Post by artraveler on Nov 2, 2023 8:03:28 GMT -8
Importance of November 2nd
Theodore Herzl was born in the Astro-Hungarian Empire in 1860. He grew up in a world so far removed from ours that it seems a dream. It is not that the world was a better place for Jews or any minority but there was opportunity for a few, and Theodore was one of the few.
Vienna in the 19th century was the center of culture in Europe. Everyone came to Vienna for the music, literature, and the coffee. Young Theodore wanted to be a writer and eventually by the 1890s became a newspaper man. In 1894 he was sent to Paris to cover the sensational trial of Alfred Dreyfus. Over the next few months, it became apparent to Hertzl that Dreyfus was being convicted of a crime he did not commit. Herzl’s articles created discussion in Paris and Vienna. Eventually Emiel Zola took up the cause of Dreyfus with his book Ja Accuse and Dreyfus was released from Devil’s Island.
Herzl, back in Vienna took up the cause of antisemitism and began to press the Great powers, specifically England to create a homeland for the Jews. A land where they would not suffer because of their Jewishness. This cause would sweep the Jewish world and be known as Zionism. Small groups of Jews, in Russia, Poland, Europe and the United States began to move to the Ottoman province of Palestine. In 1897 the first Zionist conference was held, and many wealthy Jewish families agreed to support a return to Zion.
Many of the first Jewish settlers were shopkeepers and stayed in the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, and Hebron. A few were Torah scholars and settled in Safed. By far the fewest number returned to the soil and farmed. Those who did farm faced daunting odds and were mostly unsuccessful. However, the Zionist movement adapted around the turn of the century and the concept of Kibbutz came into being. The Jews found common sharing of production, childcare, and housing to be the key to expansion and using money from Rothchild and other Jewish charities they bought up swamp land and made it productive farmland. Arab families were more then glad to sell the Jews worthless land so they could live in style in Beirut, Paris, and London. Imagine their shock when the Jews were successful.
By the start of the First World War in 1914 there were many Kubutz in Palestine and although there was pressure from the more radical Arabs there was relative peace, imposed by the Ottoman Empire, who treated all disruptions the same, Arab, or Jewish. The first years of the war did not go well for the English and by 1917 the English were hoping to open a second front in the Middle East. This was the time of T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia). The English looked at the Ottoman province of Palestine and saw Arabs who did not share Western values and a large number of muscular Jews who did. On November 2, 1917, the following letter was sent to Lord Rothchild:
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country" I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the zionist Federation.
For Theodore Herzl this was a victory he did not live to see. A great power admitting the Jews must have a homeland in their historic location. With the end of the war and the establishment of the League of Nations England was given the mandate to govern Ottoman Palestine. And until the Establishment of the State of Israel Britain held the mandate. Today near Jerusalem stands Mount Herzl and many of the graves of the first settlers along with Yad Vashem the memorial to the millions lost in the Holocaust.
Theodore Herzl was born in the Astro-Hungarian Empire in 1860. He grew up in a world so far removed from ours that it seems a dream. It is not that the world was a better place for Jews or any minority but there was opportunity for a few, and Theodore was one of the few.
Vienna in the 19th century was the center of culture in Europe. Everyone came to Vienna for the music, literature, and the coffee. Young Theodore wanted to be a writer and eventually by the 1890s became a newspaper man. In 1894 he was sent to Paris to cover the sensational trial of Alfred Dreyfus. Over the next few months, it became apparent to Hertzl that Dreyfus was being convicted of a crime he did not commit. Herzl’s articles created discussion in Paris and Vienna. Eventually Emiel Zola took up the cause of Dreyfus with his book Ja Accuse and Dreyfus was released from Devil’s Island.
Herzl, back in Vienna took up the cause of antisemitism and began to press the Great powers, specifically England to create a homeland for the Jews. A land where they would not suffer because of their Jewishness. This cause would sweep the Jewish world and be known as Zionism. Small groups of Jews, in Russia, Poland, Europe and the United States began to move to the Ottoman province of Palestine. In 1897 the first Zionist conference was held, and many wealthy Jewish families agreed to support a return to Zion.
Many of the first Jewish settlers were shopkeepers and stayed in the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, and Hebron. A few were Torah scholars and settled in Safed. By far the fewest number returned to the soil and farmed. Those who did farm faced daunting odds and were mostly unsuccessful. However, the Zionist movement adapted around the turn of the century and the concept of Kibbutz came into being. The Jews found common sharing of production, childcare, and housing to be the key to expansion and using money from Rothchild and other Jewish charities they bought up swamp land and made it productive farmland. Arab families were more then glad to sell the Jews worthless land so they could live in style in Beirut, Paris, and London. Imagine their shock when the Jews were successful.
By the start of the First World War in 1914 there were many Kubutz in Palestine and although there was pressure from the more radical Arabs there was relative peace, imposed by the Ottoman Empire, who treated all disruptions the same, Arab, or Jewish. The first years of the war did not go well for the English and by 1917 the English were hoping to open a second front in the Middle East. This was the time of T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia). The English looked at the Ottoman province of Palestine and saw Arabs who did not share Western values and a large number of muscular Jews who did. On November 2, 1917, the following letter was sent to Lord Rothchild:
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country" I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the zionist Federation.
For Theodore Herzl this was a victory he did not live to see. A great power admitting the Jews must have a homeland in their historic location. With the end of the war and the establishment of the League of Nations England was given the mandate to govern Ottoman Palestine. And until the Establishment of the State of Israel Britain held the mandate. Today near Jerusalem stands Mount Herzl and many of the graves of the first settlers along with Yad Vashem the memorial to the millions lost in the Holocaust.