THE BRITISH DECLARATION AND ITS RECEPTION
November 2nd, 1917, marks the end of a chapter in Zionist history: it is Declaration Day.
The following are the terms of the letter to Lord Rothschild in which Mr. A. J. Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, declared the sympathy of the British Government with Zionist aspirations and its favourable attitude towards the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people:—
“Foreign Office,
“November 2, 1917.
“Dear Lord Rothschild,—I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty’s Government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet:
“‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’
“I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
“Yours sincerely,
“(Signed) Arthur James Balfour.”
It was at once clear that a great moment in the history of the Jewish people had arrived through this Declaration. Our ancient home has again arisen for civilization. For nineteen centuries it has been made a desert, for nineteen centuries the Jewish people deprived of their own land sought everywhere a place where they could have freedom of the spirit and room for their work, and generation after generation prayed and dreamt of the return to Zion. Generation after generation drew from this source strength to live and to struggle. Now the dreams of our ancestors are becoming reality. The testament of Herzl was approaching fulfilment. The British Government has spoken in solemn terms to the Jews of the world. The time has arrived to create anew a Jewish homeland on the ashes of the past, to rebuild a national centre and to proceed to work in freedom in a free Jewish land.
Mid storm and fire the people and the land seemed to be born again. The great events of the time of Zerubbabel (fl. 536 b.c.e.) Ezra and Nehemiah repeated themselves. The Third Temple of Jewish freedom is rising before us. The first stones were laid long ago by our heroic pioneers in hard struggle against obstacles without number. They created the first nests of culture in Palestine. With their blood and work they have shown the world that the Jewish people has not only historical claims on the land of its ancestors, but also priority in actual fact in the work of its rebirth. These leader heroes, the fathers of political Zionism, bravely proclaimed to the whole world the right of the nation to a free life in the homeland, and organized productive work in Palestine.
Great new horizons of free national constructive work are revealed before our eyes. The fate of the Jewish land depends not only on the powerful protection of Governments, but first and foremost on the steadfastness and capacity for sacrifice of the Jewish people itself. Zerubbabel’s call to the Jews of the Diaspora was heard once more—to return to the ancient land, to grasp the ploughshare and the hammer, and to forge their own destiny.
The Press was without exception most sympathetic.
“Epoch-making is perhaps not too strong a term to apply to Mr. Balfour’s letter to Lord Rothschild. At any time a formal endorsement of Zionism by a Great Power would command attention if couched in such terms. But at the present moment, when Gaza and Beersheba have fallen to British armies and the distant thunder of our guns is heard in Jerusalem itself, the declaration has a significance that cannot be mistaken.
H. Walter Barnett and Co., Ld.
Gen. Sir Edmund H. H. Allenby
“From the Jewish point of view such a restoration opens the door of wonderful possibilities; the hopes that have never been lost during eighteen centuries of the dispersion will return within the region of fact and accomplishment. Scarcely less important should be the consequences for Europe.... The family of nations would be enriched by the return of one of its oldest and most gifted members to a regular and normal place within the circle.” (Daily Chronicle, Nov. 9th.)
“... In deciding to give the Zionists their chance, the British Government have done a bold thing and a wise thing; and as an honestly inspired and intelligent disinterestedness is sounder policy than the most crafty selfishness, they have incidentally struck in this dark hour a very heavy blow for the cause for which the free peoples of the world are fighting. Considered merely as a gesture, what is there in the war to compare in effectiveness to this decision?... The promise of the restoration of Palestine will count for more in the judgment of the world than all the desolation wrought by the German legions among the nations whom they have trodden under foot.” (Daily News, Nov. 10th.)
“The restoration of Palestine to the Jews will fulfil the centuries old desire of that ancient people. Moreover, it will give them a home for the development of an individual culture, and will not affect other than beneficially the rights which they have won as citizens of the countries in which they have made their homes. Moreover, it will provide refuge for the persecuted, and a centre of Jewish life to which all the race will naturally turn. Then it will be well for the Allies’ interests in the Mediterranean that so important a place should become permanently neutralized and stand no risk of falling into the hands of the Powers which might make a mischievous use of it.” (Pall Mall Gazette.)
“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.