The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-24
THE JEWS IN PALESTINE.

A Prominent Jew Talks of the Pro-
 posed Recolonization Movement.
 There Is movement on foot among the Jews for an international confer ence at Munich this summer for the purpose of taking steps to re-establish
 the Jewish empire in Palestine. Meet ing one of the most prominent Jews in the United States yesterday I asked
 him what the movement amounted to.
 He replied
 T do not know l have been told in some quarters that it amounts to noth- ing, and I have been told in others that
 it means a great deal The men who
 are engaged in it may be divided into
 two classes. First are the enthusiasts who compose the original advance
 guard. They are pious people who as- pire to live and die on sacred soil Dr. Herzl and MT. Nordau think 1t is impos-
 sible to solve what is called the Jewish
 question in Europe, and believe it wise
 to take advantage of this enthusiasm for the refounding of the Jewish empire
 They will have conference at Munich
 this summer. They are getting the Jews all over the world interested. But people of importance in this country, whether laymen or clergymen, are hold-
 ing aloof from it. I have not learned
 that anybody of consequence has gone
 into it. I think they are waiting to see what it is going to amount to- I be-
 lieve they know that it cannot amount
 to very much. The Jews may colonize in Palestine, but they cannot -colonize in large numbers. Palestine cannot I 1,,f you can colonize one thousand people a
 year in Palestine you are doing we'll I
 do not know that the soil is exhausted
 but the resources are limited The real truth is there are lots of reasons why it | is inadvisable to do the thing rapidly It is Ottoman soil; 1t belongs to the Ot- toman empire. It is not wise to stir the Turks up to the notion that there is to be an invasion. Then, again, all | churches except the Protestant church i believe that if Jerusalem Is ever to be | taken from the Turks it Is to be done | by them. do not think it wise ol practical movement"
 More than half of the Jews in the world live in Russia" said he. "Most of them are artisans and are wretched- | ly poor. Of the Jews of the east there are twenty artisans to one merchant The mercantile development of the
 Jews is limited practically to Germany
 Austria, France, England and America
 It is not universal by any means. Sa. lonica is the most exclusively Jewish city in the world, It is in Turkey, moi far from Constantinople. It is the place which the Greeks threatened tc
 Lombard and could have bombarded Two-thirIs of the population are Span ish Jews. You will find that the Jew: in Turkey all speak Spanish. They are the descendants of the Jews that were
 driven out of Spain in 1892 The Span. ish Jews. when expelled from Spain went to Turkey, and the Mohometan! received them cordially, principally be cause the Christians had turned then out. These Spanish Jews are now liv ing in communities around the Mediter
 ranean. Some are in Italy, and ar
 considered the real representatives O the ancient Castilian tongue. Whel George Borrow went to Spain in 1880 h. | claims to have met Jews who were tn i descendants of Barbanel, the treasure i of Queen Isabella, and it Is believed h.
 was descended from the Jewish roya | line of David and Solomon.
 l When the Jews were expelled iron Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella in 149
 only one family was allowed to remain l on Spanish soil, and it was located il