New York Herald · New York, New York · 16 April 1892

CP-1892-001

They Are Not Going to Palestine

Some Hebrews Who Have Been There Think that Others Should Keep Away.

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Transcribed from the clipping

“Reports have appeared in the newspapers for a year past that ‘large numbers of Jews are returning to the land of their fathers.’ People on the ground, however, have looked in vain for any large increase in the Jewish population of Palestine.

They say that Palestine is not ready for the Jews and that the Jews are not ready for Palestine, and they discourage the efforts of colonization companies and philanthropic Hebrews to send poor Jews to Palestine. Mr. Merrill, our Consul at Jerusalem, says that only about 50,000 Jews are in Palestine, of whom half reside in Jerusalem.

Within the past year a number of well-to-do Jews have gone to Palestine to inquire into the price of land and the prospects for business, but almost all of them have returned to their former homes. Many of the native Jews of Palestine are eager to get away from the country, and they look longingly toward the United States as a place where they can better their condition.

Palestine had a curious land boom early in 1891 on account of reports that a very large Jewish immigration was coming and that the newcomers would bring in large sums of money, which would stimulate business and usher in an era of good times.

The result was brisk speculation in land in Jerusalem and other cities rivalling that which is a feature in the early life of many Western towns. Some thought that the redemption of Israel was at hand, and it was said that Palestine was to pass rapidly under the control of the Hebrew race.

A great deal of land changed ownership, and lots that sold for only a few hundred dollars five years ago were purchased eagerly for many thousands. There was not, however, a particle of basis for the speculation.

No new manufacturing interests had been established, no mines had been opened, and the stories of large immigration were fictitious… A sudden check was given to the craze when, in July last, the Turkish Government gave orders that no more Jews should be permitted to enter Palestine. Land immediately fell off one-third in price.”

Context added by this archive

1892, in the New York Herald, and the reporting is entirely against the current of everything that follows it in this archive. An American consul in Jerusalem is quoted with a figure — about 50,000 Jews in Palestine, half of them in the city.

The land boom of 1891 is described as a speculative bubble with not a particle of basis, and it ends when the Ottoman government closes the door. And the Jews already living there are reported wanting to leave, toward the United States. Ten years later the same decade’s New York papers would be headlining plans to colonize the country (CP-1902-001).

Cite this clipping

More from New York Herald

• PalestineNew York Herald · 9 May 1870
• DIGGING DEEP IN BIBLICAL DUST.New York Herald · 19 January 1890

More from the 1890s

• The Fellaheen of PalestineThe Day · 13 March 1891
• Orange Growing in PalestineAkron Beacon Journal · 13 December 1893
• THROUGH PALESTINE.Brooklyn Eagle · 21 February 1890
• Mrs. Dr. Bliden's Work for Girls in Safed, Palestine, ComplimentedKansas City Journal · 26 August 1895
• Farming in PalestineAlexandria Gazette · 18 July 1896
• Jewish State in Palestine OpposedThe New York Times · 9 July 1897
• All 13 clippings from the 1890s →

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