The Maccabaean

WESTERN Russia, the entire territory of the one-time kingdom of Poland, has a fairly dense Jewish population of hardly less than six millions —one-sixth to one-seventh of the whole population. In the cities this percentage of Jews amounts to 33-35%, in Warsaw and Lodz to over 50%; in Wilna and Kovno and many small towns it rises to eighty and ninety per cent.

- 1) The total number of Russian Jews in 1897 amounted to not quite five millions: 87-88 per cent. of them were squeezed into the Kingdom of Poland and the so-called inner Pales. Two-fifths of the Russian Jews are engaged in commerce, three-fifths are artisans and factory workers. Among the small business men and minor artisans, who make up more than 90-95 per cent. of the Jewish population, fearful destitution prevails, and a remarkably low standard of living, joined, however, to deep religious sentiment and the strongest hope in a coming liberation from this misery in unfriendly exile, and in a reunion in the fatherland, : : : the Holv land. . .

ee A Tr u Be he" a en ni A TE The Social Democratic movement, namely, the Jewish (Workers’) Bund, won great influence over the factory and home workers, It is easily understood that Zionism should have found numerous adherents . . . But even the Russo-Jewish “Bundisten,” who were not Zionists, have, for instance during the Russian Revolution, been much occupied with the problem of the territorial limitation of Russian Jewry. The wish arose that the Russian people, upon gaining the mastery, should grant the Jews a separate territory, or should cut out from its former pales a region sufficing for the maintenance of Russian Jewry. It was expected that the territorial limitation of the Jewish population would destroy the mainspring of anti-semitism. The wish that the Jews again grow into a nation, wherein all callings should be harmoniously distributed, was expressed. This tendency has gained significance since the Russian revolution. The Jewish situation has become even more deplorable, especially because of the co-operative movement among the Poles. This movement generally went hand in hand with a boycott against Jewish traders. The boycott movement will undoubtedly increase in strength, and further hamper the living possibilities of the Jews in Poland and Western Russia. Of course, the affluent Jews and academicians easily assimilate with the Russians and Poles, and become converts to Christianity in great numbers. The mass of the Jews, however, remains in utmost miserv. Even if a future Poland were to

grant Jews the privilege of sending representatives to Parliament according to the population and of forming a separate over-territorial curia, the plight of the Jews would not be improved. As long as non-Jews form the majority of Poland, there will be no inclination to grant Jews greater privileges. Rather, the Jews will be zealously watched, as in Roumania, lest they buy out some peasants and land owners and gain the mastery over the non-Jewish population. Whatsoever the political development of Poland be, it is hardly to be expected that the situation of the Jewish masses will improve, and the continuation of Russian absolutism in the Russian territories will only aggravate the misery of the Jews.

As is known, a strong current of Russo-Polish-Jewish emigration has for the last few decades, been directed mainly towards America. But this emigration has not solved the problem of East-Jewry, as there is much destitution even in America. Only a constantly decreasing part of the Jewish emigration has been turned to Palestine. Yet there, agricultural colonies, comprising about 50 ha. of land, and numbering a population of over 10,000, have grown up.

Can Palestine receive a dense Jewish population? If this were possible, the main mass of Russo. Jewish Poles, a population of about 5-6 million, could be colonized in Palestine. This would be the best and most ideal solution of the East-Jewry problem. The longing of the Jewish masses for the “Promised Land” would be satisfied. And there would start the ethical rebirth of an entire nation, the like of which the world has never seen.

It is clear that before the settlement of East-Jewry in Palestine is further discussed, the question whether natural conditions make such a settlement possible, must be solved. If Prof. Philipson is right in his statement that the country is a waste, rocky land, incapable of sustaining more than 1,200,000 people, the question of Palestine and incidentally that of Zionism, would be settled. In that case Daniel’s statement, that Zionism is only a falling star, would also be correct. The cause of the disagreements in the estimation of Palestine’s agricultural values lies in the fact that there is no register of the landed estates and there are no building surface statistics in Palestine. The rainfall, as is generally known, suffices for the bringing forth of at least one harvest. The strips poorest in rain, the coast plains in the south and the East Jordan land, nevertheless, have always 400 mm. of yearly rain fall, that is, as much as the drier parts of Germany. Palestine’s advantage lies in that the entire rainfall during the winter is utilized in agricultural cultivation, and does not, as in Germany, mainly flow into the sea. The central and northern West Jordan land, Samaria, Galilee, has