From the Rt. Hon. Viscount Bryce.
3, Buckingham Gate,
S.W. 1,
January 30th, 1918.
Dear Sir,
In response to your request for some observations by me on the value which your treatise may have for students of history, I send you these few lines. The pressure of heavy and urgent work forbids me to deal in any but the briefest way with the subject of your book, great as its interest is.
The history of Israel presents some of the most striking phenomena in world history. No other nation (with the exception of the two very ancient nations of the Far East) has annals so long as are those of the descendants of Abraham. Those annals go back, dim as are their earlier outlines, to a time long anterior to the earliest records of the Hellenic and Italic peoples. The records of the old civilization of Assyria and Egypt are, no doubt, even more remote in time, but the nations that created those civilizations have been so changed by conquest and the admixture of new elements that we can no longer recognise them as the same. But Israel has preserved its identity through all vicissitudes. It was carried into captivity in a far land, and returned thence after seventy years. It was, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Hadrian, scattered over the face of the earth, and now counts its children everywhere, from Singapore to San Francisco. Its numbers have grown to be fifteen or twenty times greater than they were before the Great Dispersion. It has been kept in existence as a nation through many centuries of oppression and suffering by its Faith and its Literature, a faith embodied in a law which included both a moral and a ceremonial code, a Literature small in bulk but splendid in content, which has formed the mind of the people, sharpening their intelligence and intensifying their national self-consciousness. It is one of those three great literatures of the ancient world which still rule the thought and still help to form the character of mankind. This is a unique phenomenon, and perhaps the most striking testimony that history can show to the vivifying power of ideas.
This consciousness of an enduring national life has been constantly associated in the thoughts of Israel with the ancient home in Palestine, a little country, no bigger than Wales in Britain or Connecticut in North America. To its rocky hills and green valleys, its cities and its battlefields, its heroes and its prophets, the hearts of the people have turned in days of sorrow. The memories of these things have maintained the sense of national life. The flame has often burnt low, but it has never been extinguished. Quite recently it has leapt up with a brilliant glow. The idea that a part of the dispersed people should be gathered from the regions where their lot was worst and be re-settled in their ancient home, long desolated by the tyranny of the cruel and rapacious Turk, has gained strength, and the capture of Jerusalem by the British arms has now made it seem attainable. The sympathy of many thoughtful and sympathetic Christians has been gained, and the British Government has given clear expression to that sympathy. It is to the history of this idea of re-settlement, to which the name of Zionism is now given, that your book is devoted. There are, I am aware, some differences of opinion among Jews themselves as to the form in which this idea might be practically realized, and as to the way in which that form might affect the position of Jews in the countries where they now dwell and of which they wish to remain citizens, though I gather that these differences do not touch the question of the desirability of a large Jewish immigration into Palestine. Upon these differences of opinion I must not pronounce any judgment, though personally inclined to believe that the existence of a national home at the eastern end of the Mediterranean will not affect the loyalty to the other countries where they dwell of the Jews settled in those countries, nor expose them to any suspicion of disloyalty. It is as a student of history, and in that capacity only, that on this particular occasion I desire to speak, expressing my sense of the high interest of the subject of your book, and feeling that the rapid growth of the Zionist movement, the forces that have produced it, and the enthusiasm it has excited, well deserve to be fully, accurately, and impartially described.
I am,
Faithfully yours,
Bryce.
Mr. N. Sokolow.
From Colonel Sir Mark Sykes, M.P.
9, Buckingham Gate,
S.W. 1,
May 27th, 1918.
My dear Mr. Sokolow,
After many days’ delay, I write to you my message of goodwill and good hope for the success of this your great work on the cause which you have at heart and for which you have laboured so long.
It is an odd thought which crosses my mind at this moment—if it be egotistical I cannot help it—nevertheless I will set it down. I foresee myself handed down to posterity as one of those enduring obscurities, who did nothing in any way remarkable, yet whose names last for all time, because they scratched their fleeting impressions on the Memnon at Luxor.
In languages yet unknown, and in States unborn, this your work will be read by people who will know perhaps as little of the details of life in these days as we do of those of the times of the first dispersion of the Jews.
Your cause has about it an enduring quality which mocks at time; if a generation is but a breath in the life of a nation, an epoch is but the space ’twixt a dawn and a sunrise in the history of Zionism.
When all the temporal things this world now holds are as dead and forgotten as the curled and scented Kings of Babylon who dragged your forefathers into captivity, there will still be Jews, and so long as there are Jews there must be Zionism.
We live in an age when mankind is reaping the whirlwind of its wickedness and folly. Wherein the past men have sown those dragons’ teeth of intolerance, tyranny, injustice, and race hatred, legions of armed men now spring up to destroy and shatter the husbanded resources of progress.
The War of to-day is the logical result of the “peace” of yesterday. The grand problem which we have to consider is whether or no the peace of to-morrow is to be the precursor of a future war which will overwhelm civilization for ever. Unless forces different to those which have counted in the direction of the affairs of men hitherto are in the ascendant, I feel no doubt that what is called Civilization is predestined to suicide, and that in the real meaning of the words “felo de se.” The blind genius which people call “science” wrests mechanical discoveries and chemical formulæ from the accumulated experience of the past and gives men hygiene, transit, and commerce with one hand, and explosives and military organization with the other. You, my dear Mr. Sokolow, represent a people who have watched this process of constructive destruction in the course of evolution, and have seen the higher men climb in pride and vanity the more deplorable is their fall.
If the peace which is to follow the War is to be a real peace, and not a pause in war, then you and your people must be watchers no longer. In Zionism lies your people’s opportunity. In alliance with those other forces of regeneration and illumination which are centred on Jerusalem and which radiate through the world, it may be that you and your successors will play a part in establishing a moral order which will enable mankind to combine universal material progress with mutual subjection and charity.
Yours very sincerely,
Mark Sykes.
The privilege afforded me by my friend the Author of participating in the production of a work on so epoch-marking a question as Zionism, has more than compensated me for any time and trouble I have expended on the particular section allotted to me. There are eighty-nine illustrations in the book, to which I have fortunately been able to contribute thirty, dealing mainly with the earlier period. For the portraits, etc., of many of our contemporaries, I must accord my sincere thanks to those whose courtesy and kindness have enabled me to carry out my purpose.
I am indebted for the lithograph of Elim H. d’Avigdor¹ to his recently deceased widow. Mr. Semi Tolkowsky obtained for me an unpublished photograph of Colonel C. R. Conder from his daughter, Mrs. Julian G. Lousada. That venerable lady, Mrs. Finn, lent me a photograph of her late husband, “The British Consul of Jerusalem and Palestine.” Mr. Joseph Cohen Lask granted me the loan of the Hebrew periodical, Keneseth Israel, containing a woodcut of David Gordon, the editor. The celebrated artist, Leopold Pilichowski, entrusted me with the negative of his famous painting of Theodor Herzl, known as the “Congress” portrait. It was done from sketches taken from life during the Uganda Congress, and finished in 1906 to the order of the late President, David Wolffsohn, for the Actions Committee, to be exhibited at Zionist congresses. The illustration of Grand Rabbin Zadok Kahn is taken from a pastel by the Jewish artist, J. F. Aktuaryus, in the collection of Mr. Elkan N. Adler. Dr. Hartwig Hirschfeld lent me a lithograph of his father-in-law, Dr. Louis Loewe; and Professor Dr. Arnold Netter sent from Paris a lithograph of his uncle, Charles Netter. The portrait of Laurence Oliphant was reproduced from an unpublished photograph in the possession of his relative, Mr. Lancelot Oliphant. To procure a likeness of Dr. M. J. Raphall I had some difficulty. The Birmingham congregation to whom he ministered from 1841–1849 knew nothing of any portrait. From an advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle, 27 July, 1849, it appears that the learned Rabbi possessed a painting done of him by W. H. Vernon, from which Mosely Levi of Birmingham produced a lithograph, but I failed to discover the whereabouts of either. Knowing that on leaving this country he settled in the United States, I communicated with Mr. Albert M. Friedenberg, the corresponding secretary of the American Jewish Historical Society, to whom my particular acknowledgments are due for discovering a small oil painting of the Doctor, copied from a photograph taken in his later years, in the possession of the B’nai Jeshurun congregation of New York, whose Rabbi he was from his arrival in America until 1866, two years before his demise. With the consent of the Trustees, and by the courtesy of Mr. Herman Levy, the President, an excellent reproduction was placed at my disposal.
The frontispiece to the second volume, “Edmond de Rothschild,” is a facsimile of a photograph¹ from the painting by M. Aimé Morot. From M. A. Salvador, Mdme. L. J. Raynall and M. André Spire of Paris were instrumental in procuring a photograph of his uncle M. Joseph Salvador, whose portrait has hitherto never been published.
Miss Marian O. Wilson came to my assistance in permitting me to take a copy of a photograph of her father, Sir Charles W. Wilson, and Mr. Joseph Cowen lent J. H. Kann’s Erez Israel, containing a likeness of President David Wolffsohn. The illustration, “Members of the Maccabean Pilgrimage,” I have been enabled to reproduce, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Herbert Bentwich, its organizer, who also furnished me with the names of the pilgrims. The President and Council of the Jews’ College were pleased to grant me the privilege of having a photograph taken of the historical painting, “The Conference between Menasseh Ben-Israel and Oliver Cromwell,” by Solomon Alexander Hart, R.A., formerly in the collection of Sir Julian Goldsmid, Bart., and subsequently presented to the College by Frederic David Mocatta in 1896.
My thanks must also be accorded to the proprietors of the Century for the use of the portrait of Emma Lazarus; to the Graphic for the sketch from life of Bernard Lazare taken by Paul Renouard during the Dreyfus trial; to the Illustrated London News for the likeness of Baron Hirsch; to the Jewish Encyclopedia for the portraits of Samuel Joseph Fuenn, R. Zebi Hirsch Kalischer, Samuel David Luzzatto, and Mordecai Manuel Noah; and to the Jewish World for that of Dr. Israel Hildesheimer.
There are many eminent Zionists whose lineaments I should like to have seen in this work, but owing to present conditions the portraits were not procurable.
The following portraits and illustrations may not be reproduced without authority:—Col. C. R. Conder, James Finn, Theodor Herzl by Pilichowski, R. Zadok Kahn, Laurence Oliphant, Dr. M. J. Raphall, Edmond de Rothschild, Joseph Salvador, Sir Charles W. Wilson, “The Conference between Manasseh Ben-Israel and Oliver Cromwell,” and the “Members of the Maccabean Pilgrimage.”
Israel Solomons.
Introduction by the Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P.
CHAPTER I. England and the Bible
CHAPTER II. The Hebrew Language
CHAPTER III. The Re-admission of the Jews into England
CHAPTER IV. Manasseh Ben-Israel
CHAPTER V. Manasseh’s Nishmath Chayyim
CHAPTER VI. Some of Manasseh’s Views
CHAPTER VII. Manasseh’s Contemporaries
CHAPTER VIII. Puritan Friends of the Jews
CHAPTER IX. Restoration Schemes
CHAPTER X. Palestine
CHAPTER XI. Napoleon’s Campaign in the East
CHAPTER XII. Haim Farhi
CHAPTER XIII. Napoleon in Palestine
CHAPTER XIV. Two Jerusalem Rabbis
CHAPTER XV. Napoleon’s Sanhedrin
CHAPTER XVI. English Opinion on the Sanhedrin
CHAPTER XVII. The Zionist Idea in England
CHAPTER XVIII. Lord Byron
CHAPTER XIX. The Palmerston Period
CHAPTER XX. The Syrian Problem
CHAPTER XXI. England and the Jews in the East
CHAPTER XXII. Sir Moses Montefiore
CHAPTER XXIII. Earl of Shaftesbury
CHAPTER XXIV. Memorandum of the Protestant Monarchs
CHAPTER XXV. Restoration and Protection
CHAPTER XXVI. Protection and Restoration
CHAPTER XXVII. Earl of Beaconsfield
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Crimean War
CHAPTER XXIX. Britain’s Mission in the East
CHAPTER XXX. British Interest and Work in Palestine
CHAPTER XXXI. The Lebanon Question
CHAPTER XXXII. Zionism in France
CHAPTER XXXIII. Jewish Colonization
CHAPTER XXXIV. Zionism versus Assimilation
CHAPTER XXXV. Colonization and Restoration
CHAPTER XXXVI. Appeals for Colonization
CHAPTER XXXVII. Christian Propaganda in England
CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Russian Pogroms of 1881–1882
CHAPTER XXXIX. Dr. Leo Pinsker
CHAPTER XL. The Colonization of Palestine
CHAPTER XLI. The “Lovers of Zion” in France and England
CHAPTER XLII. The Movement in England
CHAPTER XLIII. The Movement in America
CHAPTER XLIV. Baron de Hirsch
CHAPTER XLV. An Attempt to Solve the Jewish Problem
CHAPTER XLVI. The Argentine versus Palestine
CHAPTER XLVII. Modern Zionism
CHAPTER XLVIII. The First Zionist Congress
CHAPTER XLIX. The Motive Forces of Zionism
CHAPTER L. Zionism in France
CHAPTER LI. Zionism in England
CHAPTER LII. British Policy in the Near East
CHAPTER LIII. The Principles of Zionism
⭘ Theodor Herzl
⭘ Conference between Manasseh Ben-Israel and Oliver Cromwell
⭘ H.H.R. Yahacob Sasportas
⭘ Dr. Ephraim H. Bonus
⭘ Dr. Abraham Zacut
⭘ H.H.R. Manasseh Ben-Israel
⭘ H.R. J. J. A. de Leon (Templo)
⭘ H.H.R. Isaac Aboab da Fonseca
⭘ Sir Oliver St. John
⭘ Thos. Brightman
⭘ Rev. Dr. William Gouge
⭘ Hugo Grotius
⭘ Rev. Henry Jessey
⭘ Gen. Sir Charles Warren
⭘ Maj.-Gen. Sir Charles W. Wilson
⭘ Earl Kitchener
⭘ Dr. Edward Robinson
⭘ Col. Claude R. Conder
⭘ Grand Sanhédrin, 1807
⭘ Abraham Furtado
⭘ Rabbi Abraham de Cologna
⭘ Rabbi Baruch Gouguenheim
⭘ Rabbi Emmanuel Deutz
⭘ Rabbi Jacob Meyer
⭘ Rabbi J. David Sinzheim
⭘ Napoleon Le Grand rétablit le culte des Israélites, 1806
⭘ Rev. James Bicheno
⭘ David Levi
⭘ Rev. William Whiston
⭘ Dr. Joseph Priestley
⭘ President John Adams
⭘ Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart.
⭘ Joseph Salvador
⭘ Benjamin Disraeli
⭘ Samuel David Luzzatto
⭘ Bernard Lazare
⭘ Albert Cohn
⭘ Charles Netter
⭘ Isaac M. A. Crémieux
⭘ Rabbi Zadok Kahn
⭘ Salomon Munk
⭘ Rabbi Zebi Hirsch Kalischer
⭘ Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines
⭘ Rabbi Mordecai Eliasberg
⭘ Rabbi Samuel Mohilewer
⭘ Rabbi Dr. Israel Hildesheimer
⭘ Rabbi Isaac Rülf
⭘ Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain
⭘ Earl of Shaftesbury
⭘ George Eliot
⭘ James Finn
⭘ Laurence Oliphant
⭘ David Gordon
⭘ Samuel J. Fuenn
⭘ Dr. Leon Pinsker
⭘ Moses L. Lilienblum
⭘ Perez Smolenskin
⭘ Elim H. d’Avigdor
⭘ Col. A. E. W. Goldsmid
⭘ Jean Henri Dunant
⭘ Father Ignatius
⭘ Dr. E. W. Tschlenow
⭘ Dr. Max Mandelstamm
⭘ Judah Touro
⭘ Emma Lazarus
⭘ Mordecai Manuel Noah
⭘ Rabbi Dr. Morris J. Raphall
⭘ The Maccabean Pilgrimage, 5657 = 1897
⭘ Theodor Herzl
⭘ Dr. Max S. Nordau
⭘ Dr. Louis Loewe
⭘ Rabbi Dr. N. M. Adler
⭘ Baron Maurice de Hirsch
⭘ Prof. Dr. Hermann Schapira
⭘ Moses Hess
⭘ David Wolffsohn