(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Prospects of peace in Syria faded yesterday when Sultan El Atrash, leader of the Druzes, issued an appeal to his people to resume the warfare against France.
The Sultan urges those Druzes who have submitted, to again take up arms and to fight against the French, who are “menacing and burning your houses and confiscating your property.” Sultan El Atrash proclaimed mobilization of men in Syria over twenty years of age. Officers were appointed to apprehend those who evade the draft.
In an article in the “Jewish Morning Journal” (Aug. 24)., A. Revoutsky, drawing a similar comparison between Kalenin’s plan and Achad Ha’amism, points out that the Soviet president’s opinion that Jewish culture and individuality should be preserved, constitutes a blow to the Jewish communists who have been striving to bring about the assimilation of Russian Jewry.
“At times,” we read, “the colonization was deliberately scattered over various parts of Russia in order to clip the wings of the ‘middle class dreamers. The biggest concession, made only recently, to ‘territorialism’ was the effort to establish larger settlements of eighteen colonies each. Every step further was regarded as territorialism, Zionism, and was strictly prohibited.
“And now comes the president of the Union of Soviet Republics and proclaims himself before the world not as a territorialist, but–as an Achad Ha’amist! The hearty Russian peasant who heads the Russian peasantry of 90,000,000, sees how the Jews are being assimilated and it pains him. As a matter of fact, he just simply likes the Jewish race, and without seeking any theoretical sanctions for his direct human feelings, he wishes to find a haven of refuge for this race in order to preserve its culture and its language. He wants a cultural center for the Jewish people, which, in his opinion, is doomed to disappear. Is this not the purest Achad Ha’amism?
“It must now be established,” the writer proceeds, “that if once the principle underlying Kalenin’s plan is accepted–that is, the need of a Jewish territorial cultural center–then it is impossible to combat Zionism on principle.
“Kalenin’s approach to this question is not anti-Zionist; his conclusion is rather Zionist-Achad Ha’amistic. There is, therefore, a much better possibility of coming to an understanding with him than with the bitter, uncompromising Jewish young fellows who so poorly represent the Soviet power before the Jewish masses in Russia.”
Adolph Lewisohn, New York banker, with his son, was a luncheon guest of President Coolidge at White Pine Camp yesterday.
Samuel S. Koenig was among the New York political leaders with whom the President confered.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
