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SIRCUMSPICE
URARY
SEP 20 190911

100
Selected Editorials
from the Secular Press
of America on
THE ZIONIST
MOVEMENT




ed June, 1918, by The Publicity Department
(A. H. FROMENSON, Director)
E ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA
44 East 23d Street, New York City
FOREWORD
There is no need to say more than a word or two in regard
to the editorials quoted in this pamphlet, because they speak so
eloquently for themselves as well as for the subject they discuss.
The 100 quotations given here by no means exhaust the avail-
able resources; indeed, they represent but a fraction of the remark-
able chorus of American approval, sympathy, and eagerness to
co-operate with Zionism. (Several editorials from denominational
organs are included, to indicate the attitude of the Christian religi-
ous press.) The total number of editorials in the secular press on
Zionism which the Publicity Department has been able to assemble
since the British Declaration, is 276. Those not included in this
pamphlet reiterate, in somewhat different phraseology, the same
opinion, the same encouragement, of which this pamphlet is a con-
sensus.
It is the movement itself, the righteousness of our great cause,
that has won for it the practically unanimous approval of the secular
press. If Zionism were not founded on righteousness and justice,
no effort, however great, would have availed to win our great asset
-the public opinion of America.
There is no opposition to the movement, as such, in the minds
of the secular editors. No editorials were excluded from this
pamphlet for that reason. There simply aren't any. Here and
there is expressed the fear that Zionism spells the wholesale migra-
tion of the Jews from this country. But, again, other editors are
at pains to dispel this absurd misrepresentation of the movement.
Nor is there any misgiving in the minds of the secular editors lest
adhesion to Zionism would subtract aught from our American
loyalty. To them our patriotism is patent and our right to national
existence so obvious, that it permits of no discussion. The charge
that Zionists are disloyal to America is the exclusive monopoly of
our Jewish opponents.
The clarity of these editorials is striking. They are proof that
we have succeeded in giving to American public opinion a clear
conception of Zionism; in making it understand what our aim is.
Understanding it, the American people is bound, whole-heartedly,
to sympathize with it. In other words, as we have had occasion to
3
say in a previous pamphlet, "Zionism has conquered American
public opinion." And it is significant that one of the leading secular
papers of this country makes exactly that statement.
The chronological arrangement of these editorials follows the
trend of events from the days of anticipation, which ensued after
the Baltimore Convention, to the days of realization made possible.
by the British Declaration and the approval of the Allied Powers
and brings us to the threshold of this convention via the Restoration
Fund.
The absence from this pamphlet of quotations from the Yiddish
and Anglo-Jewish press must not be construed as in any way
depreciating the value and merit of their editorial opinion. On
the contrary, their service to the cause is beyond estimate, and
most highly prized. But these editorials have reached such huge
proportions as to create a real embarrassment of wealth, and make
selection, except at random, impossible. That would be unfair to
the journals and their editors, to whom we are immeasurably in
debt, and for whose service we have the keenest appreciation.
It is noteworthy, that every step taken by the Zionists since the
British Declaration has elicited favorable comment, and every news
item and every pamphlet has proved to be an inspiration for a
series of very valuable contributions to the editorial literature con-
cerning the Zionist Movement. In other words, Zionism is today
reckoned with as one of the leading factors in the world's progress,
just as the world is beginning to look to the establishment of a
Jewish state in Palestine as one of the leading factors in bringing
about a secure and lasting peace for all mankind.
4
PROGRESS OF ZIONISM
(Daily Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 25, 1918)
Captain Andre Tardieu, French High Commissioner to the United
States, has notified the New York Provisional Executive Committee for Gen-
eral Zionist Affairs that the French government is in full accord with the
British government in favoring a Jewish state in Palestine .
The element of idealism in the Zionist movement appeals irresistibly to
the imagination, and gentiles of all lands, as well as the descendants of
Israel, are watching the outcome of the splendid experiment with lively in-
terest and sympathy.
ZIONISM HAS CONQUERED PUBLIC OPINION
(Rochester, N. Y., Post-Express, Nov. 10, 1917)
Zionism has conquered public opinion in America, Jewish and Gentile;
and happily for the movement, matters have so shaped in the world that
the erection of a Jewish state in the ancient home of the race appeals not
only to the idealism but to the political interest of the world powers. It is
logical that England should take the initiative in this matter. Her interests.
will be furthered by the creation of an independent neutral, protected state
between Turkey and Egypt; and her recent victories at Gaza and Beersheba
which presage the early capture of Jerusalem have lifted Zionism from the
field of sentiment into the realm of probabilities.
There is no present reason to believe that any nation which will have a
voice in the reconstruction of the world at the close of the war will find
any ground for opposing the establishment of a Jewish republic in Palestine.
Everywhere the Jews have done their duty with men and money, cheerful
and fully, to the governments under which they live; and the project to
give their homeland to them appeals strongly to the historic and religious
conscience of the world. A Palestinian republic would be, "a cultural center
and spiritual reservoir for the Jewish people." Few of the Jews of
the western countries would go back there, but all of them would realize
with pride and joy that a Jewish flag floated over a state which was Jewish
in language and religion and where those of their faith who desired to go
there might live in happiness and peace.
"It is coming," said Herzl, the impassioned prophet of Zionism, in 1896.
"I see it to-day; you will see it to-morrow. I know to-day that the Jews
will have their state where they will live and endure as free men. To-
morrow the world will know it."
5
сл
PALESTINE'S FUTURE
(New York Eve. Globe, Nov. 12, 1917)
It is not expected that all the Jews, or even a considerable percentage
of them, will return, but the remnant that was never dispersed and has sur-
vived centuries of oppression will have freedom. Joined to them will be
the Jewish idealists, who remember the ancient promises and believe that
the spiritual empire of Judaism should have a temporal capital.
CONDITION OF JERUSALEM
(Brooklyn, N. Y., Citizen, Nov. 13, 1917)
There can, it is evident, be no final settlement of the problem that does
not provide for the partial restoration of Jewish government under inter-
national guarantees. How this is to be worked out, remains to be seen,
but that it will have to be worked out is conceded on all sides.
A JEWISH FLAG OVER A JEWISH REPUBLIC
(Fargo, N. D., Forum, Nov. 14, 1917)
Jews of the world can see, almost within grasp, a national home, a flag,
and a country of their own.
Sir Arthur Balfour, in one letter of Lord Rothschild, has given a greater
impetus to the cause of Zionism than all the efforts of the Jews themselves
during the last century.
He has written Lord Rothschild that the English government favors the
establishment in Palestine, of a national home for the Jewish race.
For 2,000 years the Jews have maintained a literature, a language and
a religion without a nation of their own. It has been done in the face of
the bitterest persecution. But the day of their exile soon may be ended.
Nobody believes that all the Jewish people will return to Palestine. There
is nothing to prevent the Jew becoming a good citizen of any country in
which he may reside. But Palestine will offer a center for the Jewish reli-
gion and Jewish culture, and the present generation may live to see a Jewish
flag flying over a Jewish republic on the shores of the Mediterranean sea.
WORLD OWES IT TO JEWS
(New York City Mail, Nov. 16, 1917)
Out of the ruir and desolation, the Jewish race is seeking to build up
its ancient heritage. The race that has contributed to the world much of
its spiritual thought, its art, its commerce and its constructive genius, is
seeking to make its historic home the beneficiary of its material and spiritual
triumphs. It is seeking to obtain the inspiration of its mighty past from
the soil whence sprung that past.
The world owes to Jewry this splendid reparation. It will follow with
sympathetic interest the efforts of statesmen and philanthropists to make
the age-old dream of the Jewish race a fact.
}
6
JOIN THE MOVEMENT
(Pittsburgh, Pa., Post, Nov. 18, 1917)
(Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, in a sermon preached on April 26, 1917, urged
the neutralization of Palestine and the establishment there of a great inter-
national peace council.)
While that (the British Declaration) does not take up the suggestion of
making Palestine the home of an international peace council-the first step
is the neutralizing of the land, and the British idea of making it a national
home for Jews, on the basis of equal rights for others in it.
Although the arrangement for carrying out the project has not reached
the point where judgment can be passed on it, the principle of giving the
Jews back their ancient home is one that should and doubtless will, find
ready indorsement among all fair-minded peoples.
What the Jews have done for many nations as citizens also entitles them
to consideration in this case. Keep in mind the substantial support given by
Jews to the cause of liberty in this country. The great majority of the Jews
of this country also have entered whole-heartedly into helping it in the
War. In every way they have proved of the most substantial citizenship.
Join the movement to restore to the worthy Jews their ancient home.
NO LONGER A HOPELESS DREAM
(Richmond, Va., Virginian, Nov. 19, 1917)
The solution of the Jewish problem through Zionism,-in the light of
modern events, is no longer a hopeless dream.
The "Jewish Problem" does not necessarily mean the maltreatment of
members of this race; nor the withholding of equal political, educational or
social privileges. The "Jewish Problem" does not even cease with the grant-
ing of these rights. The "Jewish Problem" exists now and will exist so
long as the Jewish nation is homeless, without a political center, without
-Palestine.
THE DAY OF CONSUMMATION DAWNS
(Spokane, Wash., Spokesman Review, Nov. 20, 1917)
The project is not new. It has been the dream and desire of devout
Israelites ever since Rome destroyed Jerusalem. It was advocated in
America by M. M. Noah in 1818, in France by Joseph Salvador in 1830, in
Germany by Moses Hess in 1862, in England by George Eliot in 1876, in
Russia by Lilianblum and Smolenskin in 1880. The scheme took new life
when Theodore Herzl founded international Zionism and organized the
Jews of the world for the restoration of Jewish nationality and indepen-
dence. It is 20 years since the organization was founded and it has done
wonderful work. Now the day of consummation dawns.
7
QUITE ON THE CARDS
(Chicago, Ill., Journal, Nov. 22, 1917)
Zionism has vast throngs of supporters in America, nor are all these
among the Jews. The Dutch minister of finance speaks enthusiastically in
favor of it, and in a certain sense, he speaks for the neutral powers. It is
quite on the cards that Jerusalem may once more be an independent capital.
SINGLE TAXERS GREATLY INTERESTED
J
(Fairhope, Ala., Courier, Nov. 23, 1917)
The decision has been hailed with delight by Jews throughout the world.
No one, of course, expects that Jews situated where they are respected and
influential, holders of large properties and clothed with all the rights of
people of other nationalities, are going to rush from all over the world to
Palestine, but there are many suffering from racial antagonism and injustice,
who will undoubtedly be helped by their more fortunate brethren to establish
themselves in the ancient home of their race and among their own people.
·
A feature of this decision of great interest to Singletaxers is that at
the head of the Zionist movement in this country, is Louis D. Brandeis, now
judge of the Supreme Court of the U. S., and that he has proposed for the
re-settlement of Palestine a land tenure very much the same as that of the
Singletax colony, also that Mrs. Fels is active in the movement and is ready
to give large financial aid in such effort. It may be that the renewed and
rejuvenated Jewish nation will be the first to formally apply the principle
of equal rights to the use of the earth, which is in harmony with the early
teachings of the Jewish fathers.
CAN'T UNDERSTAND OPPOSITION
(Boston, Mass., Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 24, 1917)
That the dream of the Zionists will presently become a political reality,
there is no reason to question. But the curious part of it is that there should
be an anti-Zion party opposed to the plan. It is manifest, of course, that
the Jews cannot all return to Palestine, but that is no reason why the Jewish
people, whether in the eastern or the western hemisphere, should not find
in Palestine, the headquarters of their nationality and their faith, whilst
still compelled, out of the very necessities of their numbers, to scatter them-
selves through those countries wherever they may be hospitably received.
It is many centuries since it became quite clear that the little country be-
tween Dan and Beersheba could not hold the children of Abraham, of whom
it was said, "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand is upon the
sea shore."
8
THE PRACTICAL SIDE
(New York City, Times, Nov. 24, 1917)
Giving due weight to the influence of national feeling, locally acquired,
upon their co-religionists in the countries where they have lived during
"diaspora" or dispersion, they fear that the Zionist project might involve
the possibility of a recurrence of anti-Semitism. It is a question of the
greatest importance to the future of those of the Jewish faith and manifestly
one to be decided by cool judgment rather than by the impulses of en-
thusiasm. A study of the practical working of attempts at repatriation
wherever they have been made would serve as a safeguard against errors
which might be committed under the guidance of yearning and idealism.
The proposal has been made that the problem might be solved by the estab-
lishment of colonies in Palestine under the protection of Great Britain and
France and the United States, and this suggestion has met with a good deal
of favor among Jews who have given consideration to the practical side of
the Zionist movement.
SUPREME IMPORTANCE TO CIVILIZATION
(Bayonne, N. J., Review, Nov. 24, 1917)
One of the splendid results of this war will be the rehabilitation of the
Jewish people as a nation. If the ancient home of the race is returned to
them it will have a spiritual and psychological interest of supreme im-
portance to civilization.
•
NOBLE AND ATTAINABLE
(Fresno, Cal., Republican, Nov. 25, 1917)
Palestine as a home center for the Jewish people! It is a noble and an
attainable end. Jews and Gentiles working together in fellowship can re-
store not only the Holy Land but all of Asia Minor to its ancient usefulness
and much more besides.
OPEN TO ALL THE WORLD
(Portland Oregonian, Nov. 25, 1917)
Zionists in America view the recent military developments with special
interest because of the prospect they hold out to them of realization of their
dream of an independent state, which was only dimly in view so long as the
Turks continued in control. It has long been their aim to provide a place of
refuge for oppressed Jews, from whatever country or clime, and in co-
operation with Christians to make of Palestine such a resort as is to be
found nowhere else. Heretofore the precincts of the Holy Land have been
accessible only under difficulties; if the British hold their ground, and the
dream of the Zionists is realized, at last they will be open to all the world.
9
*
ܝܕܝ
PASSIONATE HOPE REALIZED
(Kansas City Journal, Nov. 25, 1917)
Ever since the dispersion of the children of Israel it has been the pas-
sionate hope of all Zion that the land of Judah might once more be the
home of the Jewry of the world-a dream that bids fair to be realized, in
one way or another, with British occupancy.
A POWER FOR GOOD
(Salt Lake, Utah, Tribune, Nov. 26, 1917)
There can be no serious objection anywhere to the Zionistic plan if
the Allies win. Turkey will have been eliminated from consideration. If
the scattered energy, enterprise and intellectual gifts of the Hebrews are
concentrated and consecrated for the upbuilding of such a nation it might
easily become a power in the world as well as a local power for good in
Asia Minor.
DEPENDS ON THE JEWS
(Buffalo, N. Y., News, Nov. 27, 1917)
Of all the claims now being urged upon the allied governments in be-
half of small nationalities, none is more interesting than the proposal that
Palestine be set apart as a Jewish state under allied protection, with local
autonomy and free opportunity for the development of a distinctive nation-
ality.
The British Government's action in raising a Jewish regiment for the
Palestine campaign amounts to an endorsement of the plan.
But its future course and development and success rest largely with the
Jews themselves.
THE SCATTERED TO HAVE CENTER
(Boston, Mass., Daily Globe, Nov. 28, 1917.)
Mr. Balfour has announced the disposition to be made of the Holy
Land. It is to be Jerusalem for the Jews. The oldest irredenta in the world
is to be restored. The Nation which has been doomed to wander over the
face of the earth because it had no place to call its own is to have a home,
its own home, at last.
In Jerusalem and about it the Zionist aspirations are to be realized. A
self-governing independent State for those Jews who desire to return to
the country of their origin has been planned as a result of the drive which
was begun for the immediate purpose of routing the Turkish attempt at
the Suez Canal.
The scattered tribes of Israel are to have a center for their life. From
it will go out the Jewish culture that powerful and valuable influence which
has enriched the world.
10
"OUT OF ZION—”
(Boston, Mass., Daily Globe, Nov. 28, 1917.)
Mr. Balfour has announced the disposition to be made of the Holy
Land. It is to be Jerusalem for the Jews.
The scattered tribes of Israel are to have a center for their life. From
it will go out the Jewish culture, that powerful and valuable influence which
has enriched the world.
2,000 YEARS' OF PREPAREDNESS
(Washington, Pa., Reporter, Nov. 30, 1917)
(South Bend, Ind., News, Times, Nov. 21, 1917)
The whole thinking world appreciates the Jew. They are among the
leading philanthropists, and the best sociologists of the age. Much, accord-
ingly is to be expected of Zion reclaimed. It appears the ambition of lead-
ing Jews to make of it an ideal democracy.
And it may be realized. For 2,000 years and more the Jews have been
in training; in training everywhere, studying, by experience, all nations,
forms of government, and peoples. Preparedness, assuredly, if properly
employed, for the re-establishment of the Land of Promise.
WONDERFUL POSSIBILITIES
(Washington, N. C., Progress, Nov. 29, 1917)
No power so situated in regard to Palestine has used such language in
the whole course of modern history. One has to go back to Cyrus for a
parallel.
The adoption of this policy may be defended alike, we believe, on Brit-
ish, on Jewish, and on European grounds. From the Jewish point of view
such a restoration opens the door to wonderful possibilities.
THE PRINCIPAL FACTOR
(Bellingham, Wash., Amer. Reveille, Nov. 30, 1917)
Now that the establishment of a Jewish republic in Palestine has be-
come politically desirable, for the protection of Egypt and the Suez Canal
there is no doubt but that it will be effected under the protectorate of Great
Britain at the close of the present war-the wealth of all the Anglo-Jews
can be depended upon to establish their oppressed brethren of other nations
in the land of their dreams, and they will be the principal factor in restoring
Zion.
BRIGHTEST TOKEN OF PROMISE
(Pittsburgh, Pa., Methodist Record, Dec. 1, 1917)
The awful tumult of the nations now at its zenith of confusion is re-
lieved by many tokens of promise, and one of the brightest for the Jewish
race is the practical assurances of their permanent possession of Palestine,
under the protection of Great Britain and other Christian nations.
11
JEWISH LOYALTY NOT IN DOUBT
(Memphis, Tenn., Appeal, Dec. 1, 1917)
It looks as if, after thousands of years, the dream of Israel by the events
of this war may become a reality . .
Those Jews who are alive to the conditions of their race and who have
a pride of race born of a knowledge of history have a longing to possess
the land of their ancestors, just as do the people of any other race.
Palestine is to them the cradle of their civilization, and out of Pales-
tine came many currents which have influenced the lives of nations.
The Zionists are misunderstood. Not all of them want to go back to
Palestine. Not all of them would go back, but they want to possess the
country to have home rule there, even though it be under the suzerainty of
another nation.
They want it to be a region of refuge . They want it to be the
great clearing house for Jewry, and they want, by putting their spiritual be-
liefs into practice, to demonstrate certain principles of living which might
in time be of benefit to mankind.
Some Jews are timorous about declaring devotion to Zionism, because
they fear their allegiance to a country where they may be might be ques-
tioned.
No sane non-Jew would draw such conclusion.
Love for the land of a forbear is instinctive. There is something in
all of us that causes us to want to possess the land where the bones of our
ancestors co-mingle with the soil. The principle is evidenced even in this
short-lived country.
The Zionistic movement should be encouraged. This very trait in the
breast of the Jew shows the Jew to be an idealist, and the idealistic are
they who blast through things as they are and as they have been, for the
things that may be better.
THE WAR'S GREATEST ROMANCE
(Buffalo, N. Y., Express, Dec. 2, 1917)
Palestine furnishes the greatest romance of the war. The redemption
of Alsace-Lorraine, the restoration of Belgium, the crushing of a military
caste which has tormented and taxed the world-what are these, for romance,
compared with the drama that has covered 1900 years?
FLOURISHING AS NEVER BEFORE
(Cedar Rapids, Ind., Republican, Dec. 2, 1917)
Jerusalem itself is a city of many attractions, besides those that connect
it with holy writ. If the Jews get hold of the city and the land it will be
rapidly repopulated and it may become flourishing as it has never been in
the history of the world.
12
THE HOLY LAND WILL BE HOLIER
(Portland, Ore., Journal, Dec. 3, 1917)
The Zionists are that group of Jews who wish to found a Jewish re-
public in Palestine with Jerusalem for the capital. They have been preaching
their principles for many years without any startling success. The Turkish
hold on Palestine was so strong and the international obstacles to any
coercion of Turkey were so formidable that Zionism appeared to be more
of a castle in the air than a practical political project.
The British cabinet has pronounced in favor of Zionism. Many influ-
ential American Jews are supporting the project with words and money.
It has been warmly commended at great meetings in Boston and elsewhere.
No doubt, if the war ends as we all wish and hope, we shall see a Jew-
ish republic founded in Palestine and the Holy Land will be made still
holier by the spirit of liberty.
DISLOYALTY CHARGE NONSENSE
(St. Louis, Mo., Times, Dec. 6, 1917)
The radical element of Reformed Judaism pooh poohs the Jewish state
idea and goes so far as to accuse the faithful Israelite of disloyalty to
the U. S.
It is against this last accusation that strong protest should be raised
by all who know how deeply patriotic the great majority of the 6,000,000 or
more Jews in the U. S. are. They were found in great numbers at the
front in the Civil War and at this time thousands of young Hebrews have
answered the country's call and are ready to sacrifice their lives in the great
cause of democracy.
A SYMBOL OF REPARATION
(Reedy's Mirror, St. Louis, Dec. 7, 1917)
Some American Jews write and speak about Mr. Balfour's declaration
of British policy-as if there were some deep, dark design afoot to deport
all Jews to Zion after the war. Jews that do not want to return to Zion will
not be forced to do so. I do not believe that the majority of Jews in Europe
or America will want to go there. Most of the people of that race will stay
where they are now, for even Russian Jews have acquired a love for the
land that has not been obliterated by immeasurable wrongs. Very few
American Jews will go back; of that we may be sure. Zionism none the
less has its value. It will give the Jewish race a focus, a center. It will
erect a symbol of reparation for the persecutions of the centuries since the
dispersal. The genius of the un-returning Jews will co-operate with those
who do not return in the construction of a state that shall represent in its
various institutions the best ideals of that people. Whether that state and
those institutions can be formed without alloy from the environments of
the race in their long exile is debatable. Indeed it is hardly desirable that
the new state should set itself up cut off from the better spirit of other
races.
13
WILL BE CROWNED WITH SUCCESS
(Clinton, Wis., Banner, Dec. 9, 1917)
The curse of Turkish rule has been a blight on the soil as well as on
everything else. It will require many years of fertilization and industry to
make the land productive. All the same it is reasonable to suppose that
many Jews from lands where they have been persecuted will be ready to
go to Palestine and there is no reason to suppose that the plan of a new
Jewish state may not be crowned with success.
JEREMIAH'S PROPHECY
(Minneapolis, Minn., Journal, Dec. 9, 1917)
Bearing on this problem is the statement of President Wilson in his
recent message as to the "price of peace."
We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice done
at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect.
And there is no small nation to whom justice is of more interest and
importance than to the scattered Jewish people, many of whom have, during
these long centuries, been keeping their windows open toward Jerusalem.
LENDS TREMENDOUS IMPETUS TO ZIONISM
(Seattle, Wash., Times, Dec. 10, 1917)
Jerusalem's occupation, with the involved promise that it will continue
under British rule, will lend a tremendous impetus to the Zionist movement.
Fostered by the strong and just rule of the insular monarchy, the plan
for the creation of a modern Jewish state in the ancient home of that people
would cease to be a mere hope and very speedily might become a reality.
THE LABORATORIES OF SUCCESS
(N. Y. Evening Post, Dec. 11, 1917)
Whatever else may be the sentimental effect, for the Jews all the world
over, the fall of Jerusalem means the nearing realization of an age-old
dream. A generation of pioneers, whose prophet was Herzl, have main-
tained the practicability of a return by the Jews to Palestine. Overthrowing
all obstacles, they established a number of colonies in the Holy Land, con-
sisting, at the war's outbreak, of more than 12,000 souls, with an almost
equal number of settlers in the cities, like Jaffa and Haifa, who had come
as a direct result of the agricultural settlements. These colonies constituted
the laboratories of Zionism, in which it was proved that Palestine as an
intensively cultivated garden, with a variety of climates and soils almost
equal to that of California, could easily support 3,000,000 agricultural Jews,
even if there were no extensive industrial development of waterpower and
other non-agricultural resources. When the war broke out, the formula of
14
colonization had been worked out and large-scale application, backed by
Jewish capital, was about to commence. Then came the war. The labora-
tories have been wrecked by the tide of battle but the formula of success
remain. Now with England's promise conveyed by Balfour, and with Turk-
ish misrule forever lifted, the work that otherwise would have required
generations will come to fruition in decades. The French and English
Rothschilds, and, in America, such men as Brandeis, Straus and Rosenwald,
have pledged their support. Without prejudice to any local allegiance or
patriotism, these men, and thousands of others, wish to see a native Jewish
culture strike root in the only place where it will thrive, a Jewish university,
literature, science grow up in Zion. The dawn for these aspirations is very
bright in the eastern skies.
WILL RENEW ANCIENT GLORIES
(Boston, Mass., Advertiser, Dec. 11, 1917)
But now, after the lapse of centuries, strategy in a world war combines
with Zionist aspiration to place a new face upon the political control of this
historic area. Primarily, of course, the motive which has prompted the
British invasion of the Sinai peninsula has been to protect Egypt and the
Suez Canal just as the primary objective of the British campaign in Mesopo-
tamia has been to insure the defence of India.
+
Yet the by-products in each instance promise to excel in human interest
the chief purposes. In Mesopotamia may be permanently established a
régime under which the world's first garden spot will be restored, which
in Palestine we expect an autonomous Jewish state under guarantees as to
liberty which will renew the ancient glory of this memory-hallowed land.
WILL NEVER BE SURRENDERED
(Indianapolis, Ind., Star, Dec. 11, 1917)
Now with the British in control, and it is not likely they will
ever surrender possession to the infidel race, not again will the faithful cry
"Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation"; and the Hebrew race may
once more become a nation.
NOTABLE EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRACY
(Pittsburg, Pa., Gazette-Times, Dec. 11, 1917)
Turning again to the sentimental side, we find in the persistence of the
British movement in Palestine earnestness of purpose to fulfill the pledge
to Zionism to restore that country to the Jews. With the capture of Jeru-
salem realization of that hope which has sustained the great and growing
body of Zionists seems much nearer.
The success of the Allies
will make possible realization of Zion's hopes and result in due course in
the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, destined to be become one of
the notable examples of democracy in a world of democratic governments.
15
THE DESIRE OF CENTURIES
(Brockton, Mass., Times, Dec. 11, 1917)
For long years the Jews have been a nation without a country. Driven
from their land. Deprived of many of the rights of man, they have every-
where become leaders in trade and finance and have made their mark in
the advancement of culture and art. Everywhere they have set the example
of brotherhood, standing by one another in times of stress and trouble.
"Jerusalem for the Jews" has been their watchword, and it now seems
likely that the desire of centuries will be brought about.
GREAT BRITAIN'S IDEAL ACT
(Springfield, Mass., Republican, Dec. 11, 1917)
The campaign in Palestine is for Great Britain a defensive measure
against attacks on the Suez Canal. For the annexation of the Holy Land,
there has been no demand from any responsible quarter in England; pro-
viding that safety is assured, Great Britain and its allies appear to be ready to
do the ideal thing with a region sacred to all Christendom and the fatherland
home of the Jewish race. There could hardly be a better solution than the
plan to which Mr. Balfour recently gave his support, for the foundation of
a Jewish State. Under international protection, with its citizens bound by
close ties to the peoples of all countries, this bit of homeland would give
the Jews a status such as they have lacked since the weary wanderings
of this gifted people began.
MOST OBVIOUS DISPOSITION
(Fresno, Cal., Republican, Dec. 11, 1917)
Possession of Jerusalem by the British will make of Zionism a living
issue. It is inconceivable that Palestine shall ever be allowed to return to
the Turks, no matter what other recessions of domain may be made by the
peace conference. And the most obvious political disposition to be made of
the territory will be the establishment of a Jewish republic under the joint
protectorate of the Powers.
One of the most interesting opportunities of the twentieth century will
be that for the new Israel.
THE FULFILLMENT OF A PROPHECY
(Wilson, N. C., Times, Dec. 11, 1917)
Already a movement is on foot by the Jews to prepare for a return to
the Holy Land, and may they soon realize their coveted wish. There are
those who think they see in this restoration of the Jews a fulfillment of
the prophecy and the dawn of a millenium. Be that as it may, we trust it
may be the harbinger of victory for the allies and an early peace with the
power wrested from Germans.
16
A PIECE OF INTERNATIONAL LIBERALISM
(San Francisco, Cal., Chronicle, Dec. 11, 1917)
The best thing that could happen would be the establishment, or rather
re-establishment, in Palestine of the Jewish agricultural colonies which were
slowly making headway there before the war.
If they are restored and extended Palestine may again become a
nucleus of Jewish sentiment and settlement, though it is not to be expected
that all people of Jewish extraction would thrive there. The importance of
a Jewish state would be its influence in improving the position of Jews in
parts of Europe where they have heretofore been restricted and persecuted.
Its establishment would be a piece of international liberalism that would
promise well for the coming years.
CHRISTIANS WANT JEWS TO REGAIN IT
(St. Louis Mo., Star, Dec. 11, 1917)
To the Jew it means restoration of the city of his fathers to the sons
now scattered in every land under the sun, of whom enough will return
to the ancient Land of Promise to become again its chief population and
rulers.
The Jews cannot want to regain their rule over Jerusalem any more.
than the Christians want them to regain it. It would take but a small per
cent of them to repopulate-Palestine and reoccupy Jerusalem. There are
thousands who want to go and there are other thousands who are eager to
help them do so-should Palestine be restored to the Jews, as Lloyd George
has promised and as its capture makes possible, should the Allies win the
war, at least a portion of the prophecies will receive fulfillment. Jerusalem
will again, twenty-five centuries after the exodus under Nebuchadnezzer—
become the capital and holy city of the Hebrew people.
WILL CREATE JEWISH FATHERLAND
(Cedar Rapids, Ia., Times, Dec. 11, 1917)
The disposition of Jerusalem will not long be in doubt. It will not be
permitted to fall back into Moslem control. Not even the Kaiser can fight
far enough to give it back to his allies, the unspeakable Turks, who have
three-quarters of a million Armenians to cover their records with blood.
The Jewish people will be permitted to recolonize the holy land of their
fathers. There are already thousands of Jews living in that country and it
is spoken of as a land that is capable of supporting a population of millions,
for it is rich in natural products. It has long been the desire of the Jews
to have a national home of their own, a place in which they can revive their
culture and their literature under their own influences and without foreign
interferences. They have been living for centuries scattered over the earth.
Not all of them, few of them, in fact, will go back, but enough of them will
do so to create a fatherland of their race and their religion.
The British, who have reconquered Palestine after being for four
centuries in alien hands, are entitled to the congratulations of the whole
world.
17
MARKED REVIVAL OF ZIONISM
(Springfield, Mass., Union, Dec. 11, 1917)
For the Jews the event holds a special sentimental and practical interest
because of the earnest endeavors to establish Zionist colonies in Palestine,
in the hope of creating eventually an independent Jewish nation in the ancient
homeland of Jewry--and if it appears that the British have established a
stable and lasting hold upon the country, the effect will be to give a marked
revival to the Jewish movement in that direction.
From the viewpoint of the majority of Jews the capture of Jerusalem
by the British will be a decidedly welcome development in its promise of
comparative freedom in working out their plan of regeneration of a once
fertile and prosperous country.
LONG LIVE THE NEW ZION
(Waterloo, Ia., Courier, Dec. 11, 1917)
What will be the future of the Holy City? That is largely a matter of
speculation now, and naturally its fate hangs on that of the allied arms.
If the cause of democracy is to triumph and the principles of Christianity
land down by the Master are to endure in the world, then it will be the
allied powers-Great Britain, France, America and Italy-that will have the
future disposition of Jerusalem in hand. Will they restore it to the Turk?
The sentiment of the Christian peoples of all these countries would undoubt-
edly be outspoken in protest against any such a step. Considerations of
policy and humanity alike would seem to forbid it. It is not unlikely that
a new state will be created in Palestine, not a Christian state, but a Jewish
The land of Canaan would be restored to its original possessors after
all these centuries. Certainly not all Jews would care to go back to the
Promised Land, but the Jewish race has caught the fever of nationalism
that is sweeping the world today and the Zionist movement has legions of
followers. It looks as if under the friendly protection of Great Britain the
age-long dream of this exiled race might be realized. No crusader would
have considered for a moment such a disposition of the Holy Land, but
we are more tolerant today and would rejoice in seeing this common cradle
of modern religion pass into the hands of the people that gave us the
Bible. Long live the new Zion!
one.
ZIONISTS KEPT DREAM ALIVE
(Rockford, Ill., Republic, Dec. 11, 1917)
The taking of the holy city will send a thrill of something more than
gratitude through the hearts of Jews and Christians alike. It will rekindle
in the hearts of the former their age-long dream, in these days kept alive
by the Zionist movement, that Palestine will once more become the center
of a Hebrew nation, as it was in those colorful days when the Hebrew tribes
gloried in such kings as David and Solomon.
DESIGNED BY DEMOCRACY
(Gazette-Times, Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec. 12, 1917)
We find in the persistence of the British movement in Palestine earnest-
ness of purpose to fulfill the pledge to Zionism to restore that country to
18
the Jews. With the capture of Jerusalem realization of that hope which has
sustained the great and growing body of Zionists seems much nearer. In-
creasing enthusiasm over the prospect cannot fail to stimulate support of
the whole Ally cause. The success of the pan-German scheme would sound
the doom of the Zionist enterprise. The success of the Allies will make
possible realization of Zion's hopes and result in due course in the creation
of a Jewish state in Palestine designed by democracy in a world of popular
governments.
ZION FOR ALL
(Transcript, Boston, Mass., Dec. 12, 1917)
The pledge of an opportunity for a distinctly Hebraic development of
culture has already been made by the British Government. The world may
look forward to an eventual preponderance of Jewish local influence on the
ancient soil. And with that preponderance, the sentiment of the Christian
world will be in full sympathy.
AMERICAN PEOPLE APPROVE
(Chicago, Ill., Post, Dec. 12, 1917)
The driving of the Turk from Jerusalem has been received by the
Jewish world with much rejoicing. And the rejoicing is justified, especially
upon the part of those who believe in the Zionist movement and look forward
to a Jewish national establishment in Palestine.
So far as British opinion and sentiment will play their part in the
ultimate adjudication of problems arising from the war, we believe they will
give strong support to the program of Zionism.
And Great Britain will be sustained by the approval of the American
people, whose sense of justice cannot fail to fail to respond to the plea that
the ancient heritage of the Jew should be restored to him.
Nor could there be a better solution for a problem with possibilities as
vexing as those of the Balkans.
THE BALANCE OF HONOR
(Bristol, Conn., Press, Dec. 12, 1917)
The Jews will also welcome the coming of England to a city which is
as holy to them as it is to Christians, for it assures them safety, prosperity
and perhaps civil rule there. By no means have the Jews come to their
own in Jerusalem or in Judea. It will take a great deal to re-establish the
balance of honor in their favor. And the Jews have the British assurance
that, subject to the sacred rights of the Christian world, they will have an
opportunity to do so.
CHECKED UP TO THE JEWS
(Leavenworth, Kan., Times, Dec. 12, 1917)
All the civilized world is looking to a re-established Jewish government
and the British government is pledged to it. The Ottoman government has
not been conductive to the building up of Jewish communities in that land.
Now that it is in friendly hands-it may be expected that Palestine will be
rejuvenated and will again become a land "flowing with milk and honey."
19
The problem of the restoration of Zion will probably be checked up to
the Jews. If they, in sufficient numbers, wish to settle there, there is little
question that they will be enabled to do so. There is wealth enough among
them to rebuild the country and restore its ancient glory. But will they
want to live there? Now there are few lands where the Jew is not per-
mitted to worship God in his own way and there are many where he has all
the rights of citizenship. The question the future will be called upon to
answer is, "Does the Jew want a Jewish nation."
THE OPEN ROAD TO ZION
(Minneapolis, Minn., News, December 12, 1917)
As it (Jerusalem) has held its name and its identity under the
many centuried domination of gentile conquerors, so has Israel tenaciously
held to its traditions and the prophecies of ultimate restoration to the city
of its earliest day . . . The Zionistic movement looking to the return of
the Jews to Palestine gained tremendous strength purely through the racial
ability to hope in spite of seemingly hopeless obstacles. Who was to loosen
the clutch of Islam upon the sacred city? None of the Zionist leaders could
answer that question, but the movement grew. Now the star and crescent
have been replaced by a flag under which Judah may confidently hope for
a full measure of social justice and, more than that, for special and sympa-
thetic recognition of their peculiar relation to the city that has fallen. So
is the way opened to fulfill the words of the prophet: "And I will gather
the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them and
will bring them again to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase."
MILLIONS OF JEWS ELECTRIFIED
(New York World, Dec. 11, 1917)
Memorable will be the instant political consequences of the victory. The
Arab tribes will rejoice in their deliverance from the hated Turk. The letter
of Secretary Balfour to Lord Rothschild, in manifest prevision of this great
event, stating officially that "His Majesty's Government view with favor
the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” has
been for five weeks debated in every Jewish family, and the taking of Zion
will be to millions of them electrifying news.
HAVE THE RIGHT TO IT
(Ogden, Utah, Examiner, Dec. 12, 1917)
Now will come the proposal for a Jewish republic, long considered as
essential by Jewish leaders. The Jewish people should have the right to
this country, taken from them by the Sultan, utilized for the purposes of the
Musselman. Christian people will look with favor upon the plan for a
republic in the Holy Land. They will favor its protection by such nations
as the United States, Great Britain, Italy, France, Belgium-those nations
who have shown by their fight for world-freedom that they are for exactly
those principles upon which such a republic must be founded to survive, the
right of people to govern themselves without the intrusion of autocrats or
militarists into their affairs.
20
!
JEWISH REPUBLIC ASSURED
(Providence, R. I., Tribune, Dec. 12, 1917)
Not the least fervent in their exultations over the fall of the Turk in
Jerusalem are the Jewish people. The dream of Zionism emerges from the
misty linements of a vision and begins to take on the lines of reality. A
Jewish republic with the Hebrew again nationalized on the earth is the great
assurance that comes to this people.
ECONOMIC FUTURE BRIGHT
(Cairo, Ill., Bulletin, Dec. 13, 1917)
The forty-six Jewish colonies, with their co-operative societies,
their agricultural schools and their experimental station for agriculture, pros-
pered before the war. Their wine and oranges were one-fourth of the total ·
export trade of Jaffa, and while the war has set back their development, the
Turks have been probably less destructive than the Germans in France.
Their labor-one of the chief difficulties foreseen by critics of Zionism-is
partly Arab, but largely supplied by Jews from Russia, Roumania, and the
Yemen.
With sufficient capital-already furnished in part by Zionist organiza-
tions-the removal of the blight of Turkish rule and the coming shortage of
all food products, the economic future of a Jewish Palestine should be
bright.
CHRISTIANS, TOO, WELCOME IT
(Springfield, Mass., Republican, Dec. 13, 1917)
The rejoicing at the taking of Jerusalem by the British, who
have so lately given official encouragement to the Jewish hope, will not be
confined to the professed "Zionists," whose leaders are rightly acclaiming
the event as the greatest step toward the realization of their dream
. . At the final settlement the Jews of the allied countries will
doubtless be reinforced in their wishes by their brethren of the other lands.
Christians as well, to whom also Palestine is the holy land, would welcome
a Jewish state guaranteed by a European alliance.
BRITISH PROMISE FULFILLED
(Washington, D. C., National Tribune, Dec. 13, 1917)
Does it mean at last an answer to the prayers of the Jews for thousands
of years, for the restoration of their God-given birthright?
Anticipating their conquest of all Palestine, the British have already
made the promise of it as a home for the Jews and invited them to return.
This promise will be literally fulfilled beyond a doubt.
21
With Palestine in the possession of England, where it will certainly
remain after the war, the highest wishes of the most orthodox Jews can be
best fulfilled. The English policy, like that of the United States, is to give the
largest freedom and self government to dependencies.
The Jews can go back to Palestine, be freed from the repression of their
Turkish masters and live the lives they would like, enjoying everything that
their religion enjoins to the utmost. England will protect them, and all that
she will ask of them is to maintain order, exercise justice and obey laws
of their own making. This is a consumation of the prayers of the Jews and
the wishes of Christian people that the whole civilized world hardly ever
expected to see attained. The way it is coming about is one of the most
surprising and unexpected things of this most surprising war.
TO ACCOMPLISH 2,000-YEAR-OLD DREAM
(Elkhart, Ind., Truth, Dec. 13, 1917)
In a larger sense the Palestine campaign is an offensive carried on for
the accomplishment of the 2,000-year-old ideal of the Jewish nation. It is
the British part in the work of carrying out the aim of Zionism as set forth
at the first Zionist conference in 1897.
HAVE WORLD'S SYMPATHY
(Waterville, Me., Sentinel, Dec. 14, 1917)
Jews will have the sympathy of the world in wishing to regain their
ancient capital and if enough of them wish to return to Palestine it might
be arranged. If given the opportunity, Zionists will no doubt see to it that
the Jews take possession of their ancient heritage.
ESTABLISHMENT CERTAIN
(Richmond, Cal., Record-Herald, Dec. 14, 1917)
The establishment of a great Jewish community in Palestine is now as
certain as anything can be contingent on an allied victory. The new Pales-
tine will be a land of agriculture, a miniature California.
All the experience of the most enlightened communities in the United
States, Australia, Canada and other nations can be drawn upon to devise
a method of financing and a system of land tenure that will assure the in-
dependence and prosperity of the humblest Zionist, provided only he have
the will and the industry to contribute his share of toil.
WHO WILL RESTORE THE HEATHEN?
(The New Republic, N. Y., Dec. 15, 1917)
The capture of Jerusalem by the British troops may or may not be of
much military importance, but it is one of those successes which can be con-
verted into a prodigious moral gain for the victors. More than any other
city in the world Jerusalem possesses both for Jews and Christians a group
of peculiarly sacred associations, which were at least neutralized by the
22
political supremacy of the Turks in Palestine. The permanent banishment
of the Turks from the Holy Land and the Holy City would appeal vividly
to the moral imagination of Christendom, and all people of Christian tradi-
tions would like to know whether the heathen are going to be restored and
if so who favors their restoration. Do the Austrian Catholics favor it? Do
the German Catholics? Do the German Protestants? These questions should
be addressed publicly to Austrian and German public opinion by some con-
spicuous statesman of the Allies, such as President Wilson or Lloyd George;
and the answer would make interesting reading, more so even to Jews than to
Christians. For Zionism has been gathering since the war began as a great
social and religious movement. Its future depends upon the future occupa-
tion of Palestine by the Jews-upon a new and permanent return of the
Jews to Jerusalem. If German and Austrian Christians and Jews propose
to defeat this consummation and will insist upon the possession of Palestine
by the Turks, their fellow believers in other lands would like to know it.
NUMBERS AND ORGANIZATION
(Middletown, N. Y., Times, Dec. 15, 1917)
It is not the ambition of all Zionists—it may not be the intention of the
British government-to set up at once an independent Jewish state. At first
Palestine is to become the cultural and patriotic center of the Jewish race.
The enlightened nationalism which is a fundamental tenet of the doctrine
of the nations that are fighting for democracy will assure the Jews in Pales-
tine whatever measure of autonomy or independence may be justified by
their numbers and organization. Even those Jews who are not adherents
of the Zionist doctrine will probably offer no strong opposition to the carry-
ing out of such plans under international guarantee.
At the beginning of the war many Jews wavered in their sympathy be-
cause autocratic Russia, the arch-persecutor of Judaism, was ranged as an
ally of the western democracies. Now that the autocracy has fallen and the
promise of Palestinian rehabilitation under Jewish auspices is in fair way to
fulfillment the cause of the allies becomes distinctively and peculiarly the
cause of the Jewish people throughout the world.
WHAT IS THE JEWISH ATTITUDE?
(Spokane, Wash., Spokane Review, Dec. 16, 1917)
This desire has for three generations been a dream, a castle in the air.
Yet the air is the place to raise castles into, provided there be a foundation
on earth, and stranger dreams than Zionism have met with fulfillment as
realities. The practical question, when the war has ended, will be whether
the Jews as a nation or race wish to return in bulk to Palestine.
It was
generally felt that a Jewish state in Palestine would be better for Jews and
Gentiles alike, than "pales" of Jewry in Europe or the United States-and
it would be again to the race at large if a material proportion of it could
be taken from the slums of Prussia or Paris, New York, or London, or
Chicago, and be restored to agricultural activities. The success of the farm
colonies in Palestine for a generation, and of Jewish farmers in the United
States lend force to this argument.
23
It seems hardly open to doubt that an independent state would thrive
and grow rapidly and that the population would soon become entirely self-
supporting.
The physical or economic basis for such a nation lies latent in the present
Palestine, but has been actual. It would be an advantage for the world to
have Palestine become an agricultural and economic asset again.
The nationalist aspiration of Jewry has of recent years grasped the
imagination, interest and sympathy of the Gentile. So the practical problem
will be: What is to be the attitude of the majority of the Jews themselves
toward the project protest? Will the majority favor or oppose?
JEWRY'S FINE HOUR
(Macon, Ga., Telegraph, Dec. 17, 1917)
What the capture of Jerusalem means to the Christian world in senti-
ment and affection cannot be measured-but after all this is a far more
precious hour for the Jew. It is the breaking of the day for which the
orthodox of the line of Judah and of Benjamin and of the House of David
have prayed and hoped and lived for since that day when under the Roman
heel and the migrations from the ravages of the Holy Land the world's most
tenacious and most spiritual race scattered to the four winds of heaven, to
become Anglo-Saxon with the English, Prussian with the Germans, Latin
on the Mediterranean, the travail of the race with the Russians, but always,
unbreakably, steadfastly, and nobly the Jew.
A GOAL TOUCHING ALL LANDS
(Louisville, Ky., Herald, Dec. 18, 1917)
Is it the dawn of a new Jewry?
Does the redemption of the homeland imply and bring with it a redemp-
tion of the people, at once national and spiritual?
After tens of centuries of dispersion is the chasm of years to be bridged,
and the ancient, hallowed soil to re-echo to the tread of the faithful who
return from far and from near, from every land and speaking all tongues?
The government of Great Britain recognizes the Zionist movement offi-
cially. It volunteers its co-operation.
Such an offer is no mere friendly
expression of sympathy with an ideal. It is practical first of all. Whatever
its ulterior political motive, it is a pledge of material assistance and of mate-
rial support. It means much more than repatriation
It means the
erection at no remote day of a state, a Jewish state
The outstanding marvel of the Jewish story is that it is a continuous
story. The incredible truth about it is that no setting came amiss to it. That
it should flourish in persecution is not singular. Where truth lives it may
be crushed, it may be stunted, but, by right of its divine origin, no human
power can kill it.
•
The Baltimore conference is losing no time. It is taking the first ocn-
crete steps toward the realization of the national character
Con-
struction, restoration, administration, those are the immediate objectives.
But they are not the goal. They are way-stations on the journey. The
goal is spiritual as well as practical; sentimental, in the best sense of the
word, as well as political and economic. And it touches all lands.
•
24
THE IDEA OF AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
(Baltimore, Md., American, Dec. 19, 1917)
It is not too early for this idea to be seized upon and plans laid by the
Ally nations to make such use of Jerusalem. This would be consistent with
its character and agreeable to the spirit of the new Jewish state, even though
it would be independent of that state as The Hague tribunal was of the
government of Holland. Here would be a world center for righteousness
and for brotherhood. Here would be a clearing-house for the various pro-
grams of social government as they might affect the preservation of peace.
Here might be considered all proposals looking to the closer ties of the
races and nations of mankind. The possibilities of Palestine as a world
state in the sense of housing at Jerusalem the instruments for the peace of
the world are bewildering. The plan is one that will, doubtless in time find
formulation and mark a new era in the confederation of the world such as
was seen in the predictive lines of Tennyson.
A JEWISH REPUBLIC? WHY NOT?
(Paterson, N. J., Guardian, Dec. 19, 1917)
Dr. Weitzman said that the event (capture of Jerusalem) marked a new
era in the history of mankind. He further remarked:
"Jerusalem, now once again restored to us from Turkey's ruthless
grasp of centuries, is an ideal spot for capital. It could be the site for a
great commercial or trading city. But my plan would not be to bring to
Jerusalem the Jews who have prospered throughout the world. Rather, I
would have drawn to the new capital and the nation the oppressed of other
nations. It is my belief that Jewish farmers who are finding it hard to make
a living in many places of the world would come to Palestine and live under
the new country."
These are the sort of men who would form the most solid basis for
the republic. They should be given some aid to permit their return "home."
Thirteen million Jews throughout the world look today to Jerusalem, the
Holy City restored. What could be more fitting than a Jewish nation reborn
after centuries of Jewish travail.
Shall there be a Jewish Republic? Why not-stranger culminations than
a Jewish Republic may be the outcome of the great upheaval.
WILL FLOCK TO PALESTINE
(Richmond, Va., Journal, Dec. 19, 1917)
But whatever Palestine may mean to the Christians, how much more,
then must it be to the Jews? Therefore, whatever arrangements may be
made for the governing of the new State, should insure sympathetic collabo-
ration between the representatives of all nations and religions. Next to the
sentimental interest in the revival of the Jewish nation, there remain the
economic advantages for the world in such a a step. Today Palestine is not
an asset. But the land that once supported millions, can do so again with
25
modern irrigation and agricultural methods. Give the farmer steel plows
and tractors, teach him sanitation. For a chance to live under such condi-
tions the Jews would, no doubt, flock to Palestine.
REVIVAL OF ZIONISM EXPECTED
(Lebanon, Pa., Lutheran, Dec. 20, 1917)
The dream of the Zionists will take on fresh life. From all sections of
the world the Jews have for centuries turned wistful glances toward their
never-to-be-forgotten Zion, and strong desire has seized many to return to
the land of their fathers. A revival of Zionism may now be expected.
SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN WORLD-AFFAIRS
(N. Y. C., Evening Mail, Dec. 20, 1917)
The entrance of a British-French-Italian army into Jerusalem gives
tangible basis for the realization of the Jewish aim of the ages—the re-estab-
lishment of the Jewish state. The possession of the heart of Zion by the
British, places Great Britain in a position to carry out her pledges to fur-
nish every aid to the erection of a free Jewish state.
France would find it to her advantage to co-operate cordially with Great
Britain in the establishment and maintenance of a Jewish center of political
and economic life in the ancient home of the Jewish race.
In the event of the latter alternative (the settlement of the Bagdad pro-
ject by negotiation after the war), a reconstituted Zion would play an im-
portant part in the final readjustment of the world after the war. It would
furnish a barrier between the sphere of influence established by a demo-
cratized Germany and the Suez Canal, the vital link in the defense of the
British Empire.
On sentimental as well as material grounds the hope of the Jews, now
so near to realization, looms large as a significant factor in the affairs of
the world.
THE CALL IS TO THE JEW
(Detroit, Mich., Free Press, Dec. 22, 1917)
Race consciousness has always been a dominating characteristic in the
Jews, who have a strong historical and sentimental interest in the land of
their fathers. The hundred million fund would be a wonderful aid in the
contemplated restoration, and there is no doubt as to the ability of the Jews
to raise it.
What Palestine needs for its rehabilitation, according to a writer who
forsees the rebirth of a nation, is an industrious and intelligent population
and a just and stable government. These it can have through a European
guarantee. The soil, though uncultivated for centuries, is declared fertile,
the forests have not been destroyed. Palestine needs railroads, harbors and
roads; these money can provide; industry will make it "blossom like the
rose."
Standing as it does between Oriental and Occidental culture, it would
place the Jew as an intermediary. It is a land which does not appeal to
26
European colonists; the call to the Jew is through his sentimental feelings
for the home of his race.
ZIONISM UNDER WAY
(New York Evening Sun, Dec. 26, 1917)
"All Jews are young now," said Nathan Straus at the New York Zion-
ists' meeting Sunday evening. He referred to the rejuvenating hope that
Jewish national ambition places in the promise of Britain to permit a recon-
struction of the State of Israel.
The enthusiasm of the men who hope for such a state is impressive. It
suggests how great a change the result might work in the standing of their
kind. From the position of a race scattered, of many tongues, hardly a
people, it is no small enterprise to attain the rank of a nation. The under-
taking is under way, however, and has progressed slowly for years.
capture of Jerusalem gives it a mighty impetus.
The
Britain cannot go better for herself and for Palestine than encourage
the foundation there of an autonomous Jewish State. Christendom, reserv-
ing its Holy Sepulchre, would gain the services of a zealous guardian with
common interests. The Zionists' success would protect Syria from the
Turks. Zionism should appeal to the majority as something more than a
Jewish question.
A REDEMPTION OF SHAMEFUL HISTORY
(New York City, Continent, Dec. 27, 1917)
The present deliverance of Jerusalem from Turkish misrule and Ger-
man brutality is not a bare military success; it promises to make Jerusalem
again a goodly place to live, the capital of a content and no longer oppressed
people.
At the moment there seems no doubt that Palestine will ere long be-
come again a Jewish state free from bondage to rapacious overlords for
the first time since the Maccabees ruled it. A protectorate will of course
be necessary, but at this enlightened hour, when the meaning of strength
has become a responsibility for service, protection will undoubtedly be exer-
cised with genuine unselfishness and with no motive beyond the well-being
of all the children of Israel, who wish to return to the land of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. And what a redemption of shameful history it will be if
the people who profess a faith in Christ shall now afford to those who are
his Kinsmen according to the flesh, a vine and fig tree safe from molesta-
tion and dedicated alone to their freedom and happiness. After all the
centuries of persecution blasphemously committed against the Jews in the
desecrated name of Jesus, what a glory it will be to our present age to make
reparation in a great international kindness.
1
FUTURE WILL BE GLORIOUS
(The Bulletin of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Dec. 29, 1917)
The capture of Jerusalem by the British has made Zionism a political
factor to be considered. The long-dreamt-of opportunity is at hand. Under
27
the protection of a country which has been able to solve the problem of
conflicting Oriental religions, the Jewish people will have the chance to re-
people their ancient home, and turn its sterile, treeless wastes into gardens
blossoming as the rose.
Their new hope lies in their past achievement. The colonization of Pa-
lestine has been proceeding for nearly a quarter of a century. They were
overcoming the difficulties experienced through the absence of a properly
trained farming population. They have proved that the land is not inher-
ently sterile and that more arid portions produce splendid oranges under
irrigation. What their efforts have meant outside of the rural parts is
shown in the growth of the port of Jaffa from a population of 23,000 in 1892
to over 60,000 in 1914.
J
With a stable political state established, and a rural population turning
Syria into the granary of Asia, with the neighboring Mesopotamian valley
sharing in the same beneficient protection that has recreated modern Egypt,
the future of Palestine should be glorious. To make it so is both the oppor-
tunity and the problem of the Jewish people.
ZIONISM TRIUMPHANT
(Troy, N. Y., Record, Dec. 29, 1917)
By the invasion of Palestine and the capture of Jerusalem, Zionism has
developed in a day from an academic theory to a practical policy. Indeed
it provides the only rational solution of a dangerous problem.
Now Great Britain controls the sacred shrines. It has announced the
approval of a Jewish state, with an international guarantee of territorial
integrity. No other course is possible. No single nation could take under
its wing the greatest memorials of the world's history without jealousy and
rivalry. But if a separate Jewish state were the owner of all the shrines,
with such international guarantees as would prevent the raising of delicate
issues between rival factions and faiths, there need never be serious friction.
The average citizen of a western state will look with sympathy on the
aspirations of this down-trodden people. Cuffed and abused for two thou-
sand years, at last they are coming into their own. Brotherhood is the key-
word and Christians will vie with their Hebrew brethren in striving to ad-
vance the new Judea. It is reasonable to expect that, within a few years,
Palestine will be a hive of industry, and the home of their fathers will be
again for the Jews, a land flowing with milk and honey, fit refuge for a
race whose days of wandering are over.
ZION AND THE ZIONISTS
(New York, Independent, Dec. 29, 1917)
Great Britain's pledge, marks the culmination of the Zionist movement
which, launched by the pamphlet of a Viennese Jew, Theodore Herzl, in
1895, has since enlisted the support of a large proportion of the Jew of all
countries. The most diverse elements of the race, differing from one an-
28
other in language, native lands, religious faith, financial interests and po-
litical ideals, have been brought together under the banner of Zionism.
Among its zealous advocates may be found conservatives and radicals,
orthodox and atheists, materialists and idealists, cosmopolitans and exclu-
sives, the backward-looking and the forward-looking, the self-sacrificing and
the self-seeking, the fanatics and the practical, the prosperous and the perse-
cuted; those whose Judaism is founded upon the idea of race but who have
little use for its religion; those who question the existence of a Jewish race
but are devoted to the faith, and those who are indifferent to both racial and
religious claims but are willing to stake their all upon a social ideal, a
Messianic Kingdom materialized; all these discordant elements have some-
how become enthused with a single aim and whatever else they may be they
are nationalists. The various motives have resulted in a unified movement.
The Magna Charta of the Zionist state stipulates that it shall not act to
the detriment of the other races in Palestine or the Jews in other countries.
Palestine is now twice as densely populated as the United States. It con-
tains some 700,000 inhabitants, of whom the Jewish colonists before the war
numbered only about 17,000. But the native inhabitants could not be any
worse governed than they have been under Turkish rule and they will cer-
tainly be more prosperous. The personal devotion, business ability and finan-
cial resources that have been manifested in the Zionist movement will be
next applied to Palestine and will undoubtedly restore it to more than its
ancient prosperity. The land has too long laid waste and if anybody is will-
ing to undertake the job of making it again a center of civilization they
ought to have a chance. Nobody seems anxious to do it except the Jews
and nobody could do it better.
FOUNDATION WISELY AND SOUNDLY LAID
(From the Hearst chain of newspapers, December, 1917)
Whatever else is doubtful, it is certainly true that the passage of Jeru-
salem into the hands of the Allies means the swift establishment of that re-
gathered and redeemed Zion for which the world's Jews have dreamed ever
since the tribes were scattered in the breaking up of Israel. It is a turning
point in history.
The Universal Jew, who for centuries has been a religion but not a na-
tion, is to come at last into his own-to be a people, a nation, with a country,
with a capital, with a civilization and a greatness all his own. The conquest
of Jerusalem is the final triumph of Zionism.
Large foundations have already been laid within the quarter century.
Careful studies of the economic possibilities of that country for agriculture
and industrial developments have been made. The pure Jewish spirit has
been fostered throughout the colonies and the country. The population is
almost entirely Hebrew. A young generation is growing up which knows
no other tongue, and they are seeking upon the soil of their ancestors to
found a nationality upon that indispensable instrument—a common language.
The foundation for the New Zion has been wisely and soundly laid in all
the institutions and systems which the world-Jew can bring from all coun-
tries to make a model country of his own.
29
!
The time is coming, if it is not now at hand, when all nations and all
peoples will be called upon to give the glad hand of helpfulness to the Jew
as he begins at last his long dreamed of pilgrimage to the Promised Land.
ANNEX OR AID
(Los Angeles, Cal., Outlook, Jan. 1, 1918)
Whether it is held for a time under a provisional directorate, to be turned
over later to the Zionists, which seems to be the most popular and obvious
course, or whether experience should develop the desirability of some other
course, the one absolutely unchanging policy should be that in Palestine the
phrase "no annexation" should be reversed, and that Jerusalem and Pales-
tine should be either annexed to whatever civilized government can best
protect them, or else aided in setting up an independent government of
their own.
REBUILDING PALESTINE
(The Public, New York, Jan. 4, 1918)
The Jew has only to appeal to the Mosaic law and his own conscience
for approval of his purpose to restore the land of Palestine to its people.
By applying the proven principles of political economy and taxing land
values the repatriated people will have access to the land; and they will have
at the same time ample revenue to meet the cost of government.
Here lies the opportunity for the Jew to demonstrate a great truth to
the world by uniting the Mosaic principle of land ownership with a just
system of taxation. Nor is this a new and untried thing-California also
applied this principle in its irrigation projects.
The outlook for the rebuilding of Palestine is the brighter because the
land and taxation questions have already received much attention from the
Jews.
PALESTINE AND THE TURK
(Inquirer, Phila., Pa., Jan. 6, 1918)
That unlimited sums of money could be obtained to rebuild and recon-
struct Palestine is a certainty. But will the dream come true? That de-
pends upon the course that the peace treaties shall take when the time for
signing those treaties comes.
What we mean is this: Today the British army holds Jerusalem and
all of the territory to the south of it. But we call attention to the fact that
should peace be brought about along the lines laid down by the Germans,
the British army would be withdrawn and the Turk, who has plundered and
burned and murdered, would again come into possession of all of Palestine,
together with plundered, burned and murdered Armenia.
The Germans are apparently willing to discuss peace terms on the basis
of the status that existed before the war. That would mean the restoration
to the Turk of his full sway, the intrenchment of German autocracy, the
dominating influence of Germany in Russia, Austria, Bulgaria and, through
Turkey, of Armenia, Palestine and Mesopotamia. It would mean the control
of Mittel-europa and the foundation of a commercial and virtually a political
empire extending from the Baltic to Bagdad and to the Pensian Gulf.
30
What Germany cannot win by force of arms, she would win in another
way; leaving her free to train her armies, to harness her "kultur" to the
invention of more weapons of frightfulness, to prepare for another drive
at Belgium and Calais when "the day" should again arrive.
MAY BE IDEAL GOVERNMENT
(Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Republican, Jan. 6, 1918)
The Jewish race has the genius for everything else and they
will soon develop the genius for government. They are a peculiar people
most of all in respect to almost universal mental activities.
They
have been compelled to acquire great adaptability, until it has become a na-
tional or rather racial characteristic. A Jew is apt to succeed in whatever
he undertakes and this applies to the learned professions where the highest
scholarship is called for as well as to business. A Jewish republic in the
holy land would, therefore, become an experiment worth watching-that it
might be developed into that ideal government of which all the ages have
dreamed is not beyond the possibilities
•
•
ENGLAND WILL INSIST ON JEWISH STATE
(Minneapolis, Minn., Journal, Jan. 6, 1918)
English policy, the most forecasting in the world, is discernable in the
declaration putting the British Empire behind the Zionist project for Pales-
tine. Palestine and all Syria is destined to be occupied by British forces
before the war finishes, and in the world congress to formulate the greatest
peace in history, England will insist upon the establishment of the Jewish
state.
Palestine, while not a great domain in itself, will not be as unimportant
as some Jews seem to fancy. On the contrary the new Jewish state will
have an importance out of proportion to population and wealth. Politically
the new state will form a pivot and outpost for the British Empire. And
no doubt the tenacity of the Israelitish race will enter into its character.
Instead of being a sequestered community of the Zealots of a particular
faith, the repatriated Jews will find themselves in the center of an area of
energy and development.
NEW ZION WORTHY OF OLD
(Waterloo, Iowa, Courier, Jan. 10, 1918)
The psalmist's devotion is expressive of the national feeling in the heart
of the Jewish race that all the centuries of exile have not served to obliterate.
Through all their long history of persecution, the Hebrew people have
cherished the dream of a new Zion in the Holy Land.
It is peculiarly fitting that such a state should be created under the
protection of Great Britain, the land of Disraeli. Of course Britain will
have a political object in establishing the new Zion. But the liberal British
governmental policy and British commercial genious, in friendly co-operation
31
with other members of the new league of nations, will undoubtedly work
wonders in ancient Canaan, so that it will again become "a land flowing
with milk and honey"-and instead of a community of religious zealots
the new Jewish state will become a center of great industrial and com-
mercial activities. It is not to be anticipated that there will be a general
exodus of Jews to the new state. But there will probably be a large emigra-
tion from Russia and perhaps from Germany and Austria. And the ancient
Hebrew genius may be expected to manifest itself again in laying the
foundations of a new Zion that will be worthy of the old.
FASCINATING UNDERTAKING-UNPRECEDENTED
POSSIBILITIES
(New York City, Evening Mail, Jan. 15, 1918)
Fresh impetus to the Zionist movement has been given by President
Wilson's pledge assuring to non-Turkish races in the Ottoman empire as
now constituted, the right of a free and independent national development.
The work of laying the foundations for new state is already well underway.
Every Jewish community in the world is taking part in the work of
providing the preliminary means for the laying of the foundations of the
new Zion. Words of cheer and solid pledges of help have come from Shang-
hai, Cairo, Buenos Ayres, Salonica and Tangier, as well as from almost
every European capital and about 400 cities in the United States. The heart
of world-Jewry is beating high for the achievement of the ideal of the race.
The return of the Jews to Zion after 2,000 years' of expatriation which
began under the pressure of Roman imperialism, is significantly enough, the
decree of the triumph over a new imperialism. It is the intention of the
leaders of Zion to make the new state worthy of its splendid political and
historic setting. It is planned to start the life of the new state from the
highest point attained by modern invention and modern enterprise. The
educational system of the new Zion-its sanitation, its city planning and its
public organization, will embody the results of the best achievements credited
to Europe and America. On such a firm and broad foundation the Jewish
race will find full scope for its genius in art, in science, in industry and in
finance, that genius which has contributed so much to the fabric of modern
civilization.
The undertaking will be of fascinating interest not only because of the
historic past which it will revive, but also because of its unprecedented pos-
sibilities as an experiment in human happiness and usefulness.
THE WORLD WILL HAVE DEEP SYMPATHY
(Duluth, Minn., Herald, Jan. 26, 1918)
The promised restoration has stirred the souls of the thirteen million
Jews scattered over the world as no other event in modern history; and
these words of the song of Moses will be heard with poignant emotion by
Jewish congregations in every part of the world today. There is a general
realization among them that the restoration of the Promised Land, a dramatic
32
by-product of the great war, marks a turning point in the history of the
Jewish people.
Plans for the establishment of the new Jewish state have been started
on an ambitious scale. A great fund of probably a hundred million dollars
will be raised throughout the world to start the new state on a firm founda-
tion, and the first million is now being rapidly gathered in this country.
The possibilities of the project are inspiring. A great revival of Hebrew
art and culture is expected to follow the re-establishment, with Palestine
a center where the old Jewish idealism in religion and culture-not "kultur”—
will flourish anew. According to the Zionist plan the new state will be
established on a democratic basis, with complete religious freedom for all
groups of the population. The holy places of Christians and Moslems will
be exterritorialized and placed under the guardianship of Christian and Mos-
lem organizations.
It is a plan in which the world will have vast sympathy, and which it
will watch with deep interest.
MOST DRAMATIC BY-PRODUCT OF THE WAR
(Record, Philadelphia, Jan. 26, 1918)
After many centuries of dispersal, the redemption of Israel and the
restoration of the Jewish commonwealth are brought within measurable dis-
tance of realization. Palestine and the Promised Land beyond the Jordan,
which have been lost to them for more than 2,000 years are again to become
the seat of this uprooted nation; and though of the 13,000,000 Jews now
living scattered in all the countries of the world, only a moderate percentage
would be likely to return there, the restored home land would be a centre
of national feeling and culture, on the upbuilding whereof Judaism would
lavish its unbounded affections and its great material resources. In the
course of more than two millenniums of misrule and ravage, the land east
of the Jordan has become a desiccated waste. The Palestinian coastland
itself, always of rather low fertility, has suffered incalculably from the
Assyrian, Roman and Turkish blight.
The plans for the re-establishment of the Jewish State are ambitious.
The Restoration Fund to be raised throughout the world is expected to reach
$100,000,000 in amount. In place of primitive methods of agriculture fol-
lowed at the time of the dispersal, the new immigrants are to attack the
problems of restoration with tractors and the most efficient farm machinery:
modern irrigation systems are to turn the desert into a land "flowing with
milk and honey"; the automobile, the electric light and telephone are to be
conspicuously present, and in the reconstruction of the towns modern meth-
ods of city planning are to be applied. According to the Zionist plan the
new State would be established on a democratic basis, with complete religious
freedom for all groups of the population; and the holy places of Christians
and Moslems would be exterritorialized and placed under guardianship of
their own religious organizations. During the past 40 years the Jewish
population of Palestine has increased from 25,000 to 150,000, mainly through
immigration; and under the new conditions the growth would, probably, be
greatly accelerated. In any event, the reconstitution of the Jewish common-
wealth is destined to be the most dramatic by-product of the world war.
33
THE HOPE OF THE JEWS
(Boston Transcript, Jan. 28, 1918)
American Jews are raising a national fund of a million dollars for the
restoration of Jewish Palestine. They will need more money for the pur-
pose than that, and in time the money will be forthcoming, if the oppor-
tunity for such a restoration is provided. Already a Jewish Zionist admin-
istration for Palestine has been organized-which does not mean, of course,
a political administration, but an organization to supervise the rehabilitation
of the Jewish settlements and to prepare for the "final establishment of the
Jewish homeland" on the basis warranted by the assurance given by Mr.
Balfour on behalf of the British Government.
:
It is natural that this purpose should arouse the enthusiasm of Jews
everywhere, in Germany as well as in other countries, and it is no wonder
that the growth of this hope for Zion is giving much uneasiness to the
governments of Berlin and Vienna. The Germans are trying to divert the
movement by giving assurance that the Jews may have autonomy in Pales-
tine through the restoration of the Turkish authority there; but the Jews
of the world have surely had enough of Turkish "protection," which has
meant nothing but robbery and massacre, in this war.
The Turks, by the way, are now pinning their hopes for their own fu-
ture on a new condition of matters which has its centre far from Palestine.
They have millions of Turkish-speaking brothers in the Russian dominions
-more millions of them, in fact, than they have ever had under the Otto-
man government. All Russian Central Asia is in fact Turkish by race and
speech, and people of Turkish speech, of Mohometan worship and of Otto-
man sympathies are scattered through southeastern Russia. Since the
revolution, Turkestan and Mussulman Crimea, and even the Tartars of
Kazan in central Russia, have organized themselves on an independent basis,
but prepared fully to join themselves to the Ottoman Turks when the occa-
sion is at hand. Chaos in Russia means a great Pan-Turk movement. This,
and not the regaining of Arab lands essentially hostile to them, is now
occupying the attention of the Ottoman rulers. The Jews of Europe will
never tie themselves up to a Mussulman pan-Iranian empire. They would
much rather have Palestine, or their own part in it, under British protection.
THE WHOLE WORLD WILL APPLAUD
(Albany, N. Y., Knickerbocker Press, Feb. 25, 1918)
No incident of the great war has touched a more responsive chord
throughout the Allied nations than the conquering by the British of Pales-
tine, with its assurance of the fulfillment of Great Britain's prior Pledge
that the old Jewish homeland should be restored to the Jewish race as a
Jewish state. Tomorrow Jews throughout the United States will observe a
"Palestine Sabbath," and the offering of the day will be devoted to the
Palestine restoration fund, one million dollars of which is now being raised
in the United States.
4
It is improbable that the re-establishment of Palestine as a Jewish State
will result in the emigration of American Jews. Ties of love and patriotism
bind them too closely to the United States, but there are millions of Jews
34
in other lands, greatly oppressed, who may be expected to seek the refuge in
a land of their own, and Americans of whatever creed will view with sym-
pathetic interest their efforts to establish themselves.
In the last forty years the Jewish population of Palestine has increased
from 25,000 to nearly 150,000 and forty-eight Jewish agricultural colonies
have been established. These were in a thriving condition until the war
intervened. Under the new regime it is expected that within ten years fully
500,000 Jews will have settled in their ancient homeland.
The new state will be democratic with religious freedom for all the
holy places of the Christians and the Moslems will be placed under the
guardianship of their faiths. Modern methods of city planning, sanitation
and irrigation, with American farm machinery, automobiles, electric lights.
and telephones, will be employed to redeem the deserts, and it is expected
that the revival of the old Jewish idealism will result in a new birth
of Hebrew art and culture.
These are aims which the whole world will applaud, with the excep-
tion of the brutal autocracy which has cursed this age with its selfishness.
and cruelty. In our desire to see the Jews enjoying the blessings of peace
and prosperity, undisturbed and unafraid, may be read the sole aim we
have for ourselves and for all others-in waging this war.
NEEDED—A MOSES
(New York Evening Sun, Feb. 14, 1918)
Zion, the ambition of the scattered Jewish race, can be made come true
upon two conditions. Granted that there exist in the world Jews enough
who comprehend and purpose to remedy their nation's tragic and debilitat-
ing lack of a home of its own, there remains to act promptly, definitely and
vigorously.
This means that a leader must be chosen. Without a Moses, no re-entry
into Canaan, out of the wilderness of expatriation, can come to the wander-
ing race. Only a leader can focus the purposes and efforts of a multitude
upon the time and place reserved to the service of their destinies. The
mention of the name of Justice Brandeis as a possible leader of the Zionist
cause therefore acquires importance. Sitting in the Supreme Court of the
United States, he holds as high a public honor as any living Jew, with the
possible exception of Lord Reading. His position commands the attention
of his race; he would obtain more obedience than most men in the position
of a leader. His energy, as Americans know, partakes of courage and
enterprise.
Zion, the ambition of the scattered Jewish race, can be made come true
to decline as to lose. The opportunity is immediate and insistent. Nothing
can be done without a highly developed leadership, qualified for action. All
must begin in the choice of the man. Someone who possesses the necessary
qualifications must promptly be put in charge.
FOR THE ENRICHMENT OF THE WORLD
(Boston Congregationalist and Advance, March 7, 1918)
New interest is lent to the article we publish this week on "Jewish
Purpose in Palestine" by the British capture of Jericho, This planting of
35
the flag which now stands for the control of Palestine by the Jews on the
lower reaches of the Jordan opens a way behind the military lines that are
rapidly pushing the Turk out of the territory which constituted the ancient
kingdom of Judea for the first steps of preparation for the coming Jewish
state.
The article outlines a new Palestine which will be a center of Hebrew
culture and of its influence throughout the world. The writer expects that
very few Jews from America will go back to the ancient soil, except
young men for a period of study and religious pilgrimages. He indicates
that the new state will not be a factor in the political jealousies and ambitions
of the world. He takes pains to emphasize the reappearance of the long
suppressed Jewish adaptation to agriculture. With the official endorsement
of the Jewish State by Great Britain and France, the declaration of Pope
Benedict that no backward step can be taken in the deliverance of Palestine
from Turkish rule, and the cordial sympathy and approval of all Americans,
the deliberate restoration of the Holy Land of pilgrimage for three great
world faiths to the misrule which has ruined it is quite unthinkable.
We note that the article speaks of Hebrew as a living language already
in Jerusalem. No merchant can do business successfully in Jerusalem
without a knowledge of it, he tells us. Perhaps this recovery of Hebrew
from the category of dead tongues may do something to cheer the dis-
couraged theological students in our seminaries in their wrestling with the
original text of the Old Testament. We are to imagine, then, the reopening
of a fountain of thought and influence in religion, social philosophy, and
art which cannot but flow forth for the enrichment of the world.
WHY THE PALESTINE CAMPAIGN?
(St. Paul, Minn., Press, April 16, 1918)
Great Britain's original purpose in sending an army into Palestine was
undoubtedly to defend the Suez Canal and to cut off the German project
of a railroad from Berlin to Bagdad. But incidental to that purpose is the
liberation of three historic nations: The Jews, the Armenians and the Arabs.
If she had had no such original purpose, this secondary task of freeing
oppressed peoples from the murderous oppression of the Turk would have
been more than sufficient to justify the sacrifices of the campaign as well as
to vindicate the justice of it.
And because her interests in Asia Minor coincide with those of conquered
nationalities, she has enlisted in her policy the support of Jew and Armenian
throughout the world. For her campaign in Palestine will have made pos-
sible at last the realization of the ancient dream of a restored Zion. The
British government has committed itself to a pledge to establish a Jewish
national home in Palestine. That pledge has been taken to heart by Hebrew
leaders everywhere, and a definite propaganda is on foot to advance the
project.
While the world watches the fate of the great British army in France,
knowing that upon its resistance depends the great civilizations of Christen-
dom, three small nations are watching also for their future in the success of
the British army in Palestine. And unless that army is victorious the task
of making the world safe for democracy will not have been completed.
T
36
JEWISH STATE PLANS
(Buffalo, N. Y., Courier, May 1, 1918)
Plans for the immediate establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine
are to be made at the coming Zionist convention in Pittsburgh next month.
Rarely if ever in the history of the world has a group of men gathered
together, with the consent of the principal existing powers, for the purpose
of planning the details for the erection of a new sovereign state. But that
is to be the unique work of the Zionists.
In a measure the work is already begun for a Jewish commission sent
to Palestine only a few weeks after its capture from the Turks is already
organizing and taking over its civil administration, backed by the power of
the Allied commander there.
But at the June convention in Pittsburgh the outlines for a constitution
and a full governmental organization for Palestine as a sovereign Jewish
state are to be worked out. For this the Zionists have the formal consent
and authority of all the Allied powers, and this fact gives special weight and
importance to the gathering.
THE PROMISE OF PALESTINE
(Times, Denver, Col., May 8, 1918)
Out of war's holocaust the most ancient and obstinate of nations is
reaching toward a new freedom, and the pledge of the British government
to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine is adding daily to a tidal
wave of grateful recognition from the Jewish people in every corner of the
globe.
Although that pledge was made several months ago, the Jews in England
and in the United States are only now beginning to realize that one of the
great dreams of their race is really on the verge of coming true. And with
the realization is growing a sentiment of exaltation such as has never spread
through the hosts of Jewry since the proclamation of Cyrus, King of Persia,
which put an end to the first exile. We should have to go back to the days
of Ezra to find a similar expression of glorified gladness; all the Jewish
institutions in England-synagogues, friendly societies, trade unions—are
hastening to express gratitude to the British government for this act of
national liberation. In the United States there is the same great wave of
devotion and recognition, which will grow even greater here when the present
turmoil in Russia is cleared.
The establisment of a Jewish national home in Palestine touches both a
great political and a great moral end. It is great politically because it is the
ideal solution of the vast problems bound up for the British empire with its
seaway between east and west. For over a century British policy rested on
the assumption that the best bulwark of British communication with the east
was Turkey. England no longer leans on the Turk; she rests on the revival
and restoration of the nations and the lands over which the Turk tyrannized
Armenian, Arab, Jew.
The moral significance of a Jewish Palestine is apparent. This war
has expanded men's understanding of the nature and the value of nationality.
37
People now understand that you cannot solve the problem of the Jewish
nation by inviting it to assimilate utterly and disappear; they see that this
cannot be done and that it would be a great loss to the world if it could.
The Jewish nation as a whole, with its recovered spiritual freedom exercised
where it can alone be exercised-in the ancient Jewish land-this is to be
one of the things to be reckoned with in the future.
The British government's declaration in favor of a Jewish Palestine is
in the eyes of the world a remarkable reaffirmation of the moral purpose and
the justice of the allied cause. The central powers might have taken the
same step, had they thought of it. But they left this first step in the fight:
for democracy and freedom for England to take, and as it adds to the glory-
of England and her allies it turns the brand deeper upon Germany.
THE ZIONISTS AND PEACE
(Dayton, O., News, May 14, 1918)
It must not be supposed that the Zionist movement has enjoyed the
unanimous approval of the Jewish people. From the beginning there has
been vigorous opposition among the Jews living in Occidental countries,
many of whom protest against this attempt to reorientalize and segregate-
the Jews and thus deprive them of the hard-won fruits of their centuries of
suffering.
The Zionists reply that the Judaean State can at best be but a small state
containing in its most prosperous and populous condition not more than
three million people, and that there are now about fourteen million Jews
in the world. It would mean, therefore, that a nucleus of less than one-fourth
of all the Jews of the world would be there established to work out and live-
out a new life, the life of a Jewish people in a Jewish land. "A people would
be there gathered by choice and not by compulsion to live its national life
and show that there is in the national body a soul that is peculiar to this
people and mayhap of value to the world. For a Jew living in any other
country in the world lives as an individual, as a citizen of his state, and he
cannot, no matter how great his individual contribution and worth may be,
give anything to the world as a Jew, for he is not a member of a Jewish
nation. That is possible only in the land of Israel among a Jewish people,.
who through living and working together, may exhibit the Jewish psychology
and demonstrate whether there is anything in it that is worth while." And
finally, the Zionists say that although they fear to tread the pathway of
prophecy, they may venture to predict that "a people that has given to the
world the ideas of the Unity of God, the Brotherhood of all mankind, the
principles of social justice in the Mosaic law, may again, given the oppor--
tunity, contribute as a people to the spiritual wealth of the human race."
The Zionist hope also that the erection of a Jewish State in Palestine-
might bring about a fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy that "out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He
shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-
hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more."
38
"Is it thus," we are asked, “that the cry of the world for peace shall
be answered? Shall the world's palace of peace, wherein the world's court
of arbitration shall sit to do justice between the nations, rise on Mount
Zion? Who knows?"
GAINS NOTWITHSTANDING OPPOSITION
(Times, Kansas City, Mo., May 18, 1918)
Of tremendous significance to the Jews of the world is the announcement
that Italy has joined with France and England in the indorsement of the
Zionist movement and of a Jewiwsh national homeland in Palestine.
The Zionist movement has not the approval of all the leaders among
Jews of America or of the world. Many of them very vigorously oppose it.
Yet the movement has gained, even in America, such a strong following
among the Jews as to make it one of world-wide interest.
There are very many of the dominant figures among the Jews who
have become leaders in the Zionist movement, and the results of the
British expedition in Palestine against the Turks have seemingly made
possible the ambition of the Zionists, which a few years ago appeared to
be only a dream. Indeed, one of the strong points against the movement
made by those who opposed it, even among the Jews, was that its hopes
could not possibly be realized.
But with England and France and Italy giving consent and encourage-
ment to the movement, the dream of the Jews for their old land, a national
identity, a national language and a national life may be near to realization.
JUST RIGHT FOR A HOME TOWN
(Globe, New York City, May 31, 1918)
Viscount Bryce's statement of Palestine's limited resources for sus-
taining population comes as a welcome bringer of light to the world-wide
.consideration of the Zionist movement. In the June number of the Menorah
Journal he points out that the Holy Land must always be an agricultural
state. It has now about 650,000 inhabitants, he adds, and even with the
expenditure of large amounts of capital on irrigation works it cannot be
made to support more than 600,000 people additional.
Any fears that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine would cause
an exodus of Jews from this and other countries that would in any way
disturb business are at once dispelled. For Viscount Bryce is an authority
thoroughly acquainted with the character of the soil of which he writes and
its possibilities of development. When he says it can support a million and
a quarter, and not many more, he knows doubtless whereof he speaks.
But here is all the more reason why a Jewwish state should be set up
again where Solomon once ruled. Let the Holy Land be Home Town for
the far-flung Jews of the world. Let it be a quiet, easy-going, farmerish
sort of place, filled with racial traditions and memories.
39
WHAT WOULD IT HAVE MEANT TO HERZL?
(Science Monitor, Boston, Mass., June 8, 1918)
The Zionist Commission, under Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of
the English Zionist Federation, has arrived in Palestine and been welcomed,
not only by the newly establish British authorities, but by the depleted Jew-
ish colonies and communities of the occupied regions. Since the foundation
of modern Zionism, twenty years ago, the recent event just referred to
ranks as the most important in the history of the movement. What would
it have meant, for instance, to the founder, Dr. Theodor Herzl, could he
have been present when Dr. Weizmann met the deliverer of Jerusalem,
General Allenby, in a Palestine free to the Jews for the first time in twenty
centuries! For eight years following the first Zionist Congress at Basle,
Dr. Herzl endeavored, without success, to secure for his people from the
Turk their traditional home in the Holy Land. But the political obstinacy
of the "man in occupation" was insurmountable. It is fortunate, indeed,
that the Jews have now been able to deal direct with the British Govern-
ment.
For the moment, however, political security is the first desideratum. A
Jewish Palestine cannot be considered an accomplished fact until democracy
has won its final battle on the fields of Picardy and Flanders. Pan-German-
ism has received one of its greatest blows in the Allied occupation of the
Holy Land. It is notorious that Kaiser Wilhelm has no particular love for a
democratic Jewish State in the land which the Berlin-Bagdad Railway was
intended to secure for Germany. The Allied plan effectually blocks the way
to his autocratic ambitions; and Zionism affords one of the most salient
instances, abhorrent to autocracy, of the right of small nations to self-
determination of their political destinies. If only because political Zionism
stands in the way of Hohenzollern ambitions, therefore, Palestine must
never be allowed to revert to its former Turkish owners and become incor-
porated within the Pan-Germanic scheme. Civilization should tolerate no
more the names of conquerors and oppressors, in connection with the check-
ered history of Jerusalem, but only liberators. The names of these libera-
tors, as Dr. Weizmann has said, will live forever. The blue-white flag of
Zionism is flying somewhere in Jerusalem today, not merely as the
banner of the Jews, but also as a symbol of democracy and human liberties.
The "nation" is beginning well. It is pronouncedly progressive. Today
the "Princes of Israel" are contemplating a Jewish State of the future along
democratic lines. The anticipation of reactionary policies among the Jews,
due to their theocratic traditions, is not likely to be justified. They start with
the sympathetic co-operation of the democratic nations, and with every op-
portunity to overcome the prejudices which the centuries of dispersion and
oppression have produced. The pale will soon be left far behind, and
among the new generations to arise in Palestine, the Ghetto, with its physical
and moral limitations, can have no place.
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