The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-04-06
THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT.

HE persistence OF the Jew as part of the mod
ern world and distinct from it is one of the mar
wells of the world. That race has taken fore
most place in art, science and finance and has been
the head in major craftsmanship and has played no
mean part in At the time it has remained
as distinct as it was before Moses led it out OF
Egyptian bondage into the freedom of the wilderness
Its history is an impressive story OF the mighty pre-
potency of the great nomads from whom it sprang
for out of their shepherd tents issued line Of
prophets, priests and kings outdazzlng the rulers OF
the first empires, and leaving behind literature
which is the worlds greatest religious and intellectual
inspiration in these latter days.
Where are the people of Babylon? Where the race
OF Jamshyd? Where the blood OF the Mace.
DOMAIN conqueror? What common principle and
faith is there lead the modern Latns in recreatng
the gores OF Rome on the soil where they fourshed?
What trumpetblas shall resurrect the one purpose
and assemble the people OF the blood that built the
empire of Charemagne? Division destruction, the
melting OF common bonds, make up the history OF
them all
But between the black Jew who lives neighbor to
the Tamils and responds to their language old as
Sanskrit, in the speech in which Abraham uttered
prayers over his dead, and the cringing Russian
Hebrew and the lordy capitalists OF Frankfort and
the English Jew, who has his rule the Brit
sh empire and preside over the Capitol of the Anglo
Saxon world, there is the old tie OF the tribes made
in the wilderness, before the Ark of the Covenant,
that has persisted unbroken, while the has been
scattered like ashes to the four winds has borne the
yoke OF oppression and the lash OF persecution,
groaned in bonds and tasted death in every form
zealots invent and cruelty infct. Running with
this tie has long been aspiration to pos
Palestine again. to repeople the land which their
fathers entered when it was full of corn and wine,
flowing with milk and honey
The movement toward Zion has taken organized
shape. The Jew in all lands lifts his face toward
Judea, and the whole world is for an hour withdrawn
from Its striies and struggles to look upon move
that is OF greater interest than the exploiting OF
new continent
To repeople Palestine requires that the land be
clad in the forests that made it fruitful. Where the
daughters OF Shiloh were found dancing in the vine
yards by the of Benjamin the blear sands scorch
in the Naboth's vineyard is dry as the bones
OF Jezebel. Where Ruth CLEANED in the field no green
blade is tipped with dew. The springs and wells
around which the people rested the way to the
Passover, no longer affuen feed no rls
The forests are gone, and the beauty of the land
ard its fountains went with them. The early and the
latter rain falls upon the sand. If Israel move upon
the land again it the first energy expended
must be in bringing back its trees and fountains In
this respect alone the Zionist movement is OF first in
terest to the world The desert has claimed the seat
CT the shepherd kings; Babylon, Palmyra, the great
seats of ancient empire, all buried in the sands,
and there to resurrect them. II the Jew go
back to Zion and applying that persistence which has
marked his race, shall recall the verdure, the mea-
dows, the vineyards the bosky glens and cases.
the possession of which called all the poetry in the
souls of his fathers, work will be done hardly sec
ond to the Exodus