ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING JEWISH SETTLEMENTS IN PALESTINE.
ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC, BY JEWS.
No country in the universe can prefer claims to the consideration of mankind equal to those of Palestine. It is a land revered alike by Jew and Gentile; its memory is indissolubly associated with what is to them dearest and most sacred; at its name a holy thrill vibrates through the human heart; its very sound strikes a chord which sympathetically re-echoes through the innermost recesses of the soul.
But while Palestine has such high significancy in the eyes of the Christian, with how much greater interest must it be regarded by the Jew? If the force of events have thrown him from that country, towards it he gravitates as to his natural centre. If torn from his native soil and planted elsewhere, towards it he yet inclines as to the sun which gives him radiance and vitality. Thrice every day he devoutly turns his face to the Holy Land, whilst offering up the most sacred of his prayers; and the service commemorating his deliverance from Egypt he concludes with the fervent wish: “the next celebration at Jerusalem.” No wonder, therefore, that numbers of Jews cling with tenacity to a country the memory of which, from the cradle to the grave, is thoroughly interwoven with their holiest feelings and yearnings; that, taking pleasure in her stones, and favouring the dust thereof, they bid defiance to all kinds of misery, hardship, and degradation, and do not consider that price too high for the purchase of the consolation of drawing therein their last breath, if not privileged to inhale in it their first; and of at last yielding themselves up to the beloved ground, if this could not be given to them.
But whilst in his faithful attachment to holy reminiscences, —whilst in his unshakable faith in the promise of God, the Jew heroically resigns his native country with its powerful associations, security, and comforts, and perhaps even affluence, is it just that we, followers of the law, —believers in the prophets, whose light, proceeding from Palestine, illumined our darkness, —is it just that we should look on with indifference at the struggle of the Jews in Palestine, for earning a scanty subsistence; that, at the utmost, we dole them out a miserable pittance, barely enabling them to linger out an existence useless to the rest of the world, and burdensome to themselves? True, there was a time when the intolerant policy of Turkey, joined to unwillingness on the part of the Jewish population to become instrumental in their own support, rendered any other assistance unavailable, save that in the shape of alms. But now that some more enlightened views have removed all legal obstacles to endeavours for self-support on the part of the Jewish population, —nay, when there is reason to hope that the Porte would lend its hearty cooperation to any scheme for that purpose; when that very population earnestly appeals to the world for the means of emancipating itself from the state of degradation entailed by pauperism, —is it just that we should withhold from it a helping hand? Join, therefore, O fellow citizens, join this Association formed for the purpose of lending that helping hand to the Jews in Palestine.
To our brethren in faith we should say: Whatever your views, you cannot but respect the convictions of those who, anxious to fulfil the law of God in all its particulars, feel that this is practicable in the land only to which that law had a primary reference. We should further say: you have no hypothetical case before you, you have to deal with a stern reality. There is a Jewish population extant in Palestine, which for generations has been supported by European charity, and which still looks to the West for assistance. This support was moreover at all times considered as a pious and most meritorious work, habitually and cheerfully bestowed, to which they have almost acquired a right by prescription. Can you allow a system to continue, as degrading and pernicious to the recipient, as unworthy of and useless to the donor; when the alternative offers itself of converting pauperism into productiveness, privation into affluence, and misery into enjoyment? Can you allow it to be said, that they who associate themselves with every philanthropic movement, who assist in relieving every species of misery, among whatever nation and in whatever clime, should be deaf to appeals in behalf of those nearest to them, —should be insensible to misery of their own flesh and blood?
To our Christian brethren we should say: Your ancestors in ages of darkness were instruments in the accomplishment of the denunciations of our prophets against us: be you in these enlightened days as zealous to obtain the blessings promised to the benefactors of Israel. Remember, it was said, “I shall bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee.” Cooperate with us, assist us, in ameliorating the state of our brethren in the Holy Land.
Palestine might be still, as of old, “a land flowing with milk and honey; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey.” Nor is it less capable of producing silk, cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. In short, all elements for prosperous agricultural settlements are extant. It is not less the cultivators that call for the land, than the land for the cultivators. All that is necessary for the accomplishment of this object, is capital and security to property. The former, Europe and America in the first instance can supply; the latter must be the result, at first, of protection, and ultimately of a judicious internal government.
The cities of Safed and Tiberias, harbouring a numerous Jewish population, are situated in a district in every respect adapted to an agricultural settlement, it may be seen on reference to the subjoined sketch. It is therefore proposed: —
First, To solicit from the Porte a grant of a portion of land between these cities, now totally waste and useless, under conditions mutually advantageous to the government and the landholders.
Secondly, To allow the settlement its internal government. This is a condition which it is not expected would meet with any obstacle, since such is the actual policy of the Porte towards its Rajah subjects, whose respective nationalities and internal institutions it acknowledges.
Thirdly, To take such measures in the infancy of the settlement as would secure the lives and properties of the settlers, the necessary scope for development, and eventually self-protection.
These objects the Association will endeavour to accomplish by some such methods as the following: —
Address to the Sultan, for permission that Jews might occupy and cultivate, or otherwise turn to use, certain tracts of land, and for authority to form settlements, with privileges of internal government.
Addresses to the Queen, and Foreign Governments, for favourable interference with the Porte.
Petitions to the Legislature with the same view.
Subscriptions for supplying Jews in Palestine with cattle, sheep, horses, agricultural implements, boats for the navigation of the lake of Tiberias and nets for fishing, seeds, cuttings of useful trees and shrubs, and building materials.
Plans and means for improving the ports on the coast, and the roads in the interior, so as to give commerce and trade opportunities for development and increase.
In order that such an association should proceed with harmony, energy, prosperity, and effect, it would, of course, be most essential that its great objects should be worked out with honourable singleness of aim and effort on the part of all its members.
Friends to this great cause, and to such a mode of proceeding, are requested to send their names and addresses (post paid) to any of the gentlemen whose names are subjoined, or to the office of the Jewish Chronicle, 24, Houndsditch; and to proceed to obtain, in the districts in which they respectively reside, lists of patrons and supporters, and to form auxiliary associations in correspondence with the Parent Institution.
Dr. A. Benisch, 10, South-street, Finsbury; W. H. Black, Esq., 7, Bruce-terrace, Tottenham; Montague Leverson, Esq., treasurer, 18, Queen-square, Bloomsbury; Rev. John Mills, 12, King-street, Finsbury; Hugh Owen, Esq., Whitehall; Solomon Sequerra, Esq., Hon. Sec., 8, Bury-street, City. —English Journal.
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