AGAINST THE ZIONITE MOVEMENT.
By G.
THE “impossible dream” of colonizing the Jews in Palestine is likely to find its greatest difficulty in the disposition of the Jews themselves. As a people they rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, and as a people they never will accept Him. Those of them who are to be converted to Christianity will come in as individuals, just as other people do. So the bait that this same Jesus will come to rule over them in Palestine is not a very tempting one to the multitude. Nor is the monetary prospect (the Jew’s greatest inducement) for ten million people very flattering. The Jews prefer to make money, and Palestine is not a flattering field. These thoughts are suggested by a press report of a sermon by Rabbi Silverman, at Temple Emanu-El, in New York City, a few weeks ago. He is said to have “strenuously opposed” the Zionite movement for a congregation of the Jews in Palestine, and made a plea for their assimilation with the peoples of the countries where they live, in all things except their religion. In the course of his remarks he characterized the idea of the restoration of Jewish nationality as an “impossible dream.” Incidentally this prominent representative of Jewish thought discouraged the massing of his race, even in America. He exhorted Russian, Rumanian, and Galician Jews to remain where they are and insist on the rights to which they are entitled, instead of making a confession of weakness by flying from the evils which surround them. If the Jews come here he would have them “renounce every form of exclusiveness save their religion, give up their foreign languages, manners, and customs, and break down every obstacle possible that lies in the way of assimilation.” G.