viz.:⁠—

“1. The lack of a harbour in Jaffa.—This is greatly needed. Owing to the fact that Jaffa is an open roadstead subject to sudden and dangerous storms—it should be noted that a British steamer was wrecked in February, 1911—much delay is experienced in loading and unloading steamers with consequent loss and inconvenience. Many tourists and pilgrims are also deterred from visiting the country owing to the uncertainty as to whether disembarkation will be possible.

“2. The tithe.—The levying of a tax of 12½ per cent. ad valorem on products of the soil has greatly impeded the extension of the orange plantations. Recently a petition has been submitted to the authorities by agriculturists asking that this tax may be replaced by a fixed tax of 30 pias. (5s.) per dunum (about ¼ acre) on land planted with orange and other fruit trees. If this change were made, there would be an immediate increase in the number of orange plantations, with consequent benefit both to the Government and to the population. There are thousands of acres of light soil in the vicinity of Jaffa, which, although not suited for cereals or sesame, are well fitted for the cultivation of oranges.