J. D. B. News Letter

Every effort to urge forward the work of settlement, to regard the Arab blow as an impetus sending Zionism forward, rather than backward, is being made, declares Meyer Levin, correspondent of the “Chicago Daily News,” writing from Tel Aviv. Mr. Levin continues:

“To carry out this movement, the Jews must continue to buy land, and to settle upon it. For almost a month now land purchase, which had been going forward at a brisk pace, especially in the orange-growing district, has been at a standstill. Each man has looked at his neighbor, wondering. ‘Will he put his money into the land here, after all?’ Further, it was declared that Arabs would no longer sell land to Jews.

“Slowly, the forward urge is communicating itself even to the capitalists. Arab land, I am told by several dealers, is once more readily obtainable.

“This forward movement will also be communicated to America. The Arab troubles have precipitated the organization of a “Chalutz” movement among American youth. For several years Zionist leaders have looked toward America and wondered whether the materially rich could ever send sons and daughters to work in Palestine. The ideal that had made itself felt in Russia, Poland, and Germany, causing young men and women to leave university careers and good situations in order that they might come to do simple labor in Palestine, seemed to have brought from America only isolated, wandering young people who came in ones and twos, tried Palestinian life for a few months, then got cablegrams from home and went back to America.

“It was obvious, however, that many of these Americans left, not because they lacked stamina to withstand pioneer life, but because they found it impossible to become socially assimilated in these groups of Russian or Polish workers. I have spoken to most of these would-be expatriate Americans. Some of them are here in Tel Aviv. Others are in New York. All of them cherish a remnant of that chalutz ideal, the rest of which was worked out of them, by contact with chaluzim.

“The Americans can’t stand the lack of individual aim in the chalutz scheme of life. An American is brought up with the idea that he must become a success. He must get somewhere. This property-sense becomes so innate that the grown American of the type who seeks ideal life in Palestine, even while agreeing with the socialistic principles of the chaluzim, finds that he cannot adjust himself to them.

“The answer is simple. There must

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be a branch of the chalutz movement adjusted to the temper of the American youth. If he comes to a colony, he must find a few more Americans, he must find something of the American spirit of ‘go’ in the settlement, he must see a plan of gain, of wider settlements, richer fields, more efficient methods of work in progress.

“In an attempt to solve this problem, several young Americans, meeting in Tel Aviv immediately after the riots, finding that the troubles had clarified in each of them the determination to settle in Palestine, worked out a scheme for an American colony of orange growers to be established here. In this colony each settler will own a small section of land. The plantations will be worked separately. Buying and selling will be cooperative. The settlement is planned for 100 holders.

“At the same time, it is recognized that the settlement plan will not satisfy a large section of Jewish American youth who are attracted by the chalutz ideal, but who are not ready to devote their lives to it.

“The solution is to organize a volunteer army of workers, which will take young Americans to Palestine to work here for periods of six months, a year, two years; during that time they will learn Hebrew, they will get in their bearing something of the open confidence that characterizes the new Jew of Palestine, they will get the feeling of self-sufficiency that comes to a man only when he knows he can support himself by the labor of his hands if he so chooses.”