OUR PALESTINE LETTER
(From Our Palestine Correspondent Miss Helena H. Cohen)
The tourist season is over at last. The great swarm of visitors which passed this year through the country have been most welcome, but now ‚one begins to feel that it is time to return to work. The number and the prominence of the visitors have furnished the colonists with inexhaustible topics of conversation. The colonists are still talking of the deep impression the new spirit in the country made upon Baron Rothschild. This new spirit is manifesting itself in large new purchases of land, in fresh enterprises on the part of ICA, and in a closer co-operation of this society with the Zionist Institutions. “The Zweckrevision” of the Zionist Actions Committee is the subject of much discussion and so also is the visit of Mr. Morgenthau who has promised to use his influence in behalf of the vounse colonists.
That this year has seen more visitors from the United States in Palestine than any other year is a matter of significance. There are still a number of American tourists travelling through the country. Some of them have come as the representatives of large bodies seeking to invest money in lands or industries. Others have come to make scientific studies. Among the latter is Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore, the Honorary President of the Federation of American Zionists, whose purpose it is to study diseases of the eye prevalent in Palestine.
Such visitors from abroad as have not been afraid of the summer heat are finding it well worth their while to come at the time of the vintage just begun. Very good and sweet are the grapes already put on the market. Walking through the vineyards of Rishon Le Zion one delights to see the stems heavy with fruit and the sunburnt men and girls gathering the harvest. People who have not seen the colony for the last few years are astonished at the sight of its extraordinary development. The small Palestinian apricots (mish-mish) are also sweet and savory this
year, and there is an abundance of these dark berries called "toot." The call of the Arabs "Yalla mish-mish! Yalla Toot!" is ringing through the streets from morning to night. Now it is the fig-trees that are heavy with fruit and promise an excellent harvest.
This year for the first time attempts have been made to cultivate other kinds of fruit and vegetables, such as strawberries and asparagus, and the results are reported good.
In the cities, the heat does not prevent lively activity. Walking through Tel Aviv one finds every week new houses rising out of the sands. The broad and fine road already 510 metres long is to extend to the sea-strand. The completion of the road will surely lead to much building activity, and Jaffa, to be the most beautiful Jewish city in the world, will then face the ocean. The attractive new theatre and cinema building is also nearly finished. The manager, a Palestinian who has studied the art of acting in Berlin, is very busy making ready for the play-season.
Many elements within the community of Tel Aviv are realizing the necessity of communal work and plans for the formation of a society for the care of immigrants, social clubs, and a kind of municipal law code are being considered.
The difficulty of amalgamating the various elements, Jews from Russia, Western Europe, Palestine, Bochara, America, etc., is diminishing rapidly. The people of Tel Aviv themselves have grown accustomed to the interesting mixture and hardly wonder any more at so strange a sight as Herr Beilis sitting on the porch of his house conversing with a friend or drinking his tea while the many law-suits which grew out of his trial are still pending in Russia.
In Jerusalem and Haifa, the bitter feeling that was aroused in the time of the linguistic struggle has calmed down. The whole affair had the effect of impelling young and old to study Hebrew with redoubled energy. Jerusalem is looking forward to the beginning of the work for the proposed University.