The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Jewish Colony of Rishon le Zion was celebrated yesterday afternoon with the participation of thousands of guests from all parts of the country.
Work in the colony suspended in honor of the occasion while children of the Judaean colonies formed a festive procession. Founders of the colony and Bilu members delivered addresses.
An exhibition showing the progress of Rishon le Zion is being held.
Rishon le Zion was founded in 1882 by 17 Jewish families, all members of the Chovevei Zion and next to Petach Tikvah is the oldest Jewish colony in Palestine.
The colonists had a hard struggle owing to their inexperience, the scarcity of water and the raids of marauders. In 1898, Baron Edmond de Rothschild came to the assistance of the colony from which date begins the period of their thriving.
The colony which in 1882 owned 3,000 dunams of land and was settled by about 100 inhabitants now owns 17,000 dunams of land, exclusive of sand dunes westward to the sea and has a population of 2,300.
The holdings of the colony are valued at £645,000 while the liabilities do not exceed £75,000.
Rishon le Zion is the metropolis of the Palestine wine industry. Ten thousand dunams of land are covered with vineyards and 1,500 dunams with orange groves. The colony is the seat of the famous Baron Edmond de Rothschild wine cellars which in richness and equipment rank among the leading wine cellars of the world. Built by Baron de Rothschild, they are leased to the Jewish Wine Growers of Palestine at a nominal rental. The products of the vineyards are dispensed by the Carmel Wine Company.
Although Rishon le Zion has the legal status of a village, it conducts a municipal government of its own.
Funeral services were held here for Mrs. Emily Friend, member of a distinguished Jewish family of Alsace Lorraine and this country.
Rabbi Jonah B. Wise officiated. She was 84 years old, and a daughter of Simon Levy, who served in the Civil War as a Colonel with the Union forces.
Herbert A. Canter, who served his clerkship in the law office of Associated Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, succumbed in the Israel Zion Hospital at the age of 39 after an illness of two weeks.
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