ZIONISM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 162, 11 July 1910, Page 6

ZIONISM.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The report of the interview with Mrs. Freeman, which appeared dn your issue of the 4th inst., contained several misstatements likely to mislead your Teaders and those interested in Zionism. After referring to the progress and prospects of Zionism, Mrs. Freeman is reported as saying: "The great audi wealthy Society of the Maccabees has I voted £7,000,000, and already there are 180,000 Jews round about Jerusalem." The first statement is incorrect; the second is an exaggeration. In London, tho Maccabeans—an association of Jewish professional nien—faaa been esta/blished since 1891, hut its aim is social and intellectual intercourse, not the promotion of tlie Jewish national ideal. Its ipcome for 1908 was £291 4/5. It therefore ! has neither the means nor the desire to | vote £7,000,000 to the Zionist movement. In America, the Federation of American Zionist, publishes "The llaceabea-n," but there is no regularly constituted Zionist society known by the name of the Maccabees. Again, the Jewish population of Jerusalem and its environs is 60,000, not ISO,OOO as stated by Mrs. Freeman. The total population of Jerusalem does not exceed 100,000; about the same number of Jews as in all Palestine. Huge sums have at different times heen given by I wealthy Jews towards the estahlishment of agricultural colonies for their coreligionists. Thus, Baron Edmond de Rothschild founded colonies in Palestine at a cost of £2,000,000; Baron de Hirsch established the Jewish Colonisation Association by a donation of £2,000,000, and increased its funds by a legacy of £6,000,000. Its sphere of operation is not, however, confined to Palestine. It embraces United States, Canada, Russia, and in Argentine alone it possesses 17,000,000 acres of land. But neither the Maccabeans in England nor the Zionistin America have vcted £7,000,000 towards the Zionist cause. No Jewish association in the world has, ever devoted that sum towards the furtherance of the Zionist movement. Than_in<r you in anticipation for this, a necessary correction.—l am, etc, ZIONIST.