| 436 The Jews
The following extracts are taken from Den Orient, a German newspaper. They seem to be taking a movement among the continental Jews in relation to the late crisis in Syria.
We have a country, the inhabitance of our fathers, finer, more fruitful, better situated for commerce, than many of the most celebrated portions of the globe. Environed by the deep delled Taurus, the lovely shores of the Euphrates, the lofty steeps of Arabia, and of rocky Sinai, our country extends along the shores of the Mediteranean [Mediterranean], crowned by the towering cedars of Lebanon, the source of a hundred rivulets and brooks, which spread fruitfulness over shady dales, and confer wealth on the contented inhabitants. A glorious land, situate at the farthest extremity of the sea which connects three quarters of the globe, over which the Phœnicians, our brethren, sent their numerous fleets to the shores of Albion and the rich coasts of Lithuania, near to both the Red sea and the Persian Gulf; the perpetual courses of the traffic of the world, on the way from Persia and India to the Caspian and Black sea; the central country of the commerce between the east and west.
Every country has its peculiarity; every people their own nature. Syria, with its extensive surrounding plains unfavorable to regular cultivation, is a land of transit, of communication, of caravans. No people on the earth have lived so true to their calling from the first as we have done. We are a trading people, born for the country where little food is necessary, and this is furnished by nature almost spontaneously to the temperate inhabitants, but not for the heavy soils of the ruder north. In no country of the earth are our brethren so numerous as in Syria; in none do they live in as dense masses so independent of the surrounding inhabitants; in none do they persevere so steadfastly in their faith in the promise of the fathers, as on the beautiful shore of the Orontes. In Damascus alone live near 60,000. The Arab has maintained his language and his original country: on the Nile, in the deserts as far as Sinai and beyond the Jordan, he feeds his flocks on the elevated plains of Asia Minor. The Turkoman has conquered for himself a second country, the birth-place of the Osmon; but Syria and Palestine are depopulated; For centuries the battle field between the sons of Altai and of the Arabian Wilderness, the inhabitants of the west and the half nomadic Persians, none have been able to establish themselves and maintain their nationality; no nation can claim the name Syrian. A chaotic mixture of all tribes and tongues remnants of migrations from north and south, they disturb one another in the possession of the glorious land where our fathers for so many centuries emptied the cup of joy and woe, where every clod is drenched with the blood of our heroes when their bodies were buried under the ruins of Jurusalem [Jerusalem]. The power of our enemies is gone, the angel of discord has long since mown down their mighty hosts, and yet, ye do not bestir yourselves, people of Jehovah! What hinders? Nothing but your own supineness.
Think you that Mehemet Ali or the Sultan in Samboul will not be convinced that it would be better for him to be the protector of a peaceful and wealthy people, than with infinite loss of men and money to contend against the ever repeated, mutually provoked insurrection of the Turks and Arabs, of whom neither the one nor the other are able to give prosperity to the country? Our probation was long in all countries, from the North Pole to the South there is no trade, no art which we have not practised [practiced]; no science in which we cannot show splendid examples. Where will you find better proclaimers of civilization to the wild tribes of the east? People of Jehovah, raise yourselves from your thousand years slumber! Rally round leaders! have really the will; a Moses will not be wanting. The rights of nations will never grow old; take possession of the land of your fathers; build a third time the Temple on Zion greater and more magnificent then [than] ever. Trust in the Lord, who has led you safely through the vale of misery thousands of years. He also will not forsake you in your last conflict.
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