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. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028583320 
 
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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 Zionism and the Jewish Problem; A Century of Jewish 
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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. 
 
 PKliNTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., 
 URUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E. I, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. 
 
Great Jktim, P^^esttne 
 and 
 
 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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 J}reanri'f Diiildings, I,on!lon, F/.C. 4- 
 
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 Beview of the Press ; Local Zionbt News. 
 
 Order through any Bookseller or Newsagent, or direct from 
 
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 "ZIONiSfl AND THE JEWISH FUTURE." 
 
 By various Writers. Edited by H. SAOHSB. 
 
 Zionism and the Jewish Problem; A Ceutuiy of Jewish History; 
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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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