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::R0044 : page 5::

SINCE the Turkish authorities removed ten years ago the restrictions which limited the Jewish population in Jerusalem, the Jews have bought up all the land they could in the ancient city and have built outside the walls in some cases entire streets of houses. Synagogues and Jewish hospitals have multiplied and the German Jews have no fewer than sixteen charity associations, and twenty-eight congregations religious houses. Two newspapers have been started. In the Rothschild and other hospitals, 6,000 patients are cared for annually. Baron Rothschild holds a mortgage on the whole of Palestine as security for his loan of 200,000,000 francs to the Turkish government. It is said that the value of the land at the gates of the city has increased more than ten-fold, while building and construction work of all kinds is carried on night and day. It is further reported that the immigrants, who to a large extent are from Russia, “are animated by a religious enthusiasm of a very pronounced type.”

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— October, 1879 —