The Maccabaean

I noticed the letter of Mr. Marick of Pittsburgh in your May number. It may be of interest to him and others to learn that the Carmel Wine Company, of which I am the managing director, has begun to tackle the problem of introducing Palestinian Olive Oil in this country several years ago. ] call it a problem because of the many difhculties attached to it. The olive industry of Palestine is just beginning to develop, and this is mainly a result of the efforts of the said Company. The first need was to get some reliable parties in Palestine sufficiently interested to provide for the refining of the oil in order that the product might compare favorably with that of France and Italy. In a country industrially so backward as Palestine this was no easy task. Nor do T consider this task completed. Of no less importance is the difficulty of transportation due to several causes. Then came the struggle with the well-intrenched European oils in this country on the one hand and with the adulterated oils on the other hand. The means usually employed for quickly gaining a foothold for a new product in this country were justified in this case only to a very small extent, because of the undeveloped state of this industry in Palestine. The oil from the olive trees about the planting of which Mr. Marick and other Zionists have heard so much. has not yet realized. It takes about 12 years, on the average, for an olive tree to yield some oil. The olive plantations of the Jewish National Fund have not yet reached that age.

Notwithstanding all this, we have succeeded in creating some demand for the Palestine oil in this country, and the outlook for the future seems to me very bright. Mr. Marick will surely be pleased to learn that the Carmel Wine Company has recently received a shipment of over 3000 gallons of pure olive oil from Palestine, which has been adjudged by connoisseurs as good as any imported oil they have ever tasted. Mr. Marick is welcome

to a sample of it, which he would surely find deserving of recommendation to his friends on its merits only, aside from all sentiments.

Yours very truly,

E. LEWIN-EPSTEIN.

Tt is with genuine pleasure and interest I hope the increasing numbers of Jewesses who are occupying themselves in the Jewish National Cause, as recorded in the issues of your journal of which I am an interested leader in England. It is this pleasing fact which prompts me to solieit a little space in your columns, that I might present a matter of consideration, nerhans not hitherto accorded it.

The woman's place in Zionism has long been declared and assured. In it her rights are unquestioned, and it would be to the well-being of Zionism did she rise to the opportunities which franchise offers and respond to the call Zionism sends forth to every Jewish heart. I note the number of new Zionist societies that are springing up all over America and that women are expending much energy and displaying great enthusiasm in the advancement of them, thus proving beyond all doubts that Zionism is an actual living force and that our women are capable of responding to the ideals and essentials the movement stands for.

It is this circumstance that impels me to place this letter before your women readers. It is less than five years ago that it occurred to me how beneficial a factor it would prove if all women Zionist societies could be united and so create a bond of sympathy and co-operation in the interest of Zionism in general.

In Nov., 1909, the first Conference of Women Zionists was held in this city, (Manchester), and an effort was made to create this bond, beyond the borders of