dJortigU IttittersUg ffitbrari;
Cornell University Library
DS 149.Z79
What is Zionism?
3 1924 028 583 320
PI Cornell University
fj Library
The original of tliis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.
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WHAT IS ZIONISM?
Two Chapters from
"ZIONISM AND THE JEWISH FUTURE"
Contributed by
Dr. CHAIM WEIZMANN and
Dr. RICHARD GOTTHEIL
n^
THE ZIONIST ORGANISATION : LONDON BUREAU
35 EMPIRE HOUSE, PICCADILLY, W.i.
I918
QN£ PENNY.
WHAT IS ZIONISM?
Two Chapters from
"ZIONISM AND THE JEWISH FUTURE"
Contributed by
-Dr. CHAIM WEIZMANN and
^ Dr. RICHARD GOTTHEIL
t.^
THE ZIONIST ORGANISATION : LONDON BUREAU
35 EMPIRE HOUSE, PICCADILLY, W.i.
1918
WHAT IS ZIONISM?
I.
ZIONISM AND THE FUTURE PROBLEM.
>^HAT is called the "Jewish problem" pre-
sents itself under different aspects in
different countries, but when we get beneath
temporary and accidental features, the problem
is seen to be essentially that of fitting into
the modern world a national group which has
survived from ancient times without the ordinary
attributes of nationhood. This is equally true
whether the problem be regarded from within
or from without, from the point of view of the Jew
or from that of the world. The modern world sets
the Jew the problem of maintaining some sort of
distinctive existence without the external props
of territorial sovereignty and a political machine,
and the Jew sets the modern world the problem of
finding for him a place in its social structure which
shall enable him to live as a human being without
demanding that he cease to be a Jew. In both
cases what gives the problem its peculiar character
is the fact that the Jews, regarded simply as Jews,
as members of the national group to which Pales-
tine belonged 2,000 years ago, no longer possess
What is Zionism? 4
that national unity which is expressed in and
secured by possession of a homeland, a common
language, and common institutions.
The persistence of the Jewish people through
2,000 years of dispersion is due to its capacity for
organizing a group-life of its own, under whatever
external conditions, on the basis of a spiritual idea
— the idea of the eternity of Israel as bound up
with the eternity and universality of the God of
Israel. This idea, carrying with it as a corollary
the belief in a future restoration of the people to
its homeland, has been at the root of the Jewish
attitude to life, and has supplied in the Jewish
struggle for existence the place of the more con-
crete expressions of nationality. The people of
Israel, the God of Israel, the land of Israel — these
are the indestructible kernel around which has
grown an outer shell of belief, tradition, religious
observance, and social custom. So in Babylon,
in Spain, in North Africa, in France and Germany,
and later in Poland, large groups of Jews were
able to create and carry on a distinctive life of
their own, borrowing always from their surround-
ings — particularly in the matter of language — but
remaining always completely conscious of a sep-
arate identity. The history of the Jewish people
in exile is the history of the growth and decay of
these successive centres of Jewish national life,
or — if we may coin a term to indicate the absence
of complete nationhood — sub-national life.
By far the most important of these centres in
modern times has been the one which arose in
S Zionism and the Future Problem.
Poland alter the great migrations of the Jews from
Germany in the Middle Ages. In Poland there
grew up a vast Jewish community, homogeneous
m its character and type of life, and differing in
fundamentals from the surrounding non-Jewish
communities. It had its own language — Judeo-
German or Yiddish, a modification of the Middle
High German which the first Jewish immigrants
brought with them into Poland — its own system
of education based on the Bible and the Talmud,
its own communal organization, its own mentalitv
and standard of values. This homogeneous
Jewish group survived the partition of Poland,
which split it up politically; nay, it extended into
Russia and Roumania, and to a less extent into
Germany and France. It was from this group, as
from a great reservoir, that Jews streamed out in
ever-increasing numbers during the nineteenth
century into the countries of the West, there to
enjoy the political freedom and economic oppor-
tunities which were persistently denied to the
parent group. With relatively few exceptions,
there is not a Jew to-day in Western Europe or
America whose ancestors, immediate or somewhat
remote, were not born and bred in one of the
thousands of Jewish communities which in their
totality make up the homogeneous, Yiddish-speak-
ing sub-national group of Jews in Eastern Europe.
It is therefore no exaggeration to say that East
European Jewry has been for some centuries the
real centre of Jewish life, and that its disruption,
not accompanied by the establishment of another
What is Zionism? 6
centre, would threaten the very existence of the
Jews as a people.
It is one of the ironies of Jewish history that
this vitally important centre of Jewry has carried
on its life, especially during the last century, under
material conditions as sorry and unenviable as
could be imagined. Its solidarity, its faithfulness
to its own traditions and way of life, its supreme
value as a home of Jewish learning and Jewish
idealism, have been maintained at a well-nigh
incredible price. Turn where we will in Eastern
Europe, the masses of Jews are degraded, either
politically or economically, or in both respects, to
a lower level than that of any proletariat in Europe.
Exposed now to the harshest Governmental
oppression, now to the hatred of an ignorant popu-
lace, cut off from the soil, denied access to trades
and professions in which their abilities could have
free scope — the Jews have obviously no material
inducement to remain true to their own tradition.
That the homogeneous Jewish group has persisted
under such conditions is little short of wonderful.
It is to be explained only by a quite exceptionally
strong national instinct.
But persecution and economic misery have done
much. Jews have been driven in increasing numbers
to emigration, physical or spiritual. Vast numbers
have sought refuge and betterment in Western
Europe and America; many have given up the
struggle and accepted baptism as a means of escape.
And side bv side with these disintegrating forces
o o
another force has been at work, more subtle, but not
7 Zionism and the Future Problem.
less sure. The maintenance of the traditional way
of life has involved a certain hostility to modern
culture and ideas; but these cannot be kept out
indefinitely, and in so far as they penetrate into
the Ghettos, they act as a powerful' solvent of
established Jewish belief and custom, for which
they substitute nothing that is distinctively Jewish,
but only (at best) a broad universalisiii which
means in practice the adoption of the national
culture nearest to hand. Half a century ago some
of the more far-sighted Russian Jews began to
realise the danger of disintegration through the
adoption of foreign ideas and customs, and to urge
the only possible remedy — the establishment of a
new centre of Jewry in the old Jewish homeland
under free conditions, in which Jewish life, rooted
in its own soil, could develop on modern lines with-
out losing its essential individuality.
What further havoc these disintegrating forces
might have wrought in the homogeneous Jewry of
Eastern Europe during the next generation or two
no man will ever know : for now the great war has
come to precipitate their work. It is too early as
yet to estimate even approximately the effect of
the war on the great Jewish centres in which a part
of it is being waged, but it is already obvious that
it will deal a shattering blow at what has been for
centuries the great reservoir of Jewish strength.
• Thus the war brings the Jewish problem into tragic
relief. It is not merely that hundreds of thousands
of Jews have been turned into homeless wanderers,
exposed to the ravages of famme and disease,
What is Zionism? 8
with but the slenderest prospect of ever recovering
such economic stability as they had before. That
IS the external aspect of the Jewish contribution to
the tale of war-suffering, and it is sufficiently
appalling to arrest attention even at a time when
horror stalks the world. But the inner side of the
tragedy, of even more awful significance for the
Jewish people, is the destruction of the homes of
Jewish life and learning, the break-up of the social
organism which, despite its lack of freedom and of
material and political strength, has embodied most
fully in the modern world what is vital and endur-
ing in the character and ideals of the Jewish
people. The havoc brought by the war to the Jews
of Poland has been compared to the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans, and the comparison is
by no means fanciful. For the fearful blow strikes
beyond the individuals at the very heart of the
nation.
Superficially, indeed, it might seem that the
importance to Jewry at large of the Jewish settle-
ments in the Eastern theatre of war is here exagger-
ated. Granted, it may be said, that the sufferings
of Polish Jewry are enormous, granted even that
the ruin is irreparable, and that the Jewish people
has indeed lost for ever one of its prime sources of
strength, there yet remain the Jewries of the West-
ern World, which command much greater material
resources, and have infinitely wider .possibilities of
political action, than the Russian and Polish Jews
ever had or might expect to have. Is it not, in fact,
it may be asked, a great source of strength to the
9 Zionism and the Future Problem.
Jewish people that it has not " all its eggs in one
basket," so that the persistence of the people as a
whole does not depend on the fortunes of a single
group, however large and important?
The question is natural enough ; but in fact the
conditions under which the Jews live in the West-
ern World make it impossible for their communi-
ties to render to Jewry at large the particular
service which has been performed hitherto by the
Jewish settlement in Eastern Europe, despite their
marked superiority in political freedom, in econ-
omic stability, in adjustment to the demands of
modern culture. For one effect of political and
social emancipation on the Jews of the West has
been to break up their solidarity. They have gained
the right to participate in the lives of modern
nations, not as a national or sub-national group, but
as individuals.
True, the different Jewish communities are
still grouped around their synagogues and
other institutions, chiefly of a philanthropic
character. " Judaism," conceived as a religious
system, takes the place of the sense of attachment
■ to the Jewish people and its traditions and ideals.
But from the point of view of Jewish solidarity the
substitute is woefully inadequate, and its in-
adequacy becomes more glaring from generation to
generation. On the other hand, the culture and
aspirations of the State in which he lives play an
ever-growing part in the inner life of the individual
Jew, and restrict more and more the sphere of
activities in which his Jewishness expresses itself;
What is Zionism? ^^
and, on the other hand, the conception of what it
means to be a Jew becomes more and more vague
and uncertain for lack of a concrete embodiment
of Jewish life which could serve as a guiding norm.
Hence the natural progress of the emancipated
Jew is through assimilation to absorption in his
environment.
This process would proceed to its logical end
even more rapidly were it not checked by anti-
Semitism. For the efforts of the emancipated Jew
to assimilate himself to his surroundings, quite
honestly meant and largely successful though
they are, deceive nobody but himself. The record
of the emancipated Jew in loyalty to his country,
in devotion to its ideals and service to its interests,
is unimpeachable. None the less, he is felt by the
outside world to be still something different, still
an alien, and the measure of his success and pro-
minence in the various walks of life which are
thrown open to him is, broadly speaking, the
measure of the dislike and distrust which he earns.*
* As unfair controversial use has been made of this passage
hy a well-known anonymous opponent of Zionism, it seems
desirable to point out — what must be obvious to everv fair-minded
reader — that what is meant is simplv that, however like his
neighbour the assimilated Jew becomes, the non-Jew remains
conscious of the fact that there is a real difference between the
Jew and himself, which is not merely ,i difference of " con-
fession." Any student of the Jewish problem knows that this
consciousness of difference exists, and that it is liable to take
the form of anti-Semitism under certain conditions. It is idle to
base generalisations about the position of the assimilated Jew on
experience in England, where conditions are doublv favourable to
the Jews, both because the English are exceptionally tolerant,
and because the Jews are still a very small fraction of the popu-
lation ; but even in England it would be absurd to deny that the
Jew is not " recognised " as smh, hdwever genuine and however
IT
Zionism and the Future Problem.
Thus the phenomena of assimilation and of anti-
Semitism go on side by side, and the position of
the emancipated Jew, though he does not realize it
himself, is even more tragic than that of his
oppressed brother.
It is clear, then, that no set-off against the
destruction of a great Jewish centre in the East of
Europe can be found in the existence of materially
prosperous communities of Jews in the West. The
truth is that the facts of the Jewish position in East
and West alike, properly regarded, point to the
same fatal source of weakness in the Jewish
struggle for existence — the lack of a stable home,
in which the Jewish people could live and develop
on the lines of its own national characteristics and
ideals. Neither the herding of large masses of
Jews in Ghettos nor the recognition of the right of
individual Jews to live as free human beings out-
side the Ghetto can compensate the Jewish people
for the lack of such a home. This truth, which the
history of Jewry in the nineteenth century had made
evident enough, is thrown into still sharper relief by
the events of the great war.
It is this central problem — the homelessness of
the Jewish people* — that Zionism attacks. Its dis-
tinctive feature is that it sees the problem as a
successful his efforts may be to adapt himself to the surroundings.
The Jewish individuality can be suppressed " only very slowly.
and the process of ' disappearing ' requires a few generations
to be complete."
* By this is meant homelessness of the Jews as a nation.
Individual Jews or groups of Jews have their political homes,
but the people have not. This home can only be established in
Palestine for those who will Uve there.
What is Zionism? ^^
national one, not as the problem of this or that
group of individual Jews ; and it aims at removmg
the conditions which make the problem so acute,
not at administering a palliative here and there.
For so long as the conditions remain, the problem
must always recur. So long as the Jewish people re-
mains without a home, it must always be faced with
the same terrible alternative — either a cramped,
stunted, and precarious life in the Ghetto, or
gradual decay and disruption under emancipation.
But to find a home for the Jewish people does not
mean to congregate all Jews together in one place.
That is obviously impossible, even if it were
desirable. The millions of Jews in Eastern Europe
could not be transplanted by the wave of a wand
to a Jewish land, and any gradual emigration must
be more or less counterbalanced by the natural
growth of population. The political and economic
problems of the Jews in Eastern Europe must be
settled, for the great mass of them, in the countries
where they live. Emancipated Jews, again, are for
the most part unwilling to leave the countries of
their adoption. Materially speaking, they are
sufficiently well off where they are. and it will only
be a minority in whom the Jewish consciousness
will be sufficiently strong to draw them back again
to their own- people. But, taking East and West
together, there is a sufficiently large number of Jews
who would be eager, given the opportunity, to help
in laying the foundations of a new Jewish life in a
Jewish land.
/The task of Zionism is to create that oppor-
^3 Zionism and the Future Problem.
tunity. As to the land that is to be the Jewish
land there can be no question. Palestine alone,
of all the countries in which the Jew has set foot
throughout his long history, has an abiding place
in his national tradition. It was in Palestine that
the Jews lived as a nation, and produced the high-
est fruits of their genius. The memory and the
hope of Palestine have been bound up with the
national consciousness of the, Jewish people through
all the centuries of exile, ancf have been among flfe
most powerful forces making f^or the preservation-
of Jewry and Judaism. '■^Tlfe' task of Zioniipi,^Rfen,
is to create a home for the Jevwshjpeople in Pales-
tine, to make it possible^.W^ large numbers of Jews
to settle there and live u'nder conditions in which
they can produce a type of life corresponding to
the character and ideals of the Jewish people.
When the aim of Zionism is accomplished,
Palestine will be the home of the Jewish people, not
because it will contain all the Jews' in the world,
but because it will be the only place in the world
where the Jews are masters of their own destiny, and
the national centre to which all Jews will look as
the home and the source of all that is most essen-
tially Jewish. Palestine will be the country in
which Jews are to be found, just as Ireland is the
country in which Irishmen are to be found, though
there are more Irishmen outside of Ireland than in
it. And similarly Palestine will be the home of
Judaism, not because there will be no Judaism any-
where else, but because in Palestine the Jewish
spirit will have free play, and there the Jewish mind
What is Zionism? ^
and character will express themselves as they can
nowhere else.
Summing up the results of what Zionism has
already done towards the accomplishment of this
aim, we may say that under the influence of the
movement, direct or indirect, there have grown up
m Palestme the begmnmgs of a new Jewish life —
small beginnings as yet, but full of promise for the
future. In Palestine to-day there are Jews settled on
the soil and in the towns whose national conscious-
ness is Jewish and whose language is Hebrew. The
ideal of the return to the land of Palestine, as the
home of the Jewish people, has begun to take con-
crete shape. And concurrently with this develop-
ment, and partly as a result of it, there has
gradually come about a change in the outlook of
Jews — a change which can be more easily felt by
those who are in touch with Jewish affairs than it
can be measured by facts and figures. This change
is illustrated n^ost concretely by the growth of the
Zionist organisation itself, with its 200,000
adherents in all parts of the world, its biennial
representative Congresses, its network of financial
institutions, its Press in many languages, and its
incessant and extensive propaganda by the written
and the spoken word. And outside the Zionist
organisation the national idea has begun to affect
spheres of Jewish life in which a generation ago
the drift towards assimilation was the only visible
movement, and its influence will grow with the
growth of its concrete embodiment in Palestine.
With the development of this embryo settle-
^S Zionism and the Future Problem.
ment into a fully-fledged and self-conscious
national group, the Jewish problem will enter on a
new phase. It is not pretended that the restora-
tion of Palestine to the Jewish people will immedi-
ately end all the ills to which Jewry is heir, or will
solve as if by magic all the problems of adjustment
' that the existence of the Jewish people creates both
for Jews and for the world. A man who is rescued
from the quicksands may still have a hard struggle
for existence ; but at least he is on solid ground,
and can use whatever of strength and wit he is en-
dowed with. So it will be with the Jewish people.
Restored once more to firm ground, it will be
able to fight its battles for life and growth, instead of
spending its energies in the ineffectual clutchings
and gaspings of a drowning man. History justi-
fies the faith of every conscious Jew that the striv-
ing of his people after full self-expression will be
fraught with advantage to humanity in its progress
towards higher and higher reaches of culture and
civilisation. The Jewish nation has stood from
time memorial for the loftiest of spiritual ideals ;
its life through two thousand years of exile has
been one long tribute to the supremacy of the things
of the spirit; the record of the Zionist movement
itself is proof of the power of an ideal to stir the
Jewish people to-day to new life and heroic effort.
Nor should it be necessary to urge the importance
of the contribution that might be made to the solu-
tion of the age-long problem of East and West by
a vigorous and progressive Jewish nation in
Palestine, which is marked out by its geographical
What is Zionism? i6
position to be a highway of commerce and of cul-
ture no less than the Jewish people is fitted by its
history to be a mediator between the East, m which
it has its roots, and the West, in which it has been
tried and schooled for centuries.
In the settlement which will follow the war the
•Jewish question will demand the attention of those
whose task it will be to build a new order on the
ruins of the old. Jews will ask, as they have asked
before, for equal treatment in countries where
hitherto they have been denied the rights of men
and citizens— and this time perhaps not in vain.
But even more urgent than the claim of the
individual Jew to human rights will be the claim
of the Jewish people to that equality of opportunity
which it can achieve only by becoming once more
master of its own destinies. The principle of
equality of opportunity, long recognized by pro-
gressive states in their internal economy, is of no
less vital importance for nations than for individ-
uals. The Jewish people will claim the benefit of
that principle. It will support its claim by no
armed force, for, though Jews shed their blood for
every belligerent country, there is no Jewish army.
Its appeal will be based on right and justice alone.
If right and justice are to be the foundations of the
new order the appeal will not be unheard.
Chaim Weizmann.
n.
THE HISTORY OF ZIONISM.
I_IISTORIC movements of importance cannot be
fixed within definite limits of time. Zionism,
as the practical embodiment of an ideal, dates from
1896, but the ideal itself, that of Jewish nationalism,
is as old as the Dispersion. The doctrine of the
return to Palestine has always been part and parcel
of the belief of the Jew, expressed m countless
sayings, prayers and poems. It is true that, as this
return was looked upon, not as a simple historic
event, but as part of the Divine scheme of govern-
ance, any attempt to further that consummation by
human beings would have appeared to be blas-
phemy. However, with the advent of a more
tangible view of cosmic development this belief
was bound to take on a more human and terrestrial
form.
The situation of the Jews in 1896 was neither
satisfactory in itself nor promising in the hope that
it held out for the future. With the disappearance
of physical and constitutional ghettos, the West-
ern Jews felt that they had at last come into their
heritage. In order to be at harmony with the
What is Zionism? i^
" modern spirit," they had made an effort to save
the Jewish religion at the expense of nationality
and race, not realizing that these last two constit-
ute its bulwarks. The violent changes which were
consequently made in the ritual caused the Jew
to be a stranger among his brethren in many
countries, and the remodelling of the Jewish
perspective removed the wide outlook of the old
Hebrew prophets, and made Judea and the return
of the Jews to some form of a reconstructed common
existence the ideal of those who wished to preserve
the national tradition.
The forced exodus of large numbers of Jews
from Eastern Europe had a deep and far-reaching
effect upon the Jews of Western Europe and
America. The active work of making proper pro-
vision for these victims of a relentless persecution
resulted in establishing a close bond of sympathy
between two portions of a people that had been
estranged for so long a time. These emigrants
from Russia carried with them into their new homes
an ideal that had been fostered by some of their
most cherished leaders and popular writers — the
ideal that had been called Jewish Nationalism.
Perez Smolenskin had been the first to proclaim
in Russia a view of Jewish Nationalism that was
civic and social, not religious. The very title of his
chief work, "Am 01am" (An Eternal People), writ-
ten in 1873, gives us the keynote of his endeavour;
an eternal people must keep an " eternal ideal "
constantly in view. That ideal he finds expressed in
the one word " Zion." Since the destruction of the
^9 The History of Zionism.
Temple it has represented the hopes of the Jewish
people. It stands for the peculiar culture for which
the Jews have striven; it connotes the Hebrew
language, the use of which must be cultivated
anew as the expression of that ideal ; and later in
life it betokened to him the physical goal for which
the Jews must strive in order to attempt the realiza-
tion of the ideal.
The idea that the restitution of Palestine to the
Jews might become a matter of general European
interest was not without its advocates eveii during
the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1799
Napoleon had inserted a proclamation in the Moni-
teau- Universel inviting the Jews of Asia and Africa
to gather under his leadership in order to re-estab-
lish ancient Jerusalem. A French Jew, Joseph
Salvador, publicly advocated the calling of a
European Congress for the purpose of reinstating
his people in their old home, an idea that is sup-
posed to have fired the mind of Disraeli, who, in
" Alroy," speaks the language of the most modern
of Zionists in the words he puts into the mouth of
the High Priest: " You ask me what I wish; my
answer is, the Land of Promise. You ask me what
I wish ; my answer is, Jerusalem. You ask me what
I wish ; my answer is, the Temple, all we have for-
feited, all we have yearned after, all for which we
have fought — our beauteous country, our holy
creed, our simple manners, and our ancient cus-
toms."
An Englishman, Hollingsworth by name,
published in 1852 a pamphlet wherein he
What is Zionism? 20
advocated the establishment of a Jewish State,
urging it as a matter of much moment to Great
Britain for the purpose of safeguarding the over-
land route to India. Ten years later, Moses Hess,
one of the early German Socialist leaders and a
propagator of Proudhon's anarchistic ideas, in his
great work, " Rome and Jerusalem — the Latest
National Question," not only laid down the
historic and economic bases of that which was not
yet called Zionism, but also developed a complete
plan for the colonization and regeneration of the
Holy Land.
No Christian, and perhaps no Jewish writer,
has struck the high ncte of pathos and enthusiasm
of George Eliot in her novel " Daniel Deronda "
(1876). Into the mouth of one of her heroes she
places words that show how deeply she had pene-
trated into the Jewish soul : " There is a store of
wisdom among us to found a new Jewish polity.
Grand, simple, just like the old — a republic where
there is equality of protection. . . . Then our
race shall have an organic centre, a heart and a
brain to watch and guide and execute ; the out-
raged Jew shall have a defence in the court of
nations as the outraged Englishman or American,
and the world will gain as Israel gains. . . . Let
the torch of visible community be lit. Let the
reason of Israel disclose itself in a great outward
deed ; let there be another great migration, another
chosen of Israel, to be a nationality whose members
may still stretch to the ends of the earth, even as
the sons of England and Germany, whom enter-
21 The History of Zionism.
prise carries afar, but who still have a national
hearth and a tribunal of national opinion. . . .
Let us help to will our own better future, and the
better future of the world — not renounce our higher
gift, and say, ' Let us be as if we were not among
the populations,' but choose our full heritage,
claim the brotherhood of our nation, and carry it
into a new brotherhood with the nations of the
Gentiles. The vision is there : it will be fulfilled."
But there was no more potent factor in finally
creating an interest in the larger aspect of the
Jewish question than the attempt made to resettle
the Promised Land. It is true that all through the
Middle Ages communities of Jews had lived in
various parts of Palestine, chiefly in Jerusalem and
in one or two cities of Galilee, making a brave fight
against overwhelming political and economic odds.
The relation of these communities with the Jews
of other lands had not been intimate, and had been
preserved largely by the collectors of alms, who
gathered sustenance for the Talmudic and Cabal-
istic Schools.
Two events which had attracted the atten-
tion of the whole world towards Palestine
and Syria caused the Jews of Europe to see the
duty that lay upon them in connection with their
brethren in the nearer East, and to feel the bond
that had .held so closely in times gone by.
The first of these was the Damascus " ritual
murder " case in the year 1840, as a result of which
Sir Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Cremieux, and
Salomon Munk iourneved to Mehemet Ali in
What is Zionism? -^
order to obtain redress from him, and thus became
personally acquainted with the sufferings of their
Eastern brethren. Twenty years later the Jews
were agam falsely implicated in the massacre of
Maronite Christians by the Druses in the neigh-
bourhood of Damascus.
Even in very Orthodox circles a new con-
ception of the role Palestine was to play
in the future had gradually asserted itself.
Hirsch Kalischer, Rabbi in Thorn, Prussia, in his
work " Emunah Yesharah," published in i860,
conceded that the Messianic idea can become a
fact only in the slow working of historic events. It
was Kalischer's written word that brought about
the first attempt made by the Jews to redeem the
Land of Promise, for it inspired Charles Netter,
under whose auspices the Alliance Israelite
Univers-elle founded the Mikweh Israel Agri-
cultural School. Kalischer himself made an'
attempt at actual colonization in the early 'seventies
near Lake Tiberias, and at the same time a settle-
ment was effected at Petach Tikwah, near Jaffa;
but these were sporadic, probably unintelligent
experiments, valuable rather as indications of a
real interest in the matter than as successful
political accomplishments.
The anti-Semitic movement of 1881 and the
following years was a practical lesson that finally
awakened the Jews to the fact that, while the world
had progressed in general ideas of communal and
international comity, the Jewish position had grown
worse. After the havoc consequent on the May
23 The History of Zionism.
Laws, Leo Pinsker, a physician, sent a warning
note ringing through Russian Jewry. In his work
" Auto-Emancipation " he concludes that the root
of evil from which the Jews are suffering is the
fact that since the destruction of Jerusalem the
various peoples and rulers have never had to deal
with the Jews as a nation, but only with individual
settlements of Jews. It is therefore a duty which
the Jews owe themselves to find and to found a
centre, not necessarily in the Holy Land, but
wherever a fitting soil can be found for the home-
less people. But Pinsker did not only preach self-
emancipation ; he sketched in broad outline the
means that were to be adopted to reach this end.
His perspicacity and clear vision are evident from
the circumstance that in a general way the lines
he foreshadowed, but was not destined to see
realized, are those upon which later developments
were to run.
But those lofty ideas were but dimly under-
stood by the people at large, and Dr. Pinsker,
being unable to achieve the full measure of his
purpose, was forced to accept less and to become
the head of the Choveve Zion (Lovers of Zion).
This movement, which had Odessa for its centre,
spread into all parts of the Diaspora, and did
excellent work in assisting colonization and
furthering the dissemination of culture among the
Jews of Palestine. Critics, however, urged that it
failed to utilize the rare opportunity it had of
making its programme large, bold, and statesman-
like; and when Zionism started to occupy the
What is Zionism? 24
position which, in their opinion, the Choveve Zion
Societies should have taken, there was noticeable
discord between the two parties. However, the
London body accepted the Zionist platform in'
1898, and the Odessa Committee in 1906
acquiesced in the resolution adopted by the
Seventh Congress. It is, moreover, undeniable
that, without the primal interest in Palestine
which the Choveve Zion generated and centralized
in Russia, it would have been difficult for Herzlian
Zionism to penetrate there.
In the year 1874 the first attempt was made
to found a Jewish agricultural colony in Palestine.
Some Jews from Jerusalem laid the first stone of
Petach Tikwah. The second attempt dates from
1882, when immigrants from Russia and Roumania
settled at Rishon-Le-Zion' and Wad-el-Chanin in
Judea, Rosh Pinnah in Galilee, and Zichron-
Jacob in Samaria. The real impetus to these
attempts belongs to the Choveve Zion. Although
these pioneers suffered dire necessity, they kept
manfully to the task they had set themselves.
The history of , Jewish colonization in Palestine
between the years 1882 and 1889 represents a
further attempt at a solution of the Jewish question
on the lines of the old philanthropic nationalism.
It was not until 1907 that the evils of the bureau-
cratic system and of absentee landlordism were
fully recognised, and the colonies handed over to
the colonists. In this way the duties of government
were laid upon the shoulders of those who by
rights were called upon to bear them, and a more
-5 The History of Zionism.
healthy spirit was engendered. Material prosperity
followed in the wake of the change. In 191 1 the
Vinegrowers' Association of Rishon-Le-Zion and
Zichron-Jacob were able to pay off nearly half a
million francs of their indebtedness to Baron
Edmund de Rothschild.
But the man who was finally to give to
Palestinian colonization the full force of its
attraction, and to endow the programme of
Choveve Zionism with a wider appeal, was,
curiously enough, a typical product of that very
milieu which had for so long remained callous
to the voice of Jewish nationalism. Theodor
Herzl was, in point of fact, quite unprepared for
the work which he was called upon ^o do. A
student of law at the Vienna University, he had
been completely drawn away by other and more
secular interests from contact with Jewish affairs.
His exquisite and facile pen had led him into
literature and journalism while livmg in Paris as
the representative of the N eue Freie Presse. The
anti-Semitic campaign attendant upon the Dreyfus
affair had made a deep impression upon his
sensitive nature, and awakened with a start his
dormant Jewish consciousness.
" Der Judenstaat " was written in Paris in the
year 1895. It is evident to how great an extent
Herzl's personality was instrumental in the unify-
ing and upbuilding work that he did, from the
very fact that the doctrines that he propounded
were not new. They had been set forth quite as
translucently by Pinsker, who even suggests the
What is Zionism? 26
same practical measures as those enunciated by
Herzl, by means of which the " Jewish State " was
to be built up.
I am assured that Herzl had never heard of
" Auto-Emancipation " until several years had
elapsed, nor had he known of Hess's " Rome and
Jerusalem." It is, therefore, the more remarkable
that the conclusions are so similar.
Starting from the premise that anti-Semitism is
a continually increasing menace, and that it is
evidently ineradicable, he comes to the conclusion
that the outside world does not desire to inter-
mingle with the Jews except upon conditions that
are subversive to the continuance of the Jews as
a people. That which the Jewish people needs is
a definite and certain home, and it is to the
realisation of this end that Herzl devotes most of
his attention. He demands the formation of a new
organization, a " Society of Jews," which is to
make all the preliminary scientific and political
investigations and be succeeded by a " Jewish
Company " with a capital of fifty million pounds,
and with a seat in London. Notwithstanding a poetic
foresight that was native in him, Herzl writes with
the pen of a politician and speaks the language of
a statesman. He is a cool and modern man of the
world, speaking to moderns like himself.
From all the evidence it is plain that Herzl
never had the slightest idea of placing himself
at the head of a practical organisation. When
he moved back to Vienna, the Kadhnah, a
nationalistically inclined society of Jewish
^7 The History of Zionism.
University students, addressed him a letter in
which it acknowledged its adhesion to his views,
and made a direct proposition, looking to the
founding of a society of Jews to take up the work
he had mapped out. But the first just apprecia-
tion of the whole scope of Herzl's scheme was by
Israel Zangwill, through whose instrumentality
he was- invited to appear before the Maccabasans
in London in July, 1896. Herzl himself had
inaugurated a public discussion of what had now
become known as Zionism by a letter to the Jewish
Chronicle, in which he says :
My pamphlet will open a general discussion
on the Jewish question. . . . [The newly formed
society] will then find out for the first time whether
the Jews really wish to go to the Rromised Land,
and whether they ought to go there."
The first edition of " Der Judenstaat" had been
published in Vienna in 1896. The question raised
by the pamphlet had, in fact, penetrated far and
wide. In some manner not as yet explained it had
'been brought to the notice of the Sultan of Turkey,
who, according, to the statement of Mr. Lucien
Wolf, despatched to Herzl in May, 1896, a secret
emissary, the Chevalier de Newlinsky, with the
offer of a charter for Palestine in return for the
cessation of the European Press campaign against
him because of the Armenian massacres. The
J?\vs, however, were not only not so powerful in the
Continental Press as the Sultan supposed; they
were also not so supine i'^ to execute such a
bargain and reach their own poal over the dead
What is Zionism? 38
bodies of another race. This circumstance was at
all events calculated to induce Herzl to persevere,
and early in 1897 he issued the call for the First
Congress, which was to be the beginning of his
constructive policy. By this he meant the passage
from discussion to deed, and it was consequently
necessary that the various Jewish organizations and'
certain public men should define their position
towards the new movement. It must be admitted
that this position was in most cases frankly hostile.
The larger organizations, such as the Alliance
Israelile Universellc in Paris, the Jewish Coloniza-
tion Association, and the Vienna Allianz, an-
nounced a determined opposition, and even the
Choveve Zion in Western Europe refused to join
hands. Zionism was too orthodox for the Reform
Jews, not sufficiently religious for the Orthodox,
and too Jewish for the Know-nothings.
In addition to the difficulties resultmg from ■
purely doctrinal considerations, there was evident
a certain solicitude, a mistrust and apprehension
that Zionism might bring in its wake a catastrophe
boding evil to the political position won by the
Jews in so many modern civilised states. It was
feared by many that the movement justified the
charge that the Jews were strangers in the various
lands of the Diaspora. This disquietude, as well
as a certain Chauvinism which was deemed
necessary as a counterblast to Zionist propaganda,
was exhibited in various quarters. In 1897 the
association of Rabbis in Germany suggested the
possibility of an entente by publicly declaring that.
29 The History of Zionism.
while " the attempts to found a Jewish national
State in Palestine are contrary to the Messianic
•promise of Judaism, ... no opposition can be seen
to the noble plan to colonize Palestine with Jewish
agriculturists." But the limitation demanded of
the Zionists was one which in good conscience they
could not accept. Nationalism was the very heart
of the movement, and without it all the other
members would become atrophied. The contending
positions were thus clearly defined ; the two sides
had joined issue.
jl have said that the summoning of the Congress
was the first constructive work attempted by Herzl.
Its importance lay in the fact that it was not only
to be the means for concentrating various efforts
that were being made towards a common goal, but
in itself it was the announcement of a definite policy
ultimately connected with all Zionist endeavour —
that of organization upon a democratic basis.
Moreover, the Jews had had no forum from
which they could speak to the -world at large. A
Congress of Jews speaking with a delegated autho-
rity in the name of a large body of the people,
and holding its deliberations m public, was
calculated to have a wide hearing, and to serve the
cause of the Jews in general. It has been argued
that the Zionists arrogated to themselves an office
they did not really possess — that of speaking in the
name of the whole Jewish people. The arraign-
ment is not without some justification, which, how-
ever, on second thought is more seeming than real.
The Congress never sought to hide the fact that
What is Zionism? 30
it had its many opponents, but it felt that, composed
as it was of delegates representing all the various
ph'ases of Jewish life and thought, it had a certain
universal Jewish character, and that, therefore,
its assumption to speak for what has been well
called Catholic Israel was not the presumption it
seemed to be at first sight.
The first Congress met at Basle in August,
1897. It was intended to hold it at Munich, but
this plan was actively opposed by the official Jewish
communit\- of that citw The chief import of this
Congress lies in the fact that it drew up a declara-
tion which in its opening paragraph has become
the watchword of the whole movement, and which
is universally known as " The Basle Programme."
This paragraph affirms that " The object of Zion-
ism is to establish for the Jewish people a home in
Palestine secured by public law." In employing
the words " secured bv public law," the Congress
laid stress upon the fact that what was demanded
was a right and not a favottr, that the Jewish masses
counted upon the assistance of more fortunate
peoples in obtaining the status which these
enjoyed. A home, to be effectively assured to the
Jewish people, must be legally recognized as such
b)- the forces that control the forward movement of
modern civilization ; under other conditions it might '
become as insecure as the present tenure in various
lands. The important words " in Palestine'"
denote a distinct change in Herzl's mental attitude,
for in " Der Judenstaat " he speaks of Palestine or
any other country that may be found suitable. He
3^ The History of Zionism.
had evidently come to see that the Jewish heart
was beating for one spot, and could no longer have
any doubt that the future of Israel was bound up
irrevocably with Palestine. It is true that a strong
minority in the organization of the Congress
insisted upon the older standpoint, and formed
an active opposition which led in after-years to
the exciting scenes of the Sixth and Seventh
Congresses.
Eleven sessions of the Congress were held
between 1897 and 1913; from 1897 to 1901 yearly;
from that time forward bi-annually. Although a
certain change had taken place in Herzl's attitude
regarding Palestine, he still held to the large poli-
tical view of the whole question. He believed
that the policy of what he called smuggling a few
families into Palestine was unworthy of a great
cause — that it was necessary to secure first and
foremost political rights. This attitude, which
caused him to be looked upon by a portion even of
his own adherents as an opponent of Palestinian
colonization, is explained by the precarious state
in which the Turkish Empire was at that time. His
negotiations with the Sultan, carried out in various
ways between the years -1898 and 1903, seemed to
lead to no definite result. Even if the various
offers of the Sultan were made, in good faith, the
Jewish people refused to give Herzl the means
with which to close any bargain.
In the meantime many in the Organization
grew restless, especially two groups of the
Congress — -one representing the older Choveve
What is Zionism? 3^
Zion view, to whom the name Zioiie Zion,
or Zionist a outrance, was given; the other
made up of pure nationalists, whose specific inter-
est was directed to Palestine as a possible centre
rather than the only possible one. This latter
group reasoned that, if the undertakings with the
Sultan were likely to prove abortive, it behoved the
Zionist leaders to look elsewhere, and to find
another land in which the much-desired home could
be established.
It is from this point of view that we must regard
the attempt made in 1898 by Dr. Davis Trietsch
and others to transfer Jewish colonization to the
island of Cyprus, as well as the concession de-
manded for a Jewish settlement in El-Arish. The
matter of El-Arish had originally been broached by
the German Zionists in 1901, and was taken up by
Herzl in the autumn of 1902. The negotiations
opened in London were pursued in Cairo, and in
the beginning of 1903 a scientific expedition was
sent thither to report upon the feasibility of the
plan." The report of this Commission has never
been made public, but it is generally understood
not to have been unfavourable. The negative out-
come of the matter was, according to the Anglo-
Egyptian Government, due to the lack of water
there, which would necessitate the use of some of
the Nile overflow for irrigation purposes, and this
could not be spared by Egypt. But the spirit
in which the British Government had treated the
proposal concerning El-Arish was particularly
pleasing and encouraging. The goodwill and
33 The History of Zionism.
support of the statesmen of a land that was thor-
oughly imbued with liberal ideas and tendencies,
and that had had such varied experiences in colon-
ization, were rightly looked upon by Herzl as a
most valuable asset.
It was while Mr. Chamberlain was visiting the
newly acquired East African Protectorate that he
conceived the idea that here might be found a
convenient place for a Jewish settlement. The
possibility of such a settlement had first been
mooted in the London Jewish Chronicle in July,
1903, by a correspondent. Robert P. Yates, who
was entirely outside the Zionist body. The negotia-
tions culminated in an official letter from Sir
Clement Hill to Mr. L. J. Greenberg, dated from
the Foreign Office, August 14th, 1903. It has been
said with reason that this letter marks an epoch in
Jewish history. It is not concerned with individual
Jews, nor with a small community, but with the
whole Jewish race, and its oflier contained a measure
of self-government which might well tempt the
most sanguine nationalist, a grant of land, a Jewish
head official, and practical autonomy under the
general control of the home Government. It is as
well to state here that official Zionist hopes and
aspirations have never gone beyond that point.
The position of Herzl was indeed difficult. The
letter, of Sir Clement Hill had come to him almost
on the eve of the Sixth Congress— August 23rd-
28th, 1-903. By presenting this letter he ran the risk
of alienating the Choveve Zion element, known
to be intransigent on the subject of Palestine.
What is Zionism? 34
On the other hand, it was impossible to ignore
so generous an action on the part of a great Power.
In his masterly and carefully worded opening
address Herzl tried to make it clear that this was
not an alternative to Palestine, that East Africa
could not be Zion; but the Congress by a large
majority would have none of it. The opposition
was made up of the democratic faction, nearlv all
the Russians, the Choveva Zionists, and even some
of the closest friends of Dr. Herzl. As the country
had been imperfectly surve\'ed and studied*, it was
evident that the one proper course to take was to
send a commission of inquiry, on the basis of
whose report an intelligent estimate could be made
of the real value of the whole offer. This pro-
position was accepted, and provision was made for
a special meeting of the delegates at the next
Congress, at which the report of the Commission
could be discussed.
The genera] view of the Commission, which
went out to East Africa in December, 1903, seemed
to be that the territory was insufficient for any large
number of Jewish settlers, and that the ground was
fit rather for grazing than for agriculture. Besides,
a strong opposition to the grant had developed in
the East African Protectorate, and telegrams
arrived at the Foreign Office couched in terms that
showed the difficulties such a settlement would
have to encounter. Several lines of cleavage
which had existed within the ranks of the Congress
from the beginning had been accentuated and made
more apparent by the East African project.
35 The History of Zionism.
During the sessions of the Sixth Congress a Jewish
Congress had been held in Palestine. The organi-
zation which this Congress proposed showed that
Palestinian Jewry was drawing apart from the
leaders of the Zionist movement. Most of the
Russian leaders sympathized with it. Those of them
who were members of the Central Committee met
at Kharkoff in October, 1903, and agreed to obtain
from Herzl a written promise to relinquish the East
African project. The resolutions of the Kharkoff
Conference were, however, permitted to drop out
of sight, and nothing further was heard of the new
organization projected in Palestine. The Seventh
Congress of 1905 was to decide upon the East
African offer.
The final resolution that brought to an
end official discussion on the subject declared
that " The Zionist organization rejects either as an
end or as a means colonizing activities outside of
Palestine and its adjacent lands. . . . The
Congress records with satisfaction the recognition
accorded by the British Government to the Zionist
organization in its desire to bring about a solution
of the Jewish problem, and expresses a sincere
hope that it may be accorded the further good
offices of the British Government, where available,
in any matter it may undertake in accordance with
the Basle programme." Most of the Territorial-
ists abstained from taking part in the official vote,
and later caused the first real and effective split in
the Zionist organization by forming the Zionistic
Territorial Organization in Berne, which afterwards,
What is Zionism? 36
under the leadership of Mr. Israel Zangwill,
became the Ito, or Jewish Territorial Organiza-
tion.
Herzl's death in 1904 produced a change in the
centre of Zionist activity, which had up to that time
very naturally been in the place of his permanent
abode. But Vienna, although it possessed certain
natural advantages, was not a spot favourable for
active Jewish propaganda. For a short time
London was debated, but London was the seat of
the Jewish Colonial Trust, and it would have been
unwise to concentrate all the Zionist institutions in
one locality. Germany, the home of two of the
leaders and closest friends of Herzl, was finally
chosen as the future home of the movement. It
was from this very Germany that the strongest pro-
tests and pronouncements had come during the
earlv vears of Zionism. But the Russian and
Roumanian Jewish students at the German Univer-
sities, a number of them nationalists, had founded
their own ]^ rrbindun^en, and gradually gained ad-
herents from among the German-born Jewish
students. These societies, of which there are a sur-
prisingh' large number, have brought into the bonds
of the closest ideal friendship a number of young
men who have acted as leaven both within the
University and without. It was this idealism that
prepared the way for the definite leadership as-
sumed by the German Zionists in 191 1, when the
seat of the Inner Actions Committee was fixed in
Berlin, and when Professor Otto Warburg was
chosen by his colleagues to preside over the Com-
mittee.
37 The History of Zionism.
This change to the place of the central govern-
ing body denoted also a certain change in policy,
or, to be more just, a greater accentuation of one
part of Zionist activity. The old rivalry between
the two lines along which the Movement had been
conducted had become somewhat stereotyped in
the designation of the one as " Political " Zionism,
and of the other as " Palestinian '"' Zionism. The
arch-" politicals " held fast to the formulae which
Herzl had laid down at the beginning of his Zionist
career. They believed that it was wrong and un-
wise to forward colonisation before full political
guarantees had been secured. The extreme
Palestinian " Zionists were impatient for what
was called " practical " work in Palestine. It was
these latter who were in a measure to carry the
day.
Originally they were a group of Russians, at
whose head was Mr. M. Ussischkin; but after
Herzl's death their representatives at Congress
were assisted by the German contingent, and during
the period 1904-igii, when the Zionist organisa-
tion was under the leadership of David Wolffsohn,
they made rapid strides. At the Congress of 191 1
they won a final victory, and passed from the Oppo-
sition to the Government benches. A practical
expression of their policy has been given by the
Palestine Commission, which has furthered various
Palestinian enterprises, and has made it possible
to rally to its assistance other elements in Jewish
life than merely affiliated Zionists. The Tech-
nical School at Haifa, the Hebrew Gymnasium at
What is Zionism? 38
Jaffa, the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station
at Atlit, and the Bezalel School at Jerusalem,
though all the outcome of Zionist impulse, would
hardly have been possible without the substantial
aid of many who would object to being classed as
Zionists.
The new direction given to the Zionist move-
ment has been strangely favoured by historic
events in Turkey itself. During the Absolutist
regime it had been possible for Herzl to treat with
the Sultan alone, but with the change of govern-
ment Charterism became impracticable, and it was
plain that other methods would have to be em-
ployed. In any case, it was obviously not the time
to push whatever claims the Jews might have to "
urge in Palestine, but simply to work there for the
upbuilding of the country and for the economic
and cultural strengthening of the Jewish position in
the land, and to enlighten the Committee of Union
and Progress upon the real ends and aims of
Zionism.
Unfortunately, this enlightening process has
not been carried very far, although in igo8 the
Anglo- Levantine Company, a daughter institution
of the Jewish Colonial Trust, was established at
Constantinople for that express purpose. An
atmosphere of suspicion and even hostility had
been engendered, thanks to the German colonists
in the neighbourhood of Jaffa, the restlessness of
the Arabs, and certain Syrian agitators. During the
early months of the Turkish Parliament, some
members alleged in the course of a debate that
39 The History of Zionism.
Zionism was a world-wide intrigue against Otto-
man statehood, behind which some great Jewish
banking houses were seeking to gain their own
ends ! Now, upon no point had so much insistence
been put by Zionist leaders as upon the loyalty
of the movement to the ruling sovereignty. In
the pre-Herzlian period Pinsker and Achad ha-Am
had insisted upon a proper and faithful under-
standing with Constantinople. At the very first
Congress in 1897 Herzl had set a seal upon an open
and loyal intercourse with the Turkish authori-
ties — a point which he emphasised at the Third
Congress. The attitude of the Zionist leaders in
this matter has been put into words by Nordau,
Wolffsohn, and others ; they have all plainly shown
that the Zionists conceived their mission as in no
way hostile to the sovereign of Palestine.
There are several other phases in the develop-
ment of the Zionist movement which deserve
special mention. One of these is that represented
by the Poale Zion, or the Labour party in the
Zionist organization, who lay stress on ,¥hat ihey
call the social-economic side of the work in Pales-
tine. They hold that a people can make its in-
fluence felt only when it is attached to the ground
on which it lives, and actually tills this ground, and
that all the attempts at colonization made in Pales-
tine are vitiated at the root by the fact that the
old system of land ownership and landlordism has
been preserved. For the Mizrachi group, on the
other hand, the Zionist ideal is bound up with
strict adherence to the ideas and forms of tradi-
What is Zionism? 40
tional Judaism. It has not at all times been easy
to meet their exigencies on the solution of other
than purely religious questions. With wise and
felicitous foresight, Herzl had realised that Zionism
can fulfil its undertaking only if it dismisses all
such questions from its concern, and simply pre-
pares the ground which shall make possible various
manifestations of the Jewish spirit in Palestine.
There is a third phase which has acquired much
credit, not only in Zionist quarters, but in Jewry in
general, commonly called Achad ha-Amism.
Usher Ginzberg — or, to use his pen-name, Achad
ha-Am — is the great preacher of prophetical
Hebraism. His interest is centred not upon the
political aspect of re-settlement of Palestine, but
on the form of Jewish culture that will be fructi-
fied. Thus Palestine is to be a " spiritual centre."
But, in order that it may become this, the Jews in
the Diaspora must also be regenerated spiritually,
so that " the spiritual centre which is destined to
be created in our ancestral country " shall come as
a " response to a real and insistent national de-
mand."
It is indeed a true sign that the spirit
for which Achad ha-Am pleads is still alive, that
the Jewish settlers of Palestine have proceeded
directly to the cultivation of the Hebrew spirit
along lines which lead to the goal envisaged by
him. That spirit has been refreshed and refined
by the surroundings in which it moves; more nor-
mal conditions of life have had their natural effect,
and a noble idea has not been soiled for want of
41 The History of Zionism.
free room in which to develop. The Hebrew lan-
guage, which has been so important a factor in
reviving national sentiment, is gradually driving
J udeo- German and the European tongues to the
wall, and the various schools, although they may be
criticized in certain directions, are training the
young in the spirit of the fathers and in the re-
juvenated ideals of the past.
It has often been said that Zionism, while it
may be a mieans for mitigating some of the Jewish
misery in Eastern Europe, has no real message to
the so-called emancipated Jews. The leaders of
American Reform have gone so far as to look upon
Zionism as the negation of the best hope and pro-
mise of Judaism. The dissemination and diffusion
of the Jews is elevated by them to the position of
doctrinal sublimity, and stress is laid upon this,
dispersion as the means for the proper fulfilment
of the Jewish " Mission." But how is such a mis-
sion to be carried out if in the process the bearers,
of the mission are bound to succumb ? It is true
that until quite modern times the various com-
munities of Jews, though living in agglomerations
that were usually small in extent, were able to keep-
up a similar communal life by means of a common
practice. Territorial distinctions had been disre-
garded and almost obliterated. But now that con-
cessions are made to what is called " the needs of
the day," the Jewish communities will tend to de-
velop away from each other, and a consequent
deadening of Jewish consciousness is bound to oc-
cur. A complete reversion to the unity of practice
What is Zionism? 42
seems impossible. The Jewish hope must be
reconstructed upon modern lines. Embodied m
3. physical centre, illuminated by a rekindled light,
it will serve as a point towards which the thoughts,
-aspirations and longings of the Jews of the Dia-
spora will converge, and from which they will
draw, each in his own measure, that sufficiency
■of moral and religious strength that will better
-enable them to resist the encroachments of their
surroundings.
The erection of a Jewish centre in Palestine
would in no way carry with it the nullification of
•duties resting upon Jews elsewhere. The reform .
few, with his ideal of a mission, could carry forward
that mission in the future as he has in the past. The'
theory that Zionism looks for the concentration of
-all Jews in one spot is a theory of windy unreality,
for Palestine is insufficient to contain the whole of
the Jewish population of the world in addition to
Its present inhabitants. In fact, a serious stimulus
would be given to the spreading of the very mission
that it is feared will be endangered.
Another serious difficulty seems to confront the
Western Jew, which is the supposed conflict that
might arise between his responsibility to a Jewish
concentration and his fealtv towards the state of
which he is a citizen. This fear is founded on the
errors that citizenship is coincident with racial
unity, and that a good citizen can have no other
ties of allegiance than those which bind him to the
'State of which he is a member. But no State can
'dem.and that the individual shall relinquish his
■^3 The History of Zionism.
peculiarities, his traditions, liis family relation-
ships; nor can it ask of any group to give up its
historic associations, its connection with the other
groups of the same religion living elsewhere. It
can only demand that as citizens all elements shall
put the needs of the State in which they live in the
foreground of their thought, and render to it and to
the ideals for which it stands the best efforts they
are capable of. Should a conflict ever arise be-
tween the duties towards the State in which the
Jew lives and his responsibility to the Jewish cen-
tre, he will be forced to make his choice ; but as the
Jewish home is not to be founded for territorial or
other aggrandizement, such a conflict lies in the
penumbra of pure speculation.
In preparation for this home, Zionism has com-
menced to lay the foundation-stones. Its work in
Palestine is a surety that the end can be reached if
only the will is there. It is absurd to speculate
upon the future of the movement; to predict its
success upon the lines of its modern development
would be as useless as to foretell its failure. But
the continuing dispersion of the Jews into yet new
corners of the globe makes the Jewish patriot,
whether he be purely religious, or purely national,
or religiouslv national, fearful of the conse-
quences.
Some such solution of the problem as that fore-
shadowed in the Zionist outlook seems necessary
and desirable — if there is to be any outlook left,
and if the "remnant that returns" is to be worthy
of Its species.
What is Zionism? ^4
It has been said in another connection that a
people that has had a great past, if it is to have a
correspondingly great future, must also have a
great present. For this great present Zionism is
working, in order that Judaism may have a still
more glorious future. In this sense Zionism and
Judaism become one and the same.
Richard Gottheil.
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K NATIONAL HOME
FOR THE
JEWISH PEOPLE
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S RECOGNITION
OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT
ly. Reprinted from
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE "
LONDON :
R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD.
1917
A NATIONAL HOME
FOR THE
JEWISH PEOPLE
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S RECOGNITION
OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT
{Reprinted from "The Jewish Chronicle"
by kind permission of the Editor)
LONDON:
R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD.
1917
L L
THE JEWISH NATI0I4AL MOVEMENT
DECLARATION BY
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has
transmitted to Lord Rothschild the following letter : —
Foreign Office,
Novi-uibcr 2nd, 1917
Di:ar Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conve\ing to \'ou, on
behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following
declaration of sympathy \^■ith Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and
approved by, the Cabinet : —
"His Majesty's Qovernment view with
favour the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people, and will
use their best endeavours to facilitate the
achievement of this object, it being clearly
understood that nothing shall be done which
may prejudice the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,
or the rights and political status enjoyed by
Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if >-()u would bring this
declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist
Federation.
Yours sincereh',
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.
A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE
JEWISH PEOPLE
"\X T'lTH one step the Jewish cause has made a
great bound forward. The declaration of His
Alajesty's Government as to the future of Palestine
in relation to the Jewish people marks a new epoch
for our race. For the British Government, in
accord — it is without doubt to be assumed — with the
rest of the Allies, has declared itself in favour of the
setting up in Palestine of a National Home for the
Jewish people, and has undertaken to use its best
endeavours to facilitate the achievement of that
object.
Amidst all that is so dark and dismal and tragic
throughout the world, there has thus arisen for the
Jews a great light. It is the perceptible lifting of
the cloud of centuries, the palpable sign that the Jew
— condemned for two thousand years to unparalleled
wrong — is at last coming to his right. The prospect
has at last definitely opened up of a rectification of the
Jew's anomalous position among the nations of the
earth. He is to be given the opportunity and the
means whereby, in place of being a hyphenation,
he can become a nation.
A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 5
Instead of, as Jew, filling a place at best equivocal
and doubtful, even to himself, and always with an
apologetic demeanour inseparable from his position,
he can, as Jew, stand proud and erect, endowed with
national being. In place of being a wanderer in
every clime, there is to be a Home for him in his
ancient land. The day of his exile is to be
ended.
The declaration of the Government, which con-
cedes the Zionist position in principle, must have
effects, far-reaching and vital, upon the future of
Jews and Judaism. A National Home for the Jewish
people established in Palestine — whatever the exact
form it may take in the circumstances in which it
may be initiated — is certain to develop, and in good
time fulfil, the fond traditional aspirations of the
Jewish people. They will become an entity of
which the world will have no doubt. Questions of
religion and of race, and all other questions which
to-day ai'e set up and tend to confuse Jewish issues,
will have no significance in face of the fact that
the world will have recognised the Jews as a
nation.
The determination at which the Government has
arrived is doubtless the result of political circum-
stances which have taken shape through the war.
And what has probably been one of its chief con-
siderations in the course it has adopted is the
necessity for making Palestine a prosperous country,
independent and vigorous, and that by reason of
the Empire's obligations to Egypt and its responsi-
bility in respect to the Suez Canal.
But this idea is by no means of to-day. The
(, A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE
setting-up in Palestine of a National Jewish Home
was favourably viewed by that great Egyptian Pro-
Consul, Lord Cromer, as well as by that far-seeing
Imperialist, Joseph Chamberlain. Nor has the
Government come in haste to its conchision that a
Jewish Palestine would be helpful to the best interests
of the Empire. The declaration now made may be
traced, for the beginnings of the policy which ani-
mates it, to the days when the great founder of the
modern Zionist movertient, Dr. Herzl, negotiated
with the British Government in respect to pro-
posed settlements, first in El Arish and then in
East Africa.
And it is of interest to recall the fact that at least
three of those who are prominently responsible for
the present declaration were associated with those
schemes. Mr. Balfour, whose letter to Lord Roth-
schild announces the Government's policy, was then
Prime Minister. Lord Milner, as High Comm.issioner
in South Africa, was associated with Mr. Chamberlain
in the East African project ; while it may be added
as an interesting fact that Mr. Lloyd George, through
the firm of solicitors with which he was then con-
nected, advised professionally upon the proposed
scheme for a Jewish settlement in East Africa and
upon the necessary papers for the expedition sent
out to examine the territory denominated.
Of these schemes, one failed to materialise and the
other was practically rejected by the Zionist Congress.
Both, however, performed, as it now turns out,
useful foundation work. Here is yet another in-
stance of the stone rejected by the builders ; and it
is with proud thankfulness that we realise that it is
.4 NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE y
in the Government of this country that the yeast has
leavened.
It would be niggardly indeed if the fullest acknow-
ledgment were not accorded to the Zionist Movement
for the success to which it has now attained.
Through years of agitation and propaganda, and —
let it be acknowledged — of opposition that not occa-
sionally was venomous and bitter, Zionists have
carried on their work for the Jewish cause as they saw
■it. With splendid energy and matchless devotion,
in face of many a setback and many a disappointment,
they have never turned from the work that was to
them a sacred mission.
And now they have obtained, not merely an his-
toric acknowledgment that their view of the Jewish
position was the right and the practical one, but that
their activity — so often misrepresented, so often
condemned, so often balked by the most powerful
sections of Jewry — was politically sound and ethically
just. It is a great victory, which must encourage
the movement from end to end of the world and
give to it an enormous impetus for the labours, the
heavy labours, that aire now before it.
Where all, from the most prominent leader to
the humblest follower, have wrought so valorously, it
may possibly seem invidious to mention specially
any names in connection with the Government
declaration. But it would be churlish to withhold
from Dr. Weizmann the fullest measure of praise and
congratulation, of honour and of respect ; for it is
his diplomatic achievement of which the declaration
is the result. In his work in this connection he has
been magnificently seconded by M. Sokolow, who
8 A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE
was specially delegated as a member of the executive
body of the organisation, for Zionist work in this
country.
What, in view of the present development, will be
the attitude of those Jews who have hitherto been
opponents of Jewish National aspirations is an
interesting contemplation. Their position has been
based in the main upon the unfeasibility of the
Zionist proposals ; upon the undesirability of any
National re-settlement which would come under
the aegis of Turkish rule ; upon the plea that any
support accorded to the movement by Jews must
necessarily be disloyal to the countries of which our
people are citizens ; and that the nations of the world
would resent the setting-up of Jews as a separate
nationality. Mr. Balfour's letter puts a summary
end to all these stock objections of the anti-National-
ists.
With the more specifically Jewish, or, as they are
sometimes termed, the religious objections, we need
not here deal. In the first place, they at best have
run very thin, and, in the next place, we imagine
that, in face of the expressed opinion of the British
Government, they will not trouble very much those
who have hitherto employed them faute de mieux —
often insincerely, because they were really concerned
entirely with the thought of how Jewish Nationahsm
might affect their citizen position. We cannot
imagine that loyal British subjects, and those who
proclaim themselves loyal Jews to boot, will continue
their attitude of hostility towards the Jewish National
strivings in face of the Government statement.
But more than ever the Conference which we have
--I NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 9
proposed and for which we have pleaded in recent
issues of the Jewish Chronicle becomes vitally neces-
sary. In view of the present position of affairs,
every Jew will surely strive to beat out of Jewry the
disunion hitherto rife upon the question of Palestine.
For it is no longer a party matter. It has emerged
into a truly National concern, in regard to
which there must be no parties, but only one^
all Jewry.
There is now opening out for Jewry a new era upon
a higher plane, far above all our comparatively petty
strivings and puny struggles — even the most import-
ant — in which for the most part we have been wont
to engage. The invitation to us is to enter into the
family of the Nations of the Earth endowed with
the franchise of Nationhood, to become emancipated,
not as individuals or sectionally, but as a whole
people.
Not individually, nor sectionally, but as that of a
whole people must be our response. And that,
in the only thinkable form, can be arrived at in no
better, in no more complete manner, we feel certain,
than by such a Conference as that we have adum-
brated. We still think it would be an excellent thing
if the Government were to call such a Convention,
and, as a basis of discussion, place before it their
declaration. Indeed, it seems to us that the Govern-
ment, as the natural complement to its present action,
should lend its supreme influence to the gathering
of such an inter-allied Jewish meeting.
But, in any case, there must now be for the whole
Community a stock-taking, a re-setting of Jewish
economic and political values ; and no surer method
10 A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE
for reaching a fair and equitable general opinion can
we imagine than the taking of sweet counsel together
between those who upon this Jewish National
question have hitherto been opponents.
We have called the Government declaration " a
Jewish triumph." It is in truth much more. It
is a triumph for civilisation and for humanity. For
it points the way to an ending of the brutal suppres-
sion of our people from which not alone they have
suffered during the last two thousand years, but from
which civilisation, albeit indirectly, has suffered no
less certainly. It will mean releasing for mankind,
as a great spiritual force, the soul of our people,
cramped and bound as it has hitherto been because
of the world-position till now assigned to the Jew.
The time can at last be descried when the Jew will
be able, without let or hindrance, to perform for the
world his mission of Judaism, that mission which
alone is the justification for his existence as a Jew, and
the sense of his responsibility for which has alone
enabled him to endure the untellable suffering to
which our people have been subjected.
Let us, however, not be mistaken. The Jewish
fight is, we are fully conscious, not finished ; com-
plete victory is not won. Indeed, we are not sure
if just now is not beginning the real testing-time for
Jews and for the Jewish National spirit ; if just now
is not being proved for the first time the real
measure of Zionism.
We are not in the least unmindful of the great and
sacred work which the Government declaration has
opened out for Jewry. A position, a great, a vital,
a decisive position, has been won — won for the Jew
A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE ii
and won for humanity. The Government declara-
tion marks the definite opening of a new chapter,
we beheve a great and glorious chapter, in the history
of our people. It is a memorable day for Israel :
" This is the day the Lord hath made ; we will
rejoice and be glad therein."
OPINIONS OF SOME PUBLIC MEN
ON THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT
Capt. L. S. Amery, M.P. :
I am in entire sympathy with the proposal for
re-establishing a national and spiritual home for the
Jewish people in Palestine.
Sir J. T. Agg-Gardner, M.P. :
I view the aspiration of promoting an autonomous
Jewish Community with sympathy and with every
wish for its success.
Major Rowland PIunt, M.P. :
I should think it would be an excellent thing
if the Jewish people could be re-established in Pales-
tine.
Major Davies, M.P. :
I am deeply interested in the movement which you
are conducting and hope that it will soon reach a
successful result.
A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 13
Mr. M. L. Hearn, M.P. :
In the struggle for the re-establishment of your
race in their ancient national home the Jewish people
have mj?^ full sympathy and good wishes.
Mr. J. Annan Bryce, M.P. :
The world ought to rejoice that the race to which
it owes the idea of a spiritual life should, at last,
have a footing on a land which it can call its own.
Mr. William Field, M.P. :
I have supported this movement by attending and
writing to meetings, and will continue to do anything
I can to forward the legitimate aspirations of the
Jews.
Mr. John P. Boland, M.P., J.P. :
I sympathise very much with the aspirations of
the Jewish people to return to their own land. As
an Irish Nationalist I fully understand their longing
to see the full development of their nationality.
Sir John Jardine, Bart., M.P. :
I write to express my sympathy with the en-
deavours of the Jewish race to re-establish itself in
Palestine in such a way that Jews may live and thrive
under their own institutions.
14 -1 NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Mr. Thomas Richards, M.P., Secretary South
Wales Miners' Federation :
I have always taken a very kindly interest in
the Jewish Community, and shall be very glad to
render any assistance in re-establishing the Jewish
people in their ancient national home.
Mr. T. Owen Jacobsen, M.P. :
I entirely sympathise with the movement to re-
establish the Jewish people in their ancient national
home. I have always hoped that the Jews would
return one day in triumph to Palestine, and I
fervently hope that day may now be not far distant.
Mr. Ronald McNeill, M.P. :
The Zionist idea is one that enlists my warmest
sympathy, and I ardently hope the settlement which
tlie war will produce may be the means of re-establish-
ing a Jewish State in the historical home of that race
in the Holv Land.
The Rt. PIon. Charles Hobhouse, M.P, :
The movement which is in existence for the return
of the Jews to Palestine has my complete sympathy.
If they are to be — as I hope they may be — restored
to a sense of settled nationality, then the only means
by which that nationality can be asserted and assured
is by the return to the land from which that nation
sprang.
A XATIOXAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 15
Lord Claud Hamilton :
His Lordship fully sympathises with the wish
... to be re-established in Palestine, but he does
not believe that any State aid from this or from
other countries will be forthcommg in support of
such a movement, until it is clearly established that
all Jews, both rich and poor, are practically unani-
mous in their desire to return to the Holy Land.
Sir George A. Touche, M.P. :
One result of the war has been to accentuate
national feeling, a feeling always strong among the
British peoples. Perhaps this was the cause of the
sympathy extended to the Jews by the British in the
past, and it will, I am sure, create a spirit of willing-
ness to help when the time comes for the Jewish race
to form a national centre in Palestine.
Mr. J. G. Butcher, K.C, M.P. :
I am in entire sympathy with the aspirations of
the Jewish race for a re-settlement of their people
in the ancient home of their fathers, and feel assured
that the establishment of an industrious peace-loving
people in Palestine, free from all external oppression,
would form a. guarantee for good government and
security in that portion of the Eastern shores of the
Mediterranean.
i6 A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE •
Mr. H. G. Chancellor, M.P. :
If out of this world upheaval should come a
restoration of Palestine to your race, and a re-estab-
lishment of a Jewish State, I, for one, should rejoice.
Such a State could appeal as nothing else could for
tolerance and justice to the conscience of a world
which I hope to see restored to sanity and civilisation
under a League of Nations which shall make peace
secure and oppression a memory.
Capt. W. Ormsby-Gore, M.P. :
I have long been a keen supporter of the Zionist
cause and am in full sympathy with Jewish National
aspirations, and I look forward with confidence to the
realisation of the Palestinian ideal. I have good
friends among the Arabs, as well as among Palestinian
Jews, and I trust that the mutual understanding
which should exist between the two great branches
of the Semitic family will be fruitful, not only in the
future history of both nations, but in creating once
more the source of so much culture and mspiration,
which in the past has made mankind the debtors to
Arab and to Jew.
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JEWirf*a CELEBRATIOiN OF ITS
NATIONAL IsiAHT^I^
THE ZIONIST ORGAIfSATION : LONDON BUREAifi
35 KMPIRE HOUSC 175 PICCADILLY^ VV^l 1
1918 f
GREAT BUITAn, PALESTIJfE
AID THE JEWS
Jewry's Celebration of its National Charter
THE ZIONIST OEGANISATION : LONDON BUREAU
35 EMPIRE HOUSE, 175 PICCADILLY, W.l
1918
THE CHARTER OF ZIONISM
LETTER FROM THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
The following 'are the terms of the letter to Loed
EoTHscHiLD in which Mk. a. J. Balpouk, Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, declared the sympathy of the
British Government with Zionist aspirations and its favour-
able attitude toivards the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people :
Foreign Office,
Novemher 2, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild, — I have niucli [leasure in
convening to you on behalf of His Majesty's Government
the following Declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations, which has been submitted lo and approved
by the Cabinet :
"His Majesty's Govemnent view with favour the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the
Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it bein.? clearly
understood that nothing' shall be done which may pre-
judice the civil and religious rights of existing non-
Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and
political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this Declaration
to the knowledi^e of the Zionist Federation.
Tours sincL'rely,
(Signed) AETHUE JAMES BALFOTTE.
PREFACE
rFMIE Declaration by the British Government in
-■- favour of the establishment in Palestine of a
National Home for the Jewish people constitutes the
greatest event in the history of the Jews since their
dispersion. The manner in which this Declaration
has been received and celebrated in Jewish com-
munities Ixjth here and abioad has been marked by
boundless enthusiasm and overflowing' gratitude.
But for the fact that the world is still groaning
under the scourge. of war the rejoicings by the Jewish
people would do ibtless have assumed a much more
imposing and jubilant character. But the record
presented in this publication shows that the House
of Israel is fully conscious of the high significance of
the pledge of the British Governmont concerning ifs
restoration.
This pamphlet is intended to give a brief and
comprehensive survey of the various forms of celebra-
tion in Jewry in honour of the promulgation of the
British Charter of Zionism. It is inevitably confined
to the events and utterances of the first few weeks
following the publication oE Mr. Balfour's historic
letter, and cannot therefore include an adequate account
of the celebrations in other lands. But it is woi-thy
of note that in addition to the countless secular
A 2
iv PREFACE.
celebrations, tlie synagogues also took cognizance
of the Grovernment declaration.
AltlioTigh a political document, Mr. Balfoui-'s
letter proclaims the forthcoming fulfilment of what
has always been a religious ideal in Jewry ; and it
was therefore but right that the letter should have
been read in numerous synagogues during the Sabbath
service and formed the text of countless sermons.
GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
RESOLUTIONS, STATEMENTS, AND
MESSAGES OF ZIONIST
ORGANISATIONS.
EN^aLISH ZIONIST TE DERATION.
The Pronouncement of the British Government
was received with enthusiasm and expressions of pro-
found gratitude by Zionist Organisations in all the
principal Jewish centres of the w^orld.
The English Zionist Federation held a special
meeting three days after the date of Mr. Balfour's
letter, and unanimously adopted the following
resolution :
" Resolved that the Executive Council of the
English Zionist Federation has received with heart-
felt joy and thanks the report of Dr. Weizmann, the
President, on the issue of a Declaration by ILis
Majesty's Grovernment in support of the establish-
ment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
people, and that it sincerely congratulates the
President on having, in conjunction with Mr.
Sokolow, brought about this most momentous
achievement towards the realisation of the national
aspirations of the Jewish people.
■' Further, that the Executive Council begs the
hon. officers to convey to His Majesty's Grovern-
ment, on behalf of the English Zionist Federation,
an expression of the respectful and profound
sentiments of gratitude evoked among English
2 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
Zionists by tliis historic act in the national liberation
of tbe Jewish people, wliich will for ever slied lustre
on the proud traditions of British statesmanship,
justice, and liberty."
THE UNITED STATES.
llie gratitude felt by the British Zionists was
equalled by that felt and expressed by their colleagues
in the United States.
The Provisional Zionist Committee of New York
described the Dfclai'ation of the British Grovernment
as marking an epoch in JeAvish history.
"The wise and magnanimous purpose of His
Majesty's Government to use its best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of the Zionist aim is in
consonance with the jDolicy of the British nation
respecting the Jews. It is in consonance with the
p^'licyof the liberation and protection of small nation-
alities, which the Entente Powers, including our own
Government, have determined shall prevail throughout
the world."
At a Zionist Conference, held in Baltimore, the
following i-esolutiou was carried unanimously :
" This conference, convened by the Provisional
Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, do
offer I>r. Chaim Weizmann and Mr. Nahum Sokolow
its deep-felt congratidations on the part tlipy have had
in these negotiations with the British Government,
which resulted in the British Declaration favouring
re-establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people, made by the Right Hon. Arthur
J. Balfour on bclialf of the British Cabinet. We ask
our associates in Loii.lon to convey to His ]\Iajesty's
Government expressions of gratitude from the Jewish
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 3
people for the Declaration, which is in consonance
with the traditions of the British people and in
keeping with the aims of Great Britain and her Allies
in this war for liberation and justice. Deeply we
rejoice in the triump.h of British arms in Palestine,
and the taking over of Palestine as another step in
the march of the Allied Forces which is to fstablish
throughout the world the principles of the invincible
integrity of smaller nationalities. For these principles
we and our Allies are prepared to make every sacrifice
of treasure and life, until the great war shall have
ended in the triumph of the high aims of the Allied
nations."
RUSSIA.
The Central Committee of the Zionist Organi-
sation of Russia ex]3ressed the heartiest feelings and
thanks of the Russian Zionists for the inspiring
Declaration of His Majesty's Government " in favour
of the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people."
"No more happy tidings could reach Russian Jewry
than this timely expression by the British (Government
of its attitude towards Palestine, and we cannot
sufficiently express the importance which we attach
thereto. We regard this noble act as a landmark in
Jewish history.
" We find oursel\-es particularly fo,-tunate that at
this momentous time in the world's.^, history the
interests of tbe British people and those of the Jewish
nation should be identical. We also fervently hope
and desire that the re-establishment of a Jewish home
situated at the gateway of three continents and com-
manding the world's cliief arteries of communication
will greatly facilit;ite the maintenance of international
peace, and will serve the cultural ideals of mankind.
4 &REAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
"His Majesty's ttovernnieut, in its noble and
altruistic declaration, makes mention that in the
establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine the
civil and relig^ious rig-hts of extstinp' non- Jewish
communities shall not be prejudiced. We Jews who
have suffered injustice for so many hundreds of years
will never be able to impose any form of inequality on
peoples living in Palestine. Furthermore, the spirit
of our traditions and teachings forces us to recognise
the complete equality of all mankind.
" In the annals of Jewish history the symj^athy
and assistance rendered by the British Government
in the regeneration of the Jewish nation can never
be eradicated. In her great beneticence the British
Government offered us Jews El-Arish in 1902. Then
again she showed us her ci^ncrete desire to assist
Jewish nationalism by her Uganda offer in 1903.
As the highest evidence of the benevolence of His
Majesty's Government we see that at this very
moment, when her armies are triumphing in Palestine,
she is not only offering this assistance towards the re-
establishment of a Jewish home, but at the same
time sh(^ is pledging her great political influence
in this worthy undertaking.
" In the realisation of one of the greatest problems
of the world — namely, the complete liberation of the
most oppressed nation of all times — the British Govern-
ment will give certain evidence to posterity that the
many sacrifices she has made in this disastrous struggle
were not made in vain, but were made for the greater
enlightenment of the world."
FRANCE.
The Federation Sioniste de France sent the British
Government a message of congratulation oil the
occupation of Jerusalem. Tbey associated with that
JEWRl-S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTEB.. 5
historic event the equally histoiic Declaration of the
British Government in favour of a national home for
the Jewish people in Palestine, and welcomed the
advent of the promised day when the ancient people
of the Book would, with the help of the glorious
Allies, restore their ancient home on the beloved soil
of their ancestors.
HOLLAND.
At a meeting of the Netherlands Zionist Federa-
tion there was repeated applause at a reference to
Mr. Balfour's statement of accord with Zionist aims
which, said the President, had given great joy to
almost the whole of Jewry. Mr. Jean Fischer said
that the Declaration of the British Government
regarding Zionism was an historical fact of far-
reaching- sisrnificance. The British Government had
earned the everlasting gratitude of the Jewish people.
It was resolved to send the following'' telegram to the
English Zionist Federation :
" The eighteenth General Convention of the
Netherlands Zionist Federation expresses its grati-
tude to the British Government for its sympathetic
attitude towards Zionism, and for its Declaration
that it will do its best to contribute to the fulfil-
ment of the' Zionist programme. — Lieme, President ;
Van Vriesland, Secretary."
GEEMANY.
A German Zionist Conference, held in Berlin,
adopted the following resolution :
" The German Zionist Association greets with satis-
faction the fact that the British Government has
6 GHEAT BRITAIN, PALE.STIXE AND THE JEWS.
recognised in an official Declaration the right of the
Jewish people to a national existence in Palestine."
CANADA.
The Canadian Zionist Federation cabled -.
" Cordial greetings fron) Canadian Zionists.
Overwhelming majority Canadian Jews hail with
utmost enthusiasm and gratitude Declaration British
(.lovernment regarding Palestine and Jewish people.
This Declaration i'^ one of the mo,st momentous
in Jewish history. What Britain promises she
will fulfil. The undying hopes for which Jews
suffered martyrdom for twenty centuries will now
be realised and Israel re-born. It means full
accomplishment of Basle programme."
SWITZERLAND.
From the Union of Swiss Zionists came :
" The Swiss Zionist Federation having taken note,
with the OTeatest satisfaction, of the Declaration of
His Britannic ^Maje.'^ty's Government concerning the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the
JeAvish people, heartily congratulates you on the great
success. The Declaration of Mr. Balfour coincides
with our Zionist aims. AVe hope that all the
nations of the world will support these aims and
thereby in a like manner assure themselves of the
deep gratitude of the Jewish people.'"
BELdlUM.
Till' Belgian Zionist Federation, temporarily domi-
ciled in the Hague, welcomed with enthusiasm " the
important Declaration of His' Britannic Majesty's
Co\ernirient to the Jewish ])i>(i])le. It is deeply
grateful to the magnanimity of His Britannic
Majesty's Grovernmeut for leeognising the legitimate
JEWRY'S CELFAJEATION OF XATIOXAL CHARTER. 7
national aspirations of the Jewish people to Palestine
and heartily congratulates you on the triumph which
crowns the Zionist effort."
SCANDINAVIA.
The Norwegian Zionist Federation's message ran :
" Though small, Norw^ay's Zionistic Jewry joins
gladly the elder Zionist Associations the world over
in congratulating you heartily on great success as
recorded by Mr. Balfour's Declaration of willingness
of British Government to fully endorse and assist
realisation our Palestine hopes. We record joyfully
this essential step forward, doubly welcome in times of
tribulation, and trust in further crowning with success
of all your endeaA'ours."
At Stockholm the Scandinavian Zionist Association
held a crowded meeting at which an expression of
lively satisfaction wrs j)assed at the recent Declaration
of His Majesty's Government regarding the future
Jewish settlement in Palestine. A resolution was
passed unanimously welcoming the action of His
Majesty's Government and binding all present to use
every effort to secure a national future for the Jewish
people.
SALONICA.
The Committee of the Jewish Congress in Salonica
sent a message to the following effect :
" Le Comite du Congres juif de Salonique a reyu
avec une joie indicible communication de la declaration
faite par je gouvernement de Sa Majeste Britannique
relativemerit a la reconstitution de la nationalite juive
en Palestine ; son emotion est grande de voir les
aspirations nationales du peuple juif recevoir une
consecration aussi eclatante qui lui est donnee
8 OREAT BTilTAlN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
aujourd'hui par la grande et liberale nation anglaise.
Les Israelites de Salonique communiant ;ivec le
judaisme imiversel expriment au gouvernement de
Sa Majeste Britanniqne leur prafonde reconnaissance
et fornient des vceux clialeureux pour le triomphe final
dn droit, de la justice et du principe des nationalites si
vaillarament defendus par I'Angleterre et ses Allies."
A large number of other messages were received
by the London Zionist Bureau from Zionist Organi-
sations in all parts of the world.
RESOLUTIONS OF OTHER JEWISH
ORGANISATIONS.
JEWISH TEREITOEIAL OEGANISATION.
At a meeting of the British Headquarters' Council
of the Jewish Territorial Organisation it was unani-
mously resolved to welcome the statement of the
Govei'nment expressing sympath}' with Jewish
aspirations, and the Jewish Territorial Organisation,
"founded to procure a territory upon an autonomous
basis for those Jews who cannot, or will not, remain
in the lands in which they at present live," declared
its r(-adiness to co-operate with the Zionists in devising
a scliciiie for the development of Palestine in accordance
with its programme.
JEWISH BOAED OF DEPUTIES.
A meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies
adopted the foUo^s'ing resolution :
"That this Board desires to convey its grateful
thanks to His Majesty's (xovermnent for its sym-
pathetic interest in the Jews ;is manifested by the
JE WHY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIviVAL CHARTEB. 9
letter addressed to Lord Eothschild by the Eight
Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, dated November 2, 1917,
which has been published in the Press."
ANGLO-JEWISH ASSOCIATION.
At a special meeting of the Council of the Anglo-
Jewish Association iL w;!,s resolved :
" That the Coancil of the Anglo-Jewish Associa-
tion desires to convey its grateful thanks to His
Majesty's Gr'werument for its sympathetic interest in
the Jews, as manifested by the letter of the Eight
Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, dated November 2, 1917,
addressed to Lord Eothsphild, and published in the
Press."
THE OEDEE OF B'NAI B'EITH.
At a meeting of the London Lodge of the Order
the following resolution was adopted :
"That the First Lodge of England of the
Independent Order of B'nai B'rith (Sons of the
Covenant) conveys to His Majesty's Government an
expression of heartfelt gratitude for their Declaration
in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people, and assures
His Majesty's Government that their historic action
has been received with profound appreciation by all
sections of the Jewish community as this crowning
evidence of the goodwill entertained by Britain
towards the Jewish people."
In addition to the resolutions adopted by tlie fore-
going leading organisations, resolutions in :; sim.ilar
strain have been passed by a very large number of
Jewish Communal Councils, CoHgregational Com-
mittees, Literary Societies, Friendly Benefit Societies,
10 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
Trade Unions, etc., in all parts of tl;e United
Kingdom.
EUSSIA.
G reetings on the occa.sion of the Declaration of
the British Governnieut supporting the establishment
of a Jewish national home in Palestine arrived at
Zionist headquarters in Petrograd frora all parts of
the country. The council of the Jewish community
in MoscoAv, which has beeii elected for the first time
on the basis of universal suffrage, cariied, at an extra-
ordinary meeting, a resolution in wlucli they regarded
it as their joyful duty to hail tlie initiative of the
British Government, ;ind expressed their firm con-
viction tha^t the British Government's Declaration
would call forth a most lively response, as well as
the greatest effort on the part of, the whole of Jewry.
GEEECE.
The publication by the Press of Athens of the
Declaration made b}' i\rr. Balfour aroused the utmost
enthusiasm among the Jews of Greece. Dr. Coffinas,
who is a member of the Chamber of Deputies, paid a
visit t(i Lord Granville, the British ^Minister, to convey
the oratitude of his co-reli>;ionists to that nation whom
a Divine mission had inspired to deliver the holy
places from the yoke of barbarians.
MM. David Florentin and Joseph Usiel, on
behalf of the Zionist Societies and the entire Jewish
population of Salonika, sent the following telegram to
Dr. Weizmann and M. N. Sokolow :
" Foi-tified in the millenary hope for the national
resurrection, consecjuent on the deliverance of
JfBWRY'S CELEBRATION OP NATIONAL CHARTER 11
Jerusalem ai;;! the whole of Southern Palestine, v.e
beg- you to convey to the Gov'ernment of His
Britaunic Majesty our profound gratitu(leg.for its
historic Declaration concerning the restoration of our
people on its ancestral soil, and our most ardent
wishes for the decisive triumph of the English and
Allied arms, and the realisation, without restrictions,
of the noble promises that the British Government
has matle to the Zionist Ovi-anisation of which you
are in England the valiant champions."
MOKOCCO.
Eepresentative Jewisl*. residents of Tangier
expressed qn behalf of the Avhdle Jewish population
of Mi.irocco their highest aippreciation and heartfelt
gratitude for the action of the British Grovernment
in Palestine. The Jews of Morocco, they said, were
only lately freed from the political and social dis-
advantages under which they had lived, and the
promise of the British (jo\'ernment awakened new
religious hopes and u.spirations among that long-
sufiVring and worthy people.
to
VIEWS OF JEWISH LEADERS,
In addition to the vievss expressed by Jewish
leaders reported in this pamphlet, the following
opinions have been declared:
Dr. Jeciiiel Tchj.enow, Vicc-Preddent, Executive
ComiiiUtee of I he Zioiiid Organisation.
The Declaration of His Majesty's Government
has changed the aspect of our movement. We have
12 GREAT BBITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
now the promise of (xreat Britain — that traditional
friend of small nations — to nse its best endeavours
to assist us in the establishment of a national home
for the Jewish people in Palestine. The world's
history, and in pai-ticular Jewish history, will inscribe
in its pages this deed in letters of gold.
The Kight Hon. Herbert Samuel, M.P.
I rejoice wholeheartedly in the pronouncement
that has been made by the British Government
wnth respect to Palestine. I support the policy
because it will furnish to the genius of the Jewish
race an opportunit\' of again giving to mankind a
brilliant and distinctive civilisation, and secondly for
the sake of the ennobling influence on the millions of
the Jewish proletariat who must continue to remain
scattered throughout the countries of the world, which
a successful Jewish Palestine could not fail to exercise.
The Eight Hon. The Lord Eothschild, F.E.S.
I consider that the Declaration is the most
important pronuncianiento yet made, as it is the first
recognition by a Great Power of the real status of the
Jewish people, and that it ought therefore to find a
wholehearted support from all Jews. I also consider it
not only the first step tov\'ards restoring Palestine to its
ancient prosperity, but also the fii'st step in construc-
tive policy necessitated by the war and its inevitable
aftermath of necessary changes iind reconstruction.
The Eight Hon. Sir Alfred Mond, Bart., M.P.,
First Coiiuidssioiier of Works.
The establishment in their old land, under
the tegis of the British Government, of a home
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 13
whnre the Jewish people will be at liberty to
develop their national genius and freely to exercise
their virtues of industry, thrift, and organisation
in their own way marks an epoch in the world's
history. The development in recent years of the
Jewish colonies in Palestine, whose success under the
most unfavourable and depressing conditions has been
phenomenal, has always deeply impressed me, and
gives assurance of still greater su.ccess in the future.
There are some who seem to think that the policy
adopted is likely to dam.age the position of those Jews
— and there must be many millions of them throagh-
out the world — who will remain, as in the past,
identified with and loyal an I pitriofcic citizens of th?
countries of their birth and residence, and that the
establishment of a national home in Palestine will, in
particular, prejudice British Jews in the eyes of their
fellow-citizens. I do not share and never have shared
their view. In my opinion quite the reverse will be
the case. The dignity and importance of our whole
race will be enhanced by the existence of a national
home where those of our people who have been com-
pelled to live under less favourable conditions than we
enjoy will be able to establish themselves on the soil
of their ancestors.
Mr. ISTath.^n Straus, Nav York.
My heartfelt congratulations upon the announce-
ment of His Majesty's Government, made by Mr.
Balfour. American Jews are deeply moved by the
good tidings ; before our countries and their AUies
lies the task of winning the war foi- liberation and
justice and the sanctity of international relations, to
14 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND TEE JEWS.
the end that the sacreclrie?s of the right of small
nations may never again he violated. This is the
day which the Lord hath made ; let us be glad and
rejoice therein.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Chairman Provisional Zionist
Coiinnittce, Neio York.
The Declaration has transferred Zionism from the
field of national aspirations to the realm of political
fact, Not in centuries has any word been spoken
of equally vital consequence to the well-being of
Israel.
Two things may be assumed on the basis of the
historic uttei'ance of the British Minister of Foreign
Affairs : the one that Britain is not acting alone. It
is not for us to predicate that England has spoken
and acted in concert with her Allies, but we are
justified in believing that England, ever working in
closest co-operation with her Allies in the War, will in
the day of peace find herself not only supported by
France and Italy, Ijut above all by the American
Grovernment and people, which, under the leadership
of President Wilson, muist needs insist that the
destruction of the Prussian ideal must be followed by
the establishment and maintenance of the integrity of
the lesser nations. The other fact that is hound
ine\'itably with the Declaration of the British Cabinet
is that it is to be taken for granted that opposition to
Zionism is ended.
JuD(iE Julian W. M.-vck, CJiicago.
American Jews, citizens of this great Republic,
and owing' to it their sole and undivided allegiance
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATloyAL CHAHTEE. 15
and loyalty, rejoice with the Jews of all countries
that the British Grovernment has issued this epoch-
making Declaration.
The dreams and prayers of twenty centuries,
embodied in the famous Basle Zionist declaration
that Palestine may again become the homeland of
the Jewish people, secured and recognised as such by
the law of the nations, is approaching realisation.
Mr. AnoLPH Kraus, President Inde2]endent Order
B'nai B'rifh, U.S.A.
The Declaration by the British Grovernment that
it is ready to support the establishment of a homeland
for the Jewish people in Palestine gains additional
significance by reason of the progress which the
British Forces are making in Palestine. The declara-
tion must have the effect of gaining for the Zionist
cause the support of even such Jews as have hitherto
been indifferent or opposed to the movement, for no
Jew can consistently oppose the establishment of a
Jewish homeland, be it ever so small.
PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS.
THE GEEAT THANKSGIVING MEETING
AT THE LONDON OPEEA HOUSE.
The greatest and most imposing public meeting
over held in the history of British Jewry was that
which took place on Sunday, December 2, 1917, at the
London Opera House, for the purpose of thanking the
s 2
16 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS
British G-ovemment for its declaration in favour of
the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people. The building was crowded
with an enthusiastic audience representative of idl
sections of the Anglo-Jewish community. Delegates
were present fi'om nearly all Jewish congregations,
organisations, institutions, and societies in the
United Kingdon). The chair was taken by Lord
Eothsohild.
LoR]) RoiHSCiiiLD said they were met on the
most momentous occasion in the history of Judaism
for the last IbOO years. They were there to return
thanks to His Majesty's Government for a Declaration
which marked an epoch in Jewish history of outstand-
ing importance. For the first time since the Dispersion
the Jewish people had received its proper status by the
Declaration of one of the Great Powers. The Declara-
tion, while acknowledging and approving of the
aspirations of the Jewish people for a national home,
at the same time placed Jews on their honour to
respect the rights and privileges not only of their
prospective non-Jewish neighbours in Palestine, but
also of those of their own people who did not see eye
to eye with the Zionist cause. Feeling as he did that
the aims of Zionism wei'e in no way incompatible with
the highest patriotism and loyal citizenship of the
Jews in the various countries in which they were
dwelling, he would like the meeting in passing the
resolution which would be submitted to them to assure
the Government that they would, one and all, faith-
full v observe both the spirit and the letter of their
gracious Declaration. (Cheers.) He felt sure that
the principal aim of the Zionists was to provide a
national home for those portions of the Jewish people
who wished to escape the possibilities in the future of
such oppression and ill-treatment as they had endured
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 17
in the past and lie therefore held that all and every
section of o^nnion in the Jewish people eould work
together for the establishment in Palestine of such a
home, so as to make it a triumphant success.
Lord Eothschild then moved the foUowino-
resolution :
" That this mass meeting, representing all sections
of the Jewish community in the United Kingdom,
^conveys to His Majesty's Grovernment an expression of
* heartfelt gratitude for their Declaration in favour of the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the
Jewish people. It assures His Majesty's Government
that their historic action in support of the national
aspirations of the Jewish people has evoked among
Jews the most profound sentiments of joy. This
meeting further pledges its utmost endeavours to give
its whole-hearted support to the Zionist cause."
Lord Eobkrt Cecil, K.C, M.P., who was
received with loud cheering, said :
I have come here with the greatest possible
pleasure at the request of those who represent, or who
have led the representation of the Zionist movement of
this country, to offer to you and to all Zionists my
hearty congratulations on the event which you are
celebrating to-day. (Cheers.) And perhaps you will
allow me to mention in connection with th<-se con-
gratulations, not only your Chairman, but also M.
Nahum Sokolow and l)r. C. Weizmann, who liave done
so much for the cause that we all have at heart this
afternoon. Surely all of us must feel what a very
striking gathering the present one is. The keynote of
our meeting this afternoon is liberation. (Cheers.) We
welcome among us not only the many thousands of
Jews that I see, but also representati\es of the Arabian
and Armenian races who are also in this great struggle
struggling to be free. (Hear, hear.) Our wish is
18 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
that Arabi;m countries shall be for the Arabs, Ai-meuia
for the Arnu'uiaus, and Judaea for the Jews. (Applause.)
Yes, and let us add, if it can be so, let Turkey, real
Turkey, be for the Turks.
I should like to be allowed to say that the part
that this country is taking in this movement is not a
new thing. (Hear, hear.) I venture to claim for
this country that in supporting Zionism it has been
merely carrying out its traditional jjolicy. To me, at
any rate, it seems that there are two great foundations
upon which the policy of this country has always been
based. I believe they are often described by the
two words " Liberty " and " Justice." Perhaps more
a'^curately they ma}' be called the supremacy of the
Law and Liberty, for, be well assured, if we are ever
to obtain that security which we have been recently
told is so important to us, if we are ever to Lift
European civilisation and national relations in Europe
out of the anarchy in which they at present are, it
must be by the same means by which we have secured
liberty and happiness in each country, namely, by the
supremacy of Law.
As for the second foundation of which I have
spoken, and which has more practical bearing on our
proceedings this afternoon, may I say this : We hear a
great deal of a new word, " Self-delermination."
Well, I don't know that it is a new thing. It certainly
is not new in the British Empire. The Empire has
always striA^en to give to all the peoples that make it up
the fullest measure of self-government of which they
are capable. (Hear, hear.) We have always striven
to give to all peoples within our bounds complete
libeity and equality before the Law. (Hear, hear.)
We are adjured to respect the principle of self-
determination ; but I say that the British Empire was
the first organisation to teach that principle to the
world, and one of the great causes for which we are in
this war is to secure to all peoples the right to govern
JEWRY'S CniEBRAT/Oy OF NATIONAL CHABTEli. 19
tbe;iiselvcs and to work out their owa destiny, irrespec-
tive of the threats and menaces of their greater
neighbour. (Hear, hear.) ■«
One of the great steps — in my judgment, in some
ways the greatest step — we have taken in carrying out
this principle is the recognition of Zionism. This is
the first constructive effort that we have made in what
I hope will he the new settlement of the world after
the war. (Cheers.) I do not say that that is the only
thing involved It is not only tlie recognition of a
nationality — it is much more than that. It has great
underlying ideals of which }ou will hear this after-
noon and of which it would be impertinent of me to
speak. It is, indeed, not the birth of a nation, for the
Jewish nation through centuries of oppression and
captivity have preserved their sentiment of nationality
as few people conld ; but if it is not the birth of a
nation, I believe we may say it is the re-birth of a
nation. (Applause.) I don't like to prophesy what
ultimate results that great event may have, but for
myself I believe it will have a far-reaching influence
on the history of the world and consequences which
none can foresee on the future history of the human
race. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Herbert Samuel, M.P., who received an
enthusiastic welcome, said :
I rejoice wholeheartedly in the pronouncement
that has been made by the British Government with
respect to Palestine. It is a policy which for nearly
three years I have urged in the Cabinet and out of
the Cabinet at every opportunity that arose. (Cheers.)
The fears and the doubts which this policy has evoked
are, I firmly believe, unfounded. Three conditions
must indeed be observed in any new developments that
may take place in Palestine. In the first place, there
must be full, just recognition of the rights of the
20 QJtEAr BTtlTAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEW.^.
Ar;il)s, who iii>\v constitute the majority of the popula-
tion of tliat country. Secondly, there must be a reverent
respect for the Cliristian and Mohammedan holy
places, which in all eventualities should always remain
in the control and charge of representatives of those
faiths. (Cheers.) In the third place, there must be
no attempt now or in the future to establish anything
in the nature of political authority from Palestine
over the Jew scattered in other countries of the world,
who must probably always remain the great majority
of the Jewish race. There should be no disturbance,
large or small, direct or indirect, in their national
status or in their national rights and duties in thu
countries of which they are, or should be, full and
equal citizens. On all these matters there is no
divergence of opinion in any quarter, and the
controversies that have taken place, I venture to
think, are disputes over differences that do not
exist.
The reason why, for my own part, I support the
policy which we are here to-day to approve and
celebrate are chief!}' these. First, it may be that the
genius of the Jewish race will again be able to give
to the world a brilliant and distinctive civilisation.
(Cheers.) The richness of mankind lies in its diversity.
We do not want the world to be like some great
library, consisting of nothing but innumerable copies
of one and the same book. The Jewish mind is a
distinctive thing. It combines in remarkable degree
the imaginative and the practical, the ideal and the
positive. This combination of qualities enabled it for
1500 years in Palestine to produce an almost unbroken
series of statesmen and soldiers, judges and poets,
prophets and seers — thinkers and leaders who have
left for all time their impress upon the world. The
Jewi.sh mind is tenacious and persists, and now, when
all the jjowerful Empires that overran that land have
been cnerthrown and almost forgotten, the Jewish
JEWEVS CELEBkAftON OF NATIONAL CHADTEH. 21
people exists and is more numerous to-duy than it
ever has Ijeen at any period of its history. Who
. knows, I say, Lut that if again it iinds a s2:>iritual
centre of its own, soundly based on an industi-ioiis
population, untrammelled, self-contained, inspired by
the memories of a S2jlendid past, it may again
produce golden fruits in tlie iields of intellect for the
enrichment of the whole world. (Cheers.)
And my other reason is this ; If this comes to be,
what a helpful effect it would have upon the Jewish
proletariat that will still remain scattered in other
countries of the world ! I see in my mind's eye those
millions in Eastern Europe all through the centuries,
crowded, cramped, proscribed, bent with oppression,
suffering all the miseries of active minds denied scope,
of talent not allowed to speak, of genius that cannot
act. I see them enduring, suffering everything, sacri-
ficing everything in order to keep alight the flame of
which they knew themselves to be the lamp, to keep
alive the idea of which they knew themselves to be
the vessel, to preserve the soul of which they knew
themselves to be the body ; their eyes always set upon
one distant point, always believing that somehow,
some day, the ancient greatness would be restored ;
always saying when they met in their families on
Passover Night, " Next year in Jerusalem." Year
after year, generation following generation, century
succeeding century, till the time that has elapsed is
counted in thousands of years, stiU they said, " Next
year in Jerusalem." If that cherished vision is at last
to be realised, if on the Hills of Zion a Jewish civilisa-
tion is restored with something of its old intellectual
and moral force, then among those left in the other
countries of the world I can see growing a new
confidence and a new greatness. There will be a
fresh light in those eyes, those bent backs will at last
stand erect, there will be a greater dignity in the
Jew throughout the world. (Cheers.)
22 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
That is why we meet to-day to thank the British
Government, our own Government — (cheers) — that
has made all this possible, that we shall be able to
say, not as a pious and distant wish, but as a near
and confident hope, " Next year in Jerusalem " —
□'[^mu nxan niwb — (Loud and prolonged cheers).
Colonel Sir Mauk Svkes said:
When one thinks of the years that have passed,
of the immense spaces of history which stand between
what was and now is promised to-day, truly one is
dazzled — one is dazzled by the possibility of the
prospects which open before us. I say 1 am speaking
to vou as a watcher, but you in a sense perhaps also
are watchers ; perhaps you see as I see an Asia
stricken with plagues and cumbered with ruins and
a Europe a welter of blood. Perhaps you too see
those two things, and I pray that you realise that it
may be your destiny to be the bridge between Asia
and Europe ; to bring the spirituality of Asia to
Europe and the vitality of Europe to Asia. I firmly
believe that is the mission of Zionism. I see here
something which is greater than the dream even of
a LeaOTie of Nations, which is a dream of a League of
Kaces and finally a League of Ideals. There is the
great vision ; that is what may, that is what does,
I believe, lie before you.
But no person realises more than I do — I know
the ground, some of it, and boldly I dare to say
tliat there lie before you dangers, difficulties, and
possible obstructions ; but, ladies and gentlemen, your
time of probation has been long. You are schooled
in adversity ; you can look on difficulties with calm,
and you will overcome them. I do not look for a
sudden magic transformation. No ; but I believe
that vou are beginning a great and beneficial and
irresistible transition. That is what you are
beginning.
./KWIiY'S CELEBRATION OP NATIONAL CHARTER. 2?
Now, r l)elie\e, 30U are going to set up a powtT
which is not a domination of blood or a domination of
gold, but a domination of intellectual force. I believe
you will sec in Palestine a great centre of ideals
radiating out to every country in the world where your
people are. And if there is one thing that gives me
great ]'leasure here to-day it is to feel that you — at
this turning-point in your history, when the Govern-
ment made its Declaration — you thought not only of
^■urselves, but you thought also — and afterwards you
will look back with joy on the fact — when the
hope of redemption was held out to you, you thought
not only of yourselves but also of your fellows in
adversity, the Armenians and the Arabs.
The Chief Rabbi said it was indeed a rare
privilege to take part in that wonderful meeting
called together to express the heartfelt thanks of
British Jewry for the striking sympathy of His
Majesty's Government with Jewish aspirations. The
epoch-making Declaration on Palestine was an assur-
ance given by the mightiest of empires that the new
order which the Allies are now creating at such
sacrifice of life and treasure shall be rooted in
righteousness, and broad-based on the liberty of and
reverence for ei^eri/ oppressed nationality. It was a
solemn pledge that the oldest of national tragedies
shall be ended in the coming re-adjustment of the
nations which shall console mankind for the slaughter
and waste and torment of this terrible world-war. In
the face of an event of such infinite importance to the
Jewish people, ordinary words of appreciation or the
usual phrases of gratitude were hopelessly weak and
inadequate. For the interpretation of their true
feelings to-day they must turn to Scripture. Twenty-
five hundred years ago Cyrus issued his edict of
liberation to the Jewish exiles in Babylon ; and an
eye-witness of that glorious day had left them in the
24 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
I;2(5th Ps;ilm a record of how tii?ir fathers received
the announcement of their deliverance, " When the
Lord hrought back those that returned to Zion" — •
a'Dism i3"n — " we were like unto them that dream. Then
said they among the nations : ' The Lord hath done
great things for them.' The Lord hath done great
things for us; whereof we are glad." Theirs was a
similar feeling of joy and wonder. With them like-
wise it was the astonishment of the nations, the
reassuring approbation of statesmen and rulers that
caused them to exclaim : " We will see it done, and
done consummately, the thing so many have thought
could never be done ! " (Cheers.) The spirit of the
Declaration was that of absolute justice, whether to
Jews out of Palestine or to non-Jews in Palestine.
They especially welcomed in it the reference to the
civil and relisfious rights of the existingc non-Jewish
communities in Palestine. That was but a trans-
lation of the basic principle of the Mosaic legislation.
(Cheers.) But it was the substance of the Deolarat'on
— the promise of a national home for the Jewish
people — that filled their souls with gladness. For
only on its own soil could the Jewish people live its
own life and make, as in the past it had made, its
characteristic and specific contributions to the spiritual
treasure of humanity. After the proclamation issued
by Cyrus, the mass of the Jewish people still remained
in Babylon. All told, only -1.2,000 men, women, and
children took advantage of the King's proclamation
and followed Ezra back to Zion, the land of their
fathers. But that handful of Zionists and their
descendants, because living on their own soil, changed
the entire future of mankind. They.^edited and
collected the Prophets, wrote some of the fairest
portions of the Scriptures, formed the canon of the
Bible, and gave the world its monotheistic religions.
(Cheers.) Now, as then, only " a remnant shall
return " — aiB" -\v.z>. But now, as then, it was the
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 25
national rejuvenation of that remnant that is to open
a new chapter in tlie annals of the. human spirit.
Difficulties? Of course there were difficulties.^ The
task of laying the foundations of a new Israel must
be one of long toil and severe trial. But a people
that for twenty-five centuries had stood victoriously
against the storm of time possessed vitality enough,
patience enough, idealism enough, with the help of
Grod, to rise to the level of this unique, world-histOric
opportunity. (Loud cheers.)
1)r. M. (taster said that he stood before them
as an old friend, deeply imbued with the spirit of
faith, a dreamer of Ansions, if they would. What
appeared to so many as a dream had now become a
reality — (cheers) — and they were gathered there to
begin to reap in joy what they had sown in tears and
sorrow. It was for all of them a day of joy to see
the fruits which they had so long wished for. Tliey
had come together to thank the British Government
for their Declaration of sympathy with their national
aspirations. Therein lay the greatness of the British
Government, that it had lifted the problem from its
local geographical character and given to it that
universally valued importance which they attached to
it. What they wished to obtain in Palestine was
not merely a right to establish colonies, or educational,
cultured, or industrial institutions. Tiiey wanted to
establish in Palestine an autonomous Jewish Com-
monwealth in the fullest sense of the word. They
wanted Palestine to be Palestine of the Jews and not
merely a Palestine for Jews. They wished the land
to be again what it was in olden times and what it
had been for Jews in their prayers and in their
Bible— a land of Israel. The ground must be theirs.
(Cheers.) Tliey stood indeed as a people -for the
same programme as British statesmen were standing
to-day in a larger sphere. Jews stood for reparation,
26 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
restitution, and guarantees — (cheers) — and it was in the
very application of those principles that the greatness
and importance of the Declaration of the British
Government stood out so luminously. England owed
to Jews no reparation. Here they had liberty, full
freedom, eqiiality of right and equality of duty, and
they had risen to the responsibility which had thus
been placed upon them. For many of them there
had their children now fighting the battles of
England.
But the British Grovernment had now made itself
the champion of reparation to the Jewish people for
the wrongs done to them by the world. It had made
itself a champion too of the restitution of the land
to our nation, for whom it is the old inheritafice, and
it had given them a guarantee — security of tenure,
independence, of right and freedom of action as a
people in their ancient land. The establishment of a
Jewish Commonwealth in the land of their fathers
would also consolidate and clarify tlie position of the
rest of the Jews throughout the world. (Hear,
hear.) He believed that a new world was to arise in
which the Jew, as Jew, would find himself a free man.
In conclusion, he reminded them of an old legend
which told that when the Temple was destroyed the
stones split into splinters and each one entered the
heart of a Jew. It was this memorial of our fallen
nation which the Jew carried in his bosom and which
l>ent his back. But they were coming together once
again as a nation in Palestine, and they would take
the splinters of the stones from out of their hearts —
" and," exclaimed Dr. Graster, " I feel the stone in
my heart already loosening." (Loud and prolonged
cheers.)
Shark Ism.^il Abdul-.4l-Akki then addressed the
meeting. He spoke in Arabic, and his speech was
translated by Mr. I. Sieff, who mentioned that the
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTEB. 27
speaker was under sentence of death by the Turkish
Government for having joined the Arab national
movement. Shahk Ismail said he desired to tender
deep gratitude to the British nation and the British
Grovemment for affording his countrymen and himself
help and asylum in their hour of jiersecution. His
country was held in chains by the Turks, who were
supplied with (merman gold, and he looked with con-
fidence to England and France to deliver them from
bondage, as he believe I in the ultimate good over evil,
and was confident in the victory of the Allies. He
not only spoke as an Arab, but as a "Moslem" Arab,
having studied five years in Theological Schools and
being granted a Degree, and it was the duty of every
Moslem to participate in the movement for the
liberation of their countrymen. The meeting was to
celebrate the great act of the British Government in
recognising the aspirations of the Jewish people, and
he appealed to them not to forget in the days of their
happiness that the sons of Ishmael suffered also.
They had been scattered and confounded as the Jews
had been, and now began to arise, fortified with the
sense of martyrs. He hoped that Palestine would
again flow with milk and honey. (Cheers.)
M. Wadia Kesrawani, a Syrian Christian, spoke
in French, also to the effect that his countrymen
appealed to England and France for their liberation,
and applauded the Declaration of the Government.
Mr. Israel Zangwill, who was received with
loud and prolonged cheers said :
In my capacity of President of the Jewish
Territorial Organisation I have been honoured with
an invitation to appear on your platform on this
momentous occasion. In that capacity I have often
criticised your leaders. But to-day I am here not for
28 GREAT BRITAIN, PALBSTIXE AND THE JEWS.
criticism but for congratulation and co-operation. I
congratulate tliem, and especially Dr. Weizmann and
M. Sokolow, npon theii- historic acliievement in the
region of diplomacy. To see that this is followed by
a similar achievement in the more difficult region of
practice is the duty of all Israel.
But I do not come to the (xONcrnment, as Lord
Morley tells us the Kaiser came to him, with mock
salaams and marks of Oriental obeisance, for J have
k.)ng maintained that after a war for liberty and the
rights of small nations this very rej^aration was due
to that unhappy, scattered and divided people which
has bled and suffered with all the belligerents. And
as an English-born citizen I am proud that my
couutr\' by this pro-Jewish manifesto has wiped out
the stain of her alliance with the fallen Pharaoh. But
whatever the general Jewish gratitude for this exten-
sion of the principles of nationalities, the Jews in
Turkey and other now enemy countries are as loyal
to their fatherland as we are to ours, and we
who stand here can have no claim to pledge the
race to any Power or Powers. All we can say
is that happily the vast majority are concentrated in
those Allied and democratic countries with which
they are in natural affinity. Particularly close is their
affinity with the English. But it is not surprising
that the nation whose noble version of our Scriptures
has made the Bible almost a British possession should
A'ibrate to Jewish national aspirations.
From the first the formula of the Ito has run,
" To procure a territory upon an autonomous basis
for those Jews Avho cannot, or will not, remain in the
lands in which they at present live." For those and
for those only. Not for those who can or will remain
in their present lands. With these there may be a
spiritual connection, thei-e cannot be a political. And
to-day, when, to quote your great leader. Max
Nordau, "the period of rhetoric is over, the horn" of
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 29
deeds is approaching," I am glad to have the
assxirance of the Zionist leaders here that tliey
unreservedly accept the (iovernment's stipulation that
" nothing shall be done which might prejudice tlie
rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country." Once Zionism is established on this
sound basis, not only does its formula become identical
with the Ito's, but I can see no reason why all Israel
should not co-operate with both organisations in
developing Palestine as a Jewish national home for
those Jews who can or will go there. To diminisli
the risks of confusion, let Palestine be called what
Lord Robert Cecil called it, Judsea, and let the Jews
who adopt its citizenship be called Judseans. Then
all the others will remain a.< before, Jews — Jews of
whatever political allegiance they choose. A national
home in Palestine — freedom and equal rights every-
where else ; here surely is a platform that can unite
all Isra'J, and, so far as I can see, it is uniting them.
I do not say that this autonomy must come at a
bound. Though in my opinion the boldest way is
always the best way and responsibility is a people's
best educator, yet I am prepared to make all possible
concess'ons to circumstances and history. But unless
the Palestine colonisation is so planned that it must
eventually produce the national autonomous home I
for one wiU not devote my limited strength to such a
mockery of Jewish aspirations. The times are too
serious and tragic for such trifling. Mount Zion is in
labour. Shall it produce a mouse? No, it must
produce a lion — the lion of Judah.
Seven crusades to the Holy Land have all meant
massacre for the Jews; if the eighth crusade is to
HK^an Palestine for the Jews, if it is to be truly a
Christian crusade, then that very fact is a proof of a
new world-order of love and justice. Let us Jews,
the people of Isaiah, at such a turning-point in history,
make a great act of faith, and, instead of disavowing
30 GREAT BBITAIN, PALESTTKE AND THE JEWS.
the brotherhood of Israel,, let us proclaim from our
Jerusalem centre the brotherhood of man.
But tills spiritual work is not all that calls to us.
Palestine is a place full of stones and fever. It is a
land whose main bulk lies almost as desolate as the
plains of Flanders — ruined not by German war, but
by Turkish peace, by centuries of neglect and mis-
o-overnment. With the depletion of the world's
resources, and esj^ecially of the world's man-power,
by this terrible war, Avho is to win this country for
civilisation if not we Jews? Even if we had no
historic connection with it, that would be a worthy
mission for a people. Let m; appeal therefore to the
British Jews to work with us and to work loyally.
For even at the best the goal is far. Palestine is
not yet ours, and even when it is, our work, despite
the pioneers we shall always honour — despite even
]!aron Edmond de Rothschild — will only begin.
Already under the regis of England our young men
liave died there. But eagerly as our young men have
sacrificed themselves in Palestine for war, still more
eager]}' will they offer themselves there for the labom's
and sacrifices of peace. That will be the true Jewish
Regiment.
And thougli our goal be ye!; far, and though we
may not rejoice, yet already when I recall how our
small nation sustained the mailed might of all the
great empires of antiquity ; how we saw our Temple
in fianies and were scattered like its ashes ; how we
endured the long night of the Middle Ages, illumined
by the glare of our martyrs' fires ; how but yesterday
we wandered in our millions, torn between the ruthless
Prussian and the pitiless Russian, yet have lived to
see to-day the bloody Empire of the Czars dissolve
and the mountanis of Zion glimmer on the 'horizon,
already I feel we may say to tlie other nations:
" Comfort ye, comfort ye, too, poor suffering peoples.
Learn from the long patience of Israel that the spirit
JEWRY'S OELBBBATION OF NATIONAL CHAnTER. 31
is mightier than the sword, and that the seer who
foretold his people's resurrection was not less proplietic
when he proclaimed also for all peoples the pi-ace of
Jerusalem." (Loud cheers.)
M. H. N. MosTDiTcniAN, a member of the
Ai-menian Delegation, said lie availed himself of the
opportunity of giving their Jewish brethren the
heartiest greetings of the Armenians — (cheers) — and
sincerest congratulations for the dawn about to break
upon the glad valleys of their ancestral land. He
made a comparison of the two nations who had gone
through the same persecutions, but who, notwith-
standing, were not willing to die, and had not died — ■
(cheers) — and who stood to-day hnnd-in-hand on the
eve of a new era, when both of them would be able
to live once more their national lives, of which they
had given good evidence in the p)ast. They all knew
that Armenia was one of the first countries mentioned
in the history of the Jews, and there had reigned
one thousand two hundred years ago a dynasty of
Armenian kings who had in their veins a good deal of
Jewish blood. After the loss of their independence
the Jews had continued to live a life of captivity and
exile, and the Armenians, after the loss of their
independence, had suffered the same exile. It was not
the time to say what the Armenians had suffered
during the last three years — a state of things to which
the wor.^t pogrom was a heaven ; but tbey, as well as
the Jews, looked towards "to-morrow" with great
fervour as a result of the Declaration. They had
waited long enough with their Jewish brethren, for
centui-ies and centuries, and these two nations as \vell
as the Arabs would make Palestine another Promised
Land and a Garden of Eden — a centre to which
humanity might look up. (Cheers.)
Mr. ISFaiium Sokolow said that the Zionist Organi-
sation felt the deepest and keenest, satisfaction at the
c 2
32 GlfEAT BBITATN, PALESTINE AND TBE JEWS.
Declaration of His Majesty's Government. He had
the honour to make the following- declaration to the
Arabs : " Relations between Jews and Arabs had
hitherto been scanty and spasmodic, largely owing to
mutual ignorance and indifference. There were no
relations whatever between tlie two nations as such,
because the oj)pressive Power did not recognise either
of them, and whenever points of connection began to
develop they were destroyed by intrigue, to the detri-
ment of both nationalities. We believe that the
present hour of crisis and the opening of a laxge
perspective for epoch-making developments offers a
fruitful opportunity for a broad basis of permanent
cordial relations between two peoples who are
inspired by a common purpose. We mean a real
entenie cordtah between Jews, Arabs, and Armenians,
such an entenie cordiale having already been accepted
in principle by leading representatives of these three
nations. From such a beginning we look forward
with confidence to a future of intellectual, social, and
economic co-operation ; we are one with the Arabs and
Armenians to-day in the determination to secure for
each of us the free choice of our own destinies. We
look with fraternal love at the creation of the Arab
kingdom, re-establishing Semitic nationality in its
glory and freedom, and our heai'tiest wishes go out to
the noble, hardly-tried Armenian nationality for the
realisation of their national hopes in their old
Armenia. Our roots were united in the ])ast, our
destinies will be bound together in tlie future."
That was their declaration to their future neighbours.
(Cheers.)
Captain The Hon. W. Ormsby Gore, M.P., said :
As a British subject who has no Jewish con-
nections I stand here this afternoon the personal
friend of the Zionist leaders, one who has seen tlieir
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION Of NATIONAL CHARTEli.' 33
work during the past year, both here and in Egypt,
and I wisli to congrauilate tliem upon their success
and join with them in thanking the British Govern-
ment on the occasion of what I regard as a real epoch-
making advance in civilisation. It was, I think, just
about a year ago that 1 first came into contact with the
Zionist movement in its practical form, when I was
brought into close official contact with the Palestine
refugees in Egypt. And from meeting them 1
learned that the Jews were already, and have been
during the past forty years, endeavouring to bring
idealism into that stricken land. The raore one saw
of Turkish rule, more particularly the rule since the
deposition of Caliph Abdul Hamid by the Young
Turks, the more one saw there was no hope for
Zionism, for liberty, for fair dealing, even in such a
matter as taxation, no hope for progressive agriculture,
unless Palestine were delivered from the thraldom of
alien rule. I am particularly glad that this Declara-
tion has been made by the British Government at a
moment when British arms are delivering that land,
because it shows that Britain is not 'out for gain for
herself, but is out in a greater spirit for the ideal of
freedom, of self- development, and nationality.
The Jewish claim to Palestine is in my mind over-
whelming, and, as a British Member of Parliament, J
rejoice to see from the new number of the Zionist
Review what an overwhelming mass of British repre-
sentative opinion, as reflected in the House to which T
belong, is in support of this movement. One other
reason for which I support this movement : I support
it as a member of the Church of Eiigland. Sir Mark
Sykes has spoken as a Eoman Catholic principally.
I am a communicant of the Church of England, and
in this return to Palestine to be the Jewish home I
hold out the hand of friendship to the Zionists who
seek to bring that into effect, and I feel that behind it
there is the finger of Almighty God. Another thing
34 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
I should like to say and tliat is that from the moment
that I met the Zionist leaders, whether iu Egypt or in
this country — from the moment of my first introduc-
tion to them I felt that there was something so sincere,
something so, I should call it, British — so striking —
that at once my heart went out to them, and I say
this, that you have as your leader in this country in
Dr. Weizmanu a personality and a statesman who
has shown those great qualities of patience, of skill, of
determination, and of intellect which have endeared
him to everyone who has come across him. I have
•lone what little I can to help forward this movement
whenever I have had the opportunity. In the future
if you are looking out for friends you may count
ine as one of them. (Cheers.)
Mr. James de Rothschild, who was received with
great enthusiasm, said he stood there as the son of
one who had spent his life in endeavouring to hring
about what they were celebrating that day. Jewish
ideals up to that time had been met at the gate, but
they could not get through. With one stroke of the
pen the English (government had flung open those
gates. Therefore in every Jewish heart gi-atitude was
overflowing, and they must not forget that all then-
aims of the future had been strengthened by the
country whose Government had framed the generous
and just Declaration. (Cheers.)
Dr. C. Weizmann, President of the English Zionist
Federation, upon rising, received a great ovation. He
referred to the many good and brilliant words which
had been said about the Jews, and he hoped that the
Jews of to-day and the Jews of to-morrow would rise
to the occasion in the needed power and the dignity,
and give their answer to the great resolution, not only
in words, but in deeds. The present generation had
upon its shoulders the greatest responsibility of the
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 35
last 2000 years, and he prayed that they niie-ht be
worthy of that responsibility. \
He then called upon the meeting to rise, and with
hands uplifted to take the old historic oath — each
man and woman of them — lyo' nacn D'^jcn' iny^'n dk (" If
I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget
its power").
The meeting rose en masse, repeating the words of
the psalm amid great enthusiasm, which culminated
in the singing of " Hatikvah " and " Grod Save the
King " by the Precentors' Association.
OYERFLOW MEETIN&.
An overflow meeting, over which Mr. P. Horowitz
presided, was held in the Kingsway Theatre, which
was crowded in every part. Among those who
addressed the audience were the Chief Eabbi, Lord
Lamington, Mr. I. Zangwill, Mr. Joseph Cowen,
Dr. Selig Brodetsky, Dr. D. Jochelman, and Mr.
Israel Cohen.
A resolution in identical terms with that carried at
the London Opera House was passed with much
enthusiasm.
THE DEMONSTEATION" IN MANCHESTEE.
A striking demonstration was held on Sunday,
December 9, 1917, in the Manchester Hippodrome,
which was crowded with an enthusiastic audience.
Sir Stuart M. Samuel, Bart., President of the Jewish
Board of Deputies, presided, supporte<3 by all the
leading Jewish representatives of Manchester and
the neighbouring towns and by a large number of
influential non- Jewish citizens, including the Lord
Mayor of Manchester and the Mayor of Salford. The
proceedings began with the reading by Mr. Leon, the
35 GHEAT Bi;iTAl\r, PALESTINE AND THE JIHWS.
lionorary secretary, of letters from Lord Rothschild,
Lord Eobert Cecil, llv. Herbert Samuel, M.P., the
Chief Eabbi, and Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P.
Mr. Henderson wrote :
By its Declaration in favour of the establishment
of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine,
till' British (ioN'ernment has vindicated the democratic
claim that this is a war of liberation in which oppressed
nationalities will find deliverance. The British Labour
movement has included among its war aims a demand
that the Jews of all countries, great and small, shall
enjoy the rare elementary rights of tolerance, freedom
of residence and travel, and equal citizenship that
ought to be extended to all the inhabitants of every
nation ; and it has also declared its belief that it would
be practicable by agreement among all the nations to
set Palestine free from the harsh and oppressive govern-
ment of the Turk, in order that the country may form
a Free Slate, under international guarantee, where the
Jewdsh 2)eople may work out their own salvation free
from interference by those of alien race and religion.
To this policy the British Government and people are
now solemnly pledged.
Sir Stuart M. Samuel, in rising to speak, had
an enthusiastic reception. Looking towards the
Chanucah light just kindled, he said :
My Lord Mayor, this candle has been lighted in
Jewish homes for the last 2,000 years, and represents
the undying flame of hope — the characteristic of the
Jewish people in those long years when they never
lost the hope that one day the Divine promise might
be fulfilled before their eyes.
Continuing, Sir Stuart Samuel said that,
with regard to the Declaration of the Govern-
ment, he thought it was far easier to return
JEWRY'S CPlLEBJiAT/Oy OF NATIONAL UHARTER. 37
Palestine to the Jews than for tlie Jews to return
to Palestine. (Laugliter.) Jews to be succetsful in
Palestine must bo united ; not only in this country,
but throughout the world should they present a united
front, for united they were strong. He appealed to
all to sink their own views for the common good.
The welfare of their brother-Jews must be the idea
that should permeate them all. Small ideas must
vanish for the welfare of the whole. After centuries
of waiting progress must be gradual ; one could not
gamble when the fate of a people was at stake. No
large influx of population must go forth to Palestine
tUl it was prepared to receive them. Jews must gi^'e
the same religious freedom to others as they them-
selves expected. They should hold out a helping
hand to other nations who had suffered ; firstly, to the
Armenians, and to a less extent the Arabs as fellow-
partners in misfortune, and show them that Jews
desired to live in peace and amity with them. Let
Jews always remember that it was due to the freedom
enjoyed in this blessed country, England, that they
could thus hold out the hope of brotherhood. Living
in England, they could realise thoroughly the gift of
freedom. To sympathise deeplj^, one must suffer
deeply. The cities of Palestine would be as cities of
refuge to the persecuted in Grod's own time and bring
h»-\^rh Qii'B'. (Loud applause.)
The Lord Mayor oi' Manchester, who received
an ovation, said he spoke for the majority, perhaps
the whole of his fellow-citizens, when he wished
them God-speed in their movement. He had many
good friends among the Jews in Manchester, and
looked upon them as a very valuable part of the
city life. He had, as it were, a personal interest
in the Zionist movement, as he had been in
Palestine and was now represented there by a son
who v/as in the British iirmy. The world owed a
38 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
great debt to the Jews, who had held up tliat
great idea and beeu true to it through torment
and torture, the idea of again acquiring the land of
Palestine. He earnestly hoped that the idea woidd
be realised, and it was best realised by winning this
war — (cheers) — by destroying for ever German mili-
tarism and by crushing it with ferocity. When peace
at length came then the vision of the prophet Isaiah
would be realised. (Applause.)
Sill Mark Sykes said that since Mr. Balfour's
letter to Lord Rothschild testimony had come from
millions of Jews all over the world that the mass
of Je\\'ry was profoundly moved. Although within
the two thousand years past Jewry had on occasion
been moved in unison it had always before been on
some matter of grief and never of joy. The war had
been fruitful in negatives, but here was a great
positive. For centuries there had been something
amiss with civilisation. Every nation and every
continent had had its Jewish problem, oppressive
laws, Ghettos, Pales ; here Jews were proscribed and
evicted, there tolerated and assimilated, and between
the two one did not know whether the first was not
the better. The realisation of the Zionist ideal was
the end of all that. Zionism would give the Jews
of the world a higher position than they had ever
held before. Although few might go to Palestine in
proportion to those who remained without, the latter
would not suffer. No British Jew would be less
British because he could look at the cradle of his
race with pride and at the religious centre of his faith
with happiness and reverence. When the spiritual
citizenship was clearly and nobly defined the civic
citizenship would be higher than ever before.
But there were jjractical considerations. He
regarded it as vital for the success of the Zionist plan
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 39
that it should rest upon a Jewish, Armenian, and
Arab enlente. The Armenian was one of an oppressed
people, and until he could live his life and realise his
national aspirations the Jews could have no guarantee
that the tyranny which fell upon him would not
fall upon them. We had been told that the Turk
had tolerated the Jew. It was because in Turkey the
Jews had not been a political element, and had had
no agrarian population. The day that -Zionism was
realised they were land-holders, and became to the
Turk the same as the Bulgar, the Serb, the Grreek,
the Ai'menian, the Arab. Until they had liberated the
Armenians they could not be secure ; they must have
between themselves and their possible aggressor a
stable, progressive Armenian state.
When he spoke of the Arabs he entered into no
nice distinctions. He referred to those in Asia who
were one in language and in blood. By environment
they were called Syrians, Mesopotamians, ]\Iosulis,
Aleppines ; by religion they were called Christians,
Mussulmans, Druses, Mitawelis, Ansaries ; in blood,
there was on the male side a little infusion in Syria
of the Crusader, and in Mesopotamia of Turanian and
Iranian, but scientists would call these only traces.
Eighty-five per cent, of the stock was Semitic. For
800 years the Arabs had been under Turkish dynnsties.
Their canals of Mesopotamia had been ruined, and
when Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape he cut them
off from European commerce. They -were bound,
impoverished, divided by Turkish intrigue, and
isolated by events. Were they dead ? Never. " You
know the Semite sleeps but never dies." (Loud
cheers.) Wherever there were men of Arab stock,
whether in Nigeria or Chicago, Java or Manchester,
one would find progressive people who took interest
in art, in literature, in philosophy, and had a high
place in commerce. The Arabs of to-day had the
same vitality and capacity as the Arabs who under
40 GFEAT BE I TAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
the Ommayads cavried civilisation from Damascus to
Cordova in Spain, and from Basra to the wild steppes
of Austral Asia ; as the Abbassids who spread literature
and art from Basfdad to the whole civilised world.
To-day the Arabs were pro-nationalist. They
were one in blood and in tongue. There were seven
or eight millions of them ; they were prolific. There
was a combination of man-power, virgin soil,
petroleum, and brains. What was that going to
produce in 1950 ? The inevitable result was that the
seven or eight millions v, ould turn to 20 millions;
the Mesopotamian canal system would be recon-
structed ; Syria must become the granary of Europe;
Bagdad, Damascus, and Aleppo would be each as big
as Manchester; universities and a gi-eat Press must
arise.
Arab civilisation was coming there ; no Sultan or
Kaiser could prevent it, and when it came no
imperialists and financiers would be able to control it.
It was the destiny of the Jews to be closely connected
with the Arab revival, and co-operation and goodwill
fi-om the first were necessary, or ultimate disaster
would overtake both Jew and Arab. Therefore he
\varned the Jews to look through Arab glasses. (Cries
of " We wall, we will ! ")
What did the Arab fear ? He feared financial cor-
porations, pivoted on Palestine, controlling Syria and
Mesopotamia. He feared the soil of Palestine would
be bought by companies, and that he would become a
proletariat working on the soil for alien masters. He
feared the Palestinian colonists might drop their
colonies and drift into Syria and Mesopotamia as
middlemen and crush him out of existence. It was
essential that Zionists should realise and face these
dangers. He dared say these things because he
believed in Zionism, and knew that it was idealistic
and not a financial manoeuvre. (Loud cheers.) The
Arabs should understaiid that the Jews sought no
JEIVRY'S CELEBRATlOy OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 41
land not willingly sold ; that all land so purchased
would only be developed through Jewish labour
— (loud cheers) ; that the colonists would be bona fide
colonists, and that the Jews were out to win Palestine,
not by financial manoeuvres, but by the sweat of their
brow. (Prolonged cheering, many rising to their
feet.) The co-operation of the two races offered such
prospects to mankind ; hostility would mean such an
unthinkable tragedy that he felt it his duty to give
the warning.
A second warning that he would offer was that
Zionists should remember that Jerusalem was a triple
shrine, sacred to Christian, Jew, and Moslem alike,
because he as a Catholic had kissed the stone of the
Holy Sepulchre and knew something of what the
Moslem felt in regard to the Mosque of Omar and
something of what the Jew felt when he laid his
hand on the stones of the Wailing Place. Jerusalem
throbbed with histo<"y; it was inflammable ground,
and a careless word or gesture might set half a
continent aflame. Jewish policy would not be realised
by diplomacy, tact, delicacy, or the virtues of the
irawing-room politician. Jerusalem called for more
than that. It did not call for toleration, but for
sympathy, understanding, compassion, sacrifice —
" sympathy with the Moslem, to whom the Mosque
of Omar is the most sacred spot on earth ; under-
standing the Christian, Avho, like myself, feels that ui
helping Zionism he is doing something to make a
great amend. Sacrifice all sense of triumph, of old
memories of ancient wrong. Approach it not in a
spirit of toleration, Irat of brotherhood and affection."
He believed that, approached in the right spirit,
Zionism would be the cause of a great reconciliation,
not of fusion, l^ut good fellowship between members
of three faiths of common origin. Misused it would
be the beginning of bitterer strife than ever the world
had known. Timidity was the road to ruin; let them
42 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
face facts boldly. In the realisation of tlieir ideal he
saw security for the world's peace. He saw them
co-operating as the moral guarantors and protectors
of small States, being perhaps the smallest and the
greatest at the same time. He saw them healing the
leligious distractions which had severed the best from
the best throughout the ages. In Jerusalem there
would be a great vital heart, healing the scars of
Europe iind calling Asia once more back to life.
(Prolonged cheers, the audience rising repeatedly.)
]\Ir. Jamks dk KoTHSciiJLi) said the Briti.sli
Government, re])resenting witliout any doxibt the
voice of an enlightened and largi'-hearted democracy,
had ratified the Zionist scheme. What was wanted
from the Jewish people was no longer schemes, but
deeds, and he hoped that in the near future cohorts of
modern Maccabees would be fighting their way
through the hills of Judaea. (Cheers.) The Jewish
claim was one for justice, and that also was the basis
of the claims of the Arabs and Armenians, claims
wliich Jews fully endorsed and were pledged to
support. Britain stood as the foster-mother of the
new-born Jewish nation, and he looked forward to the
day when that nation, steeled in adversity biit proud
in hope, had proved itself by dint of its work to be a
real daughter.
Mh. JosKPii CowENj who was received with cheers,
said the 1 )eclaration was Eestoration ; it was, perhaps,
the one thing wliich, say 500 years hence, would be
singled out as the most historic act of this world-
war ; it seemed so transcendental ly important not
only to Jews, but likewise to the world. Jews must
not always be dreamers. They had already begun
some pioneer work in Palestine, and in time would be
proud of their colonists. On what they accomplished
during the next twenty years depended the verdict of
JEWRY'S CSLEBIiATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 43
the world. He believed they \\'()'ild rise to the cause,
their men and their women witli their heart in the
good work. (Loud cheers.)
L)k. WjiizMANN, who was received witli loud and
long-sustained applause, said :
I desire to associate myself on behalf of the
organisation which I have the honour to represent, the
English Zionist Federation, with the sincere regard
which is tendered by this gi eat city to His Majesty's
Grovernment. As one who had the privilege of con-
tributing somewhat to the negotiations with that
Government I can realise the spirit in which this
Declaration has been gi anted to us. The friendliness,
the understanding of and sympathy with our cause
as shown by the statesmen who rule the destinies of
England, would, if it were known, be regarded as a
source of the greatest comfort to Jews all over the
world. Moreover, not onlv has the Grovernment
granted us this Declaration, but it means to put it
into effect as soon as possible. I hope that when the
military position will allow it, a Commission of Zionist
Jews will go out to Palestine for two great purposes.
The first and immediate purpose will be to grant relief
and to heal the wounds which have been produced by
the devastations of war. The distress in Palestine is
great, and relief is needed immediately. "We have
done what we could do at present, but much more has
to be done in the immediate future, and that will be
one of the objects of the Commission.
The second and perhaps more difficult task will
be to form plans and opinions for setting about the
difficult task of colonising and rejuvenating the old
country. In this mood of festivity in which you now
are, I would also like to utter a word of warning. An
ancient and experienced people will prove their
wisdom by restraining themselves at the right time.
44 OliEAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
Let us all ivnieinber that the building of Palestine is
■A slow, gr.idiial and laborious process, which will tax
iieavily our resources aud our jxitience. Catchwords
such as " We must ha\'e a Jevvi;;li state at once," will
do us a great deal of harm. We cannot have masses^
of immigrants streaming into Palestine before the
country is ready to receive them. I am fearing such
a contingency much more than any opposition which
is at present shown to Zionism. We must never be
afraid of our opponents. I am frightened sometimes
by the zeal of some of our friends.
Many a ^\ arning has been given to us to-night ;
these warnings were grave, wise, and important; they
are the more significant as tliey come from the man
who has been instrumental more than anybody else
in briiunng about the Government's Declaration. He
has styled bin; self to-night the pilot, and indeed he
was, is, and I hope -will be still for a long time a
great pilot to us. But may I be permitted to state
that 1 was listening to some of these warnings with
a certain sense of astonishment and humiliation,
iiecauseit seemed to me that they were not altogether
necessary, at lea.-t as far as Zionists are c<M;cerned.
Why, it is the very essence of Zionism not to do those
three things against which Sir Mark Sylces has warned
us. Have not we Zionists, as members of a demociatic
movement, fought constantly against these so-called
inte] national Jewish financial speculators? This
type of Jew has always been the implacable enemy of
Zionism. From where has the opposition to Zionism
been recruited ? It has not come from the Grhettos
where Jewish traditions are still alive. It has not
come trom thos" who are ready to go and settle on
the land. The op]x>sition to Zionism comes chiefly
from the so-called cosmopolitan Jew for whose
doings and dealings we decline with scorn all
responsibility. I think there is no danger. of them
catching the first train for Jerusalem. (Laughter.)
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 45
It is a truism to Zionists that as long' as the land
is bonglit by Jews and not worked by -Tews it is not
Jewish land. (Apphiuse.) The land becomes Jewish
not through the act of buying it but through the act
of holding and working it. Among the many
colonies which we have in Palesiiiie, tiiere is one,
perhaps the least imposing, perhaps the least con-
spicuous. The name o£ this colony is Chedera, but
it is the most Jewish of all the colonies. And why?
The answer to this question is written in the cemetery
of Chedei-a, where generation after generation have
laid down their lives because they preferred to work
on the soil and be stricken Avith fever, rather than
desert and leave the work to others. And this is why
the colony has become the most Jewish of them all.
For the last ten years of our colonising activity
there has been an increasing tendency to
replace systematically and sometimes at considerable
economic disadvantage Arab labour by Jewish labour,
and I would ask the Arabs to remember if we do it, it
is not because A\e are against the Arabs, but because we
desire to heed the warning of which Sir Mark Sykes
spoke to-night, and really make the country Jewish.
We want the colonies to be Jewish and to be worked
by Jews, and I beg of our friends the Arabs to under-
stand that it is an elementary postulate for those who
desire to build up a Jewish country that this should be
done by Jewish labour and by Jewish intellect, and not
only by Jewish finance. Jt may all be very hard work,
but every process of construction is a difficult one.
Another warning has been given to iis to-night —
you Jews try and be united. Of course Ave understand
the absolute necessity of unity, and for years we have
been organising and consolidating Jewry, and I think
we ar<i able to point to notable achievements in that
direction. It is difficult, nay impossible, for the Jewish
people, dispersed as it is among all the peoples of the
world, to show the same aspects of unity as a normal
46 GBEAT BRITAIN, PALESTIXE AND THE JEWS.
European natiou docs ; l)ut iua\' I remind jou all that
very often Jews are reproaelied for being too united —
the so-called Jewisli solidarity has alwaj's been a beam
in the eyes of our enemies.
We are further asked to understand and to respect
others. Wlio could urLderstand and respect others
better tlian the Jews, who have suffered so much and
so long from lack of being understood ? Don't we try
to understand constantly, and have we not suffered
from the fact that we have been misunderstood ? How
has the world treated the Jews ? It has been either
philo-Semitic or anti-Semitic, both equally despicable.
We don't desire to be particularly loved and patronised,
and don't wish to be an object of hatred. We wish
to be- taken just as we are, with all our faults and all
our qualities, just as we try to take others. Here we
are, just Jews and nothing else, a nation among
nations ; take it or leave it. All these are the very
essence of Jewish nationalism and Zionism, and if the
improbable should happen that some of us should
forget them for a moment, we shall be quickl^^ enough
reminded of them by our enemies.
We are living through a great event, an event
\\hich imposes on us a tremendous responsibility.
Every act we shall be performing will be watched
and scrutinised, and all our mistakes will be magnified
and placed m the forefront. Therefore we must try
to do our utmost to perform all our tasks jDerfectly.
We must double and treble our energies. All that
we have done hitherto is only the beginning ; the
difficulties are still m front of us. For that purpose
we must unite and combine our forces and leave oui-
opponents strictly alone. We are not anxious for
their help and we are not frightened by their
opposition. If the non-Zionists come to us they will
always be welcome ; if they stay away we shall not
blame them — under one condition, that they do not
intei-fere with us. (Applause.)
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 47
What we do we sliall do on our responsibility,
and I think we are grown up enough to take this
responsibility on our shoulders. Non-Zionists or
aiiti- Zionists must not be frightened that they may
be blamed for our faults ; we shall take the blame
ourselves, but also the credit. For those who want
to come to us we shall build a golden bridge, we
shall meet them halfway, we shall ask them to
co-operate on those practical problems on which we
can co-operate without sacrificing the fundamental
principles of the movement. When the day comes
for the building and construction of Palestine to
begin, one of our most important tasks will be to set
our accounts right with our neighbours, the Arabs
and the Armenians. We cannot live in harmony
with them otherwise. That is the forceful logic of
the events. There is enough air and land and water
in Palestine for everybody to live on.
We all ho]3e and believe that out of this welter
of blood and destruction a better world will arise. " If
misunderstandings existed in the past between Arabs
and Jews we have not created them ; they have been
created by those who were the masters of Palestine,
by the deadening hand of the Turk, who can only
rule over his empire by playing off one part of the
population against the other. All that, we hope, will
disappear now. Is it not imperative, is it not logical,
that we who have suffered so much from physical
force should try and reconstitute in Palestine an age
of justice and right for everybody ? It is strange
indeed to hear the fear expressed that the Jew in
Palestine may become an aggressor, that the Jew
who has been always the victim, the Jew who
has always fought the battle of freedom for others,
should suddenly become an aggressor jecause he
touches Palestinian soil. Has the world forgotten
that on this very Palestinian soil the Jewish genius
gave birth to the social code which has become the
48 GREAT BlUTAIN, PALEST I XE AND THE JEWS.
foundation oE modern civilisation ? Peace will, we
fervently believe, reign in Palestine, and the Word of
Grod will come forth from Zion as of old. In a world
without artificial frontiers and Krupp guns, with
different nationalities living side by side peacefully,
working and labouring for the new civilisation that
will emerge out of this war, the Jew will take up
again his rightful place.
The Palestine which we expect to build up is not
going to be a mere copy of what exists already in the
world — it is going to be better. It will not necessarily
be a copy of Switzerland or Belgium — it is no use
multiplying copies. It is going to be something
which will spring out of the Jewish soil, out of the
Jewish soul, out of tlie Jewish genius. We shall
utilise the accumulated experience of thousands of
years of suffering. That is the ideal wc have before
us, for which we live and labour, and this ideal
excludes aggression, excludes animosity towards those
with whom we are bound to work and live.
(Prolonged cheers.)
Mr. N. Sokolow said :
For us Zionists — for I have the honour to speak
to you in the name of the Zionist Organisation — it
has always been one of the mo.st important points in
our Zionist pi'ogramme to get publicly recognised and
full political security for what we are going to build
up in Palestine, in order that we may build on sound
foundations. It is true that we did not wait in a state
of passivity ; we started our work even before we had
got these international securities. We worked to the
utmost of our powers, and we succeeded in creating in
Palestine a nucleus of modern agricultural colonisa-
tion, a work in which we were generously helped by
that great man whose son w;i~: hailed by you with so
much enthusiasm and gratitude. (Applause.) Still,
the security was missing. Now we hope to receive
JEWRY'S CELEBBATION OF NATIONAL CHAE'rEIi. 49
the essential, the most essential part of political
security and self-government under this Declaration,
from the greatest Power of the world, which is to
decide the fate of Palestine — the Power which has been
for centuries the shield and the rock of freedom and
justice, and the school for colonisation and for a true
and just management of its colonies. In T*relcoming
the Declaration we are loyal and faithful to our pro-
gramme wluch we proclaimed more than twenty years
ago at our first Conference in Basle. That principle
of political security and self-government is essential
for the success and realisation of our work in Palestine,
and therefore we Zionists are overcome with joy at
this solemn hour, receiving a considerable j^art of what
we claimed in the shape of the Declaration of His
Majesty's Government. (Applause.)
But it is not only the Jewisb people who remained
faithful to its traditions in receiving this Declaration ;
Great Britain in giving it has also proved once more
her good faith. This Declaration is a continuation,
even more a crowning, of all tbat Britain. lias done
for the Jews duiing generations until the present day.
(Applause.) "When the Jews were expelled from Spain
in 1492, and from Portugal in 1552, some of them
came to Holland, and one of the Jewish Eabbis of
Amsterdam came in 1655 to tliis country and stood
before Cromwell. He presented Cromwell with the
petition for the recidmission of the Jews to this country,
using mainly motives of a rather Zionistic character.
The readmission of the Jews to this country was the
first great act of justice done by England to the Jews.
It is rather historic that the Jewish people sbould now
give an expression of their deep gratitude to this great
nation of Britain. And I think, ladies and gentlemen,
that the friendship of the Jewish people is worth
having. ( Applause .)
You have heard somereferences to the rejoicings that
ai'e now going on, but these are but a very small' part
50 QUE AT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
of what is transpiring at the present momenh through-
out Jewry in all the countries of. the world. It is a
wave not only of enthusiasm, not only of gratitude,
but of deep consciousness, because the Jewish people
are conscious of their responsibility for the actions
they are about to undertake, and in view of the new
chapter which is opening in Jewish history, a chapter
which has to be written by the Jews all over the
world. Not only the Zionists among the Jews, but
the whole Jewish people is penetratrd with the
deepest feeling of responsibility for what is about to
happen. You will have realised already that the
Jews in Russia are perhaps the most pronounced
friends of England. Why are they the friends
of England ? Not only because England has
granted so great a boon to the Jewish people, but
because they know what the right of a nation means,
and because they are aware of the high ideals for
which England is fighting. They know that England
is the main propulsive force of the world's destiny,
and that the diffusion of her spirit is the most
valuable promise of true peace. They know that
there is no free people to-day that has not fed from
Great Britain's experience and copied her institutions.
England has lieen and still is more than any other
nation attached to our ]3ible. Now, by this Declara-
tion England has played a roif that is truly biblical.
(Applause.)
We appreciate deeply the important remarks
oti'ered by our distinguished friend Sir Mark Sykes
on the . subject of the relations between the Jews,
the Arabs, and the Armenians. My reply to these
remarks is : We are Zionists — not only Zionists for
ourselves, but also for the Arabs and the Armenians
as well. Zionism means faithfulness to one's own
old country, to one's own old home. Zionism means
consciousness of a nation. Can we Jews be ignorant
of the fact that the Arab nation is a noble nation
JEWRY'S CELEBUATION OF NATIONAL CHARTER. 51
which has been persecuted ? Is not the co-operation
between the Arabs and ourselves, ' the Jews, in the
Middle Ages for civilisation and for true culture
written in our hearts and deep-rooted in our con-
science ? Our membership of the Semitic race, our
title to a place in the" civilisation of the world and to
influence the world and take our share in the develop-
ment of civilisation, have always been emphasised.
If racial kinship really counts, if great associations
exist which must serve as a foundation for the future,
these associations exist between us and the Arabs. I
believe in the logic of these facts. In the principle
of nationality lies the certainty of our justice. There
lies also the certainty of our brotherhood with the
Arabs and the Armenians. We look most hopefully
to the happy days when these three nations will
create — in fact they have already created in the con-
sciousness of some of their leaders — an entente cordiale
in the countries of the Near East which have been
neglected for so long. .
We are not going to take away anybody's pro-
perty or to prejudice anybody's rights. We are going
to iind the land which is available and to settle down
wherever there is room, and to live in the best -
relations with our neighbours — to live and to let the
others live. Palestine is not yet a populated, civilised,
prosperous country. We are going to make it so by
investing our means, our energies, and our intelligence.
I was glad to hear that some of your speakers had
been to Palestine. They have seen how the country
looks. You may have read in The Times that one of
its correspondents described the hills of Judaea as
roadless, barren hills. But they were not always
roadless and barren. In old times these hills were
covered with terraces. Now the Jews have again
gone there and hat^e rebuilt some of these terraces.
If there is anythi^ig left of civilisation, of modern
agricultiu'e, and of industry in the country it is due
52 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
to the efforts of that handful of Jewish settlers
workiuo- under the most difficult conditions.
I would like to say also a few words on the religious
question. 1 luid the honour to sjjeak on this cjuestiou
to some representatives of the Church of England and
to the head of the Eoman Catholic Cliurcb, the Pope.
(Applause.) I made- to them a statement, which I
can repeat to you here. We Zionists hate the word
toleration, and Six Mark Sykes really struck the very
point when he condemned the word. We don't like
mere toleration by non- Jews, and we don't want them
to be tolerated. We know that Palestine is full of
sanctuaries and of holy places, holy to the Christian
world, holy to Islam, holy to ourselves. Are we blind
not to see that there are these places of worship and of
veneration ? Palestine is the very place where religious
conflicts should disappear. There we should meet as
brethren, and there we should learn to love each other,
not merely to tolerate each other. (Applause.) I
declared this to the representatives of the great
Churches and I can repeat it here.
M. Sokolow concladed with some remarks in
Hebrew.
The Chaikman then put the following resolution,
which was carried with acclamation :
" Resolved that this mass meeting, representing
all sections of the Jewish community of Manchester,
conveys to His Majesty's Government an expression of
heart-felt gratitude for their Declaration in favour of
the establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people.
" It assures His Majesty's Government that their
historic action in support of the national aspirations
of the Jewish people has evoked among Jews the most
profound sentiments of joy. This meeting further
Jia WHY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL OH AFTER. 53
pledges its utmost endeavours to give its v^diole-
hearted support to the Zionist cause."
In addition to the Jewisli demonstrations in
London and Manchester, enthusiastic public meetings,
at which similar resolutions were jiassed, were held in
most of the Jewish communities in the United
Kingdom.
DEMONSTRATIONS IN AMERICA.
Thousands of New York Zionists packed the Car-
negie Hall at a commemoration meeting. Thousands
more crowded the streets around the building, unable
to get in, until long after the beginning of the
meeting. The United States, British, and Zionist
flags, intertwined, were hung on the walls, ■ and
songs in Hebrew were interspersed between the
speeches. The leaders of the Zionists in New
York and the Old' World dwelt on the significance
of the British victorj^.
Dr. Schmarya Levin, speaking in Yiddish, declared
that Grreat Britain's promise was not an act of politics
or diplomacy, but something far deeper — a stage in
the development of history, which, in effect, added
another chapter to the Bible — a modern chapter,
by which Jews of to-day could link something
of their own time to the story of the old
Jewish kingdom. Dr. Levin spoke as the repre-
sentative of the International Zionist Organisation.
The Rev. Dr. O. A. Glazebrook, late United States
Consul at Jerusalem, declared : It is the duty
of every Jew who loves Palestine, who fosters
the hope of the restoration of Israel, to use his
influence, his material wealth, and his life to see that
England and the Allies win this war. We have
seen. Dr. Grlazebrook continued, the vision of the
54 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
restoration of the Jewish people, and we piay that this
vision may not be spoiled by the war, hut may he
crowned by the war ending gloriously in a % ictory for
the P]ntente Powers. If Palestine is to he restored to
Israel, remember that Palestine and Syria must remain
in the hands of the Allies, and our most important
lesson just now, more important than the immediate
working out of details of the Zionistic state, is that
you see and do your whole, complete duty in this war
— by helping to secure success for Britain, France,
Italy, and America.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the meeting,
said that what Zionists were rejoicing over was only a
scrap of paper, " but that scrap of paper is written in
English, it is signed by the British Grovernment, and
therefore is sacred and inviolable."
An impressive mass meeting was held at Wash-
ington at whicb Christians and Jews united to
commemorate the taking of Jerusalem by the
British. Notable addresses were delivered by Dr.
Harding, Bishop of Washington, Eabbi Abram Simon,
and Dr. James Montgomery.
Rabbi Simon said : As one of the household of
Israel I am glad to be with you and rejoice with you
to-day. The better Christians you are the more I
love you, as love was the spirit in which the British
entered Jerusalem. Instead of wild hurrahs the
British doffed their hats, led by the great Greneral,
who walked humbly on foot How different from
the way Grermans enter any city ! The Welshmen
and Australians who led the line cut off no baby's
hands, stabbed or ravaged no women, tore up no
agricultural lands, left nothing to cause shame, but
were willing to allow the sunlight of their great
achievement to reflect its brilliancy in the exhibition
of God's mercy.
JEWRY'S GBLEBHATION OP NATIONAL CHARTER. t>h
DEMONSTEATION IN EUSSIA.
The Zionists of Odessa, where more than half
the pojmlation is Jewish, organised a great demonstra-
tion of all Jewish organisations, including Jewish
political refugees from Rumania. Tor half a mile
outside the Consulate the street was packed by a
crowd of 150,000 people, and a procession two miles
long marched past the Consulate playing British and
Jewish National Anthems.
An address signed by the chief of the Zionist
movement in Odessa was handed to the British Consul
with the request that he would express to his King,
Government, and nation the heartfelt thanks of all
the Jews of Odessa. The appearance of the British
Consul on the balcony was a signal for prolonged and
repeated cheers for the British King, the Bi'itish
Government, and the British people. The Consul
having thanked them in a short speech remained on
the balcony for two hours while the procession
continued to . march past, repeating their National
Anthems and making public and private expressions of
their deep thanks and emotion on hearing England's
message of good^\■ill. After leaving the British
Consulate the procession proceeded to the American
Consulate, where similar scenes occurred. On the
following day a deputation of Eabbis representing
fifty-eight Odessa synagogues, together with some
Vitkop parishioners, handed the Consul an address in
similar terms to the British people.
DEMONSTRATION IN EGYPT.
A mass meeting, called under the auspices of
the Central Committee of the Zionist Organisation of
56 GREAT BUITAIM, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
Egypt and organised by the Zeii-e Zion Society of
Alexandria, was attended by between 7000 and 8000
people. The Governor of Alexandria was present.
Twenty different organisations and institutions were
represented by delegates, and the Chief Eabbi of
Alexandria, Professor Delia Pergola, also attended.
Extraordinary enthusiasm permeated the atmo-
sphere of the meeting. It was decided to send the
following telegram :
" The Right Honourable Lloyd George, Prime
Minister, Downing Street, London. Mass meeting of
8000 Jews held to-day in Alexandria manifested
indesci'ibable enthusiasm during reading Mr. Balfour's
Declaration, and expressed its deepest gratitude to
His Majesty's Government. Jack Mosseri, President,
Zionist Organisation of Egypt."
PRESS COMMENT.
All Jewish newspapers in Allied and neutral
countries, and, to a certain extent, even in the enemy
countries, have welcomed in laudatory terms the
British Government's Declaration. Even papers that
were formerly opposed to the Zionist ideal have now
assumed a friendly attitude in view of the inclusion
of this ideal among England's war aims. The
following is only a brief selection of Press opinions :
17te Zionist Review (Special Supplement), December,
1917:
The Declaration is, first, a formal public recognition
by Great Britain (and that is by the Allies) that Israel
as a nation lives and persists. It is, second, a recoo'-
nition that the problem of the Jewish nation and of
JEW ays VELimliATION of national CHARTEn. 57
Judaism can be solved only in and tlirougli a Jewish
Palestine. It is, tliird, a pledge thar the peace settle-
ment must include such a solution by the establish-
ment of a Jewish national liome in Palestine. The
whole Jewish cause, as the Jewish people have lived
it through eighteen hundred years and as Zionists
have expounded it, is thus embodied in the common
law of humanity. From that, whatever were the
outcome of the military struggle, nothing henceforth
could eliminate it. All this we owe even now to
Great Britain, and in a relatively few "months we shall
owe the full redemption of what is now pledged, the
realisation in act of what is now written.
The Jeioish Chronicle, November 19, 1917 :
With one step the Jewish cause has made a great
hound forward. The Declaration of his Majesty's
Grovernment as to the future of Palestine in relation
to the Jewish people marks a new epoch for our race.
For the British Government, in accord — it is without
doubt to be assumed — with the rest of the Allies,
has declared itself in favour of the setting up in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,
and has undei-taken to use its best endeavours to
facilitate the achievement of that object. Amidst all
that is so dark and dismal and tragic throughout the
world there has thus arisen for the Jews a great
light. The Declaration of the Government, which
concedes the Zionist position in principle, must have
effects, far-reaching and vital, upon the future of
Jews and Judaism.
The Jewish Express :
It is a colossal event in Judaism, a new
epoch in the history of the Jewish people. For
the nearest parallel we have to go back twenty-
five centuries, when Cyrus, the King of Persia, issued
a proclamation that Jews might return to Judsea
£8 OREAT nniTAtN, PALMSTlNB AND THE JEWS.
to re-establish their national home. . . . What-
ever tlie outcome, the fact itself — that the greatest
Power in the world has recognised the claim of the
Jewish people for its old homeland — marks a red-letter
day in Jewish history. It is a wonderful phenomenon
for anyone possessing an historic sense. . . . But
the event provokes more than wonder ; it will fill
every trulv Jewish heart with delight, for it opens a
new horizon for the future. . . . The day when
the Declaration was signed on behalf of the
Government will be remembered by all Jews at all
time with gratitude and respect to the great Power
that had the sense of justice to support the just
claim of a long- wronged people. Mingled with the
breathless wonderment is the feeling of inexpressible
gratitude.
The Jewish Times :
A thrill of joy will undoubtedly run through
the heart of national Jewry on reading the great
news. It will be a source of inspiration for every
truly Jewish soul. . . . The Declaration may
rightly be regarded as a beginning of the end of the
Jewish Golutli, the beginning of the solution of the
Jewish national problem, the beginning of the restora-
tion of the Jews to Palestine. . . . Never in
history was such an assurance given to the Jewish
people.
Thie American Jewish Chronicle, New York :
It is the first time in nearly two thousand years
of our Diaspora that a Great Power has publicly recog-
nised the Jewish nationality and its right to a home-
land. . . . It is by no means pure accident that
two mighty Anglo-Saxon nations and (Tovernments,
Great Britain and the United States of America,
should be the first among the Great Powers to
JEWRY'S CELEBRATION OF NATIOXAL CHARTER. 59
recognise the right of the Jews to a national home-
land of their own, and thus publicly to recognise the
nationality of the Jews. If the ancient Jewish mind,
as it expressed itself in the Bible, ever influenced
a great race and helped to shape its destinies and
policies, it was the Anglo-Saxon race. Tor tlie past
400 years the greatest production of Jewish genius,
the Bible, has been a powerful faptor in the life of
the Anglo-Saxon race, and as soon as the Anglo-
Saxons freed themselves from medisevalism they began
to treat the Jews living among them with considera-
tion and fairness, even before they were officially
emancipated.
The Jewish Advocate, Boston :
Whether one looks at this wonderful event from
a religious or from any other point of view, the fact
remains the same. The dream of ages, cherished in
the hearts of millions of people, has come true. . . .
Now all Jews are Zionists.
Hatoren (Hebrew), New York :
"We have long waited for such a Declaivation, and
we were certain that it must come. . . . And
yet when it did come, and we read it and re-read it,
we felt that Divine afflatus of the soul, and a spirit of
national rejuvenation has filled us to the brim.
Die Wahrheit, New York :
Every Zionist victory makes clear to the world
that only those are entitled to speak in the name of
th& Jewish people who proclaim our nationality.
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The Jewish Colonisation
.:^'v
in Palestine
BY
S. TOLKOWSRY
Agricultural Engineer, Jaifa
THE ZIONIST ORGANISATION: LONDON BUREAU
3S EMPIRE MOUSE, 175 PICCADILLY. W.l
One Petiay
THE JEWISH COLONISATION
IN PALESTINE
BY
S. TOLKOWSKY
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER, JAFFA
THE ZIONIST ORGANISATION: LONDON liURF:AU
35 EMPIRE HOUSE, 17S PICCADILLY, W.i
1018
THE JEWISH COLONISATION
IN PALESTINE
THERE is hardly in history a more tragically moving
instance of fidelity of a nation to its ancestral home
than that which is offered by the Jewish people carrying with
it all through the ages of its long exile its undying love of
Zion and its perpetual hope of being restored one day to its
ancient land. Whereas all emotions and aspirations in the
life of individual man as well as in the life of nations, if not
fulfilled within a reasonable space of time, are gradually
atrophied and die away, the longing of the Jew for Zion has
became stronger with each century until at last it has found
expression in what is commonly, but very improperly, called
the Jewish colonisation of Palestine.
Colonisation means the departure from the main body of
a nation of groups of citizens who leave their homes to settle
in foreign countries, either to people them or to open them
to economic exploitation. The motives that prompt these
groups to emigrate may be of an economic, social, religious or
merely political nature ; but whatever be the motives, the
effect of colonisation is uniformly that of calling into being in
regions more or less distant from the mother-country com-
munities of men sprung from a common stock, who, whether
«r not the colonies remain politically united with the mother-
country, are expected to continue to look to that country as
the cradle of their culture and to draw from it the ever-
renewed inspiration which vi'ill ensure the perpetuation of
the particular ethos of the race.
The Jewish re-settlement of Palestine has nothing in
■common with " colonisation " in the sense just defined ; it is
rather the exact reverse. It may be said for those who first
■used the term " colonisation " in this connection that there .
was no more proper term available, for the particular
migration of which the Jewish re-settlement of Palestine is
2 THE JEWISH COLONISA TION IN PALESTINE
the expression has no precedent in history, and therefore has
no name.
Indeed, the Jewish colonisation in Palestine, unlike the
colonisation of other peoples, is not a movement of national
expansion, but a movement of national reunion. It is not a
centrifugal but a centripetal force, which entails not a
dispersion but a concentration of energy, a concentra.tion
in fact of all the living forces in Jewry on one singlt^ and
central purpose. That explains vvhy those who during the
last thirty years or so have gone > ut to Palestine as pioneers,
are really in a certain sense an elite from among the Jewish
people, and why they have been able in such a comparatively
short time to achieve at least as great results and as notable
successes in their colonising work as any other, even the
most experienced, colonising peoples of ancient times or of
to-day have ever achieved, and that notwithstanding the
special difficulties in their way.
Whereas the British^ French, or German settlers" wha
have gone abroad could count on the support and protection
of one of the most powerful nations of the world, the
Jews in Palestine have constantly laboured under the
greatest disadvantages, the policy of the Turkish Govern-
ment with regard to the Jewish colonisation having con-
sistently been one of systematic obstruction. Yet they have
persevered in their efforts ; and by demonstrating that both
the country — Palestine — and the people — the Jewish settlers
— are possessed of the attributes which are essential for the
successful reconstitution of a national home they have con-
vinced the world of the practicability of their objects, and
have thus contributed, more than any other agent y, to
winning recognition, sympathy, and practical support for the
Jewish national aspirations. For however beautiful and just
a cause may be, and however numerous and sincere the
expressions of sympathy which it may receive, still that
sympathy will remain purely platonic, and responsible states-
men and Governments will not dare to associate themselves-
with the cause so long as they are not convinced of the.
possibility of the practical realisation of its objects.
TMJE JEWISH COLONISATION IN PALESTINE j
This test of practicability is the rock on which most new
ideas, in politics as in ordinary life, are wrecked. And, for
the outside world, Zionism was a new idea to them. Palestine
was a waste, and the Jews were constitutionally unfit for the
task of developing a country the basis of whose economic
life is the cultivation of the land. But the achievements of
the Jewish settlers have proved to the world that while it is
true that for nearly two thousand years the land, bereft of its
children, has been a " land that was desolate," and whereas
it is also true that through the effects of its long exile
from the land the people in its turn seemed to have lost
all or nearly all those attributes of the mind and the body
without which success in agriculture is difficult if not
impossible, yet the reunion of the people and the land
has changed both of them, has restored to the one its
pristine fertility and to the other its ancient strength : a
miracle that reminds one of the Greek legend of Antaeus, son
of the sea god and of the earth, whom Herakles fought and
who became weak and powerless when lifted up into the air,
but whose invincible strength was given back to him as soon
as his feet came into contact with his mother earth. Indeed,
one cannot help wondering which of the two miracles is the
greater one — the revival of Palestine at the hands of the Jews
or the regeneration of the Jew through contact with the soil
of Palestine.
Yet only little more than thirty years have passed since
the first settlers arrived in the country straight from Russia
and Rumania. Most of them were children of the town ;
none had the least knowledge of agriculture. Moreover, the
conditions of the country to which they came were entirely
different from anything that they had ever seen before.
Ignorant of the language and the customs of the Arab inhabi-
tants, unacquainted with the local laws, unfamiliar with those
elementary principles of hygiene the non-observance of which
could not remain unpunished in a country where malaria-
fever and other epidemic diseases were rampant, these first
pioneers of Jewish colonisation in Palestine found themselves
confronted with a task the execution of which exceeded by
4 THE JEWISH COLONISATION IN PALESTINE
far the possibilities of their very limited financial means and
their still less adequate technical training.
Such were the people. The difficulties resulting from their
unpreparedness were intensified yet further by the unfavour-
able conditions prevailing in the country. Public safety was
only a word in Palestine at that time. Public hygiene did not
receive the least attention from the authorities, and the result
was that the most important inland towns, as well as the
greatest part of the maritime plain, were infested with
malaria-fever and different eye-diseases. There were no
physicians, no chemists, no hospitals. There was as yet not
a single railway line, and the few roads existing from of old
had been so neglected that they had become absolutely
impracticable; in fact, carnages, camels, and horses used to
travel through the fields alongside the roads, the latter serving
only to indicate the direction.
Cattle-breeding was almost impossible, because ever-
recurring epidemics, which nobody attempted to fight, were
allowed every two or three years to ravage the herds through-
out the country. As for agriculture proper, there was no
expert direction as to which plants could most profitably
be grown or the methods of growing them ; and in the
absence of any guidance in this respect the only way open
to the Jewish settlers was to imitate the neighbouring Arab
population and try to follow, as well as they could, the
methods used by them. Unfortunately, however, the fellaheen,
with their typical Oriental lack of foresight, which makes
them constantly sacrifice the future to the present, have no
other principle of agriculture than to try to make their fields
yield as much as they can with their very primitive methods,
v\'ithout troubling to destroy weeds, remove stones, or even
maintain the fertility of the soil by replacing in the shape of
manures the elements which the crops take away.
It does not need the mind of an expert to understand that
centuries of such treatment must have resulted in a heavy
strain upon the once proverbial natural fertility of the soil
of Palestine. In the mountainous parts of the country the
destructive hand of time had been allowed to lay in ruins the
THE JE WISH COL ONISA TION LY PA LESTINE 5
walls and terraces that had in the olden days maintained ■
on the surface of the rocks a layer of good soil, thanks to
which the western seaward slopes of the mountains of Judah
were covered with one never-ending succession of vineyards
and of orchards of olives and almonds ; and as a result of
the decay of these terraces the fertile layer of soil had been
washed away by the torrential winter rains, and the bare
rock, on which no tree can take root, stared to heaven like
a mute yet eloquent witness of the criminal incapacity of
the dwellers in the land and their governments. Such was
the country.
But, just as from the shock of cold flint and cold steel the
spark is born that lies asleep in them, so the reunion of the
desolate land and the weary people seems to have called back
to active life the old strength, resourcefulness, genius for
agriculture, and the love of the earth that had lain dormant in
Israel since its divorce from the land near two thousand years
ago. With Arab primitive tools and methods the settlers
started work. Unskilled as they were, and without technical
guidance, they undertook the draining and sanitary rehabilita-
tion of fever-infested parts, in the meanwhile (as was the case
in Petach-Tikvah) establishing provisional homes on higher
grounds, sometimes situated at some distance from the fields.
The soil was drained and put under proper cultivation,
Eucalyptus trees were planted by the hundreds of thousands :
slowly but surely the struggle against malaria progressed.
To-day, with but very few exceptions, the sanitary conditions
of the colonies are excellent ; but the white tombs under
the eucalyptuses of Chederah testify to the price which this
peaceful victory of man over the evil powers of nature has cost.
Another difficulty the settlers had to meet was that of the
total absence of public safety in the country. They first
entrusted native watchmen with the task of protecting their
fields and plantations. But they soon found out that these
watchmen generally made common cause with the surround-
ing marauders, organising pilfering on a large scale and thus
multiplying the danger of conflicts and bloodshed. Then it
was that a number of Jewish workmen formed the Hashomer,
6 THE JE WISH COL ONISA TION IN PA LESTINE
an organisation of exclusively Jewish watchmen for the
protection of the Jewish colonies.
It is no exaggeration to say that previous to the British
occupation the Hashomer was the most efficient, or rather the
only efficient, police-force in the country. The Shonirim,
through their skill as watchmen and through their courage,
have won the highest prestige amongst the Arab population
of Palestine, and it i« thanks to their devotion that the
inviolability of Jewish property has been secured and that the
degree of safety which prevails in and around the Jewish
colonies exceeds by far that which is the rule in the other
parts of the country. But here again this priceless result has
been achieved only at the cost of many a precious young
Jewish life, and there is hardly an important colony in
Palestine in the defence of which a Jewish watchman has not
laid down his life.
Bad sanitary conditions and insecurity were only part of
the early troubles which beset the Jewish settlers. They had
-come to cultivate again the soil of our fathers, but, as has
already been mentioned, they were ignorant of the most
elementary rules of agriculture. Still, far from being
discouraged, they started by copying the primitive methods
of their Arab neighbours ; little by little they became
acquainted with the nature of the land and with the require-
ments of the crops ; little by little they gathered information
about the methTds in use in the advanced agricultural
countries of Europe and America, tried these methods,
modified them and adapted them to 'the needs of their lands.
The result of these efforts has been a triumphant refutation
of the fallacy that the Jews are incapable of becoming good
agriculturists; indeed, there is no profession or occupation in
Palestine in which the Jews have proved as successful as in
agriculture in its various aspects — fruit-growing, cattle-
breeding, the wine industry, for example. The yields of their
crops are more than double those of the fellaheen ■; ■jo too
with the yields of theii milch-cows. And Arab landowners
■have repeatedly used Jewish agricultural workmen for the
creation of new plantations and for the more delicate
THE JEWISH COLONISATION IN PALESTINE
I
operation of grafting their fruit-trees. No more convincing
demonstration could be required of the skill of the Jewish
farmers and planters.
But crops, once gathered in, must be transported to the
markets or to the harbours from which they cm be shipped
abroad; and in the Palestine of pre-war times there were
very few roads, and those were in such a bad state that they
were incapable of being used even for a very moderate and
light traffic. The Jewish settlers repaired the old roads that
connected the various colonies with one another or with the
towns, and where roads did not exist they built them at their
own expense
While this handful of men were hghting and overcomnir
difficulties which would have seemed insuperable to the
hardiest and best-trained farmers of any old agricultural
country, they were at the same time building up, silently
an' I modestly, what has become probably the greatest of alt
their achievements : the Hebrew schools. The Hebrew
Gymnasium (Higher Grade School) of Tel-.Aviv (Jaffa), with
its 700 pupils, has a world-wide reputation ; and such episodes
as the victorious fight of the settlers against the German
Hilfsverem in defence of Hebrew as the language of
instruction in the schools are fresh in the memories of all.
But the amount of patience, of care, of devotion, and of
sacrifice which the building up and the carrying on of the
Hebrew schools have entailed on the part of the settlers,
and still more of that admirable body, of men who compose
the Union of Hebrew Teachers (the Mcrcas Haniorim), can
be gauged only by one who has been a daily witness ot
these efforts. It is no little thing, indeed, to carry on schools
of all degrees, from the Kindergarten up to the High School,
with Hebrew as the language of instruction and yet almost
without Hebrew text-books, and nevertheless to manage to
give the pupils an education sufficient to secure for them
the right to enter a European or American University on
the mere presentation of the leaving certificate of the Hebre\v
Hich School of Tel-Aviv. Have not these teachers too
played nobly the responsible part entrusted to them ?
8 THE JE WISH COL ONISA TION IN PALESTINE
The Hebrew High School is situated in ih^.- centre of
Tel-Aviv, the new Jewish suburb of Jaffa. Broad streets,
lined with well-built houses surrounded by little gardens;
green trees alongside the streets and flowers in the squares ;
everywhere a neatness which is probably without parallel in
the whole of Palestine and Syria, and is particularly striking
at the very gates of Jaffa, the town of dust and evil smells in
summer and of mud and evil smells in winter. Tel-Aviv is,
at the doors of the Orient, a true model and object-lesson of
western cleanliness and hygiene. Its administration, like that
of the rural colonies, is carried on by a town council elected
by tTie inhabitants, and there are not many towns of its size
in Europe that are administered more skilfully or with a more
solicitous care for the comfort and the health of the citizens.
Such is this small Jewish town, whose white houses and
schools, situated near the seashore, are the first Jewish
outposts which the traveller perceives as the ship approaches
the old rock-built harbour where the prophet Jonah embarked
on his journey to Tarshish.
If Tel-Aviv is an interesting demonstration of the
administrative skill and the genius for organisation which
characterise the Jewish settlers of Palestine, these qualities
appear with still greater prominence in the forty-five rural
colonies with which they have covered the country.
The colony of Rechoboth, situated near Ramleh, and about
thirteen miles south-east of Jaffa, may be taken as an illustra-
tion. This colony is ajdministered by a Council [Vaad) which
is elected annually by a general assembly composed of all the
owners of land as well as of all those who, without owning
any land at all, are ordinarily resident in the colony and have
regularly paid their taxes for the last two years. The right
to vote is exercised by both men and women. The Vaad
controls all the affairs of the community. It supervises the
•quality of bread sold by the bakers ; it controls the sanitary
conditions of the meat supply ; it regulates the supply of
water for the houses and the gardens ; it supervises the health
of the Hocks ; it acts as intermediary between the colonists
-and the tax-farmers in all matters relating to the taxes payable
THE JEWISH COLONISATION T\ PALESTINE 9
to the Government. The Vaad determines the annual budget
of the colony, and a special sub-committee assesses each
year the amount of local taxes to be paid by each family,
according to its income and its expenses, due regard being
paid to the results obtained from the year's crops.
A bachelor pays a larger tax than a family with the same
income, and a large family pays a smaller amount of taxes
than a small family. The doctor is paid by the colony, so
that all persons, rich or poor, have the same right to
medical assistance. The chemist, too, is paid by the
colony, and the pharmacy is conducted out of public
money, the prices charged for the medicines being the
actual cost prices.
The local police force is under the supervision of a special
sub-committee of the Vaad .- only Jewish watchmen are
employed, and they are paid by the colony. But they are
never left alone when actual danger threatens them ; and, be
it by day or by night, when the village bell, which is set up
on the summit of one of the hills, sounds the alarm, there is
hardly a more inspiring sight in the world than that of the
whole manhood of the colony turning out within five or six
minutes from the first signal, fully armed, and hurrying on
foot or on horseback to the pla-e of danger. The doctor
follows in a cart with all the necessary requisites for first aid,
while the chemist and the nurse prepare the village infirmary
for the reception of those who may return wounded.
The "Council of Nine" [Vaad ha-Tisha), a permanent
sub-committee of the Vaad, is entrusted with the revision of
and additions to the laws of the colony. An arbitration com-
mittee called Vaad ha-Mishpatim settles all civil disputes
between the colonists. There are two schools : the lay school,
which is managed by a committee of the parents of the school-
children in conjunction with the local teachers, who act as
representatives of the Union of Palestinian Teachers [Mertuz
ha-Morim), and the Talmud-Torah, or religious school,
which is also managed by the parents of the pupils in con-
junction with the teachers ; but the sanitary conditions of
both schools, and especially the health of the children, are
!o THE JEWISH COLONISATION IN PALESTINE
under the immediate supervision of the Vaad acting through
the doctor.
The synagogue, with all that relates to its management, is
entrusted to a committee of elders ; its budget is covered by
those who have seats. In the immediate neighbourhood of
the synagogue there is the " People's House " [Beth ha-Am),
where daily, after sunset, when work in the fields and the
plantations is finished, the youth of both sexes undergo a
course of gymnastic exercises under the guidance of a trained
teacher. Here also lectures are given to the parents of the
school-children on matters of education and infant hygiene,
and other lectures are delivered on Jewish literature and
history, natural science, etc.
In the Beth ha-Am also occasional charity f6tes, public re-
ceptions, and the general assemblies of the colony are held.
On one of the slopes of the synagogue hill and the adjoining
plain there takes place every spring, during the Hoi ha-Moed
days of Passover, the Hagigah, the annual feast where the
Jewish youth and manhood of all Palestine gathers in peaceful
competition in pedestrian and horse races and in all sorts
of games and physical exercises, while an agricultural and
industrial exhibition acquaints both the colonists and the
many foreign visitors who attend these festivities with the
products of Jewish labour in Palestine.
It would be easy to give many more illustrations of the
achievements of the Jewish settlers of Palestine in the fields
of agriculture, organisation, and administration. But the few
which have been given should suffice to show that the
Palestinian Jews possess both the will and the capacity for
carrying out the lofty ideal of Zionism : the reconstruction
of the national home of the Jewish people in the country
of their ancestors.
Printed in Great Britain bv The Field A QnggN (Horaci Cox) Ltd.,
Bream's Buildinas, London. E C. 4.
ii
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GREAT BRITAII, PALESTINE
AND THE JEWS
A SURVEY OF CHRISTIAN OPINION
THE ZIONIST ORGANISATION : LONDON BUREAU
35 EMPIRE HOUSE. 175 PICCADILLY, W.l
THE BRITISH CHARTER OF ZIONISM
LETTER FROM THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
The following are the Irrms of the letter to Lord
Rothschild in which Me. A. J. Balfour, Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, declared the sympathy of the
British Government with Zionist aspirations and its favour-
able attitude towards the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people :
Foii-EiGN Office,
November '2, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild, — I have much pleasure in
L-onveyiniJ- to you ou behalf of His Majesty's Governuient
the following Declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations, which has Leen submitted to and approved
by the Cabinet :
"His Majesty's G-oTernment view with favour the
estahlishmeut in Palestine of a national home for the
Jewish people, and will use their best ende^vonrs to
facilitate the achievement of this object, it bein? clearly
understood that nothing shall be done which may pre-
judice the civil and religfious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine or the rights and political status
enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this Declaration
to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Tours sincerely,
{Signed) ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.
GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE
AND THE JEWS
.1 SURrEY OF CRBISTIAN OPINION.
Thirty-three Privy Councillors, including Lord
Robert Cecil, Yiscount Grey, Mr. Walter Long,
Mr. Walter Runciman and Lord Selborne, have
publicly expressed their concurrence in the British
Grovernment's policy as expressed in the foregoing-
letter frojn Mr. Balfour to Lord Roths'^hihl.
Viscount Brycb, O.M., said ; —
'I'he declaration recently made by His Majesty's
(iavornuient has given me the greate.st pleasure, for 1
have for years past^ and especially since a visit to Palestine
ill 1914, desired to see that country tenanted once more by
the Jewish people, who will there find a national centre
and will, we may trusr, restore its former prosperity. The
present war offers the best opportuoity that has been seen
for centuries for delivering Palestine from the desolating
rule of the Turk and settling in it those who are its natural
occupants and who have never faltered in their loyalty to
its ancient memories.
'i'he Marquis of Crewe, K.G., said ; —
I have long hoped that it would be possible to make
such a declaration ; and it is now pronounced in terms that
should be equally welcome to those Jews who have found
happy homes on friendly shores, and to those who have
longed for the re-establishment of their race in the ancient
land. Within its borders even now triumphs are being
won and noble lives laid down for the common cause of
which this hope forms part.
Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., said: —
Labour recognises the claims generally of Jews in all
countries to the elementary rights of tolerance, freedom
of residence and trade, and equal citizenship that ought
4 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
to be extended to all the iuhabitants of every natiou's
tern'loiT.,' Further, it trusts that an understandinof may
be I'eaclied at the close of the war whereby Palestine
ma)' be set free and form a state under an international
agreement to which Jewish people may return and work
out their own salvation without interference by those of
alien race or religion.
0\-(;'r two hundred Members of Parliament, repre-
sentative of all parties and all political opinions, and
including the leaders of the Irish Nationalist Party,
the Independent Labour Party and the National
Party, have expressed similar opinions. A few of
their messages follow: —
Ma.ior Davil) Davies (Montgomeryshire) : —
It gives me great pleasure to express tlie satisfaction
with which I have read the declaration of the British
Government in favour of Jewish Zonist aspirations, 'i'lu-
rehabilitation of the Jewish nation in its ancient home
would be a splendid achievement, and many of us hope
that in it will be found a solution of some of the problems
which now perplex the whole civilised world.
Me. T. Edmund Habvey (W. Leeds) : —
I welcome the declaration of the Government in favour
of the establishment of a national home for the Jewish
people in Palestine, and rejoice at the prospect of the
restoration to Israel of its ancient heritfige. It would, I
believe, bring new hope and life to Syria and the East,
quite apart from its benefit to Jews themselves. The
family of nations will be incomplete until the exiled Jewish
people have ouce more a home of their own.
Lieut. -Commander J. C. Wedgwood, D.S.O. (New-
castle-uuder-Lyme) : —
1 think the pronouncement one of the niList impor'tant
made during the war, and one that will be a blessing to
the whole future of the world, if not "the birth of a
nation," it is at least the endowment of that ancient and
virile race not only with a country of their own, but also
with the self-respect that is given by liberty and true
fraternity.
Fourteen Bishops of the Church of England
expressed theii- agreement with tlie terms, of the
Government's decUiration.
The Bishop or "Chelmsford said -. —
From a religious point of view I think the decision of
the English Grovernment relating to the future of the Holy
Land is not only the most interesting hut the most
important incident of the war which h.isyet Ijuen recorded.
I sincerely trust that the prL)jeet may hv carried to a
successful issue, and that " G-od's Own People " may be
led back to the land of their fathers, and that it may
become spiritually to them a " land flowing with milk and
honey."
The Bishop of Durham said: —
I welcomed with emotions of far more than interest the
recent declaration of the British Government. And as I
mark the progress of Sir Edmund Allenby towards the
Holy City those emotions are only deepened, and a great
hope grows in my heart.
The Bishop of JjIncoln said : —
What lover of Holy Scripture and what friend of
freedom can help rejoicing at the prospect of the Hebrew
people returning to their own land again ? God speed
them. They have long been divorced from their land;
once more they will become a nation of yeomen-farmers,
and make the Holy Land fruitful and prosperous and the
home of a free and happy people.
The Bishop of Llandaff said : —
I was extremely glad to hear of the attitude adopted by
H.M. Government towards the aspirations of the Jewish
people as indicated in Mr. Balfour's letter to Lord Roth-
schild. I have long believed that the best and most
practicable solution of the questious that must arise with
regard to Palestine after the war would be the establishment
of a British Protectorate over that country. I think that
then the Jews from all parts of the world who felt so
disposed, and were able to do so with a reasonable prospect
of success, should be iavited and encouraged to come and
settle there. This would probably lead large numbers who
were well fitted for agricultural, industrial, or commercial
6 ah'EAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
pursuits to make their home iu Palestiue with exeiy prospect
of happiness and prosperity ; while mauy others, impelled
by traditional sentiment and patriotism, and by devotion to
the cause of peace a;nd human progress and development,
would find there a home and a sphere of influeuce and
opportunity that might, and probably woulW, prove to be
a real blessing to the world for centuries to come. It
would, I think, take some time to complete such a settle-
ment as I have suggested, and I think that whatever
developments there may be iu the future — and no doubt
there are many possibilities — it would be absolutely
necessary for the present at least that there should be
some strong protecting Power, if not more than one ; but I
think that past experinnce shows us that dual or triple
control is not always the best way of ensuring happy and
peac eful pi-ogress.
The Bishop of Norwich wrote: —
njb n^^fV9J nipy btfirir, -'ribs o-riby nin-; "ip-ij
(" Blessed be the Lord Grod of Israel, who alone doeth
wonders.")
Eight Bishops of the Catholic Church expressed
similar views.
The heads of the (jther religious denominations iu
the United Kingdom also expressed their agreement
with the Government policy.
Amongst distinguished men and women who inti-
mated their approval of the Government's action were
Dr. Stanton Coit (of the Ethical Cliurch), Mr. Oscar
Browning, Dr. H. Montagu Butler (Master of Trinit\-
CoUege, Cambridge), Mrs. M. G.'Fawcett, Mr. George
Bernard Shaw, Sir Paul Vinogradoif (of Oxford
University), Mr. W. L. Courtney, Mr. (ieorgei
Lausbury, Mr. H, W. Massingham and Dr. (\. W.
Prothei-o.
The declaration of the British Government was
received with the most cordial and almost unanimous
A ^URVSY OF CEBIfiTIAN OPINION. 7
approval of the IMtiyh Press. Periodicals of all
shades of opinion, whether daily, weekly, or monthly,
havo vied with one another in hailing the decision of
the British Cabinet as an act of far-reaching historic
significance. This attitude is neither new nor
surprising, for Zionist aspirations have received the
consistent and steadfast support of the Press of
this country ever since the inception of the Jewish
national movement. That the Adews of the Press on
this question reflect the opinions of the overwhelming
majority of the people can hardly admit of any doubt.
The Daily Chronicle of November 9 said : —
Epocli-making is perhaps not too strong a term to
apply to Mr. Balfour's letter to Lord Rothscliild. x\t any
time a formal endorsement of Zionism by a Great Power
would command attention if couclied in such terms. But
at the present moment, when Gaza and Beersheba have
fallen to British armies and the distant thunder of our
gun.s is heard in Jerusalem itself, the declaration has a
significance that cannot be mistaken. No Power so
situated in regard to Palestine has used such language in
the whole cour.-e of modern history. One has to go back
to Gyrus for a parallel. The adoption of this policy may
be defended alike, we believe, on Bi-itish, on Jewish, and
on European grounds. From the Jewish point of view
sach a restoration opens the door to wonderful pussibili'ties ;
the hopes that have never been lost during eighteen
centuries of the Dispersion will returu within the region of
fact and accomplishment. vScarcely less important should
be the consequences for Europe. . . . The family of
nations would be enriched by the retarn of one of its oldest
and most gifted members to a regular and normal place
within the circle.
The Daily Newa also devoted a leading article to
the same topic.
If General Allenby's victories lead directly to the
solution of the problem of the Jew in his relation to the
modern world they will have won a great step forward, not
8 GREAT BBITAIN. PALESTINE AXD THE JEWS. ■
merely foi- a race whicli has suffered almost more thaD any
otlier from the European oitastroplie, but for the world at
large. Whatever may be said against the Zionist move-
ment — and there is not much that can reasonably be urged
against it — it holds the field. There is no other solutioji
which promises anything like so well. In deciding to give
the Zionists their chance the British Goveinment have
done a bold thing and a wise thing ; and as an honestly
inspired and intelligent disinterestedness is sounder policy
than the most crafty selfishness, they have incidentally
struck in this dai-k hour a very heavy blow for the cause
for which the free peoples of the world are fighting.
Considered merely hs a gesture, what is there in the war
to compare in effectiven' ss to this decision ? . . . The
promise of the restoration of Palestine will count for more
in the judgment of the world than m11 the desolation
wrought b}- the German legions among the nations whom
they have trodden nnder foot.
T//I' Mornmcj Po^t wrote : —
It is a sentiment and an ideal for a people to h;ive a
country of their own to which they may send at least their
poor and oppressed, where the wealth of the rich can be
used for the pious support of even a few pioneers, who
might under the protection of the British flag in time create
a colony — the nucleus of a Jewish state. To have the
means and opportunity tu woi-k for such an ideal would in
itself seem to the Jewish people as an answer to the ancient
promise and the solace to an old-time sorrow. It is one of
the strangest, the most remarkable phenomena in the
history of mankind that a race broken into fragments, and
scattered, whether in bondage or power, through the four
quarters of the earth, should keep on for close on two
thousand years the dieara of returning to the narrow strip
of land, half desert and half sown, from which they started.
llii' Manchester Guardian, ever a staunch supporter
of the Zionist movement, welcomed the decision in
terms of whole-hearted approval ; —
It is at once the I'ulHlment of an aspiration, the signpost
'A a destiny. Never since the days of the Dispersion has
tbe extraordinary people scattered over the earth in every
country of modern European and of the old Arabic
A SURVEY OF CHRISTIAX OPINION. 9
civilisation surrendered the hope of an ultimate return to
the historic seat of its national existence. This has formed
part of iis ideal life, and is the ever-recurring note of its
religious ritual. . . . For fifty years the Jews have
been slowly and painfully returning to their ancestral
home, and even under the Ottoman yoke and amid the
disordei- of that effete and crumbling dominion they have
succeeded in establishing the beginnings of a real civilisa-
tion. Scattered and few, they have still brought with
them schools and industry and scientific knowledge, and
here and there have in truth made the waste pUices blossom
as the rose. . . . The Government have indeed laid
down a policy of great and far-reachicg importance, but
it is one which can bear its full fruit only by the United
efforts of Jews all over the world. ^Vhat it means is that,
assuming our military successes to be continued and the
whole of Palestine to be brought securely under our control,
then on the conclusion of peace our deliberate policy will
be to encourage in every way in our power Jewish immi-
gration, to give full security, and no doubt a large measure
of local autonomy, to the Jewish immigrants, with a view
to the ultimate establishment of a Jewish state.
The Liverpool Courier vs^rote : —
' Mr. Balfour's letter stating the attitude of the British
Government towards the establishment of a national home
for the Jews in Palestine may well be regarded as one of
the most historic documents in the 5678 years of Jewish
history. Its terms are eminently well considered, and the
re-establishment of the Jewish national home is to be
accomplished on lines which are reasonable and just.
Indeed, we note with satisfaction that the points to which
we have already made reference in our consistent advocacy
of the claims of Zionism (which has been thrust to the fore
by world-shaking events of the past year or two) have
been covered by the terms of the Government declaration.
The Scotsman, iu the course of a long leading-
article, said : —
No more pregnant event has occurred in the later
history of the Jewish nation. It can scarcely be a chance
coincidence that this offer of sympathy and help in
restoring the Chosen People to the Promised Land is
10 OHFjAT BRITAIN, PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
contemporaneous with tlie first definite steps towards the
freeing of Palestine from the withering and stiHing yoke
of the Turk. Along with the promise comes a prospect
of performance. With the British forces in firm possession
of part of Southern Palestine, and marching victorioush^
towards Jerusalem, prophecy is in course of fulfilling
itself.
Tilt Zionist experiment, apart from any bias in its
favour that may be felt on j'acial or religious grounds,
seems worthy of a fair trial. It is not wholly an experiment
made blindly and without any previous knowledge. The
root of the Jewish race lias never been wholly removed
out of the land which it deems its own heritage by divine
appointment; and in the course of the last thirty years
between forty and fifty Jewish settlements, some of them
numbering three or four thousand persons, have been
planted on the soil. As has been said, the hope ot this
new return from exile has remained deeply and ineradicably
fixed in the heart of the race for more than two thousand
years, and remains an integral part of its faith and ritual —
it is "the age-long dream of Jewry."
7'//i? Gla-sffow Herald, writing in a similar vein,
said : —
What has long been the dream of virtually the whole
Jewish race — even of those whose iuward despair expressed
itself outwardly by a cynical dismissal of Zionism as the
mirage of over-heated fancy — has now taken definite
shape on the horizon of practical politics. Though Herzl
himself was doomed to die before he had attained even to
Pisgah, the persistent idealism which made him reject the
British Government's compromise of a settlement in East
Africa is likely to be more than justified. The present
Jewish colonies furnish the nucleus of a community which,
by afforestation and irrigation, could, without depending
unduly on help from abroad, and without prejudice to the
other races in the country, increase gradually to several
millions and in a real sense " possess the land." Though
complete national independence is not within the immediate
scope of Zionism, the spiritual a.nd political freedom that
could be obtained under the aegis of a " League of
Nations " would be of immense benefit both to Jewry and
to the world at lin-ge.
Tlip In-f/i. Tinu'fi expressed its views in the fullowin^f
passages ; —
In this endorsement of Zionist aspirations at a. moment
when Jerusalem can hear the distant thunder of British
guns the Government has declared a policy of great and
far-reaching importance. It is at last an attainable policy^
and it is from every point of view a desirable policy.
Finally, even those Jews who put the countries in which
they have made their homes before their sense of distinctive
nationality will welcome the formal ending of the
Dispersion. • The faith which Jewry has never surrendered
in an ultimate return to the historic seat of its national
existence is at last about to be redeemed.
<.)f the weeklies The Spi-clalur, in the cuurse (J ;i
long article, said : — .
Like Mesopotamia, Palestine can not regain its long-lost,
pi'osperity unless it can attract large numbei'S of hard-
working and intelligent immigrants. The Jews from Russia
have shown that they can thrive in Palestine, with help
and guidance from their kinsfolk in the West, and it is
therefore desirable that they should be given the fullest
oppoi tuuity of developing the latent resources of the country.
Further, it would be folly to discourage the Jews in gener'al
from assisting the revival of the Holy Land, to which they
are bound by aucient ties of religion and sentiment. With
the support of so wealthy and influential a body, a, Jewish
settlement in Palestine might be expected to grow with
sui'prising rapidity, provided always that order were main-
f.'iined by some form of international control. A large and
thriving Jewish settlement in the Holy Land, under the
supervision of Great Britain, our Allies, and America,
would make for peace and progi'ess in the Near Bast, and
would thus accord with British policy. It is not to be
supposed that Palestine could ever support more than a
small proportion of the Jewish i-aee.
The jSaliun' was ecjually synipathetic : —
Mr. Balfour's declaration translates into a binding
statement of policy the general wish of British public
opinion. It emphatically favours -'the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for tlie Jewish people," If
12 GREAT BRITAIN. PALESTINE AND THE JEWS.
we were to analyse tliat sentimeut we should find at its
coi-e fclie simple and humane instinct of reparation. Our
own record towards tbe Jewish race is, from Cromwell's
day downwards, one of relative enlightenment ; but it is
on the conscience of all Christendom that the burden falls
of the secular persecution which this enduring race has
suffered. One of our solidest reasons for welcoming the
Russian Revolution was that it had freed the whole
Alliance from complicity in the sins of one of its chief
partners towards the Jews. To end this record by
restoring the dispersed and downtrodden race to its own
cradle is a war-aim which lifts the struggle in this region
above the sordid level of Imperial competition. We do
not' suppose that in the return of even large numbers of
Jewish settlers to the Holy Land there lies a solution of
the Jewish problems of Europe. The mass of the race is
likely to remain in Western Russia, in Poland, and in
Rumania, and for one colonist who goes to till the soil in
Palestine with hard work, a strange environment and an
ideabst enthusiasm as his portion, ten will prefer the
prospect of fortune in American cities. The gain to the
Jews from the recovery of a "' national home " is some-
what subtler than the solution of the genei-al problem of
residence and emigration. Palestine will be to the whole
dispersed race a centre of culture, a focus and symbol
of its national life, a corner of the earth in which a
civilisation may be built up on Jewish principles by Jewish
hands, free from the overshadowing influence of alien
institutions. The agricultural colonies, which have thriven
marvellously, thanks to the tenacity and scientific intelli-
gence of their leaders, have already recovered the vernacular
use of Hebrew as the language actually spoken in the
home. A Jewish society which shapes itself in this
atmosphere ought to attain the moral and intellectual leader-
ship of the race, and give to its persistent and original
character a freer and more natural expression than it can
find in any foreign environment. Palestine may be again
the temple, the university, and the ancestral treasure of the
Jews, but it can hardly be a home for more than a fractioii
of the race.
The New SInlesiiian said : —
The British Government's declaration in favour of
Zionism is one of the best pieces of statesmanship that we
A StlRVEY OF CHBISTIAN OPINION. H
Can show in these latter days. Early in the war The New
Statesman published an article giving the main reasons whv
such a step should be taken, and nothing has occurred to
change them. To make Palestine once more prosperous
and populous, with a population attached to the British
Empire, there is only one hopeful way, and that is to effect
a Zionist restoration under British auspices. On the other
side of the account it is hard to conceive how anybody with
the true instinct for nationality and the desire to see
small nations emancipated can fail to be warmed by the
prospect of emancipating this most ancient of oppressed
nationalities.
T/te Statist devoted the greater part of a page to
" A Jewish Palestine." In its opinion ; —
There can be no serious question that a large settlement
of Jews in Palestine would be greatly to the benefit, not
(luly of that country, but of Western Asia in general.
It could not fail to exercise a most beneficial
influence. ... If the Jews constituted the dominant
portion of the population, they would introduce with them
the civilisation of Europe in almost all matters. They
would, therefore, very soon create a trade, for it is to be
recollected that Palestine is favourably situated for trade.
Harbours could be created ; and, as the country is almost
at the mouth of the Suez Canal, it would be within easy
reach of very rich productive Asiatic countries. Over
and above this, Palestine, if the dominant influence was
■Jewish, would exercise a good influence upon its neigh-
bours. The Jews and the Arabs are akin, and the Arabs
are a people of very fine qualities. It is true they have
never hitherto been able to maintain for loug a highly-
developed civilised government. But if they were aided
by the Jews they would probably acquire some of the
solid qualities of the Jews, who would be able to make
the Arabs less military in spirit and more attached tu
economic pursuits. At all events, a Jewish .state keepinjj;
up very close relations with the richest Jews in Europe
and America, and di'awing its principal element from
the middle class, could not fail to exercise a beneficial
effect upon the Arabians, and through them upon
Mesopotamia.
14 GREAT hEITAlN. PALESTISE AND THE JEWS.
Ill T//e Obseroei- Mr. Grarvin devoted one section of
his usual weekly article to an enthusiastic support of
the Government's action : —
Nearly two thousand years after the Dispersion, Zioiiisui
has become a practical and integral part of all schemes lor
a new world-order after the war. . . . There could
not have been at this juncture a stroke of statesmanship
more just or more wise. No cue need to be told that it
will send a mystical thrill throu^'h the hearts of the vast
majority of Jews throughout the world. ... It is no
idle dream which anticipates that by the close of another
generation the new Zion may become a state, incladiog,
no doubt, only a pronounced minority of the entire Jewish
race, yet \i umbering from a million to two million souls,
forming a true national people with its own distinctive,
rural, and urban civilisation, its own centres of learning
and art, making a unique link between the East and West.
Jews who dwell elsewhere will none the less be animated
by a new interest, sympathy, pride, and will be able to
contribute powerful help. So much for that aspect. We
need hardly point out that for all the higher purposes of
the Allies the importance of Mr. Balfour's declai-ation is
immediate and great. From the United St;ites to Russia
new enthusiasm for the general cause of liberty, re.stora-
cion, and lasting peace secured by many new international
links, moral and practical, will be kindled amongst the
extraordinary race whose influence everywhere is out of all
proportion to its numbers.
Tke Near Easf, in a. leading article on " The Laud
of Promise," said : —
Tt was surely the happiest inspiration that pr(j(upted
the British Government on the threshold of what it is hoped
will prove a successful advance through Syria to remove all
possibility of misundefstanding by making known the dis-
interestedness of its :ittitude lovxiirds the country- The
decision accords at once with the religious and political
instincfv-.of the British race. That Palestine^ would
ultimately become once more a national home for the
Jewish people has always been a settled couviction among
those who have pondered over its future in the light of the
past ; and a long tradition connects England with the
A SVRVEl' OF CHRISfJAN OPINION. 16
efforts directed towards that end. Politically the solution
has much to commend it. Palestine is for all true Jews a
spiritual centre, and deep down in their being they
associate with it, if not their own individual place of
residence, at least the home of a suflacient number of
Jewish people to make it the focus of Jewish life and
Jewish civilisation. Such a Jewish commonwealth can
only grow up to fulfil its destiny under the protection of a
strong and ordered State, which will guarantee it immunity
from outside interference, security of life and jDroperty^
and the impartial administration of justice. For its own
material develoj^ment it must look to itself, and in this
connection it will be recalled tbat Jewish agricultural and
urban settlements already exist in Palestine, and are a
nucleus ready to hand for the new commonwealth. They
point to the probable lines on which the deve'opment of
The country will take place, expedited or retarded according
lo the degr-ree of assistance on which Zionism can count.
The valley is full of bones, and, lo ! ihey are very dry;
Tiiany stages have to be passed through before these dry
bones sta,nd upon their feet, au exceeding gi'eat ariijy. Of
Palestine it will then be true that "^^ This land that wa
as
desolate is become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste
and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and are
inhabited." Towards that consummation it would seem
that Great Britain in the dispensation of Providence will
have played no small part.
Talealine, the organ of the British Palestine Com-
mittee, naturally rejoiced at the success towards which
its efforts contributed in no small degree : —
The decision of the British Government marks a turniug-
point in the history of the Jewish people, and will, we
believe, be for ever memorable in the history of the British
Empire. - For more than eighteen centuries the Jews, as a
nation, have been without a home, and the longing to
recover their lost national home in Palestine has been the
deepest and most abiding of their pnssious. The Jewish
people has known, by the persistent teaching of its prophets
and sages and by the profoundest instincts of its being,
that it could escape from its phantom existence and return
to a real life only in and through a restoration to Palestine j
16 GREAT BRITAIN, PALESfIXE AXD THE JE)Vb.
and it has known tliat only thus could it make again,
as in the past it had made, its cliaracteristio and specific
contribution to the common treasure of civilisation. A
restor-d national homo in Palestine meant to the Jewish
people redemption and I'c'javenation for itself and the
reopening of a fountain of creative energj- for humanity.
For eighteen hundred years the hope of it and the striving
for it have been the one political passion by which the
•Jewish people, as sucli, has lived.
Tlie Chiiirh, Catliolic, and Nonconformist papers
uU devoted much space to the Government decision.
Pmit'-d in Gnat Britain by The Fielh * Queen (Hoeace Cox) Lid.
Bream's Buildings, London, K.C. 4.
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