Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-03
As ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Three Views Of the Zion Movement
by Three Jews Suggest Likelihood
Of Others, Al Of Them impor.
tant to the World at Large
BY SARAH d. LOWRIE

an authority on Mt least one phase Of his
races position with regard to the "back to.
Jerusalem" enthusiasm. his point of view
was Mt least an important one to consider.
years ago when the public at large first
began to hear Zonism discussed, and It was
BY the senior member OF a great New York
banking firm. That old man was wise at
least In the financial opinions Of his con.
freres. both In Europe md this country,
and at that time he and his partners were
set against the notion, scouting it as i'm.
practicable and pushed only by the vision
ary.
He held that It was not practical, because
TO give the Jew country that was too
smnll for him would mean that he must
still live as a stranger in other countries.
Instead Of being citizen of the land in
which he lived and worked, and instead Of
identifying himself with the interest Of that
country IN his own eyes and in the eyes
'fattener on the land and liable to be the
target of oil the odium that anomalous
position would invite.
TlHE second opinion was given me many
L years later by the son Of a Zionist. Hc
was journalist who had como over TO this
country after spending his youth in Palcs.
migrant Jews were subjected TO by the
Turkish Government before the war. lie
believed in Palestine for the Jews. lie had
calculated to foot for how great popula-
tion of returned Jews the land under in
living.
1t was his belief that with Palestine we'll
colonized and raised to a hundred per cent
fertility by irrigation, the adjoining deserts
could be reclaimed much as the deserts Of
THIS country are being made to blossom as
the rose. Eventually he believed all of his
race could return to what would be the
garden spot of the world.
TNHE third opinion was given me just last
L year, curiously enough by one near Of
Kin to the old Jewish banker. His brother
in.law was then one Of the leaders Of the
Zion movement and spoken Of as the pros
pective president of the Palestine Republic.
His idea was that Palestine could never be
the home Of all the Jews, but that it could
bc the possession of the race; and rs such
It could be made not only garden spot,
but center of learning and art and re-
meant not the orthodox ancient religion,
but the broader type Of worship used in the
present day synagogues. l asked him II the
rebuilding of the temple was contemplated.
and it seemed to me his idea was symbolic
building not for n revival of the Mosaic
ritual nor replica of the Temple Of Solo
mon.
T Asst summer it seemed to those Of us
- who are outsiders that there came what
seemed n change Of personnel in the Zionist
Committee and presumably a change of ideal
in its propaganda. And now comes drive
for funds for the Zionist cause.
No funds are being asked of non.Jews,
although doubtless if the great generosity
the Jews have shown in Gentle drives were
reciwocated by Gentle generosity in Jew
ish drives gifts would not be scorned; but
of oil 20 cfn thora ID tnsk tan,
Of money outside the fold. the general public
has not been specifically apprised as to the
exact status Of the movement at the present
moment. Which Of those three points Of
view most prevails among the Jews! And
is there perhaps fourth and more zcalously
orthodox one than any of these three?
TNO GENTILES brought up on the Old
i Testament rs well as on the gospels
the whole movement is Of great interest be.
cause Of the ancient prophecies regarding
the return of the Jews and the restoration Of
Jerusalem and the events hlnging on that
return. To certain sccts of the Christian
faith-the Second Advcntists-the fulfillment
of these prophecies is of vital Importance
in order to make way for the second coming
of the Messiah.
To students of history and of world move.
ments the fact, that great changes are
wrought by the fire of sentiment rather than
the psychology OF reason makes any enthu.
siasm such as this Of Zlonism Of great and
even poignant interest. If it is 10 be a
return to Palestine, Is it to be merely q
physical and material return to Solomon
and all his glory, or Is it to be return to
the orthodoxy and ritualsm Of the Herodian
period. or is it to be still further barking
back to the early experiment, when nomad
race turned cultivators Of the soil in the
days of the judges!
Or is something quite different contem.
plated-a sort Of Mecca and Beirut and
Holy City Of Rome. with the Italian Riviera
thrown in:
A Nd if the Jews take over their holy
n places, what Of the Christian, what Of
the AIohammedan? Both these religions
than the Jews possessed Palestine before the
And if the Jews COLOMBO Palestine from
all over Europe and from this country, what
will be the type OF the civilization-English
Polish, American, German or Spanish! And
II Il foreign Government backs the enterprise
and stabilizes it., what Government will
undertake that tremendous task? And why?
One hears these questions discussed
gravely. but not unsympathetically.
OF conversation. am told. even among tho
people who think Zionlsm Is bound to fail
N,IIE Greek Church officials and the Roman
l. Church officials keep an armed peace
with each other and with the Syrians and
hrmcnians and Arabs md the scattered
Jewish population that have clung to the
ruins Of their walls but none of these. not
even the Palcstinian jew, Is prepared 10
welcome tn. returning Zionsts with their
new idens of farming and their unorthodoxy
and their Western push and go. For If
the Jews in the Orcdent seem Oriental,
they appear completely Europeanzed to the
Orient Just as they seemed Egyptianizcd
to the inhabitants Of Canaan, and Babylon
ish TO the dwellers who had not gone into
captivity and Romanzed to the Galileans.
80 they seem strange people with their
new dress and abbreviated ceremony and
crisp business and modern inventions to the
present dwcllcrs in that little land that had
bccu theirs once before in the worlds his.
tory and may be theirs vet once again.
! have been reading Chestcrton's Jcrus-
olem and been immensely interested in the
book. 1t brings the modern Jerusalem, the
Jerusalem of the Crusadcs and the Jerusalem