LOOKING TOWARDS PALESTINE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1897, 4 November 1913, Page 5

LOOKING TOWARDS PALESTINE.

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT. FORTY-ONE JEWISH COLONIES. The real beginning of tho return to Palestine dates from 1860, and it was a definitely religious-nationalist movement, relates a writer in the "Manchester Guardian." Some orthodox rabbis— the chief of them was Hirsch Kalischer —conceived the idea of settling Russian and Rumanian Jews in Palestine. Thoy persuaded the Alliance Israelite, then as always very sceptical, to send Charles Netter out to survey tho land and its possibilities. He recommended the establishment of an agricultural training school, and it was set up in 1870 at Mikveh Isreal, near Jaffa, on land presented by the Sultan. There all branches of agriculture are taught, and the pupils may be found in the neighbouring Turkish provinces, in F,gypt, and .as far afield as Canada. Down to tho end of 1908 the school had trained 857 pupils, nearly half of whom took the full seven years' coarse. Excellent on the technical side, it is weak on tho ideal and Jewish national side. The directors of tho Alliance look upon themselves as pioneers of French rather than Jewish nationalism, ■ The first colony propor was founded at Mozah, just outside Jerusalem, in 1873, a small affair which after hard times now flourishes. In 1878 Laureuce Oliphant and tho Earl of Shaftesbury interested themselves in Jewish colonisation, and with their aid.- Petaeh Tikwah (the Gate of Hope) was founded. Reinforced in 1883 bv immigrants from Bjelostok and subsidised .by the "Friends of Zion" of Odessa, and later by Baron Edmond do Rothschild, it is now tho largest of all the colonies, with 1600 inhabitants. ' ■ | Tho Turning Point. The turning-point in Jewish colonisation was the pogroms of 18S0 and 1881. Tho Russians 'Jews, driven in upon themselves by this tragic shattering of tho dream of emancipation, turned to themselves and the land of their fathers for salvation. There was a mingling of motives—the hope of material benefit, the desire for refuse from persecution; but the dominant inspiration, which sent these townsmen severed 2000 years from tho land back to Palestine, was ideal. It was their will -to restore the Hebrew spirit and rejuvenate the Hebrew nation by resuming contact with the land upon which these were born and grew. The idea spread from Russia, Rumania, and Galicia to Western Europe, and in most centres of Jewish population there could be found a Society of Lovers of Zion. Rischon lo Zion (the Beginning of Zion) was founded near Jaffa by Russian Jews in 1882, and now has near a thousand. Jewish settlers. In the same year ninety Russian students formed the Bilu Society—Bilu is formed of the initial letters of the phrase: "O house, of Jacob, come let us go up"—and ' went to Palistine. There are fow moro heroic episodes than the enterprise of those academic, townbred youths, without money oi; knowledge,l and compelled to live as hard and as meanly as the Arab labourer in order to earn bread and leani the art of agriculturo. In tho succeeding years through to the early 'nineties many colonies were founded, and by 1596 they numbered somo twenty-five-. Tho early years of tho colonics were extremely bitter. Many were liable to malaria, tlic colonists were ignorant of agriculture, thoy were ill-equipped with money. Had it not been for the help of Baron Edmond de Rothschild and "tho Lovers of Zion Society at Odessa most, perhaps all. would have collapsed. Baron ■Rothschild began by taking Rischon le Zion under his protection, and gradually his) assistance was extended to most of the others. ' Ho built wino cellars, put experts at the service of tho colonists, planted mulberry 'trees, almonds, figs, citron, eucalyptus. One way and another Baron Rothschild must havo spent somo £2.000,000 on the colonies. It cannot be said that his help was always aB well executed as intended. He was very despotic, his agents were not all well chosen, and the independence and initiative of the colonists suffered. The help of the Lovers of Zion was on a much smaller scalo, but perhaps better directed. There can bo no doubt that the colonies have now come through their early troubles, and in most cases are firmly established. This has been hastened by the wise action of Baron Rothschild, who has handed over the administration of his colonies to tile Jewish Colonisation Association: this body has dropped paternal supervision and allowed the colonists to control their own affairs. The colonists in 1906 formed a Wine-growers' Association, to which the Jewish Colonisation .handed over the wine cellar, which Baron Rothlchild had 1 been conducting at a loss. In 1911 this association could pay back to the Baron £10,000. Colonies To-day. There are now, of one kind or another, forty-one colonios in Palestine. With the exception of one small settlement, they all lie to tho west of the Jordan. _ They fall into three groups. Fifteen, including some of tho largest, are in Judea; eirfit are -in Samaria; seventeen are in Galileo. The Judean and Samarian colonics lie for the most part at no great distance from the sea, grouped around the two ports Jaffa and Haifa: the Galilean colonies cluster around the Galilean lakes and the Jordan. They > are in all between 9000 and 10,000 colonists, one-tenth of the whole Jewish population of Palestine, and nearly all of them immigrants from Europe. The area of land in -Jewish possession is .about 100,000 acres, an amount which' includes the land outside the colonies owned by individual Jews or Jewish organisations. Tho colonies are governed on democratic lines, and are reasonably free I from objectionable interference by the Turkish authorities. Every colony has its school, and there has beon a notable revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. Throughout the colonies, ljecruiting as they do Jews from every land of exile, Hebrew has become the lingua franca, the language of education in tho elementary schools, of social intercourse, and of tho press, and it' is steadily conquering tho urban' Jewish population. There are numerous Hebrew newspapers, including one daily, and reviews devoted to educa-* tion and while a Palestian .Jew, Ben Jehuda, is publishing a monumental thesaurus of tho Hobrew of all ages. There are several secondary schools, wihoro the language of tution is Hobrew, notably tho Gymnasium at Jaffa, and there is an agricultural experimental station at Atlit; and Jerusalem there is tho Bezalel, a school of arts and crafts which is dedicated to the development of Jewish art and has already mado its mark. Hitherto Jews have had to go to Europe for_ university training, but the foundations havo been laid at Haifa of a technical high school. It is hoped that the engineering faculty will begin to receive students in 1914, and that funds will ultimately be obtained_ to add all the other faculties appropriate to a university.