Zionist library for boys and girls · 1908-01-01 · 4 · p. Seite 4

be "brought to Palestine by this society and settle there. The Jews should he taught to become farmers by experienced teachers and should be employed by the company. But those who are acquainted with agriculture should be granted a tract of land - rent free for a time, until they are able to pay the Company a fixed amount of rent. During the first years, the eompan37should also make loans of money to the independent farmers until such time as the land j/ields its harvest. These ideas are amazing - they seem like a forecast of what is really done today. His ideas of a company renting out tracts of land resembles + if only faintly - the ideas of the National Fund. •<e can see already from these fev extracts of his book that we was far advanced to his time. Only a few people understood, him. Most people mocked him, many were afraid of him because they thought that his national ideas would disturb the process of assimilation, and only Graetz really appreciated his writing. Moses Hess became a bitter fighter against assimilation. To those who say that the Jews have a mission to fulfil and therefore have to assimilate with the peoples of the world he says: "The Jews must concentrate on their own soil again, and the Messianic ideas of the Jews must find their realisation in their own community and not amongst strangers." Moses Hess died in the year 1875 - long before Zionism was even originated. PASSAGES FROM HIS WRITINGS. "After an estrangement of twenty years I am "back with my people. I have come to be one of them again, to participate in the celebration of their Holy Days, to share the memories and hopes of the