[¹] Dom Pedro de Alcantara (1825–1891).
[²] The Empress Eugénie, b. 1826.
Evidently Dunant expected more from England and English Jews than from any other country in the world. The liberties and rights of citizenship of the Jews have been more respected, and their social and political standing made more secure in this country than in any other. Here, at all events, the days of Jewish persecution have long since passed away.
In France, where a favourable atmosphere for Jewish national aspirations had scarcely been created, M. Dunant’s scheme does not appear to have made much headway in a practical direction; but there is no doubt that his efforts were watched with sympathetic interest. We quote again M. L. Lévy-Bing, who advocated the Zionist idea in several articles from 1864 onwards.[¹] In French fiction M. Alexandre Dumas (fils) (1824–1895) had made one of the heroes of his play La Femme de Claude a Zionist character (Appendix lxx). Many more such quotations could be traced, but we mention this only as an example. Further, there was, at all events, the idea of Jewish brotherhood in the creation of the “Alliance Israélite Universelle”: as we pointed out above, the activities of the “Alliance” were directed chiefly to the East, where it found a vast sphere of labour. All this was consciously or unconsciously Zionist work.
[¹] In one of his last letters M. L. Lévy-Bing wrote: “Quant aux destinées du peuple Juif, la restauration de ce peuple est l’une des conditions essentielles du système divin. Il n’est pas un de nos écrivains sacres, depuis Moïse jusqu’à Malachi, qui ne parle du retour infaillible.”
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA IN ENGLAND
A new appeal—Earl of Shaftesbury in 1876—Edward Cazalet—Laurence Oliphant—Zionism in English fiction—George Eliot—“Daniel Deronda”—The Jewish nationalism of Mordecai Cohen—A quotation from Dr. Joseph Jacobs.
In Palestine the Jews continued to cherish the hope of colonization, though they had a hard struggle for existence. In a new appeal addressed to the Jews in England, Rabbi Sneersohn describes the situation in Palestine, and gives a clear idea of the efforts previously made in the direction of colonization. This appeal is very instructive as to the history of the colonization efforts in the earlier stages (Appendix lxxi).
At the same time, while the Jewish organizations grappled with the problem from the standpoint of charity, the great Zionist idea was again put forth by English Christians. In the first place, Lord Shaftesbury wrote in 1876 a most remarkable Zionist article, from which we quote a few sentences:—