A Generation ago Palestine and Jerusalem were a Messianic dream, located far way in a distant time to come. Today it is a reality existing not in time but in space, and we can reach it, if we so desire in little more than a week’s travel. A generation ago on went to Palestine, if one went at all, in order to die there. Today one goes there in order to live. Thus it is but natural that, while formerly one only needed and desired an emotional orientation to ward the concept “Palestine,” today one has to consider the economic problems which confront those who want to establish themselves in the old homeland and lead there a full and satisfying existence.
If these economic problems are difficult and complicated for each and everyone who has to adept himself in Palestine to new and unfamiliar conditions they are doubly bewildering for the woman immigrant who goes to Palestine with a heart full of ardent hope and expectation, and may easily be chided into disillusionment unless she prepares herself in advance for the reality she is going to meet.
ADVICE TO WOMEN
In the ‘Jusedische Rundschau,” German-Jewish publication, Dr. Ina. Britschgl Schimmer of Telaviv gives such women immigrants valuable counsel and discusses very lucidly the chances of employment for women in Palestine.
Dr. Britschgl-Schimmer points out that in order to make a success of the life, there, two essential things are necessary, a certain definite practical knowledge and a special state of mind.
THE NEEDED TONGUES
The practical knowledge comprises, above all, languages, especially English and French, and for those who at all desire to take part in the cultural life of the country, of course Hebrew.
Furthermore the woman immigrant needs a comprehensive training in domestic sciences, and if she has any knowledge of, and likening for, farm work she will find an enthusiastic welcome. For while it is fact that there is a surplus of women workers in all the professions, while even in the commercial and industrial field the chances for women are poor, household workers of every type are much in demand, and a farmerette can count on finding at once pleasant and profitable employment.
THE PIONEER STATE
And that brings us to the second essential quality needed to make life in Palestine a success: the special state of mind. It is a state of mind which we can best express in the words: Pioneer Spirit. A woman who possesses this pioneer spirit will be imbued with a high and gay courage and indomitable will. She will ta###hardships as matter of court and adapt herself and accept new conditions without weakly comparing them with the comforts and Luxuries she has left behind. For the sake of spiritual satisfaction she will be willing, and even eager, to forego the amenities of a citified life, and will work and topic in the country, happy to take part in the glorious drama of the renascence of the home-land.
Women thus equipped can hope to serve the country itself and to find material security and spiritual satisfaction in Palestine Others, Dr. Britsebgi-Schimmer very bluntly says, had better stay away, for the they are doomed to disappointment. there as everywhere else, it takes the best to create the best.
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