Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-30

|
/ 1lamed the Jewish m'nd
ia 49, all over the world with /
IA11.eale4 spirit of nationalism
| which 1t had not known since the
| destruction of Jerusalem. Tho Zion
list congress which met at Basle in
| 1897 was the first international and
| worldwide conVocation of Jews since
the dispersion. That nineteen cen
turies have not prevailed against the
peculiar separation of this people, that
| living in small numbers among many
| peoples and races has not brought
| about assimilation, goes to prove the
existence of Jewish nationally al
! the ugh it has no political status or ter
;1torial possessions.
According to the definition OF DR.
Herzl, zionism strives to create for the
| prosecuted Jews a home in Palestine
! Not all Jews in America are agreed as
| to the wisdom of the Zionistic pro-
| gram. The Jews have never been
united in thought, and at the present
time in America Zionism means more
as partisan issue among the Jews
| than 1t does as an actual movement
toward the restoration of the prom
| ised land to the chosen people The
zionists, who are mostly of the ortho
dox branch of the Jewish faith, cling
closely to the doctrines of Moses Hess
ard the preachments of Herr, while
| denouncing what they call the "as-
similators." Zionism has become IN
| fact, in the United States, a move
:nent against assimilation with the
| Rentiles.
Three times daily the devout oftho-
| doX Jew prays to his God: Sound the
great trumpet for our freedom, lift uI
| hA
gather us speedily together from the
four corners of the earth to our own
| land" To the vast majority this
prayer is but n part of the ritual OF
| daily worship and means nothing APP
proaching an actual desire to return to
Palestine or to participate in the es-
| tablishment of a Jewish state. In fact
! the Jewish nation, as q political en-
| tity, exists only In the imagination OF
the Zionist leaders.
But already the movement has be-
! gun to reclaim the Holy Land from Its
barren thriftlessness by the settlement
| of Jewish colonies in the country.
Most of these colonies have been set
up since the beginning of the Zion
movement in 1897, while several ante
| date the congress of Basic. Wherever
| one of these colonies exists there Is q
| green and fertile oasis in the desert OF
! Palestine. Few American Jews have
seen fit to desert the opportunities ct
| the western hemisphere for a return to
| their Asiatic ancestral home. Most OF
the colonies are made up of Jews from
Russia, Roumania and other European
countries in which the Jews have been
subjected to persecution.
There are now seventy modern Jew
ish colonies in Palestine, most of them
engaged in agricultural pursuits. Tho
Zionists have established a college in
Jerusalem which devotes much atten-
tion to industrial training and to rgf1-
cultural science. There is also mod
ern Jewish hospital in Jerusalem and
a gymnasium and school in Jana.
Grants have been obtained from the
Turkish government giving the Jews
the right to purchase land and guaran-
teeing them protection. The influence
of the nations of western Europe sup
ports these colonies.
One of the oldest and most prosper
Gus of these modern Jewish establish
ments is the colony of Samarin, or
Sichron Yaaeob. This was the first
colony of Roumanian Jews to find
refuge in Palestine, and was estah-
lished in 1882 1t is devoted principally
to orange growing and wine making.
Last spring a company or American
tourists, unable to land at Jaffa be-
cause of the stormy weather, was car
ried on to Haifa. 1t was necessary to
take a two days wagon trip across the
country to Jaffa in order to reach
Jerusalem. Wagons were provided at
Haifa, but there was no driver who
could speak English, and not one of
the Americans knew anything but
English. The drivers spoke Arabic,
German, French and Turkish, but that
was of no help to the Yankees. 1h"
hotel proprietor at Haifa told the
Americans that. they would stop at
about o'clock in the afternoon at
the Jewish colony of Samarin, where
they could obtain accommodations for
the night. He explained to the ignor-
ant Americans that there would be no
one in the colony who could speak
English, but expressed hope that the
sign language would suffice to procure
satisfaction for the actual physical
wants of the travellers.
After ten hours driving over the