The Maccabaean

reverence for a word regarded as holy. In these days when every man is an amateur scientist all too ready to destroy the traditional ideals that represent the accumulated experience of thousands of years of human life, there is no more pressing need in the realm of learning than that due regard should be had for those facts that lie beyond the realm of the physicist and biologist, and which find their repository in every human heart

It should be a matter of pride to the Jewish people, as well as of wonder, that the Hebrew Scriptures should have engaged wider attention from Jew and Gentile, from ignorant and learned, than any other collection of writings. The number of translations that have been made is bewildering; versions of the various Scriptures have appeared in over five hundred languages and dialects. It is not surprising then that Jewish thought should lie at the basis of the world’s morality. If time is a fair judge, there has been no greater conqueror of civilizations than the Jew—armed with a book; and is not that the only legitimate form of conquest? If the heart of man speaks true, no conquest of arms dare hope to endure so long as this peaceful victory. The Joseph of old brings tears to the eyes of a child of the northern wilds today, and, it seems, will always continue to touch the heart of humanity.

It is a pity that the author should have marred his work by devoting space to what is little better than a missionary tract, and by lavishing his praises on the “ample learning” and “delicate task” of converted Jews. This climactical chapter by its incongruity will bar the book from many libraries. It is a slip of judgment that may earn friends in Gentile quarters, but will not be forgiven by Jews.

The little volume serves as a companion to the new translation of the Hebrew Bible issued recently by the Jewish Publication Society, and necessarily gives considerable attention to the detailed story of that important work, and to the general considerations underlying biblical translation. S. J. C.

"Out of Egypt"

"Stories Without Women," by Don Byrne. Hearst's International Library Co., New York, 1915.

“Out of Egypt” is one of two striking Jewish stories which appear in a volume called “Stories Without Women,” by Don Byrne. The story, “In a Cellar” is a grim and gripping narrative of the days of the pogroms in Russia, so horribly real and so strongly sympathetic as to suggest in the first place a pogrom story by Maxim Gorky, and in the second place, a powerful tale by Ossip Dymov which describes the very scene of Jewish men and women crouching and cowering in a cellar to escape the rioters and going through all conceivable agonies while the work of destruction and murder is going on outside and within their hearing.

“Out of Egypt’ appropriately appears later in the volume. It represents that which is to come after the terrible. days of the pogroms shall even have been forgotten. Mr. Byrne, who is a new writer of marked talent and fine imagination is perhaps the first American author to realize the poetic possibilities of the efforts for the restoration of Palestine to the Jews.

The story of a fantastic military invasion to conquer Palestine is of especial timely significance at the present time. The writer who shows a fine understanding of Jewish life is filled with enthusiasm for the Zionist cause. That which at first appears as a wild adventure becomes an historic achievement.

“How utterly simple it was, after all! Here was this tract of fertile land wanting colonists, and here were the people who owned and tilled it when the world was young returning to own and till it again. Why couldn’t they have done so before now? Why should they have slaved and suffered and been outcasts and pariahs for centuries when they had only to come back? Why should they have been scarred and hacked in the advance westward when they could have been secure and prosperous in retreat? Why should old Borsky have gone through the horrors of Kishnief, and Carcassonne been spat on by his fellow conscripts in Algiers, and Oppenheim take the insult of coarse German students? They were forced to: they had to live. But why not have come back before now? And suddenly he remembered the long years of bondage in Egypt while the promised land lay across the waters before them, and they had been delayed in going forth. He questioned himself no further.”

The Economic Conquest of Palestine

(Continued from page 324)

site capital for the purchase of land and the erection of farm buildings as well as an itemized list of running expenses and profits and a computation of the interest to be derived from the invested capital.

From these considerations which should be of the keenest interest to future Palestinian colonists and to students of political economy in general, Mr. Oettinger proceeds, in the third section of his book, to a calculation of the sum necessary for establishing and maintaining an entire colony. Under this heading the author includes safety measures (such as the guarding of the colony by Shom’rim), educational and cultural institutions, medical aid, and the salaries of communal officers such as the sochet and the muchtar.

There are numerous ways of establishing a colony, and the history of Palestine for the last thirty-five years show how many and how serious are the mistakes which may be committed. Mr. Oettinger sums up the problems to be considered before purchasing the land. He then gives a plan for the apportionment of funds, and takes up one by one the steps incidental to the founding of a colony.

In many respects the fourth section of the book proves to be the most interesting, for it contains a project for the Jewish agricultural conquest of Palestine, and is, as it were, a scientific version of “Altneuland.” The author discusses the various contingencies which may influence the magnitude of future colonization endeavors. He insists upon the close co-operation of the various nationalist Jewish institutions and apportions the manifold tasks to be undertaken among the Zionist Organization, the National Fund, the financial agencies, and the settlers themselves. .

The average reader should not be dismayed by the ponderous title of the book nor by the scientific aspect of the text. The true Zionist will find it more romantic than any romance, for it enables him to visualize the future of Israel, when every man will sit under his own fig-tree and enjoy the fruit of his labor. The prospective colonist will find it a valuable text-book, and may gain from its perusal a desire to devote himself to one of the branches of farming described therein. It seems that the book is being translated in England and that in a short time it will be made available to the American Zionist public.