PREFATORY NOTE
The present volume contains the continuation and documentation of Volume I.
After the conclusion of the historical review in its chronological order, it was considered desirable to supplement a portion of the narrative by adding further chapters, which will be found at the beginning of the present volume. These chapters bring the historical narrative up to the outbreak of the War in 1914.
The developments in the Zionist Movement during the War are dealt with in a separate account, which is not claimed to be, in the proper sense of the word, an historical study, but an account of recent activities up to the Peace Conference.
The present volume also contains an introduction, written by the French Ministre des Affaires Etrangères, M. Pichon, which arrived too late to be included in the first volume, and a character sketch of the late Sir Mark Sykes, whose death occurred while the present volume was in the press, to whose memory a tribute is offered.
The appendices contain not only the text of documents referred to in the body of the book, many of them hitherto unpublished, but also essays on subjects related to the main purpose of the work—for instance, Jewish art, and Hebrew literature—and notes of a bibliographical or critical character.
It is desired to point out that the nature of the subject with which this work deals rendered it inevitable that it should to some extent assume an encyclopædic rather than a narrative character. The innumerable sources from which Zionism draws its being, the geographical dispersion of the Jewish people, the many events and phenomena outside of the life of the Jewish people which have had and still have their bearing on the development of the Jewish National idea, give it inevitably the form that it has assumed. The author is well aware that the History of Zionism as narrated in these pages does not appear as altogether a symmetrical structure. Some periods dealt with in the story are somewhat disjointed, and as a necessary consequence the record of those periods reflects the same character. A writer who cared more for the form than for the correctness of the narrative would in such a case have recourse to his imagination in order to fill in the blanks. The present author has not, however, done so. He has attempted rather to let Zionism appear as it really was in the different countries and epochs with which he has dealt. Where his narrative is fragmentary events were fragmentary. In the earliest periods the different elements of Zionism were sometimes completely detached from one another. An exact description of these therefore takes necessarily an encyclopædic character. But Zionism develops as a unity, and at the end it will be found to offer to the reader a united picture.
The present book treats of the History of Zionism especially in England and France, but it has been found both impossible and also undesirable to exclude from the narrative all references to certain important events and personalities of other countries. Zionism in England and France, however, forms the main thesis of these volumes. Furthermore, this book is not only a history of the Zionist efforts among the Jews, it also narrates the history of similar efforts by non-Jews, in connexion with political events and literary manifestations in the countries in which they worked. At the same time the author has endeavoured as little as possible to cover ground that has already been repeatedly traversed, his intention being rather to break new ground and especially to bring to light hitherto unknown sources, old and forgotten prints, unpublished manuscripts and archives. These he has used to illustrate and document his narrative.
The plan which the author has followed falls under three headings:—
(I.)The special treatment of Zionism in England and France;
(II.)A particular consideration of the pro-Zionist efforts outside of Jewry; and
(III.)The publication of previously unknown literary and archival sources.
In accordance with this plan this history begins in the year 1600, although the history of Zionism in reality opened much earlier, even perhaps at the beginning of the Jewish history of the countries dealt with.
Material for a thorough treatment of the History of Zionism in other countries, including many monographs and historical notices which remain in the hands of the author, as well as further recent diplomatic and other documents relating to the most recent development of Zionism and in connexion with the Peace Conference of 1919, will be used as the basis of further volumes.
Publication of an index to the work might well have been deferred until these volumes had been completed, but the author thinks that he ought not to delay one any longer. At the end of the present volume, therefore, the reader will find a thorough index of persons and of subjects, for which Mr. Jacob Mann, M.A., is responsible and to whom he hereby tenders his thanks.
Finally, the author wishes to supplement the expression of thanks addressed to those of his friends who are mentioned in the Preface to the first volume of this work for the assistance they have rendered him in its preparation, and to mention in particular the good services of Mr. Albert M. Hyamson and M. André Spire.
Paris, June, 1919.
INTRODUCTION
By M. STÉPHEN PICHON
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS FOR FRANCE
Fidèle aux traditions de son histoire, la France vient de montrer une fois de plus, au prix du sang de tant de ses fils, comment elle entend les devoirs que lui impose son rôle séculaire d’émancipatrice des opprimés. Elle sort aujourd’hui victorieuse d’une lutte décisive, soutenue au nom du Droit menacé par la brutalité d’un impérialisme sans scrupules. Champion des grandes idées qu’il a, plus que tout autre, semées à travers le monde, notre pays a puisé dans la conscience d’être un vivant symbôle de justice, la force de terrasser son adversaire. Il a, du moins aujourd’hui, le droit de se dire, non sans fierté, qu’il n’est plus au monde une race ou une nation qui ne puisse faire entendre ses légitimes aspirations, et qui ne sache qu’en France il y aura toujours un cœur pour les adopter.
Dans la paix comme dans la guerre, la France, étroitement unie à ses Alliés, veut demeurer fidèle à sa parole. Elle a promis aux nationalités naguère asservies de défendre leurs intérêts et de faire respecter leurs droits. Elle ne reniera pas une promesse dont la réalisation, en inaugurant une ère nouvelle de l’histoire du monde, justifiera les sacrifices consentis à la cause commune. Elle ne laissera se commettre aucune injustice, d’où qu’elle vienne, et qu’elle qu’en soit la victime. Elle ne saurait permettre, en particulier, sans protester hautement, qu’une majorité ethnique ou confessionnelle puisse désormais abuser impunément de sa force à l’égard d’autres éléments voisins, plus faibles ou plus dispersés.
C’est dire l’écho que ne pourra manquer d’éveiller chez les Français la voix éloquente du représentant le plus autorisé du Sionisme. Monsieur Sokolow, mettant au service de son idéal, un talent qui n’en est plus à son premier essai, s’attache à nous retracer l’histoire des doctrines au triomphe desquelles il n’a cessé de consacrer le meilleur de ses forces. Sachant combien il importe, aujourd’hui, de démontrer historiquement les origines et les antécédents des idées que l’on professe, il a voulu nous exposer les titres que possède le Sionisme à s’imposer à l’attention des Alliés, au moment où ceux-ci procèdent à une reconstitution du monde entier. Monsieur Sokolow, dont la foi dans le succès final de nos armes ne connut jamais de défaillances, possède une foi au moins égale dans l’esprit de justice qui préside à l’œuvre de la Conférence de la Paix. Les sympathies et les concours précieux qu’il a su trouver chez nos amis Britanniques, et dont Mr. Balfour lui renouvelle ici-même l’assurance la plus formelle, sont aux protagonistes du Sionisme un sûr garant de l’accueil que la France réserve à leur généreuse initiative.
Non seulement, en effet la race juive n’a cessé d’être, au cours des siècles, persécutée, décimée, poursuivie sans trêve par une haine incapable de désarmer; plus malheureuse encore que tant d’autres peuples opprimés, qui ont pu conserver au moins un symbôle de leur grand passé, les Juifs n’ont pu sauver ce dernier vestige. D’autres qu’eux mêmes sont devenus les maîtres de la Judée. Dispersés à travers le monde, beaucoup aspirent aujourd’hui plus que jamais à reprendre la chaîne brisée par tant de conquérants successifs, de leurs traditions ethniques et religieuses: ils pensent aussi qu’une telle restauration n’est possible qu’appuyée sur des réalités, c’est à dire, en l’espèce, sur un foyer moral national reconstitué au milieu des ruines de l’antique Judée. Qui donc, sans avoir perdu les plus élémentaires sentiments d’humanité et de justice, pourrait refuser aux exilés de revendiquer leur place, au même titre que les autres éléments indigènes, dans cette Palestine où un contrôle collectif des Puissances européennes assurera désormais à chacun le respect de ses droits les plus sacrés?
Entrée en guerre pour assurer la victoire définitive du Droit sur la force, la France se félicite de l’appui que le Sionisme a rencontré chez elle et chez ses Alliés. Une doctrine qui a pour elle, outre la justice, l’éloquence d’avocats tels que M. Sokolow est assurée de succès. Je suis heureux de l’occasion qui m’est offerte de réitérer les vœux que le Gouvernement de la République n’a cessé de faire pour le triomphe final d’une cause qui rallie tant de sympathies françaises.