Jewish people have been the victim of great discrimination over the centuries. But in 1890s London, one man had a plan that would help to overcome this – an idea that would one day become reality. Here, William Philpott tells us about Theodor Herzl’s attempts to gain support for a Jewish state.
Theodor Herzl in 1897.
The oldest hatred
In November 1895, a young journalist and playwright arrived at Charing Cross Station. Knowing no-one and armed only with a letter of introduction, he set about trying to garner support for what he referred to as his ‘old, new idea’, a scheme which would require a high level diplomatic strategy coupled with substantial funding and he targeted the wealthiest and most influential members of Jewish communities.
Born in Budapest in 1860, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the period known as the European Enlightenment, Theodor Herzl’s subsequent university studies in Vienna initially took him into the legal profession which he later gave up to become a writer.
In 1894 as the Paris based correspondent of the Vienna based Neue Freie Presse[i] he observed the Dreyfus Affair, where a Jewish French army officer had been charged, found guilty and sentenced to life servitude on Devils Island. What especially disturbed Herzl was the reaction by many observers that Dreyfus was not simply a traitor who happened to be a Jew, but a traitor because he was a Jew. It later transpired that he was completely innocent, the victim of a cover up and the stench of anti-Semitism was integral to the whole affair.
The following year Herzl was in Vienna and witnessed the mayoral election success of the Christian Social Party led by Dr Karl Lueger, a rabid anti-Semite whom Hitler subsequently claimed was a major inspiration for his own transformation to anti-Semitism.
It was these and other events, coupled with pogroms regularly perpetrated on Jewish communities in Czarist Russia, which Herzl to conclude that as anti-Semitism continued to exist and even thrive in enlightened societies, assimilation had not and could not provide a solution to the Jewish Question. His analysis was that of all the peoples’ of the world, it was the Jews alone who were denied what others took for granted, a state of their own. His prognosis was that only through possessing such a thing would Jews be accepted as having the same value as every nation.
Herzl is widely regarded as the founder of modern political Zionism and proposed that an area of land be purchased large enough to accommodate any Jew needing refuge. To legitimise his scheme he also sought a charter, recognised and sanctioned by international law under the protection of one of the major powers. His focus for land was the Ottoman Empire which had ruled over Palestine for four hundred years.
An astounding proposal
British influence had spread across much of the world and consequently Herzl began his quest at the very seat of its empire visiting on ten occasions in his quest to gain political and financial support for his proposal.
His first contact was made after a hansom cab ride on a foggy evening to the home of the writer Israel Zangwill in Kilburn. Zangwill was quickly sympathetic and opened doors for Herzl to meet other members of the Anglo-Jewish community.
A gathering was hastily arranged to enable Herzl to address the Maccabeans, a group of writers, artists, philosophers and professional men regarded by themselves as ‘such Jews as are untainted by commerce’[ii] who met regularly for dinner and discussion. Although broadly supportive, their political influence and financial standing was not at the level Herzl sought.
When he met Sir Samuel Montagu, a banker and MP for Whitechapel, he appeared sympathetic to Herzl’s scheme but notably failed to make any firm commitment.
In Rabbinical circles, an early sympathiser was Rabbi Simeon Singer who accompanied Herzl to the Bayswater Synagogue and Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler invited Herzl to his home in Finsbury Square; however, he did not commit to support the proposal and soon after became an ardent opponent.
The one journey outside London was to meet Colonel Albert Goldsmid at his regimental home in Cardiff. He had worked for the wealthy Baron von Hirsch who was funding several settlement programmes particularly in Argentina, for Jews seeking to escape pogroms and poverty. Upon hearing Herzl’s proposal, Goldsmid flamboyantly announced ‘I am Daniel Deronda’[iii] the Jewish hero in the book of the same name by George Elliot.
Returning to London, an encouraging offer was made by Asher Myers, editor of the weekly Jewish Chronicle who invited Herzl to submit an article outlining his idea, for inclusion in a future edition.
At the end of his first visit to London, although Herzl was in optimistic mood, in practice few of those he had sought support from had rallied to his scheme and were at best lukewarm or ambivalent.
The article for the Chronicle appeared in January 1896 along with an editorial comment declaring ‘that this is one of the most astounding pronouncements which have ever been put forward on the Jewish Question’ but concluded ‘We hardly anticipate a great future for a scheme which is the outcome of despair’.[iv] As predicted by Myers, Herzl’s article generated little response from its readers.
A false Messiah
However, by the time Herzl returned to London the following summer he had already published his full proposal in a pamphlet. Originally published in German[v] and which became commonly known as The Jewish State, it was quickly translated into several languages including Yiddish, Russian, Romanian, Polish and English.
The publication aroused concerns among many influential Jews, some of whom regarded it as a dangerous folly. Herzl again met with Montagu at the House of Commons, but on this occasion he recognised that the Member of Parliament was prevaricating which was an indication of what was later to become outright opposition. Nonetheless, Herzl began to understand why English Jews should wish to cling to a country where one of their own could now freely enter that place as a master.
Another false dawn appeared when the journalist Lucien Wolf asked to interview Herzl for the Daily Graphic newspaper which was based in the Strand. The interview took place in Herzl’s suite at the Albemarle Hotel, Piccadilly but the final result in print implied that a mystical shroud covered the whole project and Herzl was a ‘new Moses’[vi] who had stepped forth to fulfil the prophesy of a return to Palestine. This was not the practical endorsement hoped for.
Even Zangwill, was now writing that although Herzl had initially startled the community, it had been a seven day wonder and ‘has rather simmered down now’[vii]
Disappointed by the general lack of support from the most influential members of Anglo-Jewry, Herzl accepted a surprise invitation to speak at a mass meeting in the east end of London. On an oppressive Sunday afternoon in July, the Jewish Working Mens’ Club, Gt Alie Street was adorned with posters announcing his attendance. He generated support from many poor Jews who lived and worked in Whitechapel and subsequently described his feelings as he sat on a platform amid overwhelming heat as seeing and hearing ‘my legend being made…..I am the little people’s [sic] man’[viii]. Neither Montagu nor Goldsmid attended.
During his week-long visit, Herzl also met more members of the community and one such meeting took place at the Bevis Marks synagogue. However, he did not fare well and was roundly criticised for both his scheme and his decision to attend the meeting in Whitechapel which was regarded as unnecessarily exciting the masses.
He was challenged by the scholar Claude Montefiore who saw this new political Zionism as a direct threat to Judaism itself and dismissed Herzl as just another false messiah who would ultimately fail as others before had done. The bullion dealer and philanthropist Frederic Mocatta said that the very idea of funding such a scheme would be a great risk to both finances and reputation and could not guarantee the twin objectives of securing land and a charter. He and others mocked what they saw as Herzl’s naivety at the very idea of handing over vast sums of money to the corrupt Turkish Sultan in the belief that the land would be forthcoming.
Even Joseph Prag, a leading light in the Hovevei Zion[ix] movement, the headquarters of which was at Bevis Marks, which was already implementing a limited settlement programme in Palestine, was opposed to the idea of a state and eventually dismissed Herzl with a curt ‘goodbye Dr Herzl’.[x]
To Basel and back
By the time Herzl left London for the second time he had concluded that a great gathering should be organised which would internationalise his proposal and in August 1897 the first Zionist Congress was held in Basle, Switzerland.
Of the two very wealthy Barons’, Edmund Rothschild who was himself funding several settlements in Palestine wrote, ‘I tell you frankly that I should view with horror the establishment of a Jewish Colony. It would be a ghetto with the prejudices of the ghetto’[xi]. The other, Maurice von Hirsch, who was funding Jewish settlement in Argentina would have nothing to do with the scheme. Herzl now declared ‘This is the cause of the poor Jews, not of the rich ones. The protest of the latter is null, void and worthless’.[xii]
Progress continued and in 1898 Herzl addressed a mass meeting at the Great Assembly Hall, Mile End. A conference was held at Clerkenwell Town Hall resulting in the formation of the English Zionist Federation subsequently inaugurated at the Trocadero, Piccadilly. However opponents were active too and in November, Chief Rabbi Adler preached at the North London synagogue on the subject of ‘Religious versus Political Zionism’.[xiii]
Two years later, perhaps influenced by the development of Zionism in England, the fourth congress was held at the Queens Hall, Langham Place. Herzl arrived one week before the start of the congress but was suffering from a fever. After a few days of confinement to his bed at the Langham Hotel, he was able to attend a rally of English Zionists and the following day was at a garden party in Regents Park.
After a restful night Herzl addressed the Congress and two important objectives were achieved. The first was to gain coverage in the mainstream British media which was generally sympathetic to the idea of a return of Jews to their historic home. The second was the agreement to establish the Jewish Colonial Bank, which he insisted be registered in London, subject to English law and proposed an initial capital of fifty million pounds although in the absence of commitments from wealthy Jews he envisaged public subscription playing a major role.
By then the Zionist movement had taken root throughout the Jewish world, although many such as Anglo-Jewry felt comfortably ensconced in the country where they lived and remained implacably opposed to the very principle of a Jewish homeland.
The final appeal
Since the early 1880s large scale immigration of poor Russian and Polish Jews in particular into the east end had resulted in growing concerns and one response was the creation of the British Brothers League which held a mass meeting at the Peoples’ Palace in Stepney in January 1902. That year Herzl returned to London following an invitation to speak to the Royal Commission into alien immigration and the established leader of the Zionist movement proposed that support of the British government for a Jewish state would reduce the number of those arriving in the UK.
It is possible that Herzl’s representation at the Commission indirectly led to negotiations the following year with Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary about the potential to allow large numbers of Jews to settle in east Africa under some form of self-government, although the scheme was eventually aborted.
However, time was not on his side and Herzl died in Austria of a heart condition two years later aged forty-four. He had not been the messiah who had led his people back to the Promised Land but he had created and presided over an international movement. Despite many external and internal obstacles during the next four decades, the establishment of the Jewish state to which he had dedicated the last nine years of his life did materialise, the impact of which still resonates in many parts of the world today, over one hundred and twenty years later.
What do you think of the article? Let us know below.
[i] New Free Press.
[ii] The Origins of Zionism. Vital. 1990 pp257
[iii] The History of Zionism. Laqueur. 2003 pp101.
[iv] Vital pp258.
[v] Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Losung der Judenfrage. Published by Breitenstein. 1896.
[vi] Daily Graphic. Monday July 6th 1896
[vii] English Zionists and British Jews. Cohen. 1982 pp27. After Herzl’s death, Zangwill formed the Jewish Territorial Organisation (Ito) to identify and secure land other than Palestine for large-migration.
[viii] Laqueur. pp101.
[ix] Lovers of Zion.
[x] The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl (1-5). Patai. 1960.
[xi] Zionism the formative years. Vital. 1988 pp141.
[xii] Vital. 1990 pp257.
[xiii] Cohen pp96.
