Jews in Palestine. By A. Revusky. Vanguard, $3.50. 390 pp. Self-Government of the Jews in Palestine. By Moshe Burstein. Bloch, $3.298 pp.
Palestine today is a center of interest not only to Jews but to all intelligent people throughout the world. Hitherto known only as the land of the Bible and as a country for pilgrimage, Palestine has during recent years become an important commercial center and one of the few lands where prosperity prevails.
With the world’s interest in Palestine growing, a definite lack of information on the contemporary developments of the country is felt. There are hundreds of books on Palestine, but not one giving a complete picture of what Palestine is today.
Mr. Revusky’s book, Jews in Palestine, bridges this gap. Though it is devoted chiefly to the Jewish angle of Palestine, the book contains a mass of information on the non-Jewish aspects of the country and on the relations between it and the neighboring countries in the East.
It will not be exaggerating to say that Mr. Revusky’s book is the best standard volume on Palestine. It brings information from every angle,—political, economic, historic and racial,—up to 1934. It is a book which ought to be on the desk of every person interested in Palestine.
POALE-ZIONIST LEADER
Himself born in Palestine and a leader of the left Poale-Zion party in Europe and America, Mr. Revusky has succeeded in presenting in his book the most complete picture of the Jewish development in Palestine before and since the Balfour Declaration. It is against that Mr. Revusky took pains to see that the facts and the figures which he presents were verified and substantiated by official documents. After reading through Mr. Revusky’s book one is actually able to comprehend the important role that the Jews have played since the Balfour declaration in bringing Palestine up to its present flourishing status.
Correct and pedantic in every detail, Mr. Revusky seems to show some partiality in his information on the activities of the Revisionists. He enumerates, for instance, all the Hebrew newspapers published in Palestine, but he omits mentioning among them the Hayarden, a Hebrew Revisionist daily.
As a whole, however, the book written by Mr. Revusky is a fine and valuable contribution to the contemporary literature on Palestine. It is a book of history and sociology and, at the same time, a book of standard reference, It is the kind of book which ought to be used as a textbook in all schools, Jewish and non-Jewish, on subjects dealing with Palestine. The Vanguard press is to be highly commended for publishing this book.
Self-Government of the Jews in Palestine, by Moshe Burstein, is a valuable handbook on Palestine, especially for those who are interested in obtaining information on the various Jewish agencies and institutions existing in Palestine. It is more limited in its contents than the book by Mr. Revusky, but has obviously been written by a man who resides in Palestine and who has made a thorough study of Jewish communal life there.
Mr. Burstein’s book is especially valuable for its details on the activities and the regulations of the local Jewish community and its relations with the Palestine government. It also contains authentic data concerning the history of all the Jewish central organizations operating in Palestine.
BOOKS ON CERVANTES
Bruno Frank’s first book to appear under the imprint of the Viking Press has been selected by the Book – of – the – Month Club for March. It’s a biographical novel, “A Man Called Cervantes.”
“ANTICHRIST” OUT SOON
Viking will shortly publish Joseph Roth’s “Antichrist,” a study of evil in the modern world. They also promise eight short stories by Lion Feuchtwanger.
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.
