Mr. LIPSKY. We have purchased 12 000 acres north of Palestine, on which colonization has already been attempted. We have 71 flourishing Jewish colonies, and Jewish farmers are living an independent economic existence. Mr. LINTHICUM. You have developed Rishon le-Zion. Mr. LIPSKY. Rishon le-Zion is the first colony in Zion. That is very prosperous. The colony has about 2,500 farmers. The colony of Petah Tikwah has over 3,000. In Judea there are some colonies on the outskirts to the north. This new tract of land of 12,000 acres will be settled by pioneers that are coming in. Mr. LINTHICUM. That is in the valley of Esdraelon. Mr. LIPSKY. That is the land which we have purchased for about $1,500,000. Mr. LINTHICUM. As I understand, there are two views as to the Zionist movement. Mr. LIPSKY. There may be three or four. Mr. LINTHICUM. Two important ones. Mr. LIPSKY. The truth is that there are no two views about it. Mr. LIPSKY. Mr. Brandeis was honorary president of our organization last year and retired at the last convention. In view of Mr. Brandeis, as far as the objects of the movement are concerned, they are identical with the Zionist Organization of America. There are differences of views with regard to internal questions as to the methods to be adopted in developing the land as the Jewish national home. He is a member of our organization. Mr. LINTHICUM. What I was getting at is that Doctor Lazaron, of my city, I do not know, but perhaps I ought not to think so, but I think he is one of the leading men of the faith in the country, and he was speaking about this very matter the other evening. I just returned from there and he was expressing that there were two views, one of them being that we should do everything possible as a nation to help in this movement. The other view was that some people thought that the Jews throughout the world ought to be united, and as one solid movement throughout the world they ought to help this organization. Mr. LIPSKY. There is a difference among the Jews themselves as to how to proceed with the work. There are some Zionists who think that the work should be undertaken by groups of people in all parts of the world. Mr. LINTHICUM. Reaching each nation. Mr. LIPSKY. No; that each group of Jews, living in this or that country, along its own lines, not concentrated in one organization, or through one agency, each group should have its own activities and interests. There is another view that holds that this will not produce results. The way to produce results is to collect money in a national way and to establish the public utilities first, and then let the individual groups come along and do what is called the individual work. The Zionist Organization, for example, should buy a large tract of land and develop it, should provide for a scheme for utilizing the water power, etc. Mr. LINTHICUM. Do you propose to have one organization of Jews or each nation have its own separate organization? Mr. LIPSKY. Each nation has its own separate organization but is united in one international organization which meets once every two years in a congress. That has been meeting for the last 25 years. The CHAIRMAN. You stated that President Wilson had impliedly committed the United States to a haven of refuge for Jews. Was that in the letter to Rabbi Wise? Mr. LIPSKY. I would not use the words impliedly committed. I simply said President Wilson in a communication took a position with relation to the Balfour declaration. The CHAIRMAN. Is there anything in writing from President Wilson. Mr. LIPSKY. There is the letter to Rabbi Wise, and also a reiteration of the first letter which was issued by Mr. Wilson, I think, when he was in Paris. Mr. Wilson wrote this letter not from Paris but from Washington. The original letter was written to Doctor Wise. The CHAIRMAN. What action did they take on the question at Versailles? Mr. LIPSKY. A hearing. There was no action. Action was taken at San Remo. The CHAIRMAN. To get the record straight, have you any official action at Versailles? Mr. LIPSKY. There were hearings at Versailles and final action at San Remo. The American Government was not represented at San Remo. Mr. COCKRAN. As an observer. The CHAIRMAN. No, not as an observer. Mr. LIPSKY. In addition to statistical details the committee should take into account the feelings of the Jewish people. You might have doubt about the feasibility of the proposition with regard to Palestine. The Jewish people have no doubt about it. The Jewish people have, whether they have been minorities or not, expressed themselves with regard to Palestine for generations and generations. It is in their prayer books, repeated by them three times a day, part of the ceremony and poetry and prohecies of the Jewish people. Everything that relates to the Jewish people has encouraged the return to Palestine, and it is a longing which we now express in concrete, organized form, which we are placing here before you in terms of figures to be taken into account with relation to all the antecedent feelings and emotion and desires expressed by the Jewish people during the period of their persecutions and humiliation. This is the first concrete endeavor on the part of the Jewish people through their own labor and sacrifices to build up that which their ancestors were dreaming about for generations and generations back. Mr. COCKRAN. The wailing Jews around the old temple is quite a ceremony. Mr. LIPSKY. The passover celebration is replete with references to the return to Zion. Mr. COCKRAN. Do not the Jewish people assemble around there and wail every Friday? Mr. LIPSKY. Yes; they repeat their prayers at the Wailing Wall. I hope the committee in considering this matter will not consider it purely as if they were economists trying to decide whether this is a good thing for the Jewish people to do, but consider this as an expression of the sentiment and feelings and ideals of the Jewish people, of the soul of the Jewish people for generations. The longing of the Jewish people is put down in this Balfour declaration and is so regarded by Jews all over the world. The Balfour declaration is regarded by us as the most important document in modern Jewish history. It is known from one end of the Jewish world to another. It is likened to the edict of Cyrus the Great. Any person who attaches himself to this act of redemption of the Jewish land is a party to an epochal event in Jewish history. Mr. LINTHICUM. Your idea is to continue a government in Palestine under English mandate? Mr. LIPSKY. The British Government is given a mandatory power over Palestine. It holds that power in Palestine for the purpose of cooperating in creating such political and economic conditions as shall transform Palestine into a national home for the Jewish people, holding it as trustees for the League of Nations. STATEMENT OF ELIHU D. STONE, OF BOSTON, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS. Mr. STONE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: I am a resident of Boston, a former member of the General Court of Massachusetts, and at present an assistant United States attorney for the district of Massachusetts. I am speaking for the Zionist Organization of America and especially for the Zionist organization in Massachusetts, in asking you to favor this resolution. I might say that I speak for the people of Massachusetts in general, because our legislature recently adopted a joint resolution similar to the one which is now being considered, and also similar to the one introduced by Senator Lodge. It will indeed be an act of Christian justice to give expression to the sentiments embodied in this resolution. I desire briefly to emphasize one point, and that is the spiritual aspect of Zionism. Palestine, the ancient home of the Jewish people, is not only to become a home for the Jews but a home for Judaism. There in Palestine the Jew will be able to live his own life, develop his own culture, and make his characteristic contribution to civilization. Not only is the Jew in exile, but also Judaism. A Hebrew Palestine, the creation of a people who are in themselves oriental in origin and possessed of the culture of the West, will constitute a symbol and serve as a demonstration of the harmonizing possibilities of both of them. If granted an opportunity to develop their spiritual powers, the Jewish people may produce another sweet singer like the Shepherd King, another prophet like Isaiah, and maybe, even a lawgiver like Moses. Thus the first official act of the Zionist organization in Palestine after the British conquest was the laying of the foundation stone of the Hebrew university, on the 24th day of July, 1918, on Mount Scopus. For the renaissance of the Hebraic culture in Palestine is among the sacred aspirations of the Jewish people. A Jewish Palestine will make it possible for the Jewish Nation to take its rightful place as a member of the family of nations, and will enable them the better to serve humanity. We merely ask for the opportunity and for the establishment of such political conditions in Palestine as will make its realization possible. We are a peaceful people. Our future is the plowshare and not the sword; the book and not the spear. Mr. BURTON. How far do you anticipate that the Jewish people shall have political control in Palestine. Mr. STONE. In the mandate recognition is given to what is called a Jewish agency. In all matters relating to the Jewish people in Palestine the Gov ernment will deal through that agency with due regard for the rights of all other inhabitants. Mr. FISH. It is a commission. Mr. STONE. It is a commission representing the Zionist organization pursuant to the Balfour declaration. The Palestine Government deals with the Arabs through an advisory body. Mr. BURTON. Made up of Arabs? Mr. STONE. Yes, of Arabs and others. This is a forecast of a situation similar to what it is in Switzerland where you have different races or nations living side by side speaking two or three different languages without being oppressive. Mr. FISH. The situation is that England has a mandate in Palestine. England is the only country through its mandate with power to enforce peace over there. If you try to set up in Palestine a Jewish state you could not create it or protect it because the Jews would not have sufficient force themselves, but it must be understood that the Jews themselves hope eventually to create a state there which they will control, and if they fail to get enough of their people to go over there, of course, they will never have a state. Mr. STONE. In conclusion I wish to state that America's attitude has been misrepresented by our enemies. The opponents of a Jewish Palestine have taken advantage of America's silence and have represented America to be hostile to the establishment in Palestine of a home for the Jewish people. Of course, we know that this is not the fact. Nevertheless, it is a source of encouragement to the forces of violence to which hopes are held out of the withdrawal of the Balfour declaration. The adoption of this resolution which favors the establishment of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine will have the effect of clarifying America's position and will declare that to be a fact which we know is a fact, namely, that the American people are friendly towards the Jewish aspirations in Palestine. Mr. LINTHINCUM. There ought not to be any question about it. But what I am deeply interested in is what developments in the line of productivity go on in Palestine. I am personally interested in knowing that. In these various settlements how much land has been purchased, and so forth? I think the future of the whole movement depends on how much you can make the soil of Palestine again produce. Mr. STONE. Mr. Lipsky covered that point. I would be guilty of repetition. Mr. LINTHICUM. Have statistics been filed to that effect? Mr. STONE. Yes. Gentlemen, the resolution before you embodies the faith of the Jewish people and gives expression to a longing which has never forsaken them. Forty centuries of history look down upon you-a history written with the tears and blood of the Jewish people. The adoption of this resolution will be a source of strength and inspiration to us and will be in harmony with the great ideals and traditions of the American people. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your courtesy. Mr. FISH. I will introduce Dr. Herman Seidel, chairman of the Palestine Foundation Fund. The CHAIRMAN. Proceed. STATEMENT OF DR. HERMAN SEIDEL, BALTIMORE, MD. Doctor SEIDEL. Mr. Chairman, I am chairman of a committee of the State of Maryland for the Palestine foundation fund, organized by the Zionist Organization. I am, therefore, speaking for about 6,000 Baltimoreans, members of the Jewish faith, who have contributed to this fund, expressing in this substantial way their sympathy with the movement. As to the question that was asked: 66 'What will we gain if Congress adopts this resolution? I, as an American citizen, may say that it is, perhaps, more for sentimental reasons that we request of Congress to adopt this resolution. It is sentimental in that way that we American Jews would like to feel that the work we carry on for the rehabilitation of Zion meets with the sympathy of the representatives of our American Nation. We would like to feel that "the land of the free" expresses its feelings of sympathy to the most oppressed people. While it is true that the American Jews have all the liberties and all the privileges in this country which they desire. It is obviously impossible to make America the home for the Jewish people. We, as individuals, are free and as such, remain true to the country of our adoption; but the Jewish people as a whole are not free. There is only one place that has sufficient attraction to us Jews, where we would bring sufficient sacrifices to make it a home for the Jewish people and that place is Palestine. The Balfour declaration does not intend, and we do not intend in any way to abrogate or restrict the rights of the people now living in Palestine. Palestine is very much underpopulated. There is room for many more to come in and settle. I will, with your permission, read an excerpt of an article from the New Palestine, of April 7, 1922. written by J. Ramsay MacDonald, of the British Labor Party, who visited Palest.ne some time ago, and who describes what is going on there. Among others he describes the valley of Esdraelon, where the Jews from Eastern Europe are displaying their pioneer work in Palestine. For you might know that at this time there are hundreds of thousands of Jewish young men ready to emigrate into Palestine if we only had the means to provide for them. There are thousands near the borders waiting to enter Palestine. Here is what he says: “One afternoon as I was crossing the plain of Esdraelon, close to the spot where Saul fought his last fight and fell before the Philistines, I was met by a country cart and jolted over some mile or two of unmade road to one of these new Jewish camps at Nuris, on the northern slopes of Mount Gilboa. Just beyond the spring, where it is said Gideon selected his army of the 300 men who 'lapped of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth,' I found their tents. Most of them were in the fields, but the anvil in the smithy was clanging, saws and planes were going in the carpenter's shop, through an open door I saw a dentist at work, and in the kitchen pots and pans were rattling. "The community consisted of 150 persons, selected from those who, as members of the labor corps, had worked on road making for 12 months. They had settled upon a large piece of land, between the railway and the top of the hill, part of which is a swamp and all of it practically out of cultivation. There they are planting 14,000 eucalyptus trees of 60 varieties, 4,000 pines, 500 cypresses, 10,000 olives, together with apple orchards, vineyards, tobacco plantations, and orange groves; they are starting nurseries for the supply of plants, especially trees; they are digging and preparing the land for cultivation; they believe they are relaying the foundations of a new Zion." This is a description of only one camp. There are many more like this. This shows that it is within the Jewish people, especially of those countries, to make Palestine again the center of civilization. It should be the privilege of the House of Representatives of our United States to pass this resolution of sympathy with such work. It should be the privilege of any Christian nation to help make the cradle of Christianity again the center of civilization instead of permitting it to remain a land of devastation and epidemics, which it has been now for many centuries. In this and other countries you may still hear about the difficulties from without and within. We still have opposition; we still have many Jews who oppose Zionism; we still have some Jews who are in fear of a Jewish state, who fear they will be considered unpatriotic. There are some who have not come to the understanding that they could help the Jewish people and at the same time remain good patriots of the country of their adoption. There are many difficulties, but the faith that the bulk of the Jewish people possess, faith in the restoration of Palestine, must ultimately overcome all these diffi culties, and Palestine will be rebuilt. Let us have the record of the sympathetic expression of the American people for the restoration of Palestine by the most oppressed of the nations. I thank you. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN PHILIP HILL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND. Mr. HILL. Mr. Chairman, I wish to file a number of telegrams which I have received from representative organizations. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. (The telegrams referred to are as follows:) [Telegram.] BALTIMORE, MD., April 17, 1922. Hon. JOHN PHILIP HILL, House Office Building, Washington, D. C.: The members of the congregation Adath Bnei Israel, Baltimore, Md., in prayer assembled, respectfully petition you to vote in favor of resolution introduced by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and Representative Hamilton Fish approving establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. Your cooperation and support will be greatly appreciated. ADATH BNEI ISRAEL CONGREGATION. Similar telegrams were received from the following-named congregations: Beth Hamedreth Hag Odel, Mogn Abraham, Shaarei Tfiloh, Mikro Kodish, and Rodfei Zedek. Hon. JOHN PHILIP HILL, BALTIMORE, MD., April 17, 1922. Representative of Maryland in United States Congress, House Office Building, Washington, D. C.: One thousand members of the Hebrew Young Men's Sick Relief Association, Baltimore, Md., in meeting assembled, April 16, respectfully petition you to vote in favor of the resolutions introduced by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and Representative Hamilton Fish, approving the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. Your cooperation and support will be greatly appreciated. I. W. DAVIDSON, President Hebrew Young Men's Sick Relief Association. Similar telegrams to Mr. Hill were filed by B. Stern, president of the Council of Mizrachi Zionists' Associations of Baltimore; the Oir Hanzirach, of Baltimore; and the members of the firm and employees of the Iron King Overall Co. Mr. LIPSKY. The Zionist Organization of America had no adequate notice of this hearing, otherwise we would have presented here authentic resolutions and sentiments in regard to favoring this resolution from 1,100 different sections of the United States. Mr. FISH. I was going to explain to the committee that it was due to my fault, but due intentionally, perhaps, that I did not notify many of your organizations, because we are limited in time. What we had originally hoped was to hold a meeting to-day, hear two or three organizations, and then vote on the resolution. The chairman has called another meeting after this one, however, for Thursday, and hopes to have the vote Thursday. If there is no further business to come before this meeting the committee will stand adjourned. (Thereupon the committee adjourned to meet again to-morrow, Wednesday, April 19, 1922.) COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Stephen G. Porter (chairman) presiding. Mr. FISH. Mr. Chairman, could we not hear from some one who is opposed to the bill at this time? The CHAIRMAN. The usual procedure is to let the proponents of the measure present their statements, and then let the other side answer them. |