History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)Sokolow, Nahum
History
History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Sokolow, Nahum
Jews -- Restoration; Zionism -- History
In a few words the author can give the essence of the personal
impressions which he received during the course of his three months’
stay in Palestine, in 1913, before the war: a model factory of modern
Jewish national life; a nursery for rearing the fruitful parent-stems
for the blossoming tree of a living Hebraism; a laboratory for
sociological experiments in self-help and self-government in Jewish
economic life; a compendium of elements and corner-stones for the
erection of the Home; a systematic, laborious, slow preparation of the
preliminary conditions for a great, healthy, original Jewish province;
the genesis of a new world, naturally with many defects, with many
premature and unripe attempts, but that was just most beautiful and
most natural in people who search and strive and venture. And all this
was enlightened by a clear understanding, and glowed with a youthful
national enthusiasm. That is what Jewish colonization in Palestine is.
Do not try and count it over! The wisdom of the multiplication table
is too dull to be able to estimate it. Do not try and weigh it! On the
great scales of history a single unit sometimes weighs down a hundred
thousand! Enjoy it, as one enjoys art, or as the free soul becomes
intoxicated with and rejoices in freedom. As musical natures become
enraptured with music, so national natures become enraptured with
national life.
And if you will have net results, then do not forget one thing, namely,
that all this has been done, not by the entire Jewish people, but by
a small handful of Jews. When this small handful has become the entire
people, then this edifice will grow even grander. Palestine is a land
that stretches forth its hands to the future. For two thousand years it
has been ravaged by war and by misgovernment, until a country that was
once famous throughout the world for its fertility, has become a desert
land, degenerate from lack of cultivation. According to the statistics
of the Ottoman Board of Trade less than 9 per cent of the area of
European Turkey has been brought under cultivation, and still less of
Turkey in Asia. There are in Palestine twenty-seven inhabitants to the
square kilometre, and in the valley of the _Jordan_ four; while in the
irrigated districts of neighbouring Egypt ten thousand are concentrated
within the same area. Why should not Palestine be resettled like Egypt?
Why should it not be made a happy home for an unfortunate people?
Now the Zionists, after twenty years of work, plead their case again.
They have not succeeded in putting an end to the “_Galuth_.” Their
opponents maintain that they had overestimated their strength. Perhaps
so, but this does not prove that their labours have been to no purpose.
They have laid a few foundation stones, they have shown the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account