Digest of World Press Opinion

The Morning Post, a London daily newspaper, commenting upon the Arab complaints because of the influx of Jews to Palestine, says:

In 1933 alone, Jewish settlers brought £7,000,000 into the country, whilst in the first eight months of this year they brought £10,000,000. It is inevitable that the investment of this money which is only a part of the total capital introduced by Jews into Palestine in agricultural, industrial, and commercial undertakings should have conferred material benefits in various ways upon the Arab population.

A recent investigation carried out by the Executive of the Jewish Agency has shown that in regard to Jewish orange plantations, about one-half are worked exclusively with Arab labor, and that, in the other half, a considerable amount of Arab labor is also employed. In 1932 there were employed in the Jewish agricultural settlements between 14,000 and 15,000 Jews and between 5,000 and 6,000 Arabs.

Since then about 6,000 Jews have left agricultural work for the towns, owing to the shortage of labor and higher wages there, and their places have been taken by Arabs, many of whom come from Transjordan, and even from Egypt and from the Hauran in Syria, since there is a shortage of laborers in Palestine, not only among the Jews, but also among the Arabs. Moreover, there are large numbers of Arabs employed by Jews in the building trade in towns.

FUND ORGAN HITS AMERICAN ZIONISTS

American Zionists are criticized in Karnenu, a monthly published by the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem, for failing to contribute as much to the fund this year as British Jews, who number only 300,000. The official organ of the JNF writes editorially:

Had we received in time several sums which have been collected for the Keren Kayemeth in various countries, our receipts for the year 5694 would have exceeded the highest ever attained. That is an achievement which must give a certain satisfaction. The economic position of Jewry on the whole has not improved, it has in Europe even worsened, and the better response to the K. K. L., therefore, at a time when other calls have not ceased upon the purse, is encouraging. Without doubt it is partly due to the quickening of Zionist sentiment caused by the collapse of the assimilation philosophy and the physical need also of Eretz Israel. It can only be regretted that this recognition of the truth of Zionist principles did not come earlier when the Jewish position was materially better.

There are, however, negative aspects of the year’s results. So powerful a community, in spite of the economic decline, as American Jewry still is, has failed to raise as much as British Jewry comprising 300,000 souls. The highest sum in any one country —£43,000—while creditable to Great Britain and Ireland, is not a figure sufficiently imposing to hold first place among lands contributing to a Nation’s Fund.

MAGAZINE DISCUSSES ZIONIST PEACE PACT

Near East and {SPAN}#ndia{/SPAN}, semiofficial organ of the Colonial Office, commenting on the peace negotiations between the Laborites and the Revisionists in Palestine, writes:

Turmoil was caused in the Jewish sphere by a mass attack of young laborers on a Revisionist meeting held in Haifa. There had been some tension previously, due to Revisionist labor having been employed on a certain building under construction, on which non-Jewish labor was also employed, and to which the Labor Unionists objected. When the Revisionist meeting was held, a crowd of 1,500 assembled outside and hurled stones through the window, over twenty persons being injured and some police hurt during the dispersals. One immediate effect of the incident was #o draw attention to the active hostility existing between the Labor and Revisionist elements, and a committee of inquiry was sent to Haifa by the Jewish Agency and General Council of Palestine Jews.

The entire issue now promises to be buried, as perhaps also the whole hatchet of party hatred, with the recent c#clusion in London of the first part of an agreement between Mr. David Ben-Gurion and Mr. Vladimir Jabotinsky, leaders of the Jewish Labor and Zionist-Revisionist parties, respectively. This was part of the genera. Zionist Organization discussions to achieve an inter-party peace within its ranks, and may, if the agreements are observed, not be without their beneficial effects upon the Jewish effort.

SAYS TEACHERS NEED MORE RELIGION

The Orthodox Union, a monthly published by the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America, demands that Hebrew teachers in the United States be more religious than they are. The paper writes as follows:

Intelligent Jews are realizing, more than ever before, that the survival of American Israel depends upon the well-grounded religious education which we can give to Jewish children. While the proportion of those receiving religious training is still woefully small, registration reports from some of the larger religious schools are really encouraging.

There is one vital aspect of Jewish education, however, to which many worthy, well-meaning institutions are pitifully blind The Hebrew School teachers are those in whose hands are the plastic minds of our children. We look expectantly to them to train our youth in religious understanding and observance.