History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Chapter XLIXD (8)

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“May I be allowed, before concluding, to point to one very
important aspect of our University? The University, while
trying to maintain the highest scientific level, must, at
the same time, be rendered accessible to all classes of the
people. The Jewish workman and farm labourer must be enabled
to find there a possibility of continuing and completing their
education in their free hours. The doors of our libraries,
lecture rooms, and laboratories, must be opened widely to
them all. Thus the University will exercise its beneficial
influence on the nation as a whole. The bare nucleus of
the library is already in existence here, and very valuable
additions to it are at present stored up in Russia and
elsewhere. The setting-up of a University library and of a
University press are contemplated soon after the war. Manifold
are the preparations yet to be made. Some of them are already
in progress; some, like the actual building, must necessarily
be postponed until the happy day of peace arrives. But from
this day the _Hebrew_ University is a reality. Our University,
formed by Jewish learning and Jewish energy, will mould itself
into an integral part of our national structure which is
in process of erection. It will have a centripetal force,
attracting all that is noblest in Jewry throughout the world;
a unifying centre for our scattered elements. There will go
forth, too, inspiration and strength, that shall revivify
the powers now latent in our scattered communities. Here the
wandering soul of _Israel_ shall reach its haven; its strength
no longer consumed in restless and vain wanderings. _Israel_
shall at last remain at peace within itself and with the world.
There is a _Talmudic_ legend that tells of the Jewish soul
deprived of its body, hovering between heaven and earth. Such
is our soul to-day; to-morrow it shall come to rest, in this
our sanctuary. That is our faith.”

Dr. Weizmann then read the following message from Mr. Balfour:――

“Please accept my cordial good wishes for the future of the
_Hebrew_ University on Mount Scopus. May it carry out its
noble purpose with ever-increasing success as the years go on.
I offer my warm congratulations to all who have laboured so
assiduously to found this school of learning, which should be
an addition to the forces of progress throughout the world.”

Captain Coulandre, on behalf of the French Government, presented the following message:――

“Le Gouvernement de la République est heureux d’exprimer
les sentiments de sympathie avec lesquels il accueille la
fondation de l’Université Juive. Il forme des vœux sincères
pour que de là rayonnent les grandes pensées de fraternité
et d’idéal auxquels le Judaisme s’est si fermement attaché à
travers les siècles au cours desquels il a resisté à toutes
les persécutions, et pour que dans un monde débarassé des
violences engendrées par les ambitions forcenées du régime
Prussien les Juifs qui le desireront puissent trouver en
Palestine en parfaite entente avec les autres groupements
ethniques un foyer à la fois intellectuel et social.”

The whole ceremony was a deeply moving one, and produced an effect which will long remain with those who witnessed it.

The work of the Commission was made possible by the work of the British Army and its scope was greatly increased by General Allenby’s complete conquest of the country. In September, 1918, General Allenby secured a victory which resounded throughout the world by its completeness as well as by its brilliance. By most skilful procedure the Turkish line was broken in several places and _Nablus_ and _Beisan_ were captured. The bridge of the _Daughters of Jacob_ over the _Jordan_ was seized and British troops wheeling round by quick marches along the coastal plain, passed through the defile of _Megiddo_ and cut off the greater portion of the Turkish army. The strong Turkish positions in the hills about _Nablus_ were surrounded and positions which if directly attacked would have cost thousands of lives were taken with comparatively few losses.

Eighty thousand prisoners were captured and a vast amount of guns, munitions, and stores. The cavalry swept northward and captured _Damascus_ within a few days, and even moved on to _Beirout_ and _Sidon_ on the coast, while the Arabs under the King of the Hedjaz defeated the Turks in the south-east of Palestine and Jewish troops were sent forward to the capture of _Amman_ and _Es-Salt_. In a period of a fortnight, three armies were defeated and ceased to exist. Turkey’s military power was destroyed instantaneously. The only defences left to the Turkish Empire were bad communications, immense distances, and the submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean. The victories in Palestine stirred the world and gave new vigour to Zionist efforts. To the outside world, these victories marked the first decisive step in the final defeat of the German federation. To the Zionists, they brought great joy because they definitely ended the corrupt rule of Turkey. Supported by the most powerful nations in the world, the Jews are asked to create in Palestine a typically _Hebrew_ society. A great responsibility and a great opportunity are thus offered to us. We have to consider many new and difficult problems. But for the solution of these practical problems, we confidently expect to receive much help from Jews all over the world. The Declaration of the Allies has been like a trumpet-call. Our wonderful successes in the world of diplomacy fascinate all to whom the fate of _Israel_ is of importance. The history of the past few years, which has transformed, at the cost of terrible injuries to humanity, what seemed dreams into plain facts, and made what were facts into dream-like memories, will surely bring us active help from all who sympathize with our ideal, the ideal for which Jews have unceasingly prayed and hoped for twenty centuries.

* * * * *

This mighty war has now come to an end and the world breathes freely once more. The cruelties and horrors of more than four years seem now like a nightmare. That nightmare has vanished――let us hope for ever. Day has dawned again, a day of victory, whose power for good outweighs the evil powers let loose by the world-war. The great armies of the Western Allies and of the United States of America have been victorious. In consequence of this victory an old world order has been destroyed and a new and a better one brought into being. State organizations which had forced diverse nations into their artificial and incongruous structures only by power are collapsing like houses of cards. Those who ruled by the sword perished by the sword. Despotism, supported by militarism, is shattered. The victory of the Allies ought to be more than a victory of _one_ group of states over another; this ought to be the victory of what is good in man over what is evil. This victory must benefit the conquered not less than the conquerors. One great idea has been victorious in this war, namely, the national principle: liberty, equality, and self-determination of all peoples, great and small, old and young. Every nation has the right to live, given the will to do so. Every nation has a right to the land in which it grew to be a nation. It is all one, whether this was accomplished a hundred years ago as in Belgium, or many hundreds of years ago as in Armenia, or as in Greece some thousands of years ago. The right of a people to its historical home cannot be limited by time.

On the basis of this principle a new Europe is shaping itself. Every nation must have its own land, its share in human civilization, with its own speech and customs, its right to do as it wills. Alsace-Lorraine wants to be French, and therefore it shall be French again. The Czechs and the Southern Slavs wish to form independent states; Poland, Belgium, Serbia, and others, too, are reasserting their independence. Wherever historical rights exist, these must now be realized. Every nation regains now its Zion for which it has longed and suffered. Although this is a great progress in itself, it would be a poor safeguard unless the other great principle were also adopted, the principle of freedom. With the regeneration of national freedom it follows also that the progress of human liberty, equality, and social justice both in the existing states and in the old ones now to be re-established will be assured. No despotism, no subjection of minorities, but liberty, equality, and fraternity for all citizens, equal duties and equal rights.

For this ideal seven millions of men, the vigorous youth of mankind, have sacrificed their lives, and many millions more have been crippled. For this ideal of justice several countries have been laid waste and civilization itself has been threatened with complete destruction. This great ideal of justice, however, will be worthy of the terrible sacrifices which have been made; it must now be attained.

A new Europe and――a new Asia. Light is shining again from the East. The glorious British Army has reconquered ancient East for civilization. The Arabs, our Semitic kindred, the descendants of a chivalrous and one-time famous race, side by side with inspired Jewish volunteer forces who had flocked together to fight with love and enthusiasm for the Land of Promise, have, with the assistance of French and Italian reinforcements, done their duty in assisting the British Army. Mesopotamia, Arabia, Syria, and Palestine are now freed for their nations. An Arabian Kingdom, a free, well-ordered Syria, the remnants of the unfortunate, hard-tried Armenian nation established as an Armenian State, and a new _Erez Israel_, all these will have to be created on a basis of historical rights and of the realization of the national principle, each under the protection of, and receiving assistance from, some suitable Great Power, in accordance with their own desire, in their gradual and peaceful progress towards their ultimate goal.

What, we ask, will now be the position of the Jews at this juncture? What will the great victory bring to this people who have been so hard hit by this war? Hundreds of thousands of Jews have lost their lives, most of them in countries where they had no share in human rights, and nothing to fight for. Dying on the Carpathian mountains or in the plains of Moldavia, the last glance of their closing eyes was turned to the East, to the hills of _Zion_. Innumerable masses have been maimed, millions nerve-shattered and starved out, tens of thousands of Jewish homes, thousands of old Jewish communities wiped out, never to be reconstructed. Will all this not be taken into account in the general reckoning of the great victory? Jews live in larger or smaller numbers in different countries, where they are faithful and devoted citizens. The majority of the Jewish people have suffered too long and too bitterly in many countries, and it must be the task of the nations and their governments, once and for all, to put an end to these unspeakable sufferings in the old states and in those soon to be founded, by solemn declarations and binding obligations. The Jews desire to be emancipated, that is, released from servile tutelage; in a free state they do not wish to be the only pariahs and slaves. They demand to be free; that means in the first place that they want to breathe freely, to breathe wherever they wish without fear that a policeman or a neighbour should point out to them that a Jew may not breathe everywhere. They demand to be free; that means in the second place, that they should have the right to use their powers of mind and body unhindered in any honest calling, in any useful art, in any branch of science; so that they can be active and industrious, follow skilled employments, or discharge the functions of office in order to maintain themselves and their families and not be a burden upon others. This they desire without having to fear that the Gentile competitor should be able to say to them: only Gentile hands, only Gentile craftsmen may be employed in skilled trades, only Gentile applicants are admitted to official positions, only Gentile abilities can assert themselves. And as there are too many of you, we must make laws to limit your activities――otherwise we shall boycott you! They demand to be free; that means in the third place that they must be free also as regards their conscience: if their sons possess sufficient talent and knowledge to serve the country as scholars or as public officials, they should be able to do so as honest Jews, and not be compelled to parade as dishonest Christians, that is to profane the ceremony of baptism and to use the certificate of baptism as a passport to office; they do not wish to act as hypocrites, they do not wish to enter Christian communities by lying and knavery, or to smuggle themselves in that way into civic life. They wish to live as Jews, that means to maintain and to develop undisturbed in their true spirit their customs, their traditions, their system of education, their communities, etc. In short, they wish to be human beings, since he that may not be a citizen with a citizen’s full rights in the place where he lives and works and bears his share in all social burdens, has been denied the right to be a human being; or if rights are granted to a man under the condition that he should become assimilated and cease to be what he has been, thanks to his race and the traditions sacred to him, against that man’s manhood the crime of murder has been committed. They wish to be free human beings.

This question indeed concerns humanity. It was raised at the end of the eighteenth century by the great French Revolution, and in some states with small Jewish populations it has been solved in a spirit of liberty. France, England, Italy were the pioneers of equal rights for all. The United States of America were an example in establishing the freedom of citizenship. Nevertheless the majority of the Jews presented during the course of the nineteenth century a pitiful spectacle of unceasing martyrdom――with many shades from semi-emancipation linked with anti-semitism, to boycott and massacres.

The world is changing all its values, and should there be in any country a continuation of tyranny, oppression, and barbarous persecution with regard to the Jews, under any pretext――of which there has never and nowhere seemed to be a lack――then the great ideal of this world-war will remain an idle dream. For justice can never exist together with injustice. This problem of humanity must now be and will be solved.

But the essential problem of modern political evolution lies deeper than this: it is the problem of the peoples that have been robbed of their lands. No matter how the position of the Jews may be ameliorated, and although many Jews may find a home here and there, nevertheless the genius of the Jewish people, the energy of its constructive power, its creative force will have no adequate means of expression. To have a strong impulse to live their own full life and not to be able to do so――that is the heart-breaking tragedy of this people. This essential dilemma is left untouched by the vague formula of Emancipation. Zionism is the only remedy for the deeper Jewish problem, because Zionism alone goes to the real root of the trouble. There can be no Emancipation worthy of the name without a homeland. The greatest danger to Zionism as well as to anti-Zionism is that the ideal of Zionism on the one hand and that of Emancipation on the other should be separated, and that people should come to regard as antagonistic objects which are essentially related and complementary to one another. Not all Jews will return to Palestine, but large numbers will. Zionism represents one of the highest manifestations of that aspiration to free national existence which is the basis of the reconstruction of the world. When a people, uprooted for centuries from its soil, scattered like dust over the whole world, wants to restore its homeland to-day, to have a land where it can be reunited, then we have before us a proof of the new power that lies in the national idea. Millions of Jews are attached to Palestine with all their soul and strength, just as on the first day of the forced expulsion of their ancestors from their old home: their prayers, their lamentations, their dreams have centred for generations upon this magnetic pole of their love and reverence. Hundreds of times they made desperate efforts to return, but were prevented by powerful circumstances from doing so, and as soon as they had the opportunity of beginning again the re-settlement of Palestine, notwithstanding unspeakable sufferings and the greatest sacrifices, they instantly and energetically availed themselves of it. If the millions of Jewish emigrants who formed the new ghettoes of Europe and America from about 1880 to now had had the possibility of going to Palestine, they would have gladly seized it, because they wished to live as a nation, but that was not possible at that time. _Israel_ must have its own home. Palestine must become the spiritual and cultural centre of the Jews. Properly developed, it can hold millions of homeless Jews who will at last have their own homeland and their own full nationality. If it is a misfortune for a people to be robbed of its country, where it could live in peace and prosperity as a nation and enjoy in common with the rest of the family of nations the fruits of its labour, then this misfortune is not smaller but rather has become greater for having existed two thousand years. If it is an injustice to withhold from a people a land to which they have a right, then this injustice is not the smaller, but rather the greater, when a people has suffered it for two thousand years. Never has a nation governed its own home for a longer period; no nation’s history, religion, literature, and traditions are more closely bound up with its land; and no nation has ever suffered a more terrible martyrdom after having been disinherited. Can anyone doubt the right of the Jewish people to the land of _Israel_? The validity of the Jewish title to Palestine rests on the same basis as the title of any nation to any particular area of the world where it has ruled and existed for centuries. The Jews’ historical right on the Land of _Israel_, with due consideration for the rights and interests of the non-Jewish population which will be safe-guarded and respected, must become the decisive factor in the question of Palestine.

At last the time has come. The spirit of freedom is on the wing, the Great Creative Spirit is once more moving among the nations. The new territorial settlement is going to lay the foundations of the world’s peace on a basis of justice and national union. The liberation of oppressed nationalities, the restoration of territories violently annexed in the past, the recognition of the desire of racial units and groups for autonomy are the great objects in view. The wrongs of the centuries are going to be righted, and the Jewish race to be placed on an equal footing with other races. The Jewish people is standing at a momentous turning point in its history of four thousand years, to which the determined labour of Zionism has paved the way. The very roots of Jewish nationality are set in that soil which after being for ages in shadow is again turning to light. With the victory of the national idea Zionism also has won a victory. Now that Palestine is freed, much is possible which formerly was only an aspiration. The field is immense and ready. The evil demon of the Pharaohs and of Antiochus Epiphanes has been cast out; the glorious genius of Cyrus the Great hovers with wings of love over the wonderful destiny of the Jewish people. Powerful nations and governments――the guardians of freedom and the champions of justice――have solemnly pledged themselves to further with all the forces at their disposal the revival of the Jewish nation in the land of _Israel_. Under this guiding symbol the problem of Palestine will be discussed and settled by the Peace Conference among all the important questions before it. The work is stupendous in its implications and its responsibilities. No one imagines that this result can be speedily attained. Its accomplishment will take time, and quite possibly a long time. To restore a scattered people to a land long neglected is not an easy task. The Jewish colonization of Palestine must be carefully built, stone upon stone, by the steady hands of Zionists with that spirit of self-sacrificing endurance which saved our nationality, with wisdom and self-restraint. Zionists are aware of what the Holy Places of Palestine, places of traditional associations and religious faith, consecrated by a thousand cherished memories, are to the great religions. These places will receive equal respect; they will be, not less, but more than hitherto reverently exalted as places of the rarest and sweetest memories in the world. Zionists have the most scrupulous regard for all spiritual things and needs of all religions, and are confident that all Holy Places will be safeguarded by arrangements to be introduced. Zionists are also alive to the legitimate interests and needs of the non-Jewish population, whose liberty and welfare, in peace and harmony and mutual respect, are most essential for the success of the Jewish national rebirth. The new Jewish centre must be made worthy of its glorious past. The noblest ambitions of Jews all over the world are concentrated on this point.

Zionists have now an opportunity never dreamt of――an opportunity that may never return. The Jewish masses, all those who want to live their own life, the clean, free life of farmers and settlers, will be enabled to cultivate all the possibilities of their nature. Industry, art, and science are to join hands in this great work. The long-desired goal of the Jewish people, the rehabilitation of the old national home in the land of their fathers, is nearing realization. This is a great historical event which must touch and stimulate the imagination of all for whom history, right of nations, and justice for small nationalities have any meaning or any message. Ancient Israel, reawakened to new life, is preparing itself to enter the family of nations as a small but free nation in its old home.

Zionism is not a mere abstract idea. It is connected by every bond with modern democracy and aspirations for liberty. All peoples for whom democracy is not a vain word owe it moral and material support. The Peace Conference must permit it to attain its ends. The League of Nations will not be complete if the oldest and most oppressed Jewish nationality will not have its place there. Of all the consequences of the Great War and the still greater Victory, none could be invested with so splendid a degree of romance as the re-establishment of _Israel_. Of all the small nations which shall spring full fledged from this world crisis, none will have so ancient a claim, so fascinating a history as the _Hebrew_ people reinstalled among the consecrated hills of _Judah_ and by the sacred waters of _Galilee_. This will be an everlasting memorial to the principle for which the free peoples of the earth have made the greatest sacrifice in the history of the human race. And the names of all those who have given their support and help towards this work of Peace, Justice, and Liberty will live for ever in the annals of the world and of _Israel_.

APPENDICES

B. M.: British Museum Library.
I. S.: Israel Solomons’ Collection.

THE PROPHETS AND THE IDEA OF A NATIONAL RESTORATION

THE first prophet who has left any definite revelation concerning the Dispersion of the Jews and their ultimate restoration in Palestine was Moses, our Law-giver.

“And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies
that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.” (Leviticus
xxvi. 32.)

“And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out
the sword after you; and your land shall be a desolation, and
your cities shall be a waste.” ( _Ibid._ 33.)

“And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their
enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to
destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for
I am the Lord their God.” (_Ibid._ 44.)

“But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their
ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in
the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the
Lord.” (_Ibid._ 45.)

Here we have a promise not to abhor or utterly destroy the Jewish people, but to remember the covenant which God made with their ancestors. We find the purport of this covenant in an early chapter of the Pentateuch:――

“And the Lord said unto Abram, ... ‘Lift up now thine
eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and
southward and eastward and westward;’” (Genesis xiii. 14.)

“for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it,
and to thy seed for ever:” (_Ibid._ 15.)

It is impossible to understand how it can be said that this covenant will be remembered, if the Jewish people is to continue dispersed, and is to be _for ever_ excluded from the land here spoken of. As to the return from Babylonian captivity, that will not answer the intention of the covenant at all. For to restore a small part of the Jewish people to its own land for a few centuries, and afterwards disperse it among all nations for many times as long, without any hope of return, cannot be the meaning of giving that land to the seed of Abram _for ever_.

Again we read:――

“And the Lord shall scatter you among the peoples,...”
(Deuteronomy iv. 27.)

“But from thence ye will seek the Lord thy God; and thou shalt
find Him, if thou search after Him with all thy heart and with
all thy soul.” (_Ibid._ 29.)

“In thy distress, when all these things are come upon thee,
in the end of days, thou wilt return to the Lord thy God, and
hearken unto His voice;” (_Ibid._ 30.)

“for the Lord thy God is a merciful God; He will not fail thee,
neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers
which He swore unto them.” (_Ibid._ 31.)

This prophecy refers to the thirteenth chapter of Genesis, as is shown by this thirty-first verse; and confirms again the return to the Holy Land, and its possession for ever:――

“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come
upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before
thee, and thou shalt bethink thyself among all the nations,
whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,” (Deuteronomy
xxx. 1.)

“and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and hearken to His
voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou
and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;”
(_Ibid._ 2.)

“that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have
compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all
the peoples, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.”
(_Ibid._ 3.)

“If any of thine that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts
of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and
from thence will He fetch thee.” (_Ibid._ 4.)

“And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy
fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do
thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” (_Ibid._ 5.)

Amongst the “things which should come upon them,” which are described at large in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters of Deuteronomy, it is particularly said:――

“And the Lord shall scatter thee among all peoples, from the
one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;...”
(_Ibid._ xxviii. 64.)

But observe that subsequently we are told:――

“And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which
thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will
do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” (_Ibid._
xxx. 5.)

which promises do not appear to have been fulfilled during the time of the Babylonian captivity, or after the return from Babylon.

Here we have in plain words, simple and clear, the fundamental idea of Moses: the Jewish national future and the possession of the land for ever. This cannot be explained away by sophistry. In vain some Jews declare: We are not nationalist Jews, we are religious Jews! What is the Jewish religion if the Bible is not accepted as an Inspired Revelation? It is strange and sadly amusing that some Jews, adherents of the monotheistic principle, describe themselves as Germans, Magyars, and so on, “of the persuasion of Moses.” If this is not blasphemy, it is irony. The real Moses, the Moses of the Pentateuch, brands Dispersion as a curse, and his whole religious conception, with all the laws, ceremonies, feasts, etc., is built up on the basis of the covenant with the ancestors, a covenant immovable and unalterable. No matter whether Jews call themselves religious or nationalist: the Jewish religion cannot be separated from nationalism, unless another Bible is invented.

Judaism, or the Jewish religion, is based first upon the teaching of Moses, and next upon that of the prophets, and it is a favourite claim of the modern school of Jewish reform that their Judaism is “Prophetic Judaism,” in opposition to the Judaism of orthodox Jews, who lay particular stress upon the Talmud. But what do the prophets teach?

The next revelation in chronological order after the inspired predictions of Moses, is that of Joel the son of Pethuel, who began to prophesy to the Kingdom of Judah about eight hundred years before the civil era:――

“Then was the Lord jealous for His land,
And had pity on His people.” (Joel ii. 18.)

“And the Lord answered and said unto His people:
Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil,
And ye shall be satisfied therewith;
And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations;”
(_Ibid._ 19.)

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time,
When I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,”
(_Ibid._ iv. 1.)

“So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain;
Then shall Jerusalem be holy,...” (_Ibid._ 17.)

“But Judah shall be inhabited for ever,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation.” (_Ibid._ 20.)

Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, lived in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, King of Israel, and prophesied to the Kingdom of Israel from eight hundred and eight, to seven hundred and eighty-three years before the civil era:――

“And I will turn the captivity of My people Israel,
And they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;...”
(Amos ix. 14.)

“And I will plant them upon their land,
And they shall no more be plucked up
Out of their land which I have given them,
Saith the Lord thy God.” (_Ibid._ 15.)

Hosea, the son of Beeri, prophesied to the Kingdom of Israel, in the days of the same Jeroboam from about seven hundred and eighty-five, to seven hundred and twenty-five years before the civil era:――

“For the children of Israel shall sit solitary many days without
king, and without prince,...” (Hosea iii. 4.)

“afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the
Lord their God, and David their king;...” (_Ibid._ 5.)

This prophecy, being given to the Kingdom of Israel in particular, cannot be applied to the return of Judah from Babylon.

Isaiah the son of Amoz (The First Isaiah) was the foremost of the four who are called the greater prophets. He lived in the time of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah, and prophesied about seven hundred and sixty, to six hundred and ninety-eight years before the civil era:――

“And it shall come to pass in that day,
That the Lord will set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people,
That shall remain from Assyria, and from Egypt,
And from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
And from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the
sea.” (Isaiah xi. 11.)

“And he will set up an ensign for the nations,
And will assemble the dispersed of Israel,
And gather together the scattered of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.” (_Ibid._ 12.)

“The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,
And they that harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.” (_Ibid._ 13.)

This prophecy, alone, is sufficiently definite with regard to a second restoration of Israel, as appears from the eleventh verse, even if there were no other to be found.

As to the second Isaiah, his prophecies may be called the “Song of Songs” of the restoration of Israel:――

“Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
They all are gathered together, and come to thee;
Thy sons come from far,
And thy daughters are borne on the side.” (Isaiah lx. 4.)

“Who are these that fly as a cloud,
And as the doves to their cotes?” (_Ibid._ 8.)

“Surely the isles shall wait for Me,
And the ships of Tarshish first,
To bring thy sons from far,
Their silver and their gold with them,
For the name of the Lord thy God,
And for the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified
thee.” (_Ibid._ 9.)

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make,
shall remain before Me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and
your name remain.” (_Ibid._ lxvi. 22.)

Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, about 750 years before the civil era:――

“I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee;
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; ...”
(Micah ii. 12.)

“In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth,
And I will gather her that is driven away,
And her that I have afflicted;” (_Ibid._ iv. 6.)

“And I will make her that halted a remnant,
And her that was cast far off a mighty nation;
And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from
thenceforth even for ever.” (_Ibid._ 7.)

“Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham,
As Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”
(_Ibid._ vii. 20.)

Here we again meet the covenant of Truth and Mercy sworn unto Abraham, that the land Abraham then stood upon should be given to him and to his seed for ever.

Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, prophesied in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, about six hundred and thirty years before the ♦civil era:――

“At that time will I bring you in,
And at that time will I gather you;
For I will make you to be a name and a praise
Among all the peoples of the earth,
When I turn your captivity before your eyes,
Saith the Lord.” (Zephaniah iii. 20.)

♦ “cvil” replaced with “civil”

Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, also prophesied in the days of Josiah, about six hundred and twenty-nine to five hundred and eighty-eight years before the civil era:――

“In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of
Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the
north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto
your fathers.” (Jeremiah iii. 18.)

“In his days Judah shall be saved,
And Israel shall dwell safely;...” (_Ibid._ xxiii. 6.)

“Thus saith the Lord,
Who giveth the sun for a light by day,
And the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by
night,
Who stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar,
The Lord of hosts is His name:” (_Ibid._ xxxi. 35.)

“If these ordinances depart from before Me,
Saith the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel also shall cease
From being a nation before Me for ever.” (_Ibid._ 36.)

“Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying:
The two families which the Lord did choose, He hath cast them
off? and they contemn My people, that they should be no more a
nation before them.” (_Ibid._ xxxiii. 24.)

“Thus saith the Lord: If My covenant be not with day and night,
if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;”
(_Ibid._ 25.)

“then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David My
servant,...” (_Ibid._ 26.)

“But fear not thou, O Jacob My servant,
Neither be dismayed, O Israel;
For, lo, I will save thee from afar,
And thy seed from the land of their captivity;
And Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease,
And none shall make him afraid.” (_Ibid._ xlvi. 27.)

Ezekiel the Priest, the son of Buzi, prophesied in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Cebar, about five hundred and ninety-five, to five hundred and seventy-four years before the civil era. In the thirty-sixth chapter he describes the restoration of Judah and Israel in words so plain and clear that nobody could possibly mistake them, and in the next chapter, by the wonderful vision of dry bones reviving, he shows that, however unpromising the state of Israel may seem, while they are dispersed through the world, yet will God most certainly effect the reunion of the tribes which is here foretold:――

“Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them――it shall
be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will establish
them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the
midst of them for ever.” (_Ibid._ xxxvii. 26.)

Chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine give a most circumstantial description of the return, which excluded the possibility of an allegorical explanation.

Obadiah prophesied about five hundred and eighty-seven years before the civil era:――

“But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,
And it shall be holy;
And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.”
(Obadiah i. 17.)

“And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel,
That are among the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath,
And the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in Sepharad,
Shall possess the cities of the South.” (_Ibid._ 20.)

Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, prophesied about five hundred and twenty years before the civil era, to those that had returned from captivity. He had the idea of a great future restoration.

“And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the
nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save
you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands
be strong.” (Zechariah viii. 13.)

“I will bring them back also out of the land of Egypt,
And gather them out of Assyria;
And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,
And place shall not suffice them.” (_Ibid._ x. 10.)

Malachi prophesied about four hundred and twenty years before the civil era:――

“And all nations shall call you happy;
For ye shall be a delightsome land,
Saith the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi iii. 12.)

“Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet
Before the coming
Of the great and terrible day of the Lord.”
(_Ibid. _ 23.)

Daniel’s (Belteshazzar) prophecies from about five hundred and thirty-four, to five hundred and seven years before the civil era relate not only to the affairs of Judah and Israel, but also to the various monarchies and kingdoms that are to arise successively in the world. In the following verses he foretells the national future of his own people:――

“And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; nor shall the
kingdom be left to another people; ..., but it shall stand
for ever.” (Daniel ii. 44.)

“And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people
of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.” (_Ibid._
vii. 27.)

“... and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was
seen since there was a nation even to that same time; and at
that time thy people shall be delivered,...” (_Ibid._ xii. 1.)

These predictions undoubtedly signify that the Children of Israel shall _enjoy a kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven_, i.e. upon the earth, which shall _never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people_.¹

¹ The most notable _Talmudic_ and _Rabbinical_ passages
referring to the future of the Jewish nation are: _Talm. Bab.
Berachoth_ 28b, 34b; _Shabb._ 118a; _Menahoth_ 45a; _Baba
Mezia_ 3a; _Eduyoth_ VIII. 7; _Kiddushin_ 71a; Gen. _Rabba_
LXXXV. 2; _Hagigah_ 14a; _Sanhedrin_ 38b; 98a, 99a, 110b,
111a; _Erubin_ 43b; Cant. _Rabba_ VII. 10; _Sifri_ on Deut.
1: 1; _Baba Bathra_ 76a. For the views of the _Gaon_ Saadia
_ben_ Joseph (892‒942) see Guttman, _Religionsphilosophie
des Saadia_, Göttingen, 1882, _p._ 236; for Hai _ben_
Sherira _Gaon_ (939‒1038) see _Taam Zekenim_, Frankfort
on the Main, 1854, _pp._ 58‒61; for Abraham _ben_ Chiya
Albargeloni _Ha’nasi_ (called Abraham Judæus and Savasorda)
(1065‒1136) see _Hegion Ha’nefesh_, Leipzig, 1860, _p._ 40
ff.; for Judah Halevi, see his Poems and Kuzari in Cassel’s
edition, Leipzig, 1869, ii. 36‒44, _pp._ 143‒7, p. iv. 23;
pt. i. 115; for Maimonides, see _Hilchoth Melachim_ in his
_Yad Ha’chazakah_, Chs. XI. XII. and _Hilchoth Teshubah_,
Ch. IX. 2; for Nachmanides, see his Comment. to Gen. 2: 3,
and to Exodus 17: 9; for ♦Abrabanel, his books _Yeshuat
Meshicho_, _Mashmia Yeshuah_, _Maeyenai Ha’yeshua_, and
Klausner: Die Messianischen Vorstellungen ... Berlin, 1904,
and also Greenstone: _The Messiah Idea in Jewish History_,
Philadelphia, 1906.

♦ “Abarbanel” replaced with “Abrabanel” for consistency

II.

REV. PAUL KNELL (1615‒64), ISRAEL AND ENGLAND PARALLELED

By Paul Knell, _Master in Arts of Clare-Hall_ | in Cambridge. | Sometimes Chaplaine to a Regiment of Curiasiers | in his Majesties Army.

London, | Printed in the Yeare 1648.¹

(_4to._ 2 _ll._ + 20 _pp._) [B. M.]

♦ “Paralelled” replaced with “Paralleled”

¹ It was re-issued thirty-three years later:――

... London, Printed in the year 1648. And now Reprinted for
a Caution to all those that are given to Change.

Sold by _Randal Tayler_ and _Robert Stephens_, by
Stationers-Hall, near _Ludgate_. 1681.

_4to._ 2 _ll._ + 16 _pp._ [I. S.]

_pp._ 16‒17. “... first, we may compare with _Israel_ for a fruitfull scituation, being neither under the torrid nor the frozen Zone, neither burned away with parching heat, nor benummed away with pinching cold, but seated in a temperate climate & fertile soile; our folds are full of sheep, our vallies stand so thick with corne that we may laugh & sing. God hath also fenced us about, like the _Israelites_ in the red sea, with a wall of water, the waters are as a wall unto us, on our right hand, & on our left,. .. _And now_, England, _what doth thy Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his waies, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soule_? But here God may as justly complaine of us as he did of _Israel_,...”

III.

MATTHEW ARNOLD ON RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

MATTHEW ARNOLD, in his _Literature and Dogma_, insists that righteousness is in a special manner the object of Bible religion. The word “righteousness” is a master word in the Old Testament. What would England have been were it not for the importance which _Jeshurun_, the upright, attached to the thought and practice of righteousness? She might have been eminent in law, in arts and sciences borrowed from the Romans and the Greeks, but she would have been addicted to idolatry and the gratification of the senses, and would have borne the doom of destruction within herself. He draws a vivid imaginary picture of the authorities of one of the English great Universities, the vice-Chancellor, beadles, masters, scholars, and all, nay, their very professor of moral philosophy, going in procession to worship at the shrine of Aphrodite.

“If it had not been for Israel,” he continues, “and the stern check which Israel put upon the glorification and divinization of this natural bend of mankind.... And as long as the world lasts, all who want to make progress in righteousness will come to Israel for inspiration, as to the people who have had the sense for righteousness most glowing and strongest; and in hearing and reading the words Israel has uttered for us, carers for conduct will find a glow and a force they would find nowhere else. As well imagine a man with a sense for sculpture not cultivating it by the help of the remains of Greek art, or a man with a sense for poetry not cultivating it by the help of Homer and Shakespeare, as a man with a sense for conduct not cultivating it by the help of the Bible.”¹

¹ _Literature and Dogma_ ... By Matthew Arnold ... London ...
1873 ... _pp._ 26, 36‒37 and 56.

IV.

“ESPERANÇA DE ISRAEL,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

מקוה ישראל | _Esto es_, | Esperança | De Israel. |

Obra con suma curiosidad conpuesta | _por_ | Menasseh Ben Israel | Theologo, y Philosopho Hebreo. |

(_sm._ 8º. 7 _ll. _ + 126 _pp._)² [I. S.]

¹ The surname “Ben Israel Soeiro” used by the printer, a son
of the author, is a combination of those of his paternal
grandparents Joseph Ben-Israel and Rachel Soeiro, who
had been _marranos_. Joseph, a victim of the Inquisition,
on returning to the Jewish fold, it may be surmised,
discarded his gothic patronymic and appropriately assumed
that of Ben-Israel. Their son, the author, married Rachel,
a great-granddaughter of the famous Bible exegete and
statesman Don Isaac Abrabanel, who claimed Davidic descent.
In an age when יחוס. was highly prized, we consequently find
that in the following year, when Samuel printed his father’s
_Nishmath Chayyim_, his surname has become “Abrabanel
Soeiro,” and in the Latin addition, “Ben Israel Abrabanel
Sueiro.” He was born in Amsterdam in 1625. He accompanied his
maternal uncle, David Abrabanel [Manuel Martinez Dormido],
to England, on behalf of his father, arriving here on 1st
Sep., 1654, to open up negotiations with Cromwell concerning
the admission of their co-religionists to this country. It
was decided that the presence of Manasseh was incumbent, and
a pass to Holland, dated 16 May, 1655, was granted to Samuel,
to fetch his father. They arrived in the following October,
and resided here close on two years. On Sunday, the second
day of _Rosh Hashanah_, 5418 [8 Sep., 1657, N.S.: 29 Aug.
O.S.], at the early age of thirty-two, Samuel went to his
Eternal rest. He had conjured his father that he would
take his body to Amsterdam, where he was born, for burial.
Manasseh was then in a precarious state of health, and on
arriving at Middleburg in Zealand, where Ephraim Abrabanel,
the maternal uncle of the deceased, resided, he was unable
to continue the journey. The interment took place at the
local _Beth Haim_, and the Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A., a few
years ago discovered the tombstone³ in the third _carera_,
which has the following inscription:――

Manasseh’s illness was mortal. His son Joseph had died at
the age of twenty about eight or nine years before, and the
premature death of his last surviving son hastened his end.
A few weeks later, on the 11 Kislev (20 Nov.), he passed
away in the house of his brother-in-law, but fifty-three
years old. He was interred at the _Sephardi Beth Haim_ at
Oudekerk, Amsterdam.

² Another issue, with a similar collation, but apparently from
other type, was printed in the same year. [I. S.]

It appeared again during the last quarter of the nineteenth
century under the following title:――

Origen De Los Americanos. מקוה ישראל. Esto Es Esperanza De
Israel ... Reimpresion ... Del Libro De Menasseh Ben Israel
... Publicado En Amsterdam 5410 (1650) ... y la biografia del
autor, Por Santiago Perez Junquera.

Madrid.――1881....

8º. xxxvi. _pp._ + 8 _ll._ + 126 _pp._ + 3 _ll._ in printed
wrapper as issued. [I. S.]

³ _Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England_,
vol. vii., 1911‒1914 ... Edinburgh and London, 1915 ... _p._
127: “A Dutch Burial-Ground and its English Connections.” By
the Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A.

“SPES ISRAELIS,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

מקוה ישראל | _Hoc est_, | Spes | Israelis. |

_Authore_ | Menasseh Ben Israel | Theologo & Philosopho Hebræo. Amstelodami. | Anno 1650. |

(_sm._ 8º. 6 _ll._ + 111 _pp._) [I. S.]

_sig._ [A2] Svpremo Angliæ Consessvs Parlamento, _ejusdemque Reipublicæ Status Consilio Honorando_, Salutem, ac felicitatem omnem, a Deo apprecatur Menasseh Ben Israel.¹

¹ This translation was probably the work of the author. Bound
up with this copy is a folded engraving of the author by
Salom Italia.

VI.

“HOPE OF ISRAEL――TEN TRIBES ... IN AMERICA――מקוה ישראל
DE HOOP VAN ISRAEL,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

The | Hope of Israel: |

Written | By Menasseh Ben Israel, | an Hebrew Divine, and Philosopher. |

Translated into _English_, and | published by Authority. |

_In this Treatise is shewed the place where the ten | Tribes at this present are, proved, partly by | the strange relation of one_ Antony Monte-|zinus, _a_ Jew, _of what befell him as he tra-|velled over the Mountaines_ Cordillære, _with | divers other particulars about the restoration of | the_ Jewes, _and the time when._ |

Printed at _London_ by R. I. for _Hannah Allen_, | at the Crown in Popes-head | Alley, 1650. |

(_sm._ 8º. 7 _ll._ + 90 _pp._) [I. S.]

_sig._ A3. “To the Parliament, the Supream Court of _England_, and to the right Honourable the Councell of State, _Menasseh Ben Israell_, prayes God to give health, and all Happinesse.” But the original edition in Spanish is dedicated “_A los Muy Nobles, Prudentes, y Magnificos Señores, Deputados y Parnassim deste K.K. de Talmud Tora_.” ... _Amsterdā. a 13 de Sebat. An. 5410._

In this first English version the name of the translator does not appear on the title page, nor does “The Translator to the Reader” bear any signature; but “Moses Wall” does appear on the title pages of two issues of a second edition which appeared in 1651 and 1652. (_4to._ 5 _ll._ + 62 _pp._) [B. M.]

It was published again under the following title:――

“Accounts Of The Ten Tribes of Israel Being In America; Originally Published By R. Manasseh Ben Israel.

With Observations Thereon, And Extracts From Sacred And Profane, Ancient And Modern History, Confirming The Same; And Their Return From Thence About The Time Of The Return Of The Jews.”

By Robert Ingram, A.M. Vicar of Wormingford and Boxted, Essex.

Colchester: Printed And Sold By W. Keymer; Sold Also By G. G. J. And J. Robinson, Pater-Noster-Row, London, 1792. [Price One Shilling.]

(8º. 56 _pp._) [I. S.]

There are several _Hebrew_ versions, the first translation appearing in 1698.

מקוה ישראל חברו ... החכם השלם׃ ... מנשה בן ישראל זצ״ל בלשון גוי הולנדי״אה׃ ¹ועתה נעתק ללשון
הקודש ע״י ... ר״ אליקים בהר״ר יעקב ש״ץ זצ״ל חזן בק״ק אמשטרדם׃ ... נדפס באמשטרדם ... בשנת
[תנח] לפ״ק ... בדפוס קאשמן עמריך.

(_16mo._ סו (66) _ll._)¹ [I. S.]

¹ It was composed in Spanish in 1650 and did not appear in
Dutch until 1666.

De | Hoop | Van Israël. |

_Een Werck met groote naukeurigheyt_ | _beschreven_: |

Door | Menasseh Ben Israël | Hebreeuws Godtgeleerde en | Wijsbegeer. |

Met meer als 90 Beschrijvers bevestight: |

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History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)Chapter XLIXD (8)

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