Palestine Day

The designation of this Sunday as the first Palestine Day should have the support of all groups in America. The Zionist Organization of America, which has taken the initiative in setting aside this annual observance, believes that all Americans are equally interested in the transformation that has taken place in the modern Holy Land.

Within a decade and a half, a country which had belonged almost exclusively to the past has been endowed with an impressive future. No student of the world scene can afford to ignore the remarkable progress which has been made in rebuilding Palestine and restoring it again to an outstanding role in the life of the Near East.

Given the support and the sympathy of the nations of the world, the homeless among the Jewish people have been engaged in an unprecedented effort to reestablish their existence on soil hallowed to them by tradition and sentiment. They have not been conquerors but colonizers, imbued with a spirit of social idealism that traces its ancestry to the prophets who once preached in the land.

SKEPTICS CONVINCED OF PALESTINE’S GROWTH

Palestine Day has a unique significance for the Jewish people. It gives to us in America the opportunity to recall and pay tribute to the devotion and the valor of the men and women who have been the pioneers in the restoration of Palestine. Their initiative, their sacrifice and their vision laid the foundations for the broad growth that has been recorded in recent years. Today there are said to be 305,000 Jews in Palestine, and the population is growing at the rate of forty to fifty thousand a year.

No longer is there room for the skeptic and the doubter as to the possibilities in the Jewish homeland. Palestine Day is not merely a celebration but a reminder. It speaks to us of the large promise still held out by Palestine, a promise of new hope and new courage to scores of thousands of capable and brave men and women upon whom a disordered world has closed its doors.

The terrible conditions existing for Jews in Germany have, of course, given to Palestine a value hitherto unappreciated in many circles. Thousands are grateful that a land exists which offers them hope and a future for themselves and their children. In the crisis which has overwhelmed the Jews of Germany, we cannot forget that burdensome and crushing economic conditions exist for Jews in other European lands.

The Jewish Agency for Palestine reports that there are 120,000 European Jews who have signified their intention of emigrating to Palestine if the opportunity is given to them. If we can, in time, help to meet the hopes of these peoples we shall not only have rehabilitated them but will also have helped to ease the economic problem in the lands in which they live.

WINS SYMPATHY OF NON-JEWS

What has taken place in Palestine is also of the deepest interest to the Christians of America. Their sympathy and their support, as expressed through the deeds and words of leading public and government figures, have encouraged their fellow-Jewish citizens immeasurably.

Since the days of President Wilson, who took part in the formulation of the Balfour Declaration, Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt have taken a keen interest in the reconstruction of Palestine. They expressed admiration for the courage which animated the pioneers and observed with satisfaction the progressive methods that were used to resurrect the land from centuries of barren desolateness.

I know of no other reconstruction project of our time which has been conducted on so large a scale and which has so clearly symbolized the will of the organized world to right the wrong that has been inflicted upon a helpless people for so long. Palestine Day should be a source of satisfaction to all American citizens who had a share, direct and indirect, in restoring to its ancient glory a land that has sacred memories for Jew and Christian alike.

NON-ZIONISTS JOIN ENDEAVOR

The modern rebirth of Palestine had its beginnings not more than fifty years ago. It was a slow and painful process. In the early days and until only a few years ago the impetus and the strength for the upbuilding activity came from the Zionist movement. But the needs of the Jewish people and the evidence that was piling up in Palestine inevitably brought into the scope of the work other Jews who were not within the Zionist movement.

We have been known as non-Zionists. But that title is gradually disappearing as Jews of all shades of opinion join hands as Jews to further a project which is purely social and economic in its aspects. I was privileged to help in the steps which led to the establishment of the extended Jewish Agency for Palestine, the instrument recognized in the Mandate for Palestine given to Great Britain by the League of Nations.

The extended Jewish Agency, embracing Zionists and non-Zionists, was launched in 1929. Its activities have been in accordance with the declaration that Palestine should be developed as a home for the Jews who wish to go there to rebuild the land, with the understanding that the work would be conducted in such a way as to redound to the benefit of all the people who reside there.

COMMENDS COOPERATION BETWEEN JEWS, ARABS

Since 1929, very large funds have gone into Palestine from both public and private funds gathered since 1921. The developments and improvements that have been effected have far outstripped our fondest expectations. In industry, in agriculture, in commerce, in handicrafts and in every other field of economic activity there has been splendid progress. The cultural growth of the country has continued apace.

With the great Hebrew University as its apex, the Jewish educational system of Palestine has flourished on sound lines. Technical skill, unlimited energy and inspired zeal have been welded to create an instrument of advance which is fructifying virtually everything that it touches.

It has been gratifying to see the increasing evidence of cooperation between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. It can be safely said that, from the very beginning, the development of Jewish projects has had a beneficial effect upon neighboring Arabs—not merely in immediate financial results but in the creation of a spirit of emulation and the furtherance of a desire for progress. In industrial enterprises in Palestine, in the development of which have been especially interested through the Palestine Economic Corporation, we have sought and received cooperation from the Arab population.

WANDERERS NEED PERMANENT HOME

It is a source of great satisfaction that in the Palestine potash concern, for instance, Arab and Jewish workers work next to each other in perfect accord. We are only too happy to see that our health stations are frequented and used by many of our Arab neighbors, and they certainly benefit by the improved health conditions, the wiping out of malaria and the improved water conditions in that country.

In labor unions, in various industrial enterprises, in the cooperative loan societies, there are many points of cooperation between the Jewish population and the Arab population. That is as it should be, for we cannot prosper unless our neighbors prosper with us. It is also true that every prospering Jew has brought some advantages at the same time to the Arab population.

Seventeen years ago the nations of the world took official recognition of the need for providing homeless Jews with a certain refuge in their ancestral homeland. The need which existed then has been multiplied many times. Never in our memory has the position of Jews in many lands been so uncertain and so tragic.

Palestine Day serves to focus attention upon that pressing problem and to call to the attention of mankind the need for its continued sympathy and support for this magnificent project of restoring to wanderers a permanent and constructive role in life through settlement in Palestine.