The Maccabæan
EDITORIAL PAGES.
J. DE HAAS, EDITOR.
THE ALLIANCE ISRAELITE.
THE Jewish Chautauqua has formed a platform for a blunt and detailed criticism of the Alliance Israelite, which has lately, officially or unofficially, been making propaganda throughout the United States. The criticism of Rabbi Mayer has dealt in particular with what he calls the un-Jewish and unmoral policy pursued by the Alliance in Jerusalem itself. It is for the Alliance to reply, and reply in such terms as shall wipe away the reproach cast upon it by one who has been observing its work for the last twelve months. That the Alliance is un-Jewish in its tendencies in Palestine is true, but in that sense all the forces at present at work in the Holy Land are un-Jewish. They endeavor to render permanent either the sentiments of the localities from which their organizations draw funds, or the localities from which the Jews come who are resident in Palestine. No one heretofore has thought of Judaizing the Jerusalem Jews, of wiping out in the capital of our forefathers the differences which are the natural result of the dispersion. Both old and new, at least in Jerusalem, should have been taught above all things to be Jews in their ideas and their thoughts should have been directed toward the community of race, not toward the difference of place of birth. The distinction between what is done and what ought to be done is the quintessence of Zionism.
PALESTINE IS DESOLATE.
THE good gentlemen who are aghast at the criticism of the Alliance Israelite Universelle are equally surprised that the Zionists do not succumb when they are told by those who have been in Palestine either a day or a year that it is at present the reverse of a Holy Land or a fruitful country. We are not aghast because we happened to know the facts. We have been sufficiently Jewish and sufficiently interested in the facts of Jewish existence to know all about the
condition of the Jews in Palestine and the nature of the country.
Will it be believed that the Zionist movement, not satisfied with the views of tourists, has actually obtained expert evidence on the character of the country and the nature of the soil, and on the question what is wrong in the country, morally and intellectually, has sought the opinion of people who have spent twenty and more years in observing Palestinian life.
We do not shudder at the thought that one-half of Jerusalem needs tearing down and rebuilding, because we have included such operations in our plans. It is not news to us that Jaffa needs a port or that there are malarial districts in the country. Those responsible for the work of 'the movement know not only these things, but a great deal more; and not a little of their time has been spent in maturing plans for changing not only the habitations of the people, but removing the evils with which the country is at present burdened. In military parlance, we have been thinking and planning to the “last button,” and if we are not “over there” now it will be found that when we do go, the march will be orderly and disciplined in accordance with a well-regulated and carefully thought out system.
We are glad, even if people abuse Palestine, for it shows that they are waking up to the fact that that country does exist, that there is a Jewish interest in it and that as Jews they cannot escape some responsibility for its present condition.
THE J. C. A.
THE Jewish Colonization Association, despite its millions, is very, very Falstaffian; the critical proddings of Mr. Zangwill have affected it considerably. Not that it has amended its ways; it will not discover how to do that for some years to come. But its official apologist, the Jewish Chronicle, in commenting upon the report just issued, says that "chivalry demands a little forbearance on the part of the onlookers." In less sweet temper it adds, "to indulge in pettifogging criticism merely hampers what is already a sufficiently trying undertaking." For our part we only regret that, as "like begets like," the pettifogging character of the work of the J. C. A. has required similar criticism.
The Jewish Chronicle delights in calling