[¹] “God-speed to the Pilgrims.”
“... But one of the most attractive portions of your tour will, I think, be your visits to some of the colonies. And in this connection I may give an illustration of the vivid interest taken in your journey by the residents in the Holy Land. A well-informed correspondent writes to the Jüdische Presse expressing his regret that the only Jewish colony you contemplate inspecting is Rosh Pinah, certainly the most romantically situated, and that you will not see the prosperous settlement ‘Rishon-le-Zion,’ nor the agricultural school ‘Mikveh Israel,’ and he advises a route which would enable you to see a number of new settlements, and some thirteen Jewish villages that have sprung up within the last ten years. Now undoubtedly great things have already been accomplished in training the hapless immigrants from Russia and Roumania to become hardy tillers of the soil ... well-trained Jewish horticulturists are at the head of each settlement, that Jewish farmers, peasants and labourers toil with splendid diligence ... 50,000 eucalyptus trees planted in Gadra to counteract malarial influences; 2,000,000 of vines that have been grafted by Jews in Rishon-le-Zion, Petach Tikvah and Zichron Jacob, and of the excellent wine that is produced there. In Rishon-le-Zion there are numbers of smiths and coopers.... But yet I feel confident that this pilgrimage will exercise an abiding effect on your spiritual life. It is a well-authenticated fact that de Saulcy [L. F. J. Cagnart] (1807–1880), the great Oriental traveller, confessed that he went to Palestine as an unbeliever, and that he returned from there with a profound faith in the truth of the Bible. You, I hope, do not need to have your faith thus strengthened. But I ardently trust that by this pilgrimage there will be engendered in your hearts ... a stronger sentiment of brotherhood, ... a more enthusiastic devotion to ... Zion and Jerusalem,...”[¹]
[¹] Jewish Chronicle, 9th April, 1897, p. 21.
5657 * THE MACCABÆAN PILGRIMAGE * 1897
Herbert Bentwich
Edmond de Menasce
Lewis Levy
Mrs. Rose Frank
Miss Marion Douglas
Dr. Louis Frankel
Samuel Finn Asher Feldman
David Wolffe
Samuel Levy Bensusan
Henry Davis
Miss Salvena Schloss
Mrs. Fannie Muhr
Rev. George Joseph Emanuel Isaac Snowman
A. L. Birnstingl
Mrs. Cordelia Birnstingl
Charles Davis
Israel Zangwill
Ernest D. Isaacs
Jussuf (Dragoman)
The visit of this party was a new feature in the Jewish history of Palestine. It was looked upon with satisfaction, as indicating the growing interest of English Jews in Palestine. It took place at the very moment when modern Zionism entered upon the scene, on the eve of the first Congress, and, so far as English Jews were concerned, it had a good moral influence.
CHAPTER XLIV.
BARON DE HIRSCH
His philanthropic activity—The Oriental Jews and the “Alliance”—Emanuel Felix Veneziani—Lord Swaythling—Dr. A. Asher—Laurence Oliphant.