GERMAN JEWS FLOCK TO PALESTINE

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 5

GERMAN JEWS FLOCK TO PALESTINE

" A NOME-COMING " ABUNDANT ENTHUSIASM In Palestine they do not speak of German refugees, but of those who come up to the Land. The Jews from Germany are part of an “ Aliya,” a home-coming. Those who have come during the last two years since the Hitler persecution began, number over 20,000, and they are continuing to arrive steadily at the rate of 800 to 1,000 a month. The official figures of the Jewish Agency for the immigration in 1933-34 give the total of 7,200 in the former and 9,500 in the latter year. But in addition to those who came as immigrants, or, entering as tourists, receiving permission from the Government to stay as residents, a number of tourists stayed without permission. The immigrants from Germany are of all classes and vocations. They include a larger proportion of persons entering with capital, or, -as they are called m the regulations, of independent means, than the rest of the immigrants. In each year there have been over 3,000 such persons' with a capital of at least £I,OOO, and, in fact, estimated. at an average of £2,000. The large majority have been Germans, and they have started enterprises of all kinds. A recent survey of industrial , undertakings established in 1934 showed that the majority were conducted by Germany Jews, Several factories on a large scale are springing up in the area of Haifa Bay, 'which is destined to_ be in the principal manufacturing region. The largest is an iron foundry, of which the director was on© of, the heads of the *A.E.G., who is already producing pipes on a considerable scale, and has* disposed of the whole expected product of 1935. When in full working the factory will give employment to 300, and most of-the present workmen are from = Germany. . The largest' German element, however, is composed of young men and women of the Pioneer Organisation, the Haluz, which is the most significant . representative of the renascent Jewish people. Some thousands of them have prepared for manual work, fpr life on the soil or in the factory, by a year of training either in Germany itself or in France, Denmark, or other countries of refuge. Some thousands more are undergoing their training to-day in,the villages and communal settlements of Palestine itself. . It is sometimes said that German Jews in Palestine keep aloof from the rest of the community, introduce their old ways, speak their old language, and harp on the way things were done in Germany. There is a classification ot those who come to Palestine—(a) from Germany; (b) from conviction. That criticism may apply to a small section of the older immigrants, It emphatically does not apply to the main body. They bring an enthusiasm and an eagerness to be integrated into the new life, together with the method and orderliness of their former home. On the other side is a wholehearted determination to integrate them into the life of the country. The way in for the newcomers is beyond all praise- ' There are a few purely German agricultural settlements, and they are marked bv neatness and orderliness, like the older German colonies of the Christian “Temple.” They include several villages of smallholders where each settler occupies about one acre, partly with intensive market gardening and partly with a chicken farm, each has his own house, built to a pattern and bearing on the gate a number and letter box, in the expectation that some day the Palestine postman will deliver letters. Eafch of the settlers, who was formerly engaged, in a liberal profession or in commerce, has invested his capital of £I,OOO in his house and land; and, following the Palestine principles, they organise themselves in a ‘co-operative group. Besides the young. men and women who come from Germany trained for manual work, there is a younger and still more hopeful element of the German immigration. If consists of hoys and girls between the ages of 14 and 17 who come straight from the German in order at the same time to finish their school education, and to begin their practical training m the free atmosphere of the Jewish National Home, and to be integrated more fully

into the life while they are very young. In 1934 500 came in this way, and were distributed between a children s -village near Lydda, a children’s institution that has been moved from Berlin to Haifa, and the colonies and cooperative settlements. Another 500 aie duo to com© during 1935. They bnng with them special instructors from Germany, who have some experience or the country, and they spend half the day in the field and half in schooling. They are selected bands of_ German youth, picked for physical, intellectual, and moral excellence; and they take to the new life, which in some of the settlements is spartan, with abundant enthusiasm.