U. S. Jewry was urged last week, as it is annually, to give its mite to rebuild the Jewish National Home in Palestine. Not all Jews approve or understand the politico-emotional band which is the World Zionist Organization, but all may contribute to the Jewish Agency, which includes Zionists and non-Zionists. Quota this year is $2,500,000, of which one million is to be raised in New York City.
Last week's money-gathering began importantly. Any Jew could be impressed by the following facts:
Anniversary, Ten years ago next May the Lodge-Fish resolution, favoring the Jewish National Home, was introduced in Congress. In September it was approved by President Harding, became a public resolution. No one could possibly object to the U. S. Government giving official notice to the Zionist program. No one, either, could anticipate much practical result from it. But an anniversary is a good time for a checkup. What are the accomplishments of a decade in Palestine? World Jewry has sent $220,000,000 there since 1921. Of this the U. S. gave $100,000,000. Eretz Israel ("Land of Israel'') now has a great £1,000,000 Palestine Electric Corp., founded by Engineer Pinhas Rutenberg, whose stations in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberias and in the Jordan valley supply all Palestine (except Jerusalem) with power. The Agricultural Experimental Station of the Keren Hayesod (colonization & immigration) teaches scientific farming and has experimental fields. The clean, white, all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv ("Hill of Spring") more than doubled its population (46,000). For building trades exists the General Mortgage Bank of Palestine, first to be modeled after European institutions. In Palestine are now new hotels and resorts for tourists. Palestine's Jewish population has increased from 60,000 to 175,000. There are 328 Jewish schools. 135 agricultural settlements of which 70 are under the supervision of the Jewish Agency. Hadassah (female Zionist organization) looks after 50 hospitals, clinics and dispensaries, which exist for Arabs and Christians as well as Jews. Palestine has its own Hebrew university, founded in 1925. The Jewish population of Palestine runs its own religious affairs. But it is a minority (16.9%) without political power, save for the advisory powers conferred on the Jewish Agency by the mandate, allotted to Great Britain ten years ago. Chief set-back of the decade: the British Government's policy, published in Lord Passfield's White Paper (TIME, Nov. 3, 1930 et seq.) which proposed restriction of Jewish immigration and land purchase. No Zionist oration is complete without references—in lamentation or scorn—to the White Paper.