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”The Jewish Question and Its Solution” – Rare Publication by the Children of Mishmar HaEmek on the Condition of the Jewish People on the Eve of the Second World War. Winter 1938 - ”All attempts to improve the condition of the Jews in the Diaspora have failed. The only solution to the Jewish Question is the concentration of the majority of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.” – The Jewish Question and Its Solution. A Booklet of Charts and Statistics. Prepared by the ”Olim” Group of the Hashomer Hatzair Children's Society at Mishmar HaEmek as a gift for the Jewish National Fund and the Keren Hayesod. Winter 1938. A rare publication compiled by the children of Mishmar HaEmek examining the condition of world Jewry on the eve of the Second World War. Through charts, statistics, and explanatory material, it conveys the clear message that only the Land of Israel could serve as a refuge for the Jewish people in their hour of greatest peril. Throughout the booklet appear full-page charts, tables, diagrams, and photomontages. Each illustration is accompanied by a historical ”Conclusion” concerning the fate of the Jewish people. Thus, beside a map showing the distribution of Jews throughout the world appears the statement: ”The lands of the Jewish Diaspora are many. Yet the majority of the Jewish people is concentrated in only a few countries, where Jews live in great density.” Another table illustrates ”The Abnormal Economic Condition of the Jews.” Alongside a map tracing the principal migrations of the Jewish people through the generations is the following explanation: ”A simple calculation. (A) The Jews live as strangers among the nations of the world. (B) The Jews constitute a small minority in every country. (C) The Jews are engaged primarily in intermediary occupations within the economy. This creates the Jewish problem. Antisemitism arises as an expression of hostility toward strangers, and pressure is exerted by the ruling majority upon the Jewish minority. Every, even the slightest, economic upheaval severely affects the economic condition of the Jews. Hence the continual migrations of the Jewish people throughout the countries of the Diaspora.”  These observations were published only months before Nazi Germany invaded Poland and, following the outbreak of the Second World War, began establishing the ghettos. On another page, the children summarize their conclusions: ”All attempts to improve the condition of the Jews in the Diaspora have failed. The only solution to the Jewish Question is the concentration of the majority of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.”  The final page features a richly detailed photomontage depicting the renewed Land of Israel. The booklet was prepared by members of the group, children only fourteen years of age, as part of an educational project designed to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the Jewish homeland and the Jewish Diaspora. They undertook extensive research, assembling geographical, historical, and literary material relating to the condition of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and throughout the Diaspora, and initially produced the work as a private booklet intended solely for the children of Mishmar HaEmek. During a visit by Nathan Bistritzky, he was deeply impressed by the children's work and expressed the view that this small booklet could serve as an important educational resource for children and young people throughout the Land of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. The children readily agreed to its publication and entrusted the manuscript to the Registrar of the National Funds for printing. They painstakingly recopied the entire work: the original version, prepared two years earlier, had been produced in color, but for publication it had to be adapted to black-and-white printing. They also added new material and updated the statistical data to reflect the most current information available at the time of publication. The result is a historically important and rare publication, distinguished by its high-quality photomontages and its striking presentation of the Jewish predicament in all its gravity on the eve of the Holocaust. 31 pages. 17×24 cm. Very good condition.