Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/176

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160
GREAT RUSSIA

infant mortality. It is difficult to get reliable statistics, but there are probably more than twelve millions of Jews in both hemispheres.

Their geographical distribution brings out some striking facts. In the first place, the majority of Jews are congregated in large towns. Of the two million American Jews, nearly one million are settled in New York City. This is, of course, partly due to the fact that the Jews have generally been divorced from agricultural pursuits. It is also due to the gregarious instinct of a weak and persecuted people.

In the second place, the bulk of the Jews still live within the limits of the ancient kingdom of Poland (see map facing page 153). Whereas the Jewish population of Palestine is only sixty thousand, the Jewish population in Greater Poland is over five millions; that is to say, for every Jew living in Palestine there are nearly a hundred Jews living in Poland. Poland, therefore, must be considered as the geographical centre of Israel. In Poland they are still living under the old conditions. They still retain their picturesque costumes, and still keep their old customs. They still live shut up in their ghettos, they still speak their Yiddish