various congregations, various Jewish communal workers, heads of
colonies, teachers, business men and workpeople and even beggars who
came to enjoy the material blessings of this great national festivity.

Mr. Joseph Lipshitz opened the proceedings by explaining the importance
of this great red letter day for Mr. Barnett and then called upon Rabbi
Auerbach of Jerusalem who had come specially to take part in this
celebration. Rabbi Auerbach delivered a long Talmudical dissertation in
which he recited the great merits of the jubilant. He compared Z.
Barnett to a king, because he based himself on a Talmudic statement
concerning Omri which asserts that he who builds a little town or
village is worthy to be called a king. The learned Rabbi also emphasised
the importance of acquiring land in Palestine by many pithy remarks.
Then spoke the Rabbis: Joseph Ha-levi, Shneiur Lenskin, Joseph Arwatz
and Joseph Rabbi. All these testified to the great qualities of their
host, who besides being a great idealist was also a very practical man
too.

After the Rabbis, Mr. S. Nissim, chief of the colony of Petah-Tikvah
spoke. He narrated in a very realistic and eloquent way how that pioneer
Zorach Barnett came fifty years ago to build up the ruins of the land
and how he bought up the land of Petah-Tikvah, which was now a
flourishing colony, but which was then a howling desert wilderness, such
as only insane men could ever think of converting this into an
habitation of men. At the present day, thousands of pioneers are
flocking to the land, but they are only a continuation of the pioneering
of Z. Barnett and his stalwart companions. The speaker concluded by
blessing the jubilant that he should survive to see thousands of Jewish
Colonies in Palestine and tens of thousands of pioneers flocking here
from every part of the world.