“On 28 January 1877 on page 12, The Chicago Daily Tribune reported,
THE NEW EXODUS.
THE IDEA RIDICULED IN NEW YORK.
New York World.
There is a report ‘that the Jews are again crowding back to Palestine.’ A writer in the Cincinnati Commercial says there are ‘many closed Jewish houses in London. The whole region from Dan to Beersheba is crowded with immigrant Jews from all parts of the world.’ Conversations with the leading Jewish ministers and professional men of this city show that there is no truth whatever in these reports, except in this, that the Jewish population of Palestine has in recent years, been composed altogether of ‘immigrants from all parts of the world,’ who have settled in Palestine so as to benefit by the numerous charities which enable them to live there in idleness and pauperism. The wholesale and indiscriminate alms-giving for the relief of ‘the poor of Jerusalem’ has added to the population, which, as a class, is thoroughly lazy and good-for-nothing. As to the idea of a general return of the Jews to Palestine, it is scouted as absurd and improbable in the highest degree. With the exception of a very few orthodox people, the Jews, as a religious sect, have long since given up all expectation of ever returning to the Holy Land, and the thought of returning now and founding a Jewish state has, it is said, never existed, save in the imagination of some very visionary people.
Mr. Lewis May, the senior member of the banking firm of May & King, and President of the Temple Emmanuel, the largest and richest Jewish congregation in the country, said yesterday to the writer: ‘The Jews are more apt to invest in Fifth avenue lots than in Jerusalem real estate. I should advise you to sell short any Jordan River front lots you may happen to have. I think the general feeling of the Jews is that New York is good enough for them, and that Bloomingdale is good enough for the authors of these perennial rumors of a return of the Jewish people to Palestine.’
Another well-known Jewish banker ridiculed the report in a very humorous vein. He said: ‘I have not yet prepared to start for Jerusalem, nor shall I until the weather is milder.’
A prominent member of the Stock Exchange said: ‘Just fancy what a stir it would make if this absurd report were true. We should have Seligman, Hallgarten, and Netter all shutting up their banking offices; Rothschild would no doubt limit his financial operations to the Holy Land; Ald. Lewis and Phillips would leave two vacancies in the City Government, to which Coroner Ellinger would add another; then what would become of Anti- Tammany without Emanuel B. Hart and Judge Koch, Gershom Cohen, and Adolph Sanger; what bench in Jerusalem would Judge Joachimsen fill? Assemblyman Stein, William H. Stiner, and Judge Dittenhoefer would vanish, too. Solomon would move his furniture place and his Fifth Avenue mansion to the banks of the Jordan; and a host of lesser lights would vanish. What a time there would be ‘on ’Change,’ too, to miss our Seligmans, De Cordovas, Josephs, Sternbergers, and Bernheimers; what would the theatres do on Saturday nights; who would patronize the balls? With the stores of the Vogels, Stadlers, Rosenfelds, Solomons, Lagowitzes, Adlers, Lauters, and others, shut up, Broadway would be indeed deserted. The handsome Harmonie Club on Forty-second street would, of course, be removed to the Holy Land, and the Standard Club would follow suit. There would be a big falling-off in the membership of the Manhattan, Union League, Lotos, and Palette. Ferdinand Myer would close his ‘Newport’ flat, Lewis May his ‘Albany’ flat, and Dore Lyon would sell his real estate. The Temple Emmanuel, on Fifth avenue, all the handsome temples in other parts of the city, the elegant mansions of the Hendrickses, Myers, Kings, Nathans, and Pikes, all to vanish to the stony streets of Jerusalem. Oh, no; never.’”
Christopher Jon Bjerknes
The Jewish Genocide Of Armenian ChristiansProfessor Rabbi Michael Higger PhD
"THE" Jewish Utopia 1932