December 1932
518
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¡ / - ' H i r n D 7 1 J 3 ’ IN THE JEWISH WORLD B y J. A. V aus
The Arabs were exhorted to “ oppose by violence each attempt o f the Zionists to rob you o f your land and exclude you from work.” “Do n ot'leave your lands,” they were urged. “ Force the invaders to retreat. Pay them back in double measure for each o f their blows. Make them flee your land.” “ Though copimunistic activities are il legal in Palestine and Communists caught carrying on illegal propaganda are im prisoned for a term and then deported from the country, yet secretly they carry on their work. “Many new beautiful houses are being built in Palestine for both social and pri vate uses— deeply entrenched, spacious, with enough room to accommodate not only the present inhabitants but many new comers in the future. One sees many a clubhouse and school and synagogue in the Emek, in Jerusalem, in Haifa, towering above a hill and shining invitingly to the visitor. These edifices, it is no secret, are built at strategic points to serve as posi tions of defense in emergencies. All of this is symbolic of all Jewish work in Pales tine; the foundations are driven deep in the soil with the greatest love and sacrifice and confidence ; but at the same time, eyes are alert and scanning around in all direc tions over a vast brooding sea.” Jewish Rabbis Discuss Jesus An extract from the News Sheet, pub lished by the International Committee on the Christian’s Approach to the Jews, states: “The June, 1932, issue of the Information Bulletin of the National Conference on Jews and Christians brings, notice of a re cent visit to New York by young people from two suburban churches, in the course of which Rabbi H. G. Enelow, o f Temple Emanu-el, gave a fascinating lecture on ‘The Jewish Background o f Jesus’ and the attitudes o f contemporary Jews toward Jesus. “W e also have information that recently at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in Lon don, Rabbi Dr. Mattuck gave an address on ‘The Modern Jews’ Interest in Jesus.’ He based the sympathetic interest o f the Jews in the Founder o f Christianity on (a ) the better treatment o f the Jews ; (b ) the in roads made into the theory o f the divinity of Jesus; (c ) the abandonment of the idea of Jesus the Messiah, and (d ) the belief that, in His attitude toward the law and His denunciation of an arid and mechanical formalism, He was merely returning to pure Judaism. The Jewish Chronicle has taken Dr. Mattuck to task because o f these arguments, for it contends that such are not borne out by the actual realities. It adds that ‘much water will flow down the Jordan before Christianity dethrones Jesus from the seat o f divine authority on which it has planted Him and consents to accept Him just as one o f the goodly company o f ethical leaders.’ ”
Jewish World Conference m o v e m e n t of gigantic proportions, and one destined to play a domi nant part in the affairs o f Jewry the world over, is the proposal of the for mation of a world-wide Jewish congress. It is proposed to unite all factions of world-wide Jewry, including the two larg est and most influential Jewish organiza tions, namely, the Zionists and the Jewish Agency, under one banner, for their mu tual protection and the advancement of their common interests, particularly in view of present-day distressing conditions in the political, spiritual, cultural, and eco nomic Jewish world. This congress will undoubtedly prove to be a powerful political force to be reckoned with, as well as an authoritative, dominant, and official mouthpiece for the minority rights o f world Jewry. The formation of such a Jewish congress represents the first world-wide attempt, since the dispersion, to unite all Israel under one common banner. Already the first World Jewish Confer ence is history, having met for the first time on August 14 to 17, in Geneva, Swit zerland. This conference adopted resolu tions for a world congress in the summer o f 1934. The New Palestine states that the machinery for convening this congress was intrusted to a council o f from fifty to sixty Jewish leaders all over the world, to be selected by a Congress Executive Com mittee. This Executive Committee was se lected before the conference adjourned and includes Jewish notables from every quar ter o f the globe. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, who is a prominent member o f the Executive Committee, fired the opening gun of the conference, and among other things, declared that the con ference offered the Jewish people an oppor tunity to plan and evolve a machine out of which shall emerge the parliament of the Jewish people. He stated that it will be a function of the World Jewish Congress to deal first with the status o f Jews in various lands, and sec ond with the economic situation o f the Jews created by lawlessness. In adopting its resolution for a world congress, Israel is waging a many-sided battle for the existence o f “the economic life o f the Jews shaken to the roots, and o f the masses sinking into despair.” Henceforth, should Hitler of Germany start his anti-Semitic program, he will have, not the limited number o f Jews in Germany to consider, but fifteen million Jews scattered over the entire world to reckon with. Jewish Communists in Palestine While Europe and America have been languishing under the present economic crisis, the Jewish community in the Holy Land has been practically unaffected by it ; on the contrary, all lines o f industry and
Mussolini and the Jews cc’TD h e r e are no pure races. Not JL even the Jews have remained unadulterated. Often, through as similation, a nation has derived strength and culture. Race—-that is a sentiment, no reality; ninety-five per cent sentiment. I will never be lieve that races can be biologically listed as more or less pure. The ex ponents o f the Nordic theory of Germanic racial nobility are, comic ally, not Germans. Gobineau was French; Chamberlain, English; Woltman, Jewish. They were wrong. National pride does not require this delirium o f race.” A writer in the Menorah Journal states : “ Every morning except Saturdays, a stream o f workers wends its way through the streets o f Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jeru salem to thé scaffoldings of new buildings, to the factories and workshops that are constantly increasing, to the roads in the making, to orange groves and vegetable gardens. "Paradoxically, it is the very crisis over the world that has brought this boom to Palestine. Many Jews fleeing from the ex cessively burdensome taxes and boycott in Poland, Jews from Germany who actually tremble at the shadow o f Hitler, Jews also from America who have been threatened with utter impoverishment by the continu ing depression have directed their practical interests to Palestine. Thus, new areas are being planted, new factories erected, and new trade carried on. As a result, Jewish Palestine is today one o f the very few coun tries in the world, if not the only country, where unemployment is practically non existent. “ One is overwhelmed by the great Jewish creations, material and spiritual, by the new forms o f genuine Jewish life which are being molded here by the tremendous energy which is displayed as nowhere else by this community o f 180,000 Jews. It amounts to nothing less than the remak ing o f an old nation on its ancient soil. But at the same time, one is bewildered by so many problems, difficulties, and apprehen sions that one is torn with the conflicting emotions of hope and fear. “A disquieting factor is the amazingly open incitement by Jewish Communists of ignorant Arab fellahs and Bedouins to at tack the Jewish colonies and -towns. “ Recently the Central Committee o f the Palestine Communist Party circulated a pamphlet in Arabic entitled, ‘The Land of the Fellahs.’ ” The intention o f this pamphlet was to incite the Moslems against the Jews with the hope of provoking open hostilities. agriculture are making rapid progress there.
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