Arrival of the first hundred thousand new Jewish settlers in Palestine was announced in a cable message received by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, from Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, who arrived recently in Palestine after a year’s absence.
The settlement of the first hundred thousand Jewish pioneers in Palestine since the war was hailed by Dr. Weizmann as a “fact of prime historic importance,” but at the same time he emphasized the imperative necessity of increased remittances from America so that the forward work could continue and the unemployed absorbed into productive labor through the creation of new settlements.
Dr. Weizmann in his cable reviews the situation in Palestine since his last visit a year ago and states:
“Hearty greetings and congratulations on excellent progress United Palestine Appeal. Immigration figures just compiled show one hundred thousand new Jewish settlers entered Palestine from 1919 to 1925 a fact of prime historic importance. Hundred thousand released from Ghetto bondage to free national life. Settlers absorbed in growing industries and agriculture. Common Hebrew language established despite many tongues of origin. School system and University growing. Second hundred thousand on way. World’s interest our progress continues unabated. Relations with Arabs satisfactory. Cooperation increasing with growth Jewish constructive enterprises.
“Owing to the economic collapse of European Jewry continued increased remittances from America are imperative in order to absorb the unemployed into productive labor by creating new settlements and maintain immigration. Palestine looks to your continued maximum sacrifice.”
Commenting on Dr. Weizmann’s message, Dr. Wise declared:
“The announcement by the world Zionist leader that the modern Jewish exodus from the ghettoes of Eastern Europe back to the Promised Land has already brought the first hundred thousand of them into Palestine, is a fact that stirs the imagination not only of the Jew to whom it spells the beginning of Jewish redemption, but to all men who are endowed with an historic insight and with the capacity to apprehend that an important stage has been passed in a movement which is bound to have a profound effect on the destiny of mankind. Comparison between the modern return to Palestine and the ancient exodus from Egypt which resulted in the creation of Israel and the Bible has been frequently made, so frequently, in fact, that the imagination is no longer impressed by it. When, however, we learn that the modern movement is expressing itself in terms of hundreds of thousands returning to Palestine, it is borne in upon us that we are standing face to face with development of first historic rank.
“It is not amiss to point out that the completion of the first stage, the settlement of the first hundred thousand, is the work largely of American Jewry, despite the fact that among those hundred thousand there is but a small percentage of American Jews. It is the Jews of America who have provided the means without which the movement could not have been consummated, means that in Palestine became converted into towns and colonies, roads and industries, schools for the instruction of the young as well as a University for the rehabilitation of the Jewish spirit.
“The best guarantee that we are only at the beginning of the modern restoration of the Jewish people and that the second hundred thousand will flow at an even faster rate than the first, is the fact that the generosity of American Jewry for Palestine is constantly growing. The response to the United Palestine Appeal this year has been greater and prompter than ever before. This response which comes not from the rich but from the large numbers of the comparatively poor, proceeds from a deep-seated historic consciousness of what the new phase in the history of Palestine means to the Jewish people. Our first appeal to the Jews of America in 1918 was for $100,000. Our appeal this year is for $5,000,000 and we are approaching the goal,” Dr. Wise declared.
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