The Maccabaean

THE Zionist Organizations of Eastern Europe, and, in a lesser degree, those of Germany, stand before the increasingly pressing problem of taking a definite stand toward the migrating movement in the direction of Palestine. In the East, the interests of the masses are concerned, in Germany those of a large number of individuals who are stormily demanding a chance to go to Palestine forthwith and there to live their own lives. As a preliminary, I affirm, that the Zionist movement for Palestine must now be made a movement of the Jewish people toward Palestine.

I do not believe that we are in a position, at this present moment to engage in informative labors on a great scale. All the informative material we possess about Palestine has been superseded or rendered valueless through the war. Not even the figures concerning area and expanse are valid any more, for the boundaries of a Jewish Palestine are at present unknown. Of course, being ignorant of the future political and administrative features of the country, we can’t know anything definite about its productive and commercial possibilities. All anti-bellum data furnish at best only a vague foundation of speculative guesses and no foundation at all for information or projects... . Small as our available funds of reliable Palestinian information are, they should be popularized through handy little pamphlets, both in Yiddish and in all other media of necessary appeal. ... There are, at present, masses standing ready in the East, waiting to be transplanted to Palestine, eagerly looking forward to the call, but subordinating their individual desires to communal necessities. During the period of suspense imposed upon them by chaotic conditions, these wards of the Zionist organization should be trained and informed, within the limits of available knowledge. .. . The question most often asked, especially by our Zionist youth, may be briefly formulated as follows: What manner of men are needed to form the first or early ranks of Palestinian pioneers, and what must we do to qualify? The routine answer is, that an agriculturally schooled element is need in the first. place, and that training in husbandry is therefore the best means of qualifying for pioneer-work in Palestine. But the grounds well toward an exodus in the East consist of masses of handicrafismen, laborers, shopkeepers, and merchants. In Germany, too, the enthusiasts for Palestine live in a setting that has made them familiar with anything else rather than soil-culture. It should be remembered, however, that the Jews of the townlets and villages of the East are by no means so estranged from the soil and its cultivation as their brethren of the metropolitan center. On the contrary, Jews in the »ro- vincial towns and villages of the East have, from t? : immemorial, been farmers on a petty scale, and =" .hem, through their peasant surroundings, are far ıth the

work and products of agriculture. The assumption is therefore warranted, that there will be found numerous individuals among this element with a liking for agriculture and a certain measure of familiar knowledge enabling them to take up agricultural pursuits. Agricultural laborers, therefore, will not be wanting for primary foundation in Palestine, but there may be a lack of schooled farming experts. Our German-Jewish youth, shaping its education to fill that want may supply it, but we must not be over-optimistic in our expectations.

Sun Ve The question arises: how to afford immediate opportunities for subsistence to great masses of Jews outside of the sphere of agriculture. There is no doubt that the assumption of Palestinian responsibilities, in a near future, will compel us to inaugurate public works on a vast scale. Roads and railroads must be built and maintained, aqueducts must be laid, elevations graded, river-beds channeled, river-locks supplied. Vast stretches of areable ground must ° be cleared of stones and debris, houses, barracks and piers will have to be built, there will be abundance of toil required in longshore work and transportation—all public works absorbing a multitude of unskilled labor. Such laborers need bring little to their task save health, vigor and good intent. Two facts are plain: first, that public works of that nature will require thousands of hands from ‚the very beginning; and, secondly, that the number of hands required will vastly increase with the progressive development of the country. It is true that Jews possess little aptitude or inclination for hard and purely physical labor. But it is likewise true that the German administration. in the conquered East succeeded, during the war, to build, with underfed Jewish labor—chiefly the proletariat of the great metropolitan centers—many hundred kilometers of roads and railroads, to clear huge forests, to erect gigantic saw- mills, railroad-tie factories, marmalade factories, etc., and to man their construction-gangs chiefly with Jewish laborers — and all this in war-time, under frightful condition, upon disgraceful terms and on behalf of a cause foreign to all Eastern Jews and odious to many of them. If that could be done, in war, in Poland, and upon such terms, is Jewish Palestine likely to suffer from lack of laborers available in a cause that must be sacred to the humblest of them?

To be sure, a careful selection of laborers is requisite with a view to physical aptitude. This selection must proceed along vigorously exacting requirements. First, because of the specific physical requirements of the Palestinian climate; and secondly, because discouragement through lack of physical stamina may easily cause demoralized immigrants to turn their backs upon labor and to take to commerce on an unfruitful scale, or to other socially undesirable ways of making a living. Careful selection along vigorous physical standards and a fair wage must form the