Baron Edmond began to take an interest in Palestine at a time when the doctrine of assimilation was still triumphantly making headway throughout the whole of West-European Jewry. Under the guidance of the preachers of disintegration, Judaism was supposed to emancipate itself from the antiquated traditions of Palestine and from a belief in its future renascence. All this was to be altered. Neither the past nor the future was to interfere with the present. All that Jewish leaders could do to mitigate the lot of their unfortunate co-religionists was—charity. It was in such a world as this that Baron Edmond found himself when he first became a public character and a public force. Breaking away from the assimilation doctrine, he co-operated most cordially with the “Lovers of Zion.”
His activity found appreciation and emulation in England. Representatives of English Jewry, who were at the same time English patriots, supported the colonization of Palestine movement. One of the most prominent “Lovers of Zion” and an ardent supporter of the Jewish national idea, was Colonel Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid, M.V.O. (1846–1904),[¹] a scion of an old and distinguished Anglo-Jewish family. He made the Army his career, and in January, 1869, after serving two and a half years with the Fusiliers at Walmer, proceeded to India with his regiment. He was appointed Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General at headquarters in 1889, and held this position till 1892. In 1892 he accepted the responsible task of organizing the Jewish agricultural colonies in the Argentine, and, having obtained a year’s leave of absence, he proceeded to South America as Director-General. During his administration there enormous tracts of land were surveyed and parcelled out. About seven hundred families were settled in four great colonies, the majority of whom, being quite ignorant of agriculture, had to be instructed in its first principles. The Colonies were organized on a system whereby, as the colonists gained sufficient experience, the administration could be so materially reduced as to render the Colonies virtually self-governing. On returning from the Argentine, Colonel Goldsmid was unanimously elected chief of the “Lovers of Zion” Association of Great Britain and Ireland.
[¹] מיכאל בן אהרון בן אלי בן צבי הלוי, son of Henry Edward Goldsmid (1812–1855), M.E.I.C.S., Chief Secretary to the Government, Bombay, who in 1845 married Jessie Sarah Goldsmid. Her paternal grandfather, Benjamin (Baruch) (1755–1808) ben Aaron (ob. 1782) Goldsmid was one of the pillars of Anglo-Jewry, and a noted philanthropist in the early days of the nineteenth century. Her father-in-law, Edward Moses (ob. 1853), on his marriage in 1804 to Rose (ob. 1851), a daughter of Elias Joachim, discarded his own, for the maiden surname of his mother-in-law Esther (ob. 1811), a sister of Benjamin Goldsmid. Maria [Mrs. Nathan Levien], another daughter of Elias Joachim, was the great-grandmother of Col. A. E. W. Goldsmid’s widow, one of whose daughters is Gladys Helen Rachel, the Baroness Swaythling of Swaythling in the county of Hampshire.
Another active leader was Elim Henry d’Avigdor (1841–1895).[¹] By profession a civil engineer, he supervised the construction of railways in Syria and Transylvania, and of waterworks at Vienna. He was the author of several works in connection with his profession, and had literary leanings in other directions. Under the pseudonym “Wanderer,” he published many hunting stories of merit, for which he was well qualified, being himself an intrepid rider to hounds. At one time he was associated with Vanity Fair; and afterwards owned the Examiner, and subsequently brought out the Yachting Gazette.
[¹] אדם בן שלמה בז יצחק שמואל, eldest son of Salomon Henri d’Avigdor (ob. 1870) by his wife Rachel (1816–1896), third daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Bart., Barão de Goldsmid da Palmeira, of Portugal (1778–1859) [son of Asher (1751–1822), the elder brother of Benjamin Goldsmid] by his wife Isabel (1788–1860), a daughter of his uncle, Abraham Goldsmid (1756–1810). d’Avigdor was a personal friend of Napoleon III. (1808–1873), who conferred upon him the titles of Comte d’Avigdor, and subsequently that of Duc d’Acqua-Viva. His father, Isaac Samuel Avigdor (1773–1850), was secretary of the “Grand Sanhédrin” (1807) convened by Napoleon I. (1769–1821), and represented the department of the “Maritime Alps” in that assembly. He was the author of “Discours Prononcé A L’Assemblée Des Israélites De L’Empire Français Et Du Royaume D’Italie”; Par J. S. Avigdor (De Nice), Secrétaire de L’Assemblée, Membre du comité des Neufs et du Grand Sanhédrin. Paris, De L’Imprimerie De Levrault Rue Mézières, 1807 (8º. 1 l. + 16 pp. [B. M.])
It may be noted here, that “A Jewish State,” issued in 1896, was the English translation by Sylvie, the third daughter of Elim H. d’Avigdor, of Theodor Herzl’s “Judenstaat.”
He was like Colonel Goldsmid, one of the first English Jews to join the new movement for establishing agricultural colonies of Jews in the Holy Land. Such an idea was unwelcome to the prosperous and assimilated Jews, for the idea of assimilation had by now made some progress even in English Jewry. The impression left on the minds of many who heard of the idea was that there was a large number of Jews desirous of forestalling the promised advent of the Messiah. They had grown accustomed to the notion that Palestine was a thorny desert, infested by hordes of marauding Bedouins, and only fit for beggars and pious pilgrims. They were ignorant of all that had been written to the contrary by a number of authors, particularly by the indefatigable workers of the Palestine Exploration Fund. They had learned to discredit the sacred promises as to the future of the country. They felt themselves secure in the positions they had gained for themselves, and ridiculed the thought of renouncing them at the bidding of a few enthusiasts and dreamers, as if anyone had ever thought of placing such an alternative before them. They considered this idea mauvais ton, and thought that it might endanger their newly acquired social position, such as it was. These motives, and others like them, induced most of the prominent Jews to turn away from a movement with which they could have no sympathy.
Elim H. d’Avigdor Col. Albert E. W. Goldsmid
Jean Henri Dunant Father Ignatius