affecting the destiny of the chosen race. That wonderful people pursues its way through all the history of the world, and whatever concerns them is of universal interest."

According to The Christian :

"By this dramatic declaration an age-long dream comes within the view of actual fulfilment. It ought to be apparent to everybody that the persistence of a people like the Jews during two thousand years—a fact unparalleled in history— despite every attempt to crush them, holds a meaning far deeper than that which the secular historian offers. The purposes of God are being worked out, and we can begin to see light."

In The Church Family Newspaper the Rev. E. L. Langston, under the heading "Jews and Palestine: Epoch-making Announcement," said :-

"The declaration of His Majesty's Government as to the future of Palestine must have far-reaching and vital effects. . .

"The settling down of Jews from Great Britain, America, and the Continent of Europe in the Holy Land is something like a romance of a war in the main features of which scarcely any romantic element has, so far, appeared.”

The Christian Commonwealth said :

The historical interest and the religious importance of this promise will appeal nearly as much to non-Jewish people as to the Jews themselves. . . . We may yet live to see Palestine become the centre of trade and travel for the three continents of the Old World. The early colonization movement has crystallized into something more dramatic-the re-establishment of a whole people on the soil of the land where their national history began. Their long exile is drawing to an end. From this redeemed and rejuvenated people what new message may we not expect, seeing that their faith has so manifestly been justified and the vision of their prophets realized!'

"

"We are quite unable to find words," said The Life of Faith, "wherewith to express the wonderful importance of the above declaration made by His Majesty's Government. . . . It is not too much to say that this great declaration contains the making of history, even as it forms a new epoch

for the Jewish race. . . . We welcome the declaration all the more because we, too, have an inborn love for the Holy Land, and because we can so deeply sympathize with the Jewish people, whose passionate affection for the land of their fathers has never been torn from their hearts, in spite of centuries of persecution and wanderings. There is, after all, some little excuse for the sentimental yearnings of the Rabbis who expressed their heartfelt passion in such sayings as:

The very air of Palestine makes one wise.'1

'To live in Palestine is equal to the observance of all the commandments.'2

“‘He that hath his permanent abode in Palestine is sure of the life to come.' "3

The Methodist Times said :

"Naturally this declaration, which will be celebrated in history, has given the liveliest satisfaction to Jewry throughout the world. The pledge is as sagacious as it is opportune." And prints in addition a long article by Mr. C. W. Andrews, entitled: "Palestine for the Jews: the Triumph of Zionism.”

And in the words of The Sunday School Chronicle :

"For two thousand years the Jews have been wandering among the nations. It looks as though a new day were dawning for them and for the world. . . . Apart from the moral significance of such a return, an independent Jewish State would make the Holy Land a centre of commercial and political influence of far-reaching importance to the British Empire and to the Far East."

The British Weekly, The Church Times, The Christian World, The Inquirer, and The Guardian also commented editorially on the Government's pronouncement.

The Jewish Chronicle, in a leading article, said :

". . . It is the perceptible lifting of the cloud of centuries, the palpable sign that the Jew-condemned for two thousand years to unparalleled wrong—is at last coming to his right.

(1) אוירא דארץ ישראל מחכים

בבא בתרא דיקנח ע"ב:

()... ישיבת ארץ ישראל שקולה כנגד כל המצות שבתורה : ספרי דבי רב פסקא ראה פ' :

... כל מי שקבוע בארץ ישראל ... יהא מובטח שבן

העולם הבא הוא : 4

תלמוד ירושלמי מסכת שקלים פרק שלישי :

The prospect has at last definitely opened of a rectification of the Jew's anomalous position among the nations of the earth. He is to be given the opportunity and the means whereby, in place of being a hyphenation, he can become a nation. Instead of, as Jew, filling a place at best equivocal and doubtful, even to himself, and always with an apologetic cringing inseparable from his position, he can-as Jewstand proud and erect, endowed with national being. In place of being a wanderer in every clime, there is to be a home for him in his ancient land. The day of his exile is to be ended. In this joyous hour we English Jews turn with feelings of deepest pride and reverence to great and glorious Britain, mother of free nations and protectress of the oppressed, who has thus taken the lead in the Jewish restoration. The friend of our people for generations, who has raised her voice times out of number for our suffering martyrs, never was she truer to her noble traditions than today-never more England than now! In the time to come, when Jewry, free and prosperous, lives a contented and, as we all hope, a lofty life in Palestine, it will look with neverfailing gratitude to the Power which crowned its centuries of humanitarianism by a grand act that linked Jewish destinies with those of the freest democracy in the world."

The Jewish people all over the world was deeply impressed by the Declaration. As the correspondent of the London Jewish Chronicle puts it, "The Jewish masses were literally dazzled." A great demonstration, unparalleled for enthusiasm, occurred at Petrograd, and was addressed by M. Boris Goldberg and M. Aleinikoff, who styled England the "advanced guard of humanity." He spoke in the highest praise of the English Labour Party for its sympathetic attitude toward the movement, and of the American Zionists for their defence of the Jewish colonies in Palestine since the outbreak of the war. Tributes were paid to the memory of Dr. Theodor Herzl and other leaders of the Movement who have passed away, of the British soldiers killed in the Campaign in Palestine, and to the Hashomerim who have died in defence of the Jewish colonies. Two soldiers, Levitzky and Kotlarevsky, greeted the Declaration on behalf of the Jewish Soldiers' Union.

Tremendous enthusiasm prevailed throughout Russian Jewry because of the British Declaration; and reports received from Moscow, Minsk, Ekaterinoslav, Kieff, Kharkoff, Odessa and Kherson are to the effect that tens of

thousands of Jews who had hitherto been either neutral or inimical, joined the Zionist Movement. Special services of thanksgiving were held in many synagogues and many mass meetings, vieing with one another in enthusiasm, were held almost everywhere. Many organizations of Jewish youth signified their intention to make whatever sacrifices might be demanded of them for the Zionist ideal. The Russian Press, with practical unanimity, spoke of the great importance of the Declaration, and described it as a momentous event for the Jews, offering the longed-for opportunity to build a national Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The enthusiasm in America found expression in thousands of telegrams, public meetings, resolutions, thanksgiving services. At the Baltimore Zionist Conference on December 15th a resolution was passed thanking the British Government for the Declaration, which stated, " Deeply we rejoice in the triumph of the British arms in Palestine, and the taking over of Palestine as another step in the march of the Allied Forces which is to establish throughout the world the principle of the liberty of smaller nationalities." In all other countries the Declaration was discussed by public opinion in a most favourable sense.

On November 18, 1917, a reception was held by the English Zionist Federation at which Lord Rothschild officially communicated to the Federation the Declaration of the English government. Hundreds of congratulatory telegrams received from all parts of the world aroused enthusiasm. Lord Rothschild, Dr. Tschlenow, Dr. Weizmann, Mr. James de Rothschild, and the author delivered addresses in commemoration of this historic event in the life of the Jewish people.

LONDON OPERA HOUSE DEMONSTRATION

Some account must be given of the Demonstration at the London Opera House of the 2nd December held in order to express gratitude to the British Government. This great demonstration was attended by thousands of persons. The resolution read by Lord Rothschild, who presided over the meeting, expressed gratitude from all sections of AngloJewry for the Government declaration in favour of estab lishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people. Every member of the audience seemed to feel the greatness of the occasion.

Lord Rothschild said they were met on the most momentous occasion in the history of Judaism for the last eighteen hundred years. They were there to return thanks to His Majesty's Government for a declaration which marked an epoch in Jewish history of outstanding importance. For the first time since the Dispersion the Jewish people had received its proper status by the Declaration of one of the great Powers. That Declaration, while acknowledging and approving of the aspirations of the Jewish people for a National Home, at the same time placed Jews on their honour to respect the rights and privileges not only of their prospective non-Jewish neighbours in Palestine, but also of those of their own people who did not see eye to eye with the Zionist cause. Feeling as he did that the aims of Zionism were in no way incompatible with the highest patriotism and loyal citizenship of the Jews in the various countries in which they were dwelling, he would like the meeting in passing the resolution which would be submitted to them to assure the Government that they would, one and all, faithfully observe both the spirit and the letter of their gracious declaration. He felt sure that the principal aim of the Zionists was to provide a National Home for those portions of the Jewish people who wished to escape the possibilities in the future of such oppression and ill-treatment as they had endured in the past, and he therefore held that all and every section of opinion in the Jewish people could work together for the establishment in Palestine of such a home, so as to make it a triumphant success.

It had often been said that the repeopling of Palestine by the Jews was bound to fail in so far as they were not an agricultural people, but they might dismiss that fear from their minds in view of the success of the great Jewish agricultural colonies which were established in Palestine before the war. The only thing necessary to achieve success in the movement was a thoroughly up-to-date organization for the development of the land, and for the guidance and selection of the settlers, who must act as pioneers. The aims of what now appeared to be antagonistic bodies of opinion, seemed to him to be so similar that he felt sure that when those objects had been properly examined in the light of experience they would find, sooner or later, that a common ground would present itself for all of those professing these apparently divergent opinions to work together in a common effort to make the re-settlement of