Zionist Propaganda

II

In 1864 Professor Grätz, the historian of Judaism, published a study entitled The Rejuvenation of the Jewish Race, in which stress was laid upon the national character of the Jewish people, and in which the salvation of the Jewish Question by Zionism was demanded.

In the same year Abraham Petavel pleaded for a Jewish State in the paper, Devoir des Nations de rendre au Peuple Juif sa Nationalité (Obligation of the Nations to Restore to the Jewish People their Nationality).

In 1868 J. Frankel did likewise in the paper Du retablissement de la Nationalité Guive (Re-establishment of the Jewish Nationality).

In 1869 a banker in Nancy, Lazar Levy Bing, made propaganda for the colonization of Palestine by the Jews; and at the same time Dob Beer Gordon advocated the Zionistic idea in the Hamaggid.

In 1873 Dumas, the younger, in his work La Femme de Claude, causes the Jew Daniel to express the idea of the Jews.

In 1876 Henry Dunant founded the "International Palestine Society"; and in the same year Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot, was published.

In the same year, too, Perez Smolensky (18401885) advocated the idea of National Zionism in the Hashachar.

In 1879 the English author, Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888), travelled in Palestine and Syria with

1

the express intention of instituting Jewish immigration on a large scale.

In 1880 the Chaplain of the British Embassy at Vienna (the Rev. William Hechler) published a leaflet entitled The Restoration of the Jews, in which the religious and practical reasons were briefly stated.

In 1881-1882 the persecution of the Jews in Russia broke out. This event on the one hand shook the Russian Jew, who favoured assimilation, rudely out of his dreams; on the other hand the Jewry of the whole world was brought face to face with the problem, "What can be done with the Jews in the East?" The answer to the question of Jews and Christians alike was "To PALESTINE." Moses Löb Lilienblum (1843-1910) showed the way in the Derech la Abor Golin. Gabriel Charmers, who had just returned from a tour in Syria, advocated in the Revue des deux Mondes (June 15, 1888) with great ardour the immigration ideas of Oliphant. Emma Lazarus, of New York, wrote her spirited Epistle to the Hebrews; and lastly appeared at that time Auto-Emancipation.

In 1882, on the initiation of Perez Smolensky, "The Jewish National Students' Corporation was founded at Kadimah. M. T. Schnierer was the first President.

In the same year the Rabbi Samuel Mohilewer (1824-1898) called together the Zionist Society at Warsaw.

Also, in the same year, the first Colonies were

Zionist Propaganda

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founded on the soil of Palestine. The Roumanian Jews, whose Committee of Galatz had raised 100,000 francs, founded Zammarine (to-day called ZichronJacob) and Rosh Pina in Galilee. The Russian Jews refounded the village of Petach Tikvah, which in 1878 had been founded from Jerusalem and had been practically deserted.

A future historian will describe the sufferings of these pioneers and path-finders. However, the enthusiasm for the resettlement in Palestine helped them to overcome all adversaries and obstacles. Societies of the Friends of Zion (Chovevi-Zion) sprang up, which, with Baron Edmund Rothschild, of Paris, as the head, spared no effort in preserving the hopeful germ from destruction.

In 1884 this "Chovevi-Zion" held a Conference at Kattowitz (Upper Silesia), with the object in view of creating a centre and an organ for the Zionist Movement.

In the same year the "Chovevi-Zion Association" was formed in Russia, which in memory of Moses Montefiore was called "Maskereth Mosheh." In Germany the Society "Ezra " was founded.

In 1885 K. W. Wissotzky was commissioned by the Russian Montefiore Association to go to Palestine; and, subsequently, on the basis of personal investigation he recommended several colonies for vigorous support.

Also in 1885 Nathan Birnbaum founded in Vienna the Zionist journal, Lelbst-Emanzipation (AutoEmancipation), and at the same time the Society

Admah Jeshurun" (later called "Zion") sprang into existence.

In 1887 the Second Conference of the ChoveviZion was held, this time at Drusgenik; and in 1889 the third and last was held at Wilna.

In 1890 the author, Alexander Zederbaun, was successful in obtaining from the Russian Government the official recognition of the "Society for the Assistance of Israelites (Jews) carrying on Agriculture and Industries in Palestine and Syria (Gesellschaft zur Unterstritzung ackerbaund gewerbetreibender Israeliten in Palestina and Syrien). This organization, called in short "The Odessa Palestine Committee", was in a position to expend yearly between thirty and forty-five thousand roubles on the colonization of Palestine.*

In 1890 also the Jewish National Students' Corporation, "Hasmonea," of Czernowitz, was founded. Its first President was Schnierer.

From this time onward the Zionistic Jewish National idea gained daily in depth and following in the academic world. In Vienna, the Societies "Unitas", "Ivria ", " Veritas", and "Zephirah"; in Prague, "Maccaboa" (now Bar-cochba); in Czernowitz, "Zephira", and others.

In 1891 Paul Dimidoff, of Charlottenburg, directed his warning to the West-European Jews under the title Wo Hinaus? (Where will it lead to ?). He suggested that the Jews should establish as many colonies as possible in Palestine.

* The Colonies founded by this Society are described in subsequent pages.

Turkey Opens the Door

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In the same year was published the paper The Jewish Question and the Future (die Judenfrage und Zuknuft), by Gustave Cohen, of Hamburg, who spent the best years of his life as a merchant in South Africa.

In 1892 the English Chovevi-Zion founded the quarterly journal Palestine.

In 1893 the novel Judea in the Year 6000 was published by Max Osterberg-Verakoff, in which the Zionist idea was elaborated on the lines of Pinsker.

In 1893, too, Dr. Nathan Birnbaum combined the Zionist and Jewish National ideas in the Paper The National Re-birth of the Jewish People in its own Land as a means of Solving the Jewish Question: An Appeal to the Good and Noble of all Nations.

And in 1896 the Jewish Villages of Palestine were represented at the Berlin Exhibition of Industry.

*

The foregoing facts were set forth in the periodical entitled Heimkehr (Homewards) of the JewishNational Academic Society "Emunah", of Czernowitz.

Turkey Opens the Door.

In keeping with divine prophecy, the Sultan of Turkey, in the exercise of his sovereign rights, issued a decree proclaiming that the "Land of Promise was closed no longer to the descendants of Abraham, but that it was open for them to return and settle there as farmers and husbandmen. That

"