Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

The opinion that the Zionist leaders should concentrate the weight of their efforts on Downing Street rather than on Geneva, is voiced in the “Jewish Morning Journal” of Aug. 15, by Jacob Fishman, in the course of a discussion of the last report of the Mandates Commission on Palestine.

“The report of the Mandates Commission,” the writer says “gives us no cause for enthusiasm from our standpoint. It substantiates what we said recently regarding the exaggerated hopes placed by some on this Commission.

“The report is typical of a commission that in fact has no definite jurisdiction and plays the role of a mere critic.

“In general, as is obvious, the report this year constitutes a sort of ‘certificate of good behavior’ for the Mandatory. The only consolation is that the Arab demands were also rejected. But this substantiates our previous conviction that the Zionists have little to expect from Geneva and the pressure should be shifted to Downing Street.”

In the opinion of the “Day” of Aug. 14.

“The Jews have their eyes on tomorrow–the Mandates Commission looks at today. Therefore the Jews point to what England has not done and the Mandates Commission points to what England has done.

“This does not mean that the demands of the Jews to the Mandatory should become weaker. They must continue to make maximum demands and insist that the Mandatory do all in its power to help the development of the Jewish Homeland.

“Bu the Jews must put the same maximum demands before themselves too. Just as the Zionists demand of England more cooperation so must they demand more cooperation from all friends of Palestine.”

THE “WORLD” ON THE JEWS AS FARMERS

That the career of Samuel Fishman, who has been niminated to the Legislature in Kansas, lends new force to the fact that the Jews in America have made a success of farming, is the belief of the New York “World” of Sunday.

Referring to Mr. Fishman’s announcement that he will preach cooperative farming, the “World” avers that “he can do so with authority, for he was the organizer of a flourishing colony of about 100 Jewish farmers in Western Kansas. His appearance in the Legislature will advertise the fact that the Jew, whose activities are always thought of as urban, has met with genuine success on the soil.

“It is true,” the paper continues, “that the number of Jewish farmers remains comparatively small. Yet it is estimated that about 75,000 Jews are now settled on 15,000 farmsteads. There is a large Jewish farming community in the Connecticut Valley, between Hart-ford and Springfield, growing tobacco another on the Toms River in New Jersey, a poultry district; and a third in the Michigan fruit belt. Hardly a State is without its Jewish agriculturists thought they are most numerous in New England, New York and New Jersey. California has an increasing Jewish population growing fruit and poultry. The race is making its mark in most fields of American life, and farming is one of them.”