Page 221 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Articles

Jewish state began with the last Jew driven out from the Holy Land
by Titus. Our national Hebrew poet, Naftali Imber, who wandered
around the New York ghetto singing his love for Palestine, expressed
that sentiment in his song, Hatikvah: “with the last Jew is our last
hope for Palestine.”
The Jews, unlike other nations who lost their freedom, were torn
away from the land of their birth, scattered the globe over,
persecuted for centuries, and yet have retained their integrity,
character, language, and everything which distinguishes one nation
from another. Without a soil or a government of their own, they were
always dreaming, thinking, praying, singing, of a future state. This
long desire has preyed on the Jew’s imagination, and he began to look
for the supernatural, for a messiah who shall take him out of the exile
and bring him back to Palestine.
And the messiah came to him, not in the form he dreamed of, but
as a modern statesman, Theodore Herzl, the father of political
Zionism. Like the prophets of old, he foresaw the downfall of
German influence in the Near East and British ascendancy. He
therefore appealed first to the Jews and friendly Gentiles in England
to foster his Judenstaat, the Jewish homeland. The call of our friends,
the Anglo-Saxons, shall not be unheeded today. Every Jew who has a
spark of feeling for his race must give a hand to the restoration and
preparation of Palestine.
The Jews who live in this free, prosperous, beloved country will
continue to prosper and be loyal to their adopted fatherland, but like
other people who are loyal to America and yet have a feeling and an
instinct for their motherland, they must do all they can for their
brothers over there. The splitting up of Russia into smaller nations,
thereby dividing the Jews there into smaller groups, has put the Jews
in this country into the lead in numbers and influence, and the other
Jews of the world expect them to take up the work in Palestine. In six
weeks, Jews all over the United States have raised two and a half
million dollars for the restoration fund; three million dollars is the
goal, and there is no doubt that they will go over the top.
With the help of all Jews, a third Palestine will be established,
overshadowing the Palestine of the past.

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