The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18, 1854. THE FAMISHING JEWS IN PALESTINE.

New Zealander, Volume 10, Issue 888, 18 October 1854, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18, 1854. THE FAMISHING JEWS IN PALESTINE.

He just and fear not: Let nil the ends thou aim'st at, be thy Country’s, 'lliy Gcu’s. and Truth’s.

VVk have learned with much gratification that a Subscription List has been opened in Auckland in aid of the Fund for the relief of the Jews m the Holy Land, whose extreme sufferings we brought under the consideration of our readers on the 7th inst. In our article of that date we cited evidences (which, had our space permitted, might have been greatly multiplied) of the deep and appalling misery under which they were groaning, sinking, and perishing, in consequence of a famine which—although it was partly caused by a failure of last year’s crop —was mainly attributable to the cutting off of their usual sources of supply in consequence of the European War; and we adverted to the benevolent zeal with which not only their own co-religionists, but Christians of every denomination, were striving in the adjoining colonies to mitigate the ditsress of the sufferers. We find by the most recent Australian papers ihat this movement was still in progress. At Sydney the contributions had reached to nearly £3OOO. A similar spirit of liberality had manifested itself in Melbourne, and Hobart Town. Nor was it confined to the capitals; the country towns and districts joined in the effort, —L.muceston, for instance, raising about £2OO. In these contributions, we say, Christians have borne a large share ; for, as we explained when we before referred to the subject, although Sir Moses Montefiore appears to have gratefully declined a paiticular form of assistance offered in London, it is evident that there was no intention or wish to limit the effort to the Hebrew people exclusively. Indeed the name of Sir Moses himself appears in the English papers in the same List with a number of subscribers widely differing from him in faith ; and in the Sydney and other Lists which we have seen, it was plain that no distinction of this kind was thought of. In Auckland, from communication with some of the leading members of the Jewish persuasion, we are enabled to state that any contributions which any members of the community, of whatever faith, may be willing to make for the object will be thankfully received, and forwarded with the subscriptions of the Jews themselves. We unaffectedly regard the call as one of extraordinary interest. Rarely in the history of human distress has there been an appeal to charitable feeling based on facts of deeper and moie harrowing wretchedness, or presenting a stronger claim to the sympathy of those who pity and would relieve human suffering wherever it is found. The circumstance that these sufferings have, to so large an extent, been consequent upon the War in which England bears so prominent a part, gives additional strength to the call. And, over and above these considerations, there is a peculiar interest connected with the class of sufferers in this instance, and with the place where the sufferings are endured, which must be felt and acknowledged by all who reflect upon what Abraham and his descendants were in the days of -their ancient pre-eminence—who contemplate what they are in this their long winter-season of dispersion and (with comparatively few exceptions) distress —and who look forward to what they shall yet be, perhaps at no very remote day, and in that very land where now multitudes of them are passing through miseries which the mind almost shrinks from dwelling on, and the hand trembles at recording. We trust therefore that there will be a general disposition to aid in this deeply interesting effort; not only as reciprocating that willingness to contribute to benevolent objects, without reference to creed or country, which the Jews themselves have many times manifested, but specially because this is an effort for the relief of Jeivs, and of Jews in that sacred Land which was the birth-place of the Founder of Christianity,— Hiuselp a Jew. Since the above was written, we have seen an announcement, forwarded for insertion in our advertising columns, that subscription lists are lying at the Union Bank, and at the Stores of Mr. D. Nathan and Mr. C. Davis.