Palestine Notes Greatest Jewish Gain

A report on the present status of Palestine, showing that the Holy Land has absorbed 85,000 Jews during the past two years and that the Jewish population now exceeds 300,000, will be placed in the hands of delegates attending Sunday’s session of the two-day National Conference on Palestine here.

The report was prepared by David Gurevich of Jerusalem, statistician of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, who says:

“During the past two years Eretz Israel provided a home to 85,000 immigrants; if to this number be added the natural increase of about 9,000 and the unregistered immigration of 6,000, the total increase will pass the figure of 100,000.

GREATEST INCREASE

“This increase is the largest increase not only for any single country, but also for all other countries combined. While Eretz Israel absorbed 45,000 persons in 1934 and over 40,000 in 1933, the world Jewish migration into all other countries hardly reached the figure of 15,000 per annum….

“By the end of 1934 the Jewish population has passed the figure of 300,000, and is now the eighth country in the world having a large Jewish population, being placed immediately above Great Britain and Austria. These countries in order of importance, are as follows:

“United States, 4,500,000; Poland, 3,000,000; Russia, 2,750,000; Rumania, 900,000; Germany, 500,000; Hungary, 475,000; Czechoslovakia, 400,000; Eretz Israel, 300,000; Austria, 250,000.

REACHES FIRST POSITION

“By its qualitative strength, i.e., by the proportion which the Jewish population bears to the total, Palestine occupies already the first place in the world, as it constitutes twenty-five per cent, of the settled population of Palestine, as compared with three and one-half per cent, in the United States, ten and one-half per cent. in Poland, two per cent. in Russia and five and one-half per cent. in Rumania….

“The birth rate reached the high figure of twenty-nine per 1,000 in 1933, and the death rate the low figure of nine per 1,000, thus producing a balance representing a natural increase of twenty per 1,000 in 1933, twenty in 1932 and twenty-one in 1931. These figures compare favorably with the rates for other countries….

THREE-FOURTHS IN CITIES

“On account of these factors the Jewish population increases by leaps and bounds; in the census of 1931 it was proved that the population is doubled every nine years, but now the rate is accelerated and will reduce the period to a much shorter one of four to five years. The annual increase amounts in the last two years to an average of twenty-two to twenty-three per cent….

“The Jewish population is distributed as follows: 230,000, or slightly over three-quarters, live in the towns, and almost one-quarter live in the villages.

“The urban population is concentrated in three large towns: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, where they account for 100, sixty-six and fifty per cent. of the total population respectively. Formerly Tel Aviv used to absorb about two-thirds of the immigration, the rest being almost equally spread between Haifa, Jerusalem and the villages; lately, however, the intensity of this attraction by Tel Aviv is being gradually decreased and more immigrants are diverted to other places as well; Haifa, the villages, and to some extent Jaffa.”