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No. 47. | Vienna, 18 November 1904. — 10 Kislev 5665. | 8th Year.

On the Jewish Migration.

Only a few weeks have passed since a regulation of the Jewish migration was once more demanded in these columns. More swiftly than could have been hoped, fulfilment now beckons to long-cherished wishes and endeavours. Ever wider circles have come to recognise that this problem holds grave, perhaps decisive, changes in the Jewish policy hitherto pursued. Perhaps it was this that was, for some, the spur to seek a reasonable solution, and, for others, the reason why they set to work only reluctantly and with hesitant timidity. It is owing to the energetic intervention of great Jewish corporations that not only were the necessary preliminary labours accomplished in a comparatively short time, but that agreement on a number of proposals could also be reached at a preliminary conference. The undertaking has now advanced so far that in the first week of next month a conference of the most important Jewish corporations is to meet, at which a Central Committee is to be founded, whose task it will be to deliberate upon the first common steps. The Grand Lodge for Germany VIII. U. O. B. B., the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden and notables of Frankfort are jointly sending out the invitations to this conference, which will meet at Frankfort. The deliberations will be based upon theses drawn up by the chairman of the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, Dr. Paul Nathan.

For us Zionists, who shall take part in this conference, it is gratifying that we can on the whole agree with the proposed theses. But neither do we close our minds to the misgivings which, in particular, the passage concerning the intended decentralisation must arouse. Our concern here is not merely that the so-called efforts at distribution have hitherto been attended by enormous costs and have by no means had the desired success. That may perhaps lie in a faulty organisation and in the want of experience hitherto in this field. More important is the purely practical misgiving that there is no easy means of compelling emigrants to go to a particular place, even when this is done with the very best intentions and for their own benefit. It must also be borne in mind that the distribution committees have no power to hold the "distributed" at the places assigned to them. Not to speak of the fact that conditions of livelihood in certain places may change easily and thoroughly through the influence of economic factors which not even the most cautious calculations can estimate with any approach to accuracy. This too may be mentioned only in passing, that the emigrants come into entirely new conditions, in which their former methods of work are perhaps inadequate or wholly unsuitable, so that the mere finding of opportunities for work, without subsequent care and supervision, is not likely to suffice. These, however, are after all matters with which the appropriate bodies will concern themselves, and whose experience may then bring about any improvement that proves necessary. Nor do we wish for the present to discuss whether special consideration for agricultural labourers would not be in place.

For our guidance, the intended decentralisation has an important side of principle. We Zionists are of the view that the distribution of the Jews into small and very small groups, and their dispersion over the widest possible expanses of country, can by no means be approved. Not that we think it advisable to bring still more Jews into cities already overcrowded. That would be folly, and we have no thought of committing it or of giving occasion for it. But it seems to us equally harmful, in the interest of the Jews as well as of their future fellow-countrymen, to leave small, weak groups of Jews in foreign lands, whose language they mostly do not know at all, to the good or evil will of their surroundings. We should therefore be glad to see at least moderation observed in these efforts at distribution, if their necessity cannot for the present be avoided. We should also look favourably upon a rural colonisation, on a co-operative basis if possible, because it promises a closer cohesion among the immigrants, and their independence of