The Maccabaean

You all know as I do that the Jewish people were once an agricultural people. Our Book of the Law and our commentaries are filled with the evidence of the supreme importance of agriculture. Our ancient ritual bears its impress on every page. Our festivals celebrate its seasons. Our ideal of life was that “every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make him afraid.” Our ancient rabbis had keen insight when they lauded the tilling‘of the soil; “for the soil is the surest source of sustenance to those that work it, and such occu- nation brings with it health of body and ease of mind.”

The large scale upon which our agriculture was carried on in those times can be appreciated by measure of Solomon's gift to Hiram's workmen, of almost 500,000 bushels of wheat and barley and 170,00 gallons each of wine and of olive oil. And we can see to-day the ruined terraces covering the now barren mountains of Judea which Josephus tells us were covered in his day with fruit trees.

But this period of our national life came to a sorrowful end through the Exile. "And gladness (was) taken away and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there (was) no longer singing."

een - se ea Inden _ Ay In the lands of dispersion our people were forced by conditions and by legal prohibition into other pursuits. The cultivation of the soil became a memory, but a treasured memory because of the persisting hope of the “Return.” This, I believe, accounts for the efforts made during the past century to establish Jewish agricultural colonies in Palestine. The earlier attempts failed, but the failure furnished lessons and finally led to success. The difficulties were many and great. The land had been neglected for centuries, and made desolate by destruction of the forests. The methods of agriculture of the natives were most primitive. The earlier settlers were unlearned in agriculture and entirely ignorant concerning peculiarities of the land on which they had settled or the sort of cultivation for which it was adapted. And to the resulting difficulties, almost unsurmountable in themselves, there were added the most malignant forms of malarial fever which killed the settlers or robbed them of their strength, and hostile and half-civilized neighbors who menaced their lives and their property. That Jewish colonies in Palestine survived and grew in numbers and in size during the last 30 years is evidence that the desire of the Jews to return to the cultivation of the soil of Palestine'is still strong in spite of almost 2000 years of banishment from the land; but it is also evidence of the endurance, the fortitude, the courage, the hopefulness and the fitness of the colonists. The first colony founded was Petach Tikveh, the Gate of Hope, a few miles north of Jaffa. The land was bought in 1878, but it was not until 1887 that a firm footing was gained, through the aid of that great and good man without whose sympathy and help failure would have followed in this colonv and in many others.

Ian ai lach pure Ar a a a nn ee FE Par en ae I speak of Baron Edmund de Rothschild, known throughout the Palestinan colonies as “our Baron.” Rothschild bought a large tract of land, and settled upon it twenty-eight families of Jewish workingmen. He had eucalyptus trees planted extensively in the marshy districts and this improved the sanitary conditions. He introduced vine culture, planted extensive vineyards, and thus gave employment to families he had settled and to the others. Part of the land was sown in grain; later almonds and apricots were planted, and in 1892 the first orange plantation of about ten acres. Other plantations followed and the growth of the colony and of its cultivated lands was rapid. While the vineyards were the chief source of income in the earlier years, the orange crop grew more and more important, and in 1912 there were 1300 acres planted in oranges, representing a value of four or five million francs. The increasing export of oranges necessitated the formation in 1908 of an export company known as Pardes, and in the year 1912-1913 the orange plantations of Petach Tikveh and other Jewish colonies near Jaffa exported

330,000 cases valued at 4,000,000 francs. The exports last year were considerably larger, but I have not the exact figures.

More than a thousand acres are planted in almonds, and grain fields cover a similar area. The colony has grown in population to about 2500 souls. The colony has become a town with its town hall, its synagogue, its schools and its inns, and there are daughter colonies springing up nearby. I have entered into detail concerning Petach Tikveh and it would be tempting to do so concerning the other colonies. Rishon-le Zion was founded south of Jaffa in 1892 by a small group of Russian Jews, and has now over 1000 inhabitants. This colony possesses the extensive wine cellars, built by Baron de Rothschild, now under management of a co-operative society, and quite successful. I should like to speak about Rehoboth, founded in 1890, near Rishon-le Zion, in early development of which our friend Mr. E. W. Lewin-Epstein of New York played so important a part; a colony which has been able to develop to its present large size without any help from the Baron. I should like to describe each of the more important colonies in Judea, the colonies in Samaria, especially Zichron Jacob and Chederah, and the colonies in Galilee, around the lake of Tiberias and still further north. But I fear your patience to listen would not equal my desire to describe them in detail, the differences in their settlement and growth, the differences in their products, the characteristics of each and the special interests of each. But I shall point out that in general the colonies in the south have devoted themselves chiefly to vineyards and orange, olive and almond plantations, while in the north the cultivation of grain predominates. In the south much of the rough labor is performed by Arab workmen, in the north the work, even the hardest, is done almost exclusively by Jews. The colonies have been growing constantly and their number is increased so that it is estimated that there are now twelve to fifteen thousand persons living in the agricultural colonies of Palestine and that there are about 100,000 acres of land in their possession.