Neglected Jewish Education

I cannot understand for the life of my why so many of the gentlemen who pretend to lead Jewish affairs have built me into such a #ormidable fellow.

After all, since I possess no personal ambitions which might cause me to be looked upon as a competitor for the position and leadership which they guard so zealously, I could hardly be as dangerous as they make out. The only great ambition I have at the moment is to acquaint our community with the truth; and being what I am, I can hardly regard this as something uncalled for merely because it happens to interfere with the bizarre notions of a few old gentlemen who at present control the situation.

IT’S NEWS TO HIM

The New Palestine, in a recent issue, states that “if one wanted proof that Jewish education is terribly neglected in the United States he merely had to read the letters written to the Jewish Daily Bulletin by its readers in appreciation of the articles by its leading columnist, whose name is given as William B. Ziff.”

That I am its leading columnist is news to both The Bulletin and myself, since at best I can only be considered an itinerant contributor. The New Palestine, finding itself unable to answer any of the arguments I have advanced, resorts to the time-honored expedient of calling me names. They compliment The Bulletin, its readers, and myself by referring to my reasoning as a prime example of bumptiousness and general all-around ignorance, carefully avoiding however, any specific reference since that might pin them down to cases.

BED PRESS UNCOMPLIMENTARY

The Yiddish Communist press was even more uncomplimentary and seems to feel that I am full of rage because the English government will not permit my friends and myself to enter Palestien to lick the grime off the Holy Wall.

With a sickening attempt at humor they disposed of all Zionist dreams as a swindle. Drivel of this sort is hardly worth replying to at all, since it merely indicates the hopeless ghetto psychology of its authors who see all life as a matter of grubbing into garbage piles with a full belly as its ultimate objective.

CAN’T FORGIVE LEERS

I do not visit my contempt on them because of my quarrel with their ideologies but more fundamentally because of their unforgiveable leering at the courageous efforts of the Zionist Jews to lift suffering Jewry out of its bitter travail by their own efforts and their own fortitude, allowing that grand day when all men become paragons of generosity and virtue to await the hand of time.

I would also like to make reference to a series of editorials appearing in the Anglo-Jewish press throughout the country again lambasting me as an ignorant fellow and, moreover, one who considered himself a self-appointed Messiah.

One of the publications to which this material was sent took it into its own hands to call it a cowardly and vicious attack.

ALL BY ONE AUTHOR

It seems that all of these editorials appearing simultaneously throughout the country in various Jewish publications and purporting to be written by them and hence reflecting their individual opinion, are in reality written by one who incidentally himself writes under five or six different names, giving himself a first-class opportunity to go into a heated debate with himself on any subject, the ultimate outcome of which is sure to be a decision that those who employ him are sacrosanct, holy, and always right.

Merely as a matter of relating something quite funny, this individual takes issue with me for my contention that the Anglo-Jewish press was really in a pitiful condition, and promptly by his own act proves my point conclusively by causing them to print editorials which many of them do not even understand, as their own.

QUESTIONS LOUIS LIPSKY

It would interest me very much to know whether Louis Lipsky, American member of the Zionist Executive, had anything to do with this affair. It would also interest me to know whether Mr. Lipsky is the author of the anonymous thrust at me on the front page of the New Palestine. Further, it would be a matter of great pleasure to me if Mr. Lipsky, as a responsible and authorized officer of the Zionist movement, would reply to some of the disturbing questions I asked instead of allowing his job-holding henchmen to call me names.

I again assert to Mr. Lipsky that despite all words to the contrary and despite the general smoke-screen of mismanagement which the Jewish people are being faced with, a highly dangerous impasse is confronting Zionism today. I assert now as I did before, that at the present gait Palestine will be lost to us, that official England has set its mind on utterly destroying this Jewish venture and finally reducing it to terms comparable to the Polish ghetto. I say here that I am quite prepared to prove the accuracy of my own contentions.

ATTACKS LEADERS

I also assert that this unfortunate condition is a direct result of the smug mismanagement given Zionist affairs by its present leaders who are, moreover, guilty of deliberately concealing the true state of affairs from the Jewish people as a whole.

As evidence of the inadequate and almost irresponsible attitude of the Zionist Executive I point to other material on the front page of the New Palestine in which General Wauchope, High Commissioner for Palestine, is highly complimented for “giving the Arabs a stiff verbal drubbing on the question of land sales to Jews.”

CRITICIZES HULEH DEAL

What is the truth behind this pathetic statement? After a good deal of negotiation the Palestine government has magnanimously allowed a group of Jewish business men to buy the Huleh swamps, which according to the New Palestine’s description, supported by a photograph, are desolate and forlorn.

These unlivable swamps were owned by Syrian Arabs. The Jews buying it will be forced to drain it and irrigate it at great expense. They have already been coerced into paying a price for it at least ten times above its actual value considered on any basis. After it is fully drained and made habitable the Jews will have to give a present of 16,000 dunams of this new-made land to Arabs, and this is the sort of thing that General Wauchope is being complimented on. Men with better spirit would be inclined to call this kind of thing boot-licking.

ON IMMIGRATION

I pointed out among other things that while Britain is perfectly willing to allow moneyed Jews to come into Palestine she does not extend this same consideration to Jewish workers, preferring to allow the country to be swamped with Arab laborers from all adjacent territories.

I pointed out that only some 12,000 certificates for legal immigration are actually granted a year and that this is merely a sop of little value considering the vast problems that face Jews everywhere.

CITES 319 WANDERERS

I pointed out the symbolic case of the 318 tired and discouraged Jewish boys and girls who were cruising the Mediterranean on the steamer Velos who were turned away from Palestine and denied admittance everywhere else. They had been robbed and at times held below deck without food by the crew. The only thing they asked was the right to lead a decent Jewish life on Jewish soil, a soil incidentally, which they were not permitted to set foot on even for one precious moment.

These unfortunates, reduced to the worst type of deprivation and misery, were finally accepted for admittance under armed guard into Poland, a pathetic and brutal irony which will long live to damn the present attitude of the leaders of Zion.

WHOSE IS THE DUTY?

In view of the fact that the French have made a final statement lamenting the huge exodus of Syrian Arabs into Palestine, in view of the assertion that in twelve months 65,000 Arabs have calmly walked into this Jewish country to take advantage of a labor situation created by Jewish effort and Jewish sacrifice, I was appalled when official Zionist leaders allowed this matter to go unchallenged. Are they afraid to make an official utterance on this subject? I ask now as I asked once before, if it is not their duty to do something about this affair whose duty is it?

I ask the reader to take a look at the fine young people involved in this cold-blooded handling of Jewish lives. At the left of the picture you will see a courageous, determined little Jewish girl with the lines of suffering engraved already on her sensitive face. Forlornly resting his tired head on her lap is a clean, fine-looking Jewish boy, evidently her brother. Another dejected looking little girl is resting her head on the shoulder of this little child-mother whom the Jewish world has unforgiveably consigned to a fate that generous men cannot view without bitter tears.

STUDY THEIR FACES

Study the faces again of all of these young people—brave little human beings without a country, forsaken by those who should protect them: their handsome, suffering faces show no yielding of that inner spirit which alone is carrying them forward.

What is this entire affair but a symbol of the sad case into which the entire Jewish adventure has fallen?

With nine million Arabs possessing more than a million square miles of territory, stricken Jewry is being asked by England to provide labor and sanctuary for the Arabs of the world while Jews go miserable and homeless throughout Europe.

GRIT, COURAGE NEEDED

When will Jewish readers realize that grit and bold courage are wholly necessary in dealing with this kind of unspeakable situation? I pointed out that more than eight million dollars a month is being brought into Palestine, a sum which should be used for the succor of despairing European Jews and for the building of a Jewish state where Jewish dignity and stature can once more be established.

When will Jewish leaders stop arguing as the first item in their contentions the matter of how much they have done for the Arabs? When will they realize that this attitude is not only ridiculous but foolhardy and that as a result of it Eng### safely embarked on a definite anti-Jewish policy in the Near East?

As long as those entrusted by the Jewish people with the guardianship of its rights speak forth with smirking mildness when these rights are being ruthlessly destroyed behind a barrage or suave words, how can any one else be expected to grow excited over the ravishment? If we value these rights so lightly as to becomingly acquiesce when they are ravished from us, the natural inference is that despite the mandate the Jewish world really is not interested. If Jews bellow about the unprecedented progress being made in Palestine how can any stranger be provoked to pity in the face of all of this alleged remarkable advancement?

If, instead of calling me names, the all-powerful Zionist leaders were to create a beneficient situation which in itself made me look ridiculous, the Jewish horizon would not be so black. I would not be forced to quote Herzl’s statement to a rabbi who had reviled him: “I live for the Jews. You live on them.”

I earnestly recommend to lovers of Zion everywhere that they form local committees for the purpose of getting a direct answer to these questions. I ask them to regard anything else but a direct answer and the promise of a forthright and courageous program, as cowardly and unacceptable.