Chapter XLIXD (5)

“Mr. Balfour’s announcement on the subject of Zionism, which forms an extraordinarily appropriate pendant to General Allenby’s brilliant operations in Southern Palestine, marks the conclusion of a strenuous struggle behind the scenes between the International Jews, to whom this country is much more useful than they are to us, and the National Jews, who are among our most valuable compatriots. For once the right side has gained the day, and the Zionist aspirations of the Chosen People receive for the first time the formal endorsement of a British Government.” (_The Globe._)

“No more appropriate moment could have been seized by the British Government to declare itself in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people than the present time, when our Twentieth Century Crusaders have just carried _Gaza_, the ancient Philistine stronghold, and are pressing on to the capture of the Holy City from the hands of the infidel. British interests have for long made it plain that some buffer state must arise between Egypt and a possibly hostile Turkish Government, and Zionism appears to provide the solution.” (_The Evening Standard._)

“Nearly two thousand years after the Dispersion, Zionism has become a practical and integral part of all schemes for 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 one need to be told that it will send a mystical thrill through 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, including, no doubt, only a pronounced minority of the entire Jewish race, yet numbering from a million to two million souls, forming a true national people, with its own distinctive, rural, and urban civilization, its own centres of learning and art, making a unique link between 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 declaration is immediate and great. From the United States to Russia, new enthusiasm for the general cause of liberty, restoration, 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.” (_The Observer._)

“... 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 progress in the Near East, 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 race. There are probably more than twelve million Jews in the world, of whom far more than half live in Russia and Austria. Generations may pass before Palestine is capable of maintaining with comfort a million Jewish inhabitants, though it is, as Mr. Albert Hyamson says in his very able new book,¹ a ‘land laid waste’ and not by any means a desert. But a little Jewish state in Palestine would serve as a rallying point for Jews all over the world, and it would confer a benefit also on the Christian and the Moslem worlds, which are equally interested in the Holy Land and its undying religious memories.” (_The Spectator._)

¹ “Palestine: The Rebirth of an Ancient People.” By Albert M.
Hyamson. London, 1917.

“Mr. Balfour’s declaration translates into a binding statement of policy the general wish of British opinion. It emphatically favours ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.’ If we were to analyse this sentiment we should find at its core the simple and humane instinct of reparation. Our own record towards the 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 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.” (_The Nation._)

“The British Government’s declaration in favour of Zionism is one of the best pieces of statesmanship that we can show in these latter days. Early in the war _The New Statesman_ published an article giving the main reasons why such a step should be taken, and nothing has occurred to change them. The special interest of the British Empire in Palestine is due to the proximity of the Suez Canal. The present has killed the idea that this vital artery ought to be used as a line of defence for Egypt, and there is a general return to the view of Napoleon (and indeed history long before his time) that Egypt must be defended in Palestine. 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.” (_The New Statesman._)

“The forty-six Jewish colonies, with their co-operative societies, their agricultural schools, and their experimental station for agriculture, seem to have prospered before the war. Their wine and oranges were one-fourth of the total export trade of _Jaffa_, and while the war has set back their development the Turks are likely to have been less destructive than the Germans in France. Their labour――one of the chief difficulties foreseen by critics of Zionism――is partly Arab, but largely supplied by Jews from Russia, Roumania, and the Yemen. With sufficient capital――already furnished in part by Zionist organizations――the removal of the blight of Turkish rule, and the coming shortage of all food products, the economic future of a Jewish Palestine should be bright.” (_The Economist._)

“The movement towards Palestine will be slow, and none of those who have sanctioned the great experiment may hope to live to judge it by the fruits; but it is satisfactory to remember that the British Government’s decision meets with the approbation of many Great Powers. President Wilson views the Zionist programme with the keenest sympathy, and has appointed a Jewish Commission to study in Palestine the question of a Jewish State. The Russian Revolutionary Government has declared its willingness to support the Jewish claim to Palestine, and even permitted a Zionist Conference to be held in Petrograd. Those who should be well informed say that the Pope is not opposing the Zionist ideal, and that the French Government favours it; one and all seem to be agreed that when this war is over the horrors of the Jewish situation as it affects the vast majority of the race must come to an end. The persecution and repression practised in Russia and Roumania down to little more than a year ago cannot go on in a world made fit for all to live in. ... What will be the spiritual effect of this return to Palestine upon the pious Jew, who for two thousand years has said, _If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning_; upon the other class of Jew who will recover his Judaism when it has a centre, a point of focus; and upon the non-Jew to whom the return to Palestine is the fulfilment of prophecy and the foreshadowing of the Millennium?” (_The Graphic._)

“We speak of Palestine as a country, but it is not a country.... But it will be a country; it will be the country of the Jews. That is the meaning of the letter which we publish to-day written by Mr. Balfour to Lord Rothschild for communication to the Zionist Federation. It is at once the fulfilment of an aspiration, the signpost of a destiny. Never since the days of the Dispersion has the extraordinary people scattered over the earth in every country of modern European and of the old Arabic civilization surrendered the hope of an ultimate return to the historic seat of its national existence. This has formed part of its 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 disorder of that effete and crumbling dominion they have succeeded in establishing the beginnings of a real civilization. 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 places blossom as the rose.... The British victories in Palestine and in the more distant eastern bounds of the ancient Arab Empire are the presage of the downfall of Turkish power; the declaration of policy by the British Government to-day is the security for a new, perhaps a very wonderful, future for Zionism and for the Jewish race.... In declaring that ‘the British Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object,’ the Government have indeed laid down a policy of great and far-reaching importance, but it is one which can bear its full fruit only by the united efforts of Jews all over the world. What 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 immigration, 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.” (_Manchester Guardian._)

_The Manchester Daily Dispatch_ published a sympathetic interview with Sir Stuart Samuel, Bart., on the subject of the pronouncement of the Government.

Both _The Liverpool Courier_ and _The Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury_ devoted leading articles to the subject on the 9th of November. The former said:――

“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.... Zionism has made a great step
forward, and the world has now reason to look forward to the
rise of an old-new nation in its natural home, where some of
its ancient greatness may be revived in a national sense.”

The views of _The Post_ took the following form:――

“The important official letter from Mr. Balfour, as Foreign
Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, as representing the Jews, more
than justifies the suggestion we lately made in a leading
article that our Government might be expected to encourage the
Jewish national aspiration for a home in Palestine. We further
said at that time that a ‘Palestine re-peopled by a Jewry
bound to the Allies, and not least to Britain, by ties of
affection for righting the oldest national wrong, would be
a friendly neighbour to Egypt and to the newly enfranchised
territories abutting upon the Holy Land.’”

_The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch_ expressed the following views:――

“The aspirations of the Jewish race to return to the Holy Land
seem not unlikely of fulfilment. Scattered over the face of
the earth, they daily turn their eyes towards Jerusalem and
pray for the day when they will be restored to the land of
their origin. We are fighting to-day not for aggrandizement,
not for the acquisition of territory, but for the liberation
of peoples crushed by the tyrant, and there is no just
and reasonable demand which would not be sympathetically
considered by the British Government. Our progress in
Palestine has awakened in the breasts of the ‘chosen people’
fresh hopes of re-establishment in their Fatherland.”

_The Glasgow Herald_, writing in a similar vein, said:――

“From their aeroplanes British aviators may have obtained a
glimpse of the white domes and towers of the Holy City, high
upon the crest of the Palestinian ridge. That possibility is
symbolic of the effect upon the Jewish world of the British
Cabinet’s declaration in favour of Zionism. What has long been
the dream of virtually the whole Jewish race――even of those
whose inward 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.”

In the further article in the same issue the Government adoption of the Zionist policy was further commented upon:――

“With singular timeliness, for it coincides with the victories
of _Gaza_ and Tekrit, Mr. Balfour has written a letter to Lord
Rothschild announcing the adhesion of the British Government
to Zionism. With the reservation of the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and
without prejudice to the rights and political status enjoyed
by Jews in any other country, Palestine, when it has been
conquered, is to become a national home for the Jewish people.
With numerically small exceptions this decision――on which we
comment more fully elsewhere――will be accepted with joy by all
the Jews of the Dispersion throughout the world. It will have
an immediate political effect in America and in Russia, no
less than in Poland and Hungary. It will tell to the advantage
of the Allies even in Bagdad. In the Levant generally it
should unite the Jews with the Arabs, Greeks, and Italians in
revolt against the Turks. But its great ultimate influence, as
all will pray, will be to affect for the better in many subtle
ways the relations of Christian and Jew throughout the world.
If that should happen one of the most insidious diseases from
which civilization has suffered will have been cured.”

According to _The Aberdeen Free Press_:――

“This is the first time that any Government has definitely put
itself in touch with Zionist ideals, and the new departure is
as important as it is timely.”

“... In many ways the moment appears to be a peculiarly
favourable one for preparing to launch the scheme for
providing ‘a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine’
in the sphere of the practical. The Zionist idea has passed
through many changes, and may pass through many more....
Never until now have time and place and opportunity been in
accord with the dream of returning and building up _Zion_. Mr.
Balfour’s letter, read in the light of General Allenby’s march
upon _Hebron_, may well sound like the long-postponed answer
to the prayer of the exiled and persecuted race, ‘_Next year,
O Lord, in Jerusalem!_’” (_Scotsman._)

_The Dundee Advertiser_ also put itself in line with its contemporaries which commented on the Government’s pronouncement:――

“Palestine will, therefore, be a suitable field for
immigration, and by tradition and inclination the Jews are
the people to occupy it. Already before the war a number of
colony settlements had been established, chiefly by Jewish
immigrants from Eastern Europe, and without exception these
settlements were thriving. One and all they were agricultural,
and contradicted the prevailing belief that the Jew is bound
to become a trader or an artisan, and will never undertake
the tillage of the soil. The Jewish colonies were models
of up-to-date agricultural enterprise, in which the best
scientific knowledge of irrigation and dry-farming was applied.
A very pleasing prospect is therefore opening up.... In the
fulness of time a new page in the history of the Holy Land is
being opened by Allenby’s army.”

_The Irish Times_ expressed its views in the following passage:――

“These fortunate circumstances invest with especial
significance the important declaration of British policy in
Palestine which we printed yesterday... . 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. From the British point of view the defence
of the Suez Canal can best be secured by the establishment in
Palestine of a people attached to us, and the restoration of
the Jews under British auspices can alone secure it in this
way. From the European point of view it would be a great gain
that the Jews should become, in the words of _The Jewish
Chronicle_, ‘a nation, and not a hyphenation.’”

A leading article in _The Western Daily Press_ ran in part as follows:――

“... There is no other solution so much demanded by historical
association and living sentiment as that, if it be possible,
the Jewish people should retake possession of the small but
intensely interesting country over which they ruled, with some
interruptions, for nearly two thousand years. Mr. Balfour’s
declaration has delighted many influential British Jews. It
can hardly fail to delight equally the Jews of Poland and
Russia, who have suffered so much from the ‘religious’ bigotry
of ignorant people, and the Jews of Germany and Austria, often
very wealthy and influential, will be forced to ask themselves
why they are at present helping to preserve Turkish rule over
a country which the British are anxious to restore to the
Jewish race.”

_The Hull Daily Mail_ said:――

“It is a wise and sagacious offer, and has given great
satisfaction in Jewish communities. It will be a great
thing if Palestine is delivered from the blighting, blasting
influence of the Turk, and he must never again be given
possession if it is finally won from his grasp. The Jews were
a pastoral people, and, once they were in possession, this
land, under the blessing of Providence, would again flow ‘with
milk and honey,’ and blossom as the rose under the protecting
hand of Britain and other guaranteeing Powers.”

And _The Newcastle Daily Journal_:――

“The Zionist project has, at last, the prospect of achieving
its purpose, under the very highest auspices, humanly
speaking. It looks like a first step towards the restoration
representatively of the long-persecuted and widely-scattered
Jewish race.”

Other provincial newspapers that commented on the Government’s announcement were _The Dublin Express_, _The Northern Whig_, _The Belfast Newsletter_, _The Bulletin_, _The South Wales Daily News_, and _The Northern Daily Telegraph_.

_The African World_ also welcomed the proposals whole-heartedly:――

“The announcement yesterday that the British Government ‘view
with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people’ and the Cabinet’s intention to further
the scheme cherished by Zionists is an event of world-wide
importance. A home for Jews on the soil traditionally sacred
to them, and under British auspices and protection, is the
happiest outcome of the dream of ages.”

_The Shipping World_ said:――

“For a number of decades there has been a movement, partly
idealistic, partly practical, for restoring the Jewish race
to their ancient territorial home. That movement is known as
Zionism, and is strongly supported in the Jewish communities
both in Europe and in America. Assisted by funds subscribed by
the wealthier members of the race, some settlers had already
formed under Turkish rule Zionist settlements in the Holy Land.
But colonization under Turkish tolerance is a precarious thing.
Now appears the dawn of promise, and Mr. Balfour has just
addressed a letter to Lord Rothschild expressing the sympathy
of the Cabinet with Jewish Zionist aspirations. The Government
favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours
to facilitate the achievement of that object. What form
the endeavour is to take is, at this point, left obscure,
purposely, no doubt. But we may in this hint perhaps see the
nucleus of a free State where the children of Israel, gathered
once more from the ends of the earth, shall again possess the
land of their ancestors and live free from alien oppression.”

_The Near East_ devoted its leading article to “The Land of Promise”:――

“On the other hand, 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 sufficient number of Jewish people to make it the
focus of Jewish life and Jewish civilization. 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
property, and the impartial administration of justice. For
its own material development it must look to itself, and in
this connection it will be recalled that 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 development of the country
will take place, expedited or retarded, according to the
degree of assistance on which Zionism can count. The valley is
full of bones, and, lo! they are very dry; many stages have to
be passed through before these dry bones stand upon their feet,
an exceeding great army. Of Palestine it will then be true
that ‘This land that was 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.”

_Palestine_, the organ of the British Palestine Committee, was, not surprisingly, filled with enthusiasm and eloquence, for the Government pronouncement is the culmination of all its efforts:――

“The decision of the British Government marks a turning-point
in the history of the Jewish people, and will, we believe, be
for ever memorable in the history of the British Empire....
The declaration is complete in form and substance. It can
provoke no opposition from any quarter, and it will bind the
Jews of the world in sympathy to the country which has thus
taken the lead in their national redemption.... And when the
Declaration becomes an act, when a Jewish Palestine from being
an aim becomes a fact, then all the complex of strategic,
political, and commercial interests which are concentrated for
the British Empire in the Suez Canal and Palestine will have
found their solution. This declaration is a memorable event in
the history of the British Empire as it is in the history of
the Jewish people and of humanity. We may be of good hope that
it will at no very distant date become a fact, for the army of
England has even now battered in the gates of Palestine. The
statesmanship of this declaration of the Jewish nation’s right
to Palestine is a statesmanship of deed, not of words.”

The Church, Catholic, and Nonconformist papers have devoted much space to the Government decision. In the opinion of _The Challenge_:――

“If there is a considerable part of the Jewish people eager
to make Palestine again their home, then we are glad that
the Allied Governments should have made it possible for them
to do so, supposing that the course of the war leaves that
possibility still open. It must be for the Jewish people
themselves to decide how much or how little advantage they
will take of the offer which is made to them. Meanwhile no one
can avoid feeling a thrill at a prospect so closely affecting
the destiny of the chosen race. That wonderful people pursues
its way through all the history of the world, and whatever
concerns them is of universal interest.”

According to _The Christian_:――

“By this dramatic declaration an age-long dream comes within
the view of actual fulfilment. It ought to be apparent
to everybody that the persistence of a people like the
Jews during two thousand years――a fact unparalleled in
history――despite every attempt to crush them, holds a meaning
far deeper than that which the secular historian offers. The
purposes of God are being worked out, and we can begin to see
light.”

In _The Church Family Newspaper_ the Rev. E. L. Langston, under the heading “Jews and Palestine: Epoch-making Announcement,” said:――

“The declaration of His Majesty’s Government as to the future
of Palestine must have far-reaching and vital effects....”

In the words of _The Catholic Times_:――

“The settling down of Jews from Great Britain, America, and
the Continent of Europe in the Holy Land is something like a
romance of a war in the main features of which scarcely any
romantic element has, so far, appeared.”

_The Christian Commonwealth_ said:――

“The historical interest and the religious importance of this
promise will appeal nearly as much to non-Jewish people as
to the Jews themselves.... We may yet live to see Palestine
become the centre of trade and travel for the three continents
of the Old World. The early colonization movement has
crystallized into something more dramatic――the re-establishment
of a whole people on the soil of the land where their national
history began. Their long exile is drawing to an end. From
this redeemed and rejuvenated people what new message may we
not expect, seeing that their faith has so manifestly been
justified and the vision of their prophets realized!”

“We are quite unable to find words,” said _The Life of Faith_, “wherewith to express the wonderful importance of the above declaration made by His Majesty’s Government.... It is not too much to say that this great declaration contains the making of history, even as it forms a new epoch for the Jewish race.... We welcome the declaration all the more because we, too, have an inborn love for the Holy Land, and because we can so deeply sympathize with the Jewish people, whose passionate affection for the land of their fathers has never been torn from their hearts, in spite of centuries of persecution and wanderings. There is, after all, some little excuse for the sentimental yearnings of the Rabbis who expressed their heartfelt passion in such sayings as:

“‘The very air of Palestine makes one wise.’¹

“‘To live in Palestine is equal to the observance of all the commandments.’²

“‘He that hath his permanent abode in Palestine is sure of the life to come.’”³

¹ אוירא דארץ ישראל מחכים.
בבא בתרא ד׳קנה ע׳ב׃

²...ישיבת ארץ ישראל שקולה כנגד כל המצות שבתורה׃
ספרי דבי רב פסקא ראה פ׳׃

³”... כל מי שקבוע בארץ ישראל ... יהא מובטח שבן העולם הבא הוא׃“
תלמוד ירושלמי מסכת שקלים פרק שלישי׃

_The Methodist Times_ said:――

“Naturally this declaration, which will be celebrated in
history, has given the liveliest satisfaction to Jewry
throughout the world. The pledge is as sagacious as it is
opportune.” And prints in addition a long article by Mr.
C. W. Andrews, entitled: “Palestine for the Jews: the Triumph
of Zionism.”

And in the words of _The Sunday School Chronicle_:――

“For two thousand years the Jews have been wandering among the
nations. It looks as though a new day were dawning for them
and for the world.... Apart from the moral significance of
such a return, an independent Jewish State would make the
Holy Land a centre of commercial and political influence of
far-reaching importance to the British Empire and to the Far
East.”

_The British Weekly_, _The Church Times_, _The Christian World_, _The Inquirer_, and _The Guardian_ also commented editorially on the Government’s pronouncement.

_The Jewish Chronicle_, in a leading article, said:――

“... 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 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. Instead
of, as Jew, filling a place at best equivocal and doubtful,
even to himself, and always with an apologetic cringing
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. In this
joyous hour we English Jews turn with feelings of deepest
pride and reverence to great and glorious Britain, mother of
free nations and protectress of the oppressed, who has thus
taken the lead in the Jewish restoration. The friend of our
people for generations, who has raised her voice times out of
number for our suffering martyrs, never was she truer to her
noble traditions than to-day――never more England than now!
In the time to come, when Jewry, free and prosperous, lives
a contented and, as we all hope, a lofty life in Palestine,
it will look with never-failing gratitude to the Power which
crowned its centuries of humanitarianism by a grand act that
linked Jewish destinies with those of the freest democracy in
the world.”

The Jewish people all over the world was deeply impressed by the Declaration. As the correspondent of the _London Jewish Chronicle_ puts it, “The Jewish masses were literally dazzled.” A great demonstration, unparalleled for enthusiasm, occurred at Petrograd, and was addressed by M. Boris Goldberg and M. Aleinikoff, who styled England the “advanced guard of humanity.” He spoke in the highest praise of the English Labour Party for its sympathetic attitude toward the movement, and of the American Zionists for their defence of the Jewish colonies in Palestine since the outbreak of the war. Tributes were paid to the memory of Dr. Theodor Herzl and other leaders of the Movement who have passed away, of the British soldiers killed in the Campaign in Palestine, and to the _Hashomerim_ who have died in defence of the Jewish colonies. Two soldiers, Levitzky and Kotlarevsky, greeted the Declaration on behalf of the Jewish Soldiers’ Union.

Tremendous enthusiasm prevailed throughout Russian Jewry because of the British Declaration; and reports received from Moscow, Minsk, Ekaterinoslav, Kieff, Kharkoff, Odessa and Kherson are to the effect that tens of thousands of Jews who had hitherto been either neutral or inimical, joined the Zionist Movement. Special services of thanksgiving were held in many synagogues and many mass meetings, vieing with one another in enthusiasm, were held almost everywhere. Many organizations of Jewish youth signified their intention to make whatever sacrifices might be demanded of them for the Zionist ideal. The Russian Press, with practical unanimity, spoke of the great importance of the Declaration, and described it as a momentous event for the Jews, offering the longed-for opportunity to build a national Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The enthusiasm in America found expression in thousands of telegrams, public meetings, resolutions, thanksgiving services. At the Baltimore Zionist Conference on December 15th a resolution was passed thanking the British Government for the Declaration, which stated, “Deeply we rejoice in the triumph of the British arms in Palestine, and the taking over of Palestine as another step in the march of the Allied Forces which is to establish throughout the world the principle of the liberty of smaller nationalities.” In all other countries the Declaration was discussed by public opinion in a most favourable sense.

On November 18, 1917, a reception was held by the English Zionist Federation at which Lord Rothschild officially communicated to the Federation the Declaration of the English government. Hundreds of congratulatory telegrams received from all parts of the world aroused enthusiasm. Lord Rothschild, Dr. Tschlenow, Dr. Weizmann, Mr. James de Rothschild, and the author delivered addresses in commemoration of this historic event in the life of the Jewish people.

LONDON OPERA HOUSE DEMONSTRATION

Some account must be given of the Demonstration at the London Opera House of the 2nd December held in order to express gratitude to the British Government. This great demonstration was attended by thousands of persons. The resolution read by Lord Rothschild, who presided over the meeting, expressed gratitude from all sections of Anglo-Jewry for the Government declaration in favour of establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people. Every member of the audience seemed to feel the greatness of the occasion.

Lord Rothschild said they were met on the most momentous occasion in the history of Judaism for the last eighteen hundred years. They were there to return thanks to His Majesty’s Government for a declaration which marked an epoch in Jewish history of outstanding 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. That Declaration, 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 were 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, faithfully observe both the spirit and the letter of their gracious declaration. 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 in the past, and he therefore held that all and every section of opinion in the Jewish people could work together for the establishment in Palestine of such a home, so as to make it a triumphant success.

It had often been said that the repeopling of Palestine by the Jews was bound to fail in so far as they were not an agricultural people, but they might dismiss that fear from their minds in view of the success of the great Jewish agricultural colonies which were established in Palestine before the war. The only thing necessary to achieve success in the movement was a thoroughly up-to-date organization for the development of the land, and for the guidance and selection of the settlers, who must act as pioneers. The aims of what now appeared to be antagonistic bodies of opinion, seemed to him to be so similar that he felt sure that when those objects had been properly examined in the light of experience they would find, sooner or later, that a common ground would present itself for all of those professing these apparently divergent opinions to work together in a common effort to make the re-settlement of Palestine a great and lasting success. Lord Rothschild then moved the following resolution:――

“That this mass meeting, representing all sections of the
Jewish Community in the United Kingdom, 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. 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.”

The Right Hon. Lord Robert Cecil, P.C., 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 Zionism, my hearty congratulation on the event which you are celebrating to-day. And perhaps you will allow me to mention in connection with these congratulations, not only your Chairman, but also Mr. Nahum Sokolow and Dr. C. Weizmann, who have 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. We welcome among us not only the many thousands of Jews that I see, but also representatives of the Arabian and Armenian races who are also in this great struggle struggling to be free. Our wish is that Arabian countries shall be for the Arabs, Armenia for the Armenians, and Judea for the Jews. 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. I venture to claim for this country that in supporting Zionism it has been merely carrying out its traditional policy. 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 that they are often described by the two words ‘Liberty and Justice.’ Perhaps, more accurately they may 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 for us, if we are ever to lift European civilization 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. And it was because the invasion of Belgium, the lawless invasion of Belgium, was felt by the true instincts of the British people to be an attack upon the principle of Law, because they recognized that that was a real blow at the heart of civilization, that they felt then, and they feel now, that until that outrage has been expiated it is impossible even to think of talking of the terms of peace. 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-determination. ’ Well, I don’t know that it is a new thing. It certainly is not new in the British Empire. The Empire has always striven to give to all the peoples that make it up the fullest measure of self-government of which they are capable. We have always striven to give to all peoples within our bounds complete liberty and equality before the Law. We are adjured to respect the principle of self-determination, but I say that the British Empire was the first organization 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 themselves and to work out their own destiny, irrespective of the threats and menaces of their greater neighbour. 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 be the new settlement of the world after the war. I do not say that that is the only thing involved. It is not only the recognition of a nationality, it is much more than that. It has great underlying ideals of which you will hear this afternoon, 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 peoples could; but if it is not the birth of a nation, I believe we may say it is the re-birth of a nation. 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.”

The Right Hon. Herbert Samuel, M.P., who received an enthusiastic welcome, said: “I rejoice whole-heartedly 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. The fears and the doubts which this policy has evoked are, I firmly believe, unfounded. Three conditions must indeed be observed in any new development that may take place in Palestine. In the first place, there must be full, just recognition of the rights of the Arabs, who now constitute the majority of the population of that country. Secondly, there must be a reverent respect for the Christian and Mohammedan holy places, which in all eventualities should always remain in the control and charge of representatives of those faiths. 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 Jews 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 the 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 chiefly these. First, it may be that the genius of the Jewish race will again be able to give the world a brilliant and distinctive civilization. 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 one thousand five hundred 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 Jewish mind is tenacious and persists, and now, when all the powerful Empires that over-ran that land have been overthrown and almost forgotten, the Jewish people exists and is more numerous to-day than it ever has been at any period of its history. Who knows, I say, but that if it again finds a spiritual centre of its own, soundly based on an industrious population, untrammelled, self-contained, inspired by the memories of a splendid past, it may again produce golden fruits in the fields of intellect for the enrichment of the whole world. 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, sacrificing 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, still they said, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ If that cherished vision is at last to be realized, if on the Hills of Zion a Jewish civilization 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. That is why we meet to-day to thank the British Government――our own Government――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:

“‘לשנה הבאה בירושלם.’ ‘Next year in Jerusalem!’”

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 assurance 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, _every_ oppressed nationality. It was a solemn pledge that the oldest of national tragedies shall be ended in the coming readjustment 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 126th Psalm a record of how their fathers received the announcement of their deliverance:――

“When the Lord brought back those that returned to Zion,
We were like unto them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing;
Then said they among the nations:
‘The Lord hath done great things with these.’
The Lord hath done great things with us;
We are rejoiced.”

Theirs was a similar feeling of joy and wonder. With them likewise 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!”

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 religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. That was but a translation of the basic principles of the Mosaic legislation. But it was the substance of the Declaration――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 forty-two thousand 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. Now, as then, שאר ישוב “A remnant shall return.” But now, as then, it was the national rejuvenation of that remnant that is to open a new chapter in the 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 God, to rise to the level of this unique, world-historic opportunity.