Judge Julian Mack Optimistic over Work in Palestine

“Had last year’s massacres and the ensuing political setbacks discouraged me, my present visit would have restored my faith,” Judge Julian W. Mack of the United States Circuit Court of New York told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today in describing his visits to the agricultural commune at Dilb and the Dead Sea works and in summarizing his conversations with Jews of all classes whom he encountered on this, his first visit to Palestine since 1923.

Judge Mack, who is one of the outstanding Zionist leaders of the United States and honorary chairman of the administration of the Zionist Organization of America, came to Palestine after he had attended the Berlin meetings of the Zionist Actions Committee and of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency.

When he visited Dilb seven years ago he entertained doubts as to the feasibility of restoring a desolate hillside and also of the success of the communist system, Judge Mack said, but now, he declared, he saw a flourishing settlement that was supplying Jerusalem with dairy and other products. One of the most encouraging things Judge Mack reported after his visit to Dilb was the condition and excellent collective care of the thirty children born since the commune was founded.

As regards the Dead Sea works Judge Mack declared himself greatly impressed with the Palestine Potash Ltd’s, the operating company, concern for the health of its workers and the up-to-date provisions made for their comfort. He found Arabs working side by side with Jews and learning to know one another. The quantity of potash produced equals the estimates expected for the end of 1930, Judge Mack said. So far as the spirit of the Jewish community is concerned, he pointed out that if the Jews outside of Palestine would even remotely approach the indomitable courage of Palestinian Jewry no doubts need be entertained as to the future of the Jewish National Home.