The Denver Jewish news., 1918-11-28
Women in Palestine
IIER POSITION; IN SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC ;LIFE-A CONIPAR-
ISON BETWEEN TIIE ARABIC
AND JEWISH WOMAN.

OF the Stale Is undergoing so many
draSti;. changes. 1t is interesting to
mediate while on what was the
position of woman in Palestine before
the war and 10 speculate on what may
he her function after It,
Palestine has often been designated
the connecting link between the East
and the West, and in nothing. perhaps
Is this more true than in the position
Of women In the country There is
on thc one hand the Arab woman. the
subject plaything OF her lord and mas
ter. living. when in the towns, in n
state Of seini-confincmcnt and screen
ell from the affairs of the world by
the thick veil She wears. the sign. as
it were. of her separation. In tho
villages she goes unveiled and lives n
frccr life. hut it is the freedom of n
servant rather than Il mistress and she
shares her honours Of wifcdom with
the other tillers of the land for her
lord and master.
At the other end of the scale there
are the Jewesses, frequent amongst
the latest arrivals. who bring with
them for rcaliZation tllc ideas of the
new emancipation of which they have
only dreamt in Europe. The Jews
have n. faculty of SELLING new idea.
Illuminating it and endeavouring to
put it into practice. If we cannot
carry II ont in Russia" they say, let
MS go to Palestine, to our own country.
and there we will worl; out our and
The worlds salvation" TO equip them
selves they go to Paris to study law.
or to Beirut III study medicine, or
come out with their brother revolu.
tionnrics to work on the land. For a
year or two they are happy inPalestine
with the happiness and blind-sight of
The enthusiasts. Then some are dis
appointed and go back "a their Paris
ind their R,,ssia. while the hest remain
to work and try to reconcile the ideals
of an old Jewish tradition with the
hopes of rtopian Jewish Nation.
Between these two extremes there
are many grades and classes. There are
the Bokharan and Persian Jewcsscs.
who tho unveiled are assimtlated t.
the natives of the land where the!
iihve lived for centuries. the Levan
tine. with Il parisan gloss over hci
eastern soul. the .AShkenazi Jcwess
o.. a.. l..vbn
thrifty wOman) it may be. but one
who does not allow that virtue to
spread beyond the portals of her home.
Then there is the Russian and Rumnli.
ian colonist's wife of the old school,
who still wears shawl over her head
and lets her skirt trail. II her hus-
hand is dead she may have II vote on
the council in right OF holding the
land. hut She delegates the honour to
her soli and goes and cooks the Shabbos
Lockschcn. There are also some ex-
amples of the cultured wOmen-thc
wives Of doctors and officials, teachers
and nurses, who combine the wider
outlook of European culture with a
great love of the land and who work
directly or indirectly for the better
ment of its inhabitants.
What is the position among the vari
Gus classes with respect to Cd edu-
cation. 90 political rights, (3) work
On the land. and "a religious develop
mcnt?
G) Where there are Jews there
are schools. Education is. as it were.
the pivot of our Nations life. This is
true of Palestine even more than OF
the rest of Jcwry.
IN this connection it is well to diff
ferentiute the system of education Ill
the colonies and in the towns. In the
colonies the boys and girls go to
school together, and there has by now
been attained II fairly uniform system
of which Hebrew is the basis. and
which has had, perhaps, II greater ma
tiOnalizlng effect than any other
means. In the towns each country
outside the Land has We'd with the
other in the foundation of elementary
schools. There has grown mp, there
fore. a medley of schools, each using
a different language as the medium OF
instruction. each representing II differ
cnt system, each with more or less
COntcrnling aims. IT is only after a
period of chaos that the benefit of the
introduction of Hebrew as the uniform
language of instruction was gradually
realized. .....
III some ways in the towns the girls
have bad II better opportunity of mod
eTp elementary education than the
boys. Tsc.rabbis. thinking that uod
Sru educa ton would lead tue children
away from Judaism. set up Cberenl
tbsp) against those :schools---i. G., they