WOMEN IN THE NEW ZION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3519, 23 August 1921, Page 54

WOMEN IN THE NEW ZION.

By

JESSUS MACRAN.

Is tiie New* Zion, centred now under British protection in the ancient land after its sporadic beginnings in the prewar colonies, to become a fixed factor ill the new int> ['national order? We hear many dubious tales this year of present and future complications with the Mohammedan population already entrenched there, and with political i sues that would make the citadel of .Jewish nationality no more than a pawn in pagan diplomacies: ui oral hi.-d-annon is and fictions that brush the bloom off tiie l urn. What truth underlies these giooniv predictions? We know not. but this, at least we know that tiie New Zion will not fail because of it? women —that the spirit of Miriam. Deborah, and Huldah lives in the Jewish women who have committed their lives to the success of this scheme, dear alike tu tlhrbtir.il and Jew. lint it is no armies of flesh and blood the Deborahs of to ,lay are fielding : it is the phantoms of disease, ignorance, and superstition licit the happier-placed women of the Diaspora in Britain and America sir trying to ward off their poor and persecuted sisters from the (filet, foes and dark corners of the earth. there are three ways in which femininisni in Palestine is working out the dreams of Zionism, and the noble help being given by the Jewesses who remain in the lands of their adoption is now systematised by the International Federation of Women Zionists, which has its headquarters in London and oflices in Jerusalem. From the ends of the earth educated Jewish women are pre-sing in. leaving behind high promise of intellectual advancement to nurse, cook, farm, and even make mads in the new Pale .-linin'! settlement. The first way in which femininisni counts hero is undoubtedly the firm demand made for equal civic stilus. Last year we heard vague comforting declarations that Jewish women had the vote. This requires careful explanation. Among (he Jewish prewar settlements, we

gather, tne more advanced already had Uaced their women on a fooling of civic equality. Also, whatever km.f of constitution had first been g-ant-1 under British protection had the emancipation 1,1 women down at bast on paper. But 1 ) months ago. though 12 women had heen returned to the Fleeted Assembly, none had been allowed on the kind of l pper Benate of 30 perma.'iuieiit niem- , hers. which naturally cheeks all matters dealt with in the popular chamber. 'The orthodox refused to .-it with women in council. 1 o this they submitted unwillingly, but tearing a break at this delicate early stage of nation-building. But soon ihey were as-ailed from another quarter. L nder the old Turkish rule, all ' family questions of status, guardianship, inheritance, etc., had been settled liv the Sharia or Moslem Court. Now the Moslems were stripped of privilege, and these domestic questions had been relegated to the religious courts of the : Christians, Jews, and Moslems: That is to say, these educated, cultured, nationmaking Zionist women were flung back into the ancient bondage of the BabbiniI cal Courts, which had forgotten a great | deal since the days of Deborah and learned nothing new since the days of Chri T. According to the.- • courts, women cannot be guardians to their own children, nor even witnes-es in a law : court, nor inherit, or control the money she herself earns. A woman is nil her life in subjection to her father, brother, or husband. The Zionist women did not linger, but laid their case at once before the British Executive. Thev were invited ,to state their demands. The Palestinian 1 Jewish XA'omen’s Equal Rights Associaj lion replied in a detailed memorandum. ' At the last date of hearing the memorandum had been endorsed by the societies i of Jerusalem. Jaffa, and Haifa, with the j Judean colonies, and were being passed lon to tlie centres of Galilee. Aiost pari ticularly is it necessary that women i should have power to check backward j customs, such as that of child marriage | among the Yemenite Jews, and give proI tection of law to those whom the GrthoI dox courts considered beneath the necesI sity of safeguarding. This is the news of i months ago. hut the cables have told us j nothing of the success or failure of the I Jewish suffragists, who are secure at least i of the vote for the elected Assembly at j Jerusalem, whether that is to become the I symbol or merely the shadow of real power. It is regarded that the High j (Commissioner in Jerusalem. Sir Herbert j Samuel, is favourable to all development, j Laav Samuel has -been bnsv promoting equal rights organisation in Palestine. Education is the next factor in the founding of true power, and this, of course, is the standing personal fundamental. The colonies had placed educai {ion high in their programme, and ! modern studies went on side hv side I with the nation-welding study of Hebrew !as a living language once more In Jerusalem two very fine girls schools were visited bv All’s Mi'ilicent Garrett Fawcett last autumn. The British High School for Girls, a Christian institution under Miss XX'arlnnton, herself a pupil jof Miss Dorothea Beale at Cheltenham, j was doing splendid work for the scattered nationalities of the Levant, no fewer than 11 different countries being represented there. A trulv national work was beinrr done bv the Evelina de Rothsj child Anglo-Jewish School. nobly I equipped to instruct the poorest of the I comniunitv. all tuition being free, and on fine modern lines. j But political forms and abstract j academies mean little to the poor pioneer j women streaming in from persecution in ; far countries, and unprepared for any cultmed conditions as for the peculiar working conditions of Palestine.. Ihe most- immediate work of the educated British and American Jewesses is to teach these poor immigrants how to live in their new surroundings. In the “Woman’s Leader” of June 10 appears an interesting account by Rebecca ]). Bieff of the social activities of the Zionist women. For many years past thev have been gathering funds to teach th e ' pioneers how In live. Now the work 1 is enlarged on the lines of erecting hostels i am l shelters, where the women will learn to use to best advantage the resources of ! the new home with its unfamiliar customs and climate. Meals are provided , for immigrants and worker- at the lowest j and travelling instructors in diet 'and'camp hvgieue go round to stem the > first dangers' of the life in Palestine, the ignorance of elementary health and sanitation laws. Infant welfare is. of course, ' prominent, and schools of dome; tie ; economy and agricultural farm schools for ! girls are being planned on generous lines. I All this spells health, content, and j .stability for the new State. Its friends i reiterate the duty of making these centres ! of Jewish well-being a hope and a help |to the down trodden Mohammedan | women, and obliterating m' lar a- nia\ be the old jealous lines of divi-ion between j ,i eu - Christian, and Moslem. In order : to finance the c excellent schemes a j noble Jewish cm-tom (nowise confined. J either, to the Jews) has been revived | rmi nnc the Zionist women. 'The Jewel j |.'und'carries us buck to the wanderings ; nf Israel in the wilderness, when the i women gave their ornaments to Moses to ! n! ake the Tabernacle. The new Taberj ..aide of Motherhood and Nationhood is j to he raised by the similar sacrifice of j jewels In the women of the more fortu | j,.ate countries, and it is undor.-tood that j Whatever else may be peidieted of the I New Zion, it may he safetv said that- the ; life of the new community is bound up with these efforts to enlarge the scope and opportunities of Jewish womanhood, and the result will be eagerly watched by their Gentile sisteia all over the world.