“I send you these words of warning and of encouragement in my own name and in the name of thousands of your co-religionists. Take them to heart and understand them.
“May the good God help you and me, and also the many who work with us for your benefit with so much devotion.”
This appeal, though it only urged the Jewish masses to assist the great work by obeying certain necessary prescribed regulations, had the effect of rousing the entire Jewish population to a new hopefulness and of stimulating communal workers, leaders and publicists to further activity. There was not a poor Jewish home in Russia where the name of Hirsch did not receive a daily blessing—not for what he had given or for what he was about to give, but because he had stretched out a hand to them in their misery, because they no longer felt themselves forsaken, and because a touch of kindness from an unseen hand gave them fresh courage, new resolution, and new hope.
As is usual in such cases, no warnings or denials could correct the estimate formed by the popular imagination of the possibilities of the undertaking. Baron de Hirsch himself was supposed to have said or written that he was going to transmigrate five million Jews from Russia in twenty years; and this statement, which was published in an official Russian paper, though in the unofficial part of it, gained currency at once, and remained in the minds of the people as a kind of programme. And, though the immediate excitement abated, and gave way to disappointment among those who had looked forward to a new gigantic exodus, it was evident that the chances of a partial solution of the Jewish problem were immensely greater than they had ever been before.
Baron de Hirsch caused careful inquiries and investigations to be made in countries which offered suitable land for agricultural development. It may be observed that, though the wording of the statutes contemplates commercial colonies and the encouragement of artisans, and speaks of “any parts of the world,” in reality Hirsch had never thought of commercial colonies nor of artisans nor of small groups scattered all over the world, since first he started dealing with the Jewish problem in Russia. Commercial colonies for Jews are as unnecessary as they are impossible, because Jews engaged in commerce need not and would not congregate in colonies; and as to the industrial education and encouragement of artisans, it is true that Hirsch was interested in useful work of this kind, but this was at an earlier period, and belongs to the kind of philanthropic activity which he carried on, particularly in the East, through the “Alliance,” etc. As to Russia, anybody who had any conversation with him, or read his articles[¹] on the subject, or was in touch with his advisers at that period, will testify that what Hirsch had decided to initiate was a great undertaking for the persecuted Jewish people. Since he had received, much to his surprise, the reply that he would not be allowed to work in Russia, he had systematically declined to undertake anything there except the support of emigration. Petitions poured into his office at Paris, rue d’Elysée 2, from innumerable Jewish societies and communities in Russia, but he refused to pay any attention to all these schemes for the encouragement of artisans and industries. He was devoted to the idea of concentrating masses of Russian Jews elsewhere, and of making them agriculturists. Since 1887 he had practically decided to make the Jewish people the principal heirs of his fortune, in order to enable them radically to change their status.
[¹] North American Review, July, 1891: Forum, August, 1891.
Personal experiences of a sentimental nature had contributed to this decision. The terrible and unexpected blow, in losing his only son Lucien (1851–1887), a young man of exceptional gifts and promise, touched his most tender affections and gave a fresh impetus to his desire to succour human misery. It was feared for a moment that he would be overwhelmed by the weight of a catastrophe which had ruined so many hopes. But he possessed such energy, such powerful resources of character, that he soon recovered. His very natural grief found sanctification in the noble diversion of devoting himself more eagerly than before to his immense task. His wife, a keenly idealistic Jewess, exerted a strong Jewish influence upon him, encouraging to the utmost the great work which he started. The unfortunate mother, after having lost her only child, found comfort in the idea of “establishing a home for the oppressed Jewish people.”
Another personal experience which had some influence on Hirsch was the anti-Semitic attitude of the Jockey Club of Paris towards him, an attitude that made him realize the futility of dreams of unity. There is no need, however, to lay particular stress on these personal experiences. Apart from them, he could not fail to notice the workings of anti-Semitism, not only in its violent and brutal forms, but also in its subtler manifestations; and this brought home to his mind the necessity of a solution which should prove more practical than the old methods.
But the thing that did most to bring him nearer to Zionism than to assimilation, in spite of his dissent from Zionist views, was his belief in the Jewish people. He was a believer in the regeneration of the Russian Jews through agriculture, from which occupation they were barred in the country in which they lived. What, unfortunately, was lacking in him was the sense of historic tradition and the love of Palestine.