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Courier-Journal · Louisville, Kentucky · 20 November 1927

CP-1927-010

Rebirth of Holy Land

Dr. Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, and Other Notables Review the Ten Years of Jewish Occupation of Palestine; Described As Golden Opportunity.

Herman Bernstein, Jerusalem

Rebirth of Holy Land — Courier-Journal, 20 November 1927
Courier-Journal · Louisville, Kentucky · 20 November 1927

Transcribed from the clipping

“Jerusalem, Nov. 19. — In November the Jews throughout the world are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, issued by the British Government in 1917, proclaiming that ‘His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’ Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner of Palestine, has thus summarized the achievements of the Jewish people in Palestine during the ten years since the historic Balfour Declaration… The Land of Prophets. I visited Palestine twice — two years ago and this year. I went to Palestine with a sense of fear that I might be disillusioned… A Miracle of Restoration.… ‘The economic crisis is testing the strength of the Jewish settlers. Two-thirds of them have made good. And they have to bear the burden of the one-third that have not made good yet. We want to subsidize Palestine. We want Palestine to become productive. Smaller industries must be established. And, above all, more efforts should be concentrated on the colonies.’… Not a Jewish State. I asked Dr. Weizmann to describe the beginning of the work on the Balfour Declaration. He answered: ‘When the war broke out… Zionist organization was concentrated on plans of work in Palestine, with political horizon, with insufficiency on the part of the Powers, and opposition on the part of Turkey. The war divided our forces, as we were separated by gulfs and trenches. Russian Jewry was practically broken up…’… ‘We are attempting to build a home in Palestine and we are conscious that this building can only be successful if it will be done in co-operation with the peoples and population of Palestine. We are going into Palestine not as conquerors. We are going into Palestine not to dominate anybody. We are going to build up Palestine, together with the people there… Just as we recognize that Palestine is going to be the common homeland for Jews and Arabs we want the Arabs to recognize that Palestine is going to be the common home for Jews and Arabs.’… ‘Palestine has a population of about 700,000 non-Jews, an overwhelming majority of Moslems, a small minority of Christians and another small minority of Jews. Roughly speaking, there are 500,000 Moslems, 100,000 Christians and 150,000 Jews. Since the war, and even before the war, there has been a striving on the part of the Arab people for a revival.’… The Jordan Harnessed. Pinchas Rutenberg, a Russian Jew, regarded as the most powerful dynamic force in Palestine, has initiated an electrification system and is harnessing the Jordan to give cheap light and power to the Holy Land, and to improve irrigation.”

Context added by this archive

The third American printing this archive holds of one syndicated feature by Herman Bernstein, and the third headline: a miracle in Brooklyn, ten years of progress in San Francisco, and here a rebirth, with the deck calling it ten years of Jewish occupation of Palestine. The word is the paper’s own and it is meant admiringly. The Declaration as quoted at the top is also short: where the letter Balfour sent reads “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country,” this printing runs straight from “may prejudice” to “the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country,” so the existing population is absent from the sentence entirely. The archive holds a second 1927 paper, the Buffalo Jewish Review, printing the same Declaration two weeks earlier with seven words missing from the same clause. The two are different textual sources and this collection does not claim to know why either is short.

Cite this item

"Rebirth of Holy Land," Courier-Journal, 20 November 1927. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1927-010. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1927-010

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1927-010.

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