150 Sabbatarian Christians Apply for Palestine Visas

One hundred and fifty Christian peasants from a village near Luzk, approached the Palestine office in Warsaw with the request for certificates to enable them to proceed to Transjordan to settle there. The Sabbatarians declare that the crisis in their village is so acute, and the starvation and need so prevalent that they have unanimously decided to emigrate to Palestine and to help Jewish colonization in Transjordan, as they have heard about the intention of the Jewish company to purchase land there. The delegation pointed out that already a colony of Sabbatarians who converted to Judaism exists in lower Galilee. We are not afraid, they said, of the Bedouins or of the difficult conditions which will confront us during the first few years until we acclimatize ourselves to the new land, because we have been peasants for many generations. The delegation further expressed the desire of the Sabbatarians to follow the example of their Palestine co-religionists and openly convert to Judaism. The Palestine office, however, had to inform them that they are not in a position to assist them.

The Sabbatarian Sect, which was established in Russia towards the ### of the 18th century, believes in the ### Testament, in one God, and not in ### Trinity, practises circumcision, and o# serves the Sabbath instead of Sunday as the day of rest, and therefore, its members carry the name of Sabbatarians. This sect suffered considerably under the Tsarist regime, and Jews were forbidden to have any contact with them. Whole villages were, under the reign of Nicholas 1st, expelled to Siberia, some after inhuman torture. Massacres were organized against them, sometimes led by the Greek Orthodox clergy. There are no exact figures as to the number of the Sabbatarians in Russia, and at one time their number was estimated to have reached 2½ million souls. In dress and mode of life, apart from their religious life, the Sabbatarians do not in any way differ from the Greek Orthodox Russians.