Israel Reborn

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 28 July 1928, Page 10

Israel Reborn

NEW JEWS IN PALESTINE

Peace, Progress and Content

Mr. James Marshall, writing in the “Menorah Journal,” the Jewish magazine of America, on “The Workshop of Israel.” gives a picturesque account of the new Zionist movement in Palestine. • "Eastern Europe is the principal source of the new Jews,” he continues. “These are the Chalutzim and they seem like a new race. They were bred in the confining Pale and embittering hatred of Eastern Europe. Like bulbs, they sprouted in dark cellars, and now they are flourishing like tulips transplanted into a garden bed. They are strong and handsome and healthy. They, no longer have the furtive look of the ghetto, the scheming eye of the man whom all the world kicks, nor the weary gait of people who have no hope. Nor have they acquired the sleekness and selfimportance which marks so many of the liberated Jews of America. Joys of Creatorship “They sing as they tramp along the roads or ride in railroad carriages; they seem to be happy and contented, setting trees about their settlements, draining swamps and reaping grain, milking their cattle, building houses and roads. For the first time in centuries Jews are experiencing as a mass the joys of creatorship. They are at home with their surroundings, and their Judaism does not make them self-conscious. Thus far even the unemployed in the present crisis are not degraded. '“Phis is not the mere efflorescence of a back-to-the-land movement. It lias a peculiarly Jewish character besides. The language of farm and home and shop is Hebrew; it is the mother-tongue of the children, the first language which they are taught in the schools. Everywhere—in the Emek, in the colonies abouj Tiberias, and in the plains and mountains of Judea—you feel not only the joy of the land qua land, but a love of the Land of Israel.

“On Friday evenings in Tel-Aviv the synagogues are crowded. Walking along the streets one sees the Sabbath lights in every hpme and the family gathered about the table. Shades are not pulled down to conceal the fact that. ifhabbat is being celebrated. The streets are deserted and the stores are closed except for an occasional pharmacy. There are no vehicles about, and even the Arabs who come to trade’ on other days are absent on fehabbat. Saturday mornings the same quiet pervades the city, and in the afternoon the streets are crowded with ’young girls and men, parents and children, strolling in the sunshine

“No work is performed in the colonies on the Sabbath except that necessary for the care of the animals, and in Jerusalem the Jewish shops are closed and the people go walking or calling on one another. On the holidays there is much joy. and the young people come home singing in the streets alter their Sedar service. They are at home, and there is no one to whom they must apologise because they celebrate their own festivals and Sabbath in their own way. Building a Future “But they are not satisfied merely with having achieved political and social independence, and in many cases economic security as well. Living in this land they love and speaking their own language, these new Jews are building for themselves a future. Like all pioneers they are . experimenting with social institutions. There are all manner of cooperative enterprises, experiments in the colonising of farm labourers and in the technical work of farming itself. The local problems are themselves sufficiently varied and serious to demand experimentation, hut as one goes from colony to colony, city to city, one becomes conscious that the Palestinian enterprise as a whole

'W'lItJ are the new Jews’ Some of them have been on the ** hind lor 40 years in colonies founded or sustained witli the aid of Baron Rothschild, situated mostly in the Plain of Sharon, and the land of the Philistines. "They have planted orange groves and vineyards; thev have suffered from the misrule of the Turks, from malaria plagues, and the destruction of the war; and now their wines and citrus fruits command a wide and ready market. In many instances they have become the instructors to thousands of others who have come since the war from the ghettos of Poland and Russia.

is a great social laboratory which in the course of years may become as valuable to the world at large as were the political experiments of the 13 States and farm colonisation in Denmark and Australia. “Finally, there Is the University crowning Mount Scopus,, simple anil dignified, on the most beautiful and inspiring campus in the world. For to the east lies the deep valley of the Jordan, a whitish crust along the river’s course, and south of that are the deep blue waters of the Dead Sea. Beyond lie the Mountains of Moab stretching as, far as the eye can follow, Mount Nebo with its memories of the first great leader of the Jews, and the land .of the Ammonites further to the east.

“The pale green of the barley-sown hillside veined with dry wadi beds spreads to the valley where is Jericho. And one can scY the cisterns of Bahurim where David’s young men hid during the flight from Absalom. Northward is Gilgal, where Joshua encamped, and to the west, Mizpah, where Samuel dwelt. The Kedron winds to the southward and eastward and across the valley are the white domed roofs of Jerusalem, Mount Zion and the broad bright Templeplace. There is no spot on earth where history seems more viyid, and scholars studying at the University must feel a sense of contiguity with the origins of Jewish thought and culture. Beginnings of New Zion “The University has its departments of agriculture, public health, chemistry, physics and mathematics, of Arabic culture (the art and thought of its neighbours), and its Institute of Jewish Studies for the study of Hebrew thought and letters- .“ From a Jewish standpoint these be ginnings of a new Zion are so hopeful that it is agonising to witness in Palestine the waste of fine humanity and limited funds. There is no excuse for not having planned for the economic growth and employment of the urban population nor is there any excuse for having delayed the funding of agricultural loans by the Keren Hayesod. There is little reason for permitting the duplication of medical agencies and for growing grain in competition with the limitless expanses of Russia and Australia in stead of raising poultry and cattle to meet domestic needs and developing specialties for the European market “Nevertheless, the concrete accomplishments in Palestine are considerable. With sufficient capital and scientific direction, the abandon ment of absentee Zionist administration and the adoption of budgets and thp expenditure of funds with an eye to actual collections rather than iD reliance, upon promises and propaganda. these achievements should be made self-sufficient and enduring. “Thus far, however, it is the spiritual vitality and the imponderable beginnings of a new era for Judaism which are precious. A disillusioned world, discomfited and ailing in its old faith, disquieted by its undigested science, ,may well treasure this rare combination of an ageless people on the soil they love, filled with spiritual power, surrounded by reminders of a tradition which they reverence, approaching life with an inquiring spirit.”