Trudy Gold
The Jewish Situation in Western Europe in the Interwar Period and Zionism

Trudy Gold | The Jewish Situation in Western Europe in the Interwar Period and Zionism | 06.26.24

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- Well, good evening, everyone, from sultry London. And in order to develop the theme of Zionism, I thought it’s very important to look at the Jewish situation in various countries. And I deliberately chose to concentrate on Germany and on Britain. Germany, because assimilation was one of the big factors there, and also the incredible success story. And Britain, because remember, it’s Britain that issues the Balfour Declaration. And ironically, the biggest critics of it were Anglo-Jewry. So we’re going to start with Germany. So can I see the first slide, if you don’t mind? Can we go onto the first slide? Okay. Let’s have a look at statistics, first of all. During the First World War, there was no one more patriotic than German Jews. Over a hundred thousand fought for Germany, out of a population of half a million, 35,000 were awarded the Iron Cross, 12,000 died in battle.

By 1925, they’re still under 1% of the population. The majority of them lived in the big cities, Jews are in the main city dwellers. In Berlin, there was 180,000, about 8% of the city. There’s a big community in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Breslau, Leipzig, and Cologne. By 1945, 1925, I beg your pardon, intermarriage was running at 54% as was conversion. In fact, some Zionist historians would say that if it hadn’t been for the horror that was going to engulf German Jewry, they would’ve disappeared of their own volition. Now, I don’t have to spend much time on the extraordinary success story that was the Weimar Republic from a Jewish point of view. And I think it’s important to remember that the Jews were very high visibility profile. Although they’re under 1% of the population, they tend to go into high visibility. And the other thing we’ve talked about in the past is how so many of them are what we would call arbiters of modernity. They are part of the modern world.

Now, I could have chosen so many, I’ve just picked out a few for you. Max Reinhardt, who was the most important theatre producer in both Berlin and Vienna. And in fact, he was the man who created the Salzburg Festival. He nurtured so much talent. For example, Billy Wilder worked for him at one time. Many of the great talents that later went to Hollywood were nurtured by Max Reinhardt. He managed to get out. His Schloss, by the way, which was taken over by the Nazis, was later used as the set, the internal set for “The Sound of Music.” He was a great figure. And in Hollywood, working with William Dieterle, who’d been one of his pupils, he, of course, made a film of “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” So, a fascinating man. Arnold Schoenberg, what can I tell you about Schoenberg? An eternal music. You either love him or you hate him. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, he was in Paris. He went into a synagogue and reaffirmed his Jewishness. These characters had seen themselves as Internationalists. Max Liebermann, the grand old man of German art.

Fortunately for him, he died before the horror. And he actually lived in Wannsee, which that name should put a chill through you because of course it was where the Wannsee Conference was held, which really was the blueprint for the horror that was to follow. Can we see the next slide, please? Hermann Cohen, one of the most important philosophers. Albert Einstein. Einstein was fascinating, you know. When war broke out, it was actually a Jew who created what they call the Petition of ‘92, where most of the German intellectuals, many of them Jewish, said that the Germans were fighting for culture. Einstein was totally against it. He was against war, he hated war. And, of course, he becomes the most famous scientist in the world. He is abroad in 1933. The Nazis put a price on his head. He does become a Zionist. Hugo Haase. Can we go on, please?

Let’s have a look at some more of the gallery of the fame. Hugo Preuss, actually, he was a lawyer who wrote the Weimar Constitution. After the collapse of the German Army and the revolutions that followed it, the Weimar Republic, they couldn’t actually work in Berlin because there was too much revolutionary activity. Hugo Preuss, the very liberal Jewish lawyer, draughts what is probably the most forward-thinking constitution Europe had ever had. Gustav Landauer, one of the left, of course, one of the revolutionaries. Eugen Levine, another one of the revolutionaries, they both died in the Munich revolutions. And that’s another point to make, in the Munich revolutions, the bulk of those in the leadership were of course Jewish. Let’s have a look at the next slide, please. Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin, the great revolutionary who wrote a very important pamphlet, “There is no room in my heart for Jewish suffering.”

She was an internationalist. Walther Rathenau, the fascinating son of the man who founded AEG, one of the largest electrical companies in the world. He was a multi-multimillionaire, he was also a great writer. He was fascinated by the idea of Prussiandom. And he wrote an article called “Hear, O Israel,” where he mocks the Jews, and he’s one of them, saying, “All you can do is imitate the Germans.” So the people I’m showing you, they were either revolutionaries or contributors to the modern world. And people like Rathenau and Fritz Haber, Fritz Haber, he was a chemist. He’d worked on the Haber-Bosch process, which today still feeds half the world. But he converted. He so wanted to be a German. He becomes a captain in the German Army. And he was responsible for creating the poison gas that killed so many people.

So Fritz Haber, despite the horror of that, I find him totally tragic because in 1933, when Hitler came to power, he was actually head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, the great institute for physicists. He was the one who brought Einstein, he was closest friend of Einstein. But they fell out over this particular, over the poison gas issue. Because he had been a hero in the war, awarded the Iron Cross, hero in inverted commas. Whilst Hindenburg was alive, President Hindenburg, he didn’t want any Jew who had, and remember Hitler defined Jews by blood. Haber had converted. He didn’t want any Jew to be thrown out of their jobs. But Haber was in the position where he had to throw out many of the other scientists, but so many of the German scientists were born Jewish.

In 1934, he resigns. And in 1934, there’s only one person who would offer him a job and that was Chaim Weizmann in Rehovot at the Israel Sieff Institute. So Einstein said to him, “Why did you hug the blond beast so close?” Rathenau, Haber, and Einstein were very much a trio. Can we go on, please? Now, the majority of German Jews were very much a middle class community, in love with Bildung, in love with German culture. Then you’d had a flooding in of the Ostjuden, the Jews of Eastern Europe. Rathenau said that they are the Asiatic hordes camped on the brand of birds of sands. There was quite a lot of hostility from many of the existing Jewish communities to these foreigners coming into the country. And of course speaking Yiddish, how on earth could they be German? Now, the Zionist Federation of Germany, there was a Zionist Federation. And I think it’s important to remember, there was left-wing Zionism, there was right-wing Zionism.

But having said that, under 10% of the Jewish population in Germany had any truck with Zionism of any kind. But what you do have, which is also an interesting development, there is a resurgence of modern Jewish scholarship. UBA, establishment of the Institute of Jewish Learning for adults. And don’t forget the terrible rise of extremism, the collapse of the Deutsche Mark, the rise of extremism, and the Jew being singled out as a target. And there was a very interesting Zionist organisation called Brit Shalom. But the majority of people who are attracted to these kind of organisations are in fact Eastern Europeans. And perhaps the most famous of all was of course Haim Arlosoroff. And it was Haim Arlosoroff, he came from the Ukraine and he was a brilliant young economist. And as a young man, he said, “I am a Jew. I feel strong and proud in my Jewishness. I feel in my bones that I’m different from a German. My soul learns for the unique ancient Hebrew culture. And perhaps I’m also afraid to admit it, how great my love is for , but they never really touch my heart.”

So characters like Haim Arlosoroff, and of course he’s going to go off to Palestine and become this brilliant German Jew, or lived in Germany, educated in Germany, who spoke many languages, very sophisticated. Ironically, his girlfriend at the time who used to take Zionist meetings was a woman called Magda Quandt. She comes back into the story as Magda Goebbels, one of the most ghastly monsters of history. So most of those who are interested in Zionism were in fact from the East. The same thing as University of Vienna. Wherever you look for Zionism, you’re going to find it far more from people, I would say they’re the double outsiders. There’s a love affair going on with German culture, tragically, and many writers have talked about this, it was the unrequited love affair. Now, can we go on to the next slide, please? Kurt Blumenfeld, an interesting man. He became the General, now he’s a German, but he’s the secretary general of WZO.

He goes to Palestine in 1933, he was a very close friend of Hannah Arendt, and they were going to quarrel horribly at the time of the Eichmann trial. Now, can we see the next slide, please? This is the Judische Rundschau. This was a Zionist newspaper, and it’s going to continue until 1938 in Kristallnacht. And the man behind it was a fascinating man called Robert Weltsch. Can we see the next slide, please? He originally had come from Prague. He’d fought in World War on the side of the Habsburgs. He was very active in the Zionist organisation, Brit Shalom. He was left wing. He wanted a binational solution to Palestine. He was very close to Buba and he was very close to Einstein. Einstein became very close to Chaim Weizmann and would go on fundraising tours to America, trying to raise money in particular for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

But remember, again, this is the outsider. Can we see the next slide, please? This is his cousin, Felix Weltsch. And I wanted to introduce him to you as well because he was a very important Zionist in Prague, and he was a very close friend of Kafka. And he published in German in Prague, “Self-Defense,” a German language, Prague, Jewish newspaper. So there are Zionists, but they are no way the majority. And the other point, if you actually look at the Ostjuden, many of them are socialists rather more than Zionists. You see, what I want to get over to, is that the majority of the Jewish world in the West was actually non-Zionist. And in fact, we’re going to get to the stage, particularly when we’re dealing with Britain, it was anti-Zionist. Now, can we go on, please? And of course, how can I not mention the great figure of Leo Baeck? Because Leo Baeck, now, he was of course a great rabbi, a great scholar, a great theologian. He came from Breslau, he studied philosophy in Berlin.

He also set up high institutes for Jewish studies. Above all else, he believed in scholarship. That is the story of him, he believed in scholarship, and that is so important to him. And he becomes president of, and I hope I pronounce it correctly, Reichsvereinigung der Juden, which has become after 1933, it becomes the umbrella organisation for the Jewish community. Just to complete his story, and of course we could run a whole session on him, he was deported to Theresienstadt in 1943. And Hannah Arendt was very controversial about him because he became the honorary head of the Judenrat. And the controversy was, which I’m sure we’ll come back to it another time, he didn’t tell people what was going on, because he felt it was more humane not to. He could’ve escaped actually, but he sent his family out, but he stayed behind to be with his people.

And what is also very interesting about him, in Theresienstadt, he gave lectures. Everybody knows something off by heart. And he encouraged other people to give lectures. And this is one of the people who knew him, from him came the impulse to really endure and the belief that we were able to do so. And of course what happens to him is he does survive the war and he comes to both England and America and steps up Jewish study centres, doesn’t go to Israel. Now, everything is going to change for Jews in Germany because of course in the end, the monster comes to power. And Hitler is completely committed to . And I want to make this absolutely clear to everyone here, Hitler was never, ever a Zionist. One of the most appalling accusations that is thrown against the Jews at the moment is cooperation between Zionists and the Nazis. Hitler wants a , he also wants currency. And in 1933, shacked the head of the Reichsbank. And Haim Arlosoroff, who by this time was number two to Ben Gurion, actually created a plan where German Jews could leave for Palestine having bought German goods.

This is one of the accusations that the enemies make against the Zionists, not at the time, but it’s something that’s, it’s been happening for the past 30 years as people, revisionists, and completely distorted history. Now when Hitler comes to power in 1933, there’s no central organisation for the Jews. The first thing I want to bring your attention to is actually Robert Weltsch. Robert Weltsch, in his newspaper, he writes a very important article, “Wear it With Pride, the Yellow Badge,” and he says this, “The 1st of April, 1933, will remain an important date in the history of German Jewry. Indeed, in the history of the entire Jewish people. The events of that day have aspects that are not only political income, but moral and spiritual.” And he goes on to say, “We live in a new period of the German people.”

And he says, “April the 1st, 1933,” that’s the boycott, the day of the boycott of all Jewish goods, all Jewish offices and businesses, “can become the day of Jewish awakening and Jewish rebirth. If the Jews will it, if the Jews are mature and have greatness in them, if the Jews is not what they are represented to be by their opponents, the Jews under attack must learn to acknowledge themselves even in these days of most profound disturbance when the stormiest of emotions have visited our hearts in face of the unprecedented display of the universal slander of the entire Jewish population of a great and cultural country who must first of all maintain composure. The national socialist press calls us the enemy of the nation. It is not true that the Jews betrayed Germany. If they betrayed anyone, it was themselves.”

And this is how he finishes the article, “Many Jews suffered a crushing experience on Saturday. Suddenly they were revealed as Jews, not as a matter of inner revile, not in loyalty to their own community, not in pride in a great past and great achievements, but by the impress of a red black card and a yellow patch. The patrols moved from house to house, stuck their placards on shops and Stein signboards, doored the windows, and for 24 hours, the German Jews were exhibited in the stock, so to speak. In addition to other signs and inscriptions, one often saw windows bearing a large mug and dove it, the shield of David, it was intended as dishonour. Take it up, take up the shield of David and wear it with pride.”

Now, what happens is, because the Hitler wants to deal with a unity, a group, that he actually sets up this and puts Leo Baeck at the head. And it’s fascinating, as the Jews are gradually pushed out of professions, they become Zionists or they fulfil Zionism. Two thirds of German Jewry are actually going to escape. Between 1933 and 1935, 135,000 make it to Palestine. They were not entranced by the Zionist dream in the Maine, they went because it becomes the only haven that will offer them a place. Never forget that the majority of countries of the world closed or were closing the doors to Jewish immigration. And ironically, those German Jews who went to Palestine and some of them did become very committed Zionists. I was looking at the Eichmann trial a few weeks ago.

The judges, for example, were all German Jews. And, but if you think what they gave to Palestine, the sophistication of Germany. They’re in the theatre, in the Palestine orchestra, in the cafes, in the bookshops. So on one level, they’re not Zionists, but they fulfil Zionism. And of course one of the great horror stories is that Germany was such a cultured country. As many of you know, I’m very close to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. And we talk often about her family because she was 14 at the time of Kristallnacht. And they were such a family of the Enlightenment. They even learnt French on a Sunday 'cause her father said, every language has a soul. And I said to her, but this was unusual. She said, no, all my families, all my family’s friends were like that. But the reality was the majority weren’t like that.

It was the Jew, I think, more than anyone else, who fell in love with Bildung. And this cultural explosion that they created, ironically, those of them who came to England or America, it totally benefited society. But let me just read you a very tragic, I think a very tragic letter from Baeck against the refusal to include the Jews in the Wehrmacht, “To his Excellency, the Reich Minister of War, the government of the German Reich on March 16th, 1935, published the law for the construction of the Wehrmacht. This right and duty is also claimed by the German Jews. In view of the legislation on earrings, we feel called upon to the fact and to your special knowledge.” And then he says, “12,000 German Jews gave their lives to Germany in World War. In memory of the dead as representatives for the living for ourselves and our children, we declare, we German Jews are confident that we will not be denied participation in the military service on equal terms with other Germans.”

So basically German Jewry was a very assimilationist Jewry. The majority of them were non-Orthodox. There was a lot of conversion, there was a lot of intermarriage, and then Hitler. And of course Hitler, he didn’t use the Jews as a scapegoat. He was totally and utterly obsessed with them. And the tragic story of German Jewry, and is it a lesson for all of us? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t like making, as a historian, I don’t know the answers. I can only look at history. I can only look at history with you. They were a community who gave so much to a country they fell in love with. Did they see the flaws? I mean, we know we are living in a very, very insecure strange time at the moment. And tragically again, we are becoming a scapegoat, thinking of Jonathan Sacks, first, they hate our religion, then our race, and now our nation. But now there’s a Jewish state, so it’s very complicated.

But what I would say to you, the story of German Jewry, they hit the heights. They really hit the heights. I think it was Haim who first said the unrequited love affair. And don’t forget, when Goebbels authorised the burning of the books on May the 10th, 1933, the first books to be thrown into the flames were those of Sigmund Freud. And in more than any other group, it was the German Jews at the forefront of modernity. If you think about it, it’s not just in the arts, the sciences, politics, it’s also in business technique, on the left and on the right. And of course this is all fueled by The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, it’s as a Jewish communist and a Jewish capitalist, then all the evils, at a time when ordinary Germans really were suffering. So German Jewry, that incredible community that produced extraordinary individuals, but I mean colleagues go as far as to say that before the German and Austrian Jews came to Britain, Britain was a cultural desert.

What was it about German Jewry? What was it about the fusion of the two cultures? Haim actually said in one of his positive days, “The Jews and the Germans together can create a new Jerusalem.” But he also said, “If the hammer of Thor will rise up, the old berserker gods will wipe the dust of a thousand years from their eyes and engulf the world in a calamity that will make the French Revolution seem like a tea party.” The double alienated prophet. And of course German Jewry comes to its terrible, terrible end. So what I’m trying to do, I’m not giving you a detailed study of German Jewry. I’ve actually lectured on it many times, so of course with some of my colleagues. And you will find that in our archive, which is now open to all of you. But I wanted to take Germany because of course it was Germany, Hitler, that created the terrible disease. But now I want to turn to England because England is the home of Zionism in terms of the Balfour Declaration. So a few things to say about Britain.

As I’m sure many of you know, Jews first came back to Britain under Oliver Cromwell. We know that some were living here secretly. It was pragmatic. Cromwell, they were merchants, they were Sephardic merchants, not many in number. They also very much appealed to many of the Puritan Parliament, who as in Williams discussed this with you, who very much wanted to bring the idea of bringing the Jews to the corner of the world because then the Christian Messiah can come back again. But from Oliver Cromwell’s point of view, it was far more pragmatic. And basically you have the Ashkenazi, the Sephardic and then the Ashkenazi. There’s only 60,000 Jews in Britain in 1881 when you have the huge flood in from Eastern Europe. Now Britain, it’s fascinating, because there’s no doubt that the Anglo-Jewish community, which created, let’s call it the cousinhood.

A group of interlocking, very wealthy families, really became the people who ran Britain for the Jewish community. They even structured the whole of the community very similar to that of the British Empire. The board of deputies was the Jewish parliament. Even the United Synagogue with the wearing of the Canonicals, the chief rabbi, very much in line with the Protestant church. The Anglo-Jewish Association was established in 1871 for quote, “The promotion of social intellectual progress amongst the Jews, and the obtaining of protection for those who may suffer in consequence of being Jewish.” Now, don’t forget also that it was Britain, Tory Britain, that took Israeli to its heart, or did they? But he certainly did become the first Jewish prime minister. Okay, I know you’re going to tell me he converted, but he always said, all his race, there is no other truth, but Israeli was a one-off.

But the point is, there were by 1900, a quarter of the non-landed millionaires in Britain were Jewish. And they were very happy in being part or dreaming of being part of the British aristocracy. And of course when the Eastern Europeans came over, that was a completely different kettle of fish. They were prepared to help Jews in trouble. But there were also funds to repatriate or to send Eastern European Jews onto America. They didn’t want to rock the boat. And I think it’s important to remember, they fell in love with Britain and the emancipation contract. Don’t forget, every country in Western and Central Europe by 1878, had emancipated the Jews. Go back to the idea of Napoleon, which I talked about last week. To a Jew as an individual, everything, to Israel as a nation, nothing. German Jewry, the majority of them had given up any notion of nationhood.

It was in the main, only the double outsiders, the Eastern Europeans. And the Eastern Europeans who settled in Britain, most of them were dirt poor. And of course the cousinhood was prepared to be very benevolent, set up all sorts of organisations to help them. But on the other hand, they wanted to make them into English gentlemen. There’s a fascinating letter from the head of, from Rothschild who was head of the largest Jewish school in Britain, saying, “Send your children out onto the football field, don’t let them go to Haida. Make them into Englishmen. Become an Englishman.” And so how can you become, how can you be part of a nation and at the same time be British? And that’s the emancipation contract. And let’s have a look at some of the characters. The first head of the Anglo, there you see the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Anglo Jewish Association in alliance with the Alliance Israelite Universelle, which is the French equivalent, all right?

In France, the French are showing, and funny, it’s very interesting. It was French Jews who went into the Arab world to work amongst the Jewish community making them into Frenchmen. We’re in love with France, we’re in love with England, we’re in love with Germany. And if we work hard and if we give everything, they’re going to accept us. Now let’s have a look at the first President, and I’m going to talk a little bit about their backgrounds because I think this is very important for you to understand. Jacob Waley, he was the first president of the Anglo Jewish Association. He was a brilliant lawyer. He went to UCL, University College London. Remember the Godless institution in Gower Street? He got a first in maths and classics. One of those . He was a barrister, the fourth Jew to be brought to the bar because up until 18, it was only in 1871 that you could become a barrister because you had to affirm the oath on the Protestant Bible.

The emancipation process in Britain was long and slow. It wasn’t an edict. He’s a very, very interesting, clever man. He becomes a member of the Royal Commission. He was very much interested in economics. He was an examiner at UCL. He was also the Secretary of the Political Economic Club. You can see him, he looks like a Victorian gentleman. In conjunction with Lionel Louis Cohen, he created the London Synagogues into a corporate alliance. He’s the first president of the Anglo Jewish Association. He married the daughter of Moses Salomons. He comes the brother-in-law of Moses Haim Montefiore, part of the cousinhood. He originally came from Romania, and that’s a book he wrote. So they marry into this cousinhood. Let’s have a look at Lionel Louis Cohen, who he worked with. Again, a Victorian gentleman.

This is actually from Punch. A financier, a politician, very much a communal worker. They believed very much in helping the poor, in helping the Jewish poor and making them into Englishmen. He was a trustee and later manager of the stock exchange. He himself came from a banking family. Unusual for a Jew, he goes into politics as a conservative MP. He also set up the Constitution of the Board of Guardians, which those of you from Britain will know, it’s the forerunner of course, of Jewish Care. And it’s based on quote, “His scheme for a better management of the Jewish poor.” And so he and Waley, Jacob Waley, worked very, very closely together. Another one who’s going to be very involved in the story of Zionism is Claude G. Montefiore.

Now these characters die way before Herzl erupts on the scene. But I want to set the term. And now let’s have a look at Claude Montefiore. He comes from the famous Montefiore dynasty. And of course Moses Montefiore was brother-in-law of Nathan Rothschild. So you’ve got this group, probably about 400 people. They rule Anglo Jewry. They have largest, most of them begin to have country estates, some of them are ennobled. Montefiore didn’t have children, any legitimate children. And this is his great nephew. He’s one of the founders of the Jewish Quarterly Review, and he was brought up on the family estate in Hampshire. He goes to Oxford University. He was intended for the ministry at West London, which of course was the first reform synagogue. He studied theology. He founded, as I said, he founds many publications. He studied Christianity. He assisted Singer in preparing the Anglo Jewish prayer book, instrumental in the education of Jewish pupils and teachers.

And he’s president of the Jewish Historical Society. He sought to revolutionise Judaism and is one of the founders of liberal Judaism. And he becomes the president of the Anglo Jewish Association. And he’s a member of the Council of Jewish College. So he is a very, very important character. But the point we’re going to see is these people are violently, they’re not non-Zionists, these characters are violently anti-Zionist. Let’s see the next slide, please. This is Leonard Goldsmid-Montefiore, the great Goldsmid clan. Only son of Claude. He was founding president of the Union of Progressive Jewry. Again, the background, Clifton, which had a Jewish house, and Baleal. He was a huge philanthropist. He worked at Toynbee Hall, the settlement house, an attempt to alleviate poverty.

Very much the ethos of British society, actually. “Give larges to the deserving poor,” that’s a quote of Jane Austen. He’s a very much a leading figure in the Central British Fund. He was fluent in German, which helped in study the oppression of Jews in Germany. Very much, they do want to help their brethren in trouble, but it’s going to rock the boat how they feel about Britain and how they feel about Zionism. Can we go onto the next one, please? Now this is Neville Laski. He’s a fascinating character. His father was Nathan Laski, who was a Lithuanian cotton merchant from Manchester, married Sarah Frankenstein. They become part of the cousinhood. He had a younger brother, Harold, who becomes chairman of the Labour Party and professor at LSC.

He’s a Marxist theoretician and also he taught a young man called Ralph Miliband, who of course is the father of David Miliband and his brother, who was for a time, leader of the Labour Party. A cousin was Neville Blond, who was founder of the Royal Court Theatre, which has such a terrible record on Zionism, and also father of the publisher, Anthony Blond. So his brother co-founds the Left Book Club. So basically this is the family. Now, let’s go back to Neville. Neville Laski. He comes from this very distinguished family. He marries the daughter of Moses Gaster. He himself is educated at Manchester Grammar, Clifton College and Oxford. He’s a barrister. He’s also chairman of the Manchester Hospital. He’s presiding elder of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation and vice president of the Anglo Jewish Association.

And later on in life, in 1937, he’s going to become president of the Board of Deputies. He presents the foreign office with a detailed memorandum, rebutting the claim of the World Jewish Congress to be a representative organisation. He believed Jewish nationhood, they all did. They believed that Jewish nationhood was a danger to the civil rights of Jews in all countries. So he is hugely opposed to Zionism. He published a book of essays, he says this, “To Western Jewry, the ideal of a Jewish state is no less distasteful now than it was 20 years ago. They want to see in Palestine neither a Jewish or Arab state, but a Palestinian state. And they want the Jews of Palestine to count as Palestinian citizens, just as Jews in England are English citizens, in the way that it is a terrible danger of dual loyalty and of injustice to the Arabs.”

He completely was so against any kind of Zionism because he thought it was very, very dangerous. And the group of them, they write a letter called the “Conjoint Letter.” And this goes into the Times at the time of the Balfour Declaration. And just to sum up for you, the conjoint committee, strong, and it was the conjoint committee of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo Jewish Association. This is what they have published in the Times, “The conjoint committee strongly and earnestly protests, emancipated Jews in this country, regard themselves primarily as a religious community and they have always based their claims to political equality with their fellow citizens of other creeds on this assumption, on its , that they have no separate national aspirations in a political sense.

They hold Judaism to be a religious system with which their political status has no concern. And they maintain that as citizens of the countries in which they live, they are fully and sincerely identified with the national spirit and interests of those countries. It follows that the establishment of the Jewish nationality in Palestine founded on this theory of Jewish homelessness must have the effect throughout the world of stamping the Jews as strangers in their native lands and undermining their hard won positions as citizens and national of these lands.” So these characters who all see themselves very much part of the Anglo establishment, slightly insecure. But don’t forget the number of heiresses that are marrying in, Jewish heiresses marrying into the aristocracy. They fall in love with it. Whether they ever really understand Britain, the Britain that says you are too clever by half as an insult is another question. And can we go on, please?

In the end, as the events in the '30s unfold, alas, they do fight what’s going on in Germany, but they decide they don’t want to boycott German goods because it will upset, it will make life even more difficult for German Jews. The Jews in the East end, the more radical Jews, the majority of them are socialists, but more and more they have the blue box. They are giving money to Zionism. And Selig Brodetsky, a fascinating character. He actually is a mathematician and he wins the leadership of the Board of Deputies and it breaks away from the cousinhood, but that is not until 1939. Now what happens is, important to remember, Anglo Jewry, if the poor are far more drawn to left wing than Zionist politics, and it doesn’t really change until the '30s, where this despairing that the liberal democracies will save the Jews, you do begin to see an upswing in Zionism.

Now, what is Zionism? I asked you that a couple of weeks ago. Is it an authentic Jewish nationalism? Is it at the core of Judaism itself next year in Jerusalem? Or is it a response to antisemitism? But going on, can we see the next slide, please? The League of British Jews is established back in November, 1917 as a response to the Balfour Declaration. They are so against the Balfour Declaration. And the people who were involved in it, it was set up in Nathan de Rothschild’s offices, in Rothchild’s in the city of London. Let’s have a look. When it was set up, this is what it said, “To uphold the status of British Jewish subjects, professing the Jewish religion, to resist the allegations that Jews constitute a separate political entity, to facilitate the settlement in Palestine of such Jews as may desire to make Palestine their home.”

They are still prepared to help poor Jews from Eastern Europe go there, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult because the British are changing their minds. So it’s founded at Rothchilds, and who is involved? Let’s have a look at the characters. Of course, part of the establishment. Lionel Nathan de Rothschild. Harrow Trinity, he becomes a liberal MP for Ailesbury. At the outbreak of World War I, it was more important that he run the bank, but his two brothers went into the army and he actually set up, there was a lot of rumours going around, the Jews were not pulling their weight. And he actually set up a central Jewish recruiting committee in December, 1915, this is before conscription. It’s known as the Rothschild Recruiting office. And he, as I said, he’s the co-founder of the League of British Jews.

Let’s have a look at another character. These are all the cousinhood. This is Philip Magnus. He studied at UCS and UCL. He got a first class honours in both arts and sciences. He is part of the reform movement. He’d studied in Berlin. 1906, he switches to politics, he becomes a liberal member of Parliament and he becomes vice president of the Anglo Jewish Association. And also he’s co-founder of the League of Jews. So you’ve got the whole group of British establishment figures who are completely against it. And perhaps the most dangerous of them all, we’ve talked about. Can we see the next slide? From point of view of Zionism, was Edwin Montagu, because of course, he comes from an incredibly wealthy family. He’s close to Asquith, he’s in the British government, and he is he who says, he is the one who says, he was about to go to India Secretary of State, “How can you send me to India representing the British government, when you’re telling me my home’s at the end of the Eastern Mediterranean?”

And of course his cousin, Herbert Samuel, was the first high commissioner. He says, the Jews have charged themselves with the great cause of Jewish nationalism. And we do not want it to become as Jewish as England is English. Now can we go on, please? They did recruit, they of course, but in London, who do you have? You have Chaim Weizmann. There is a group, and of course remember how popular Chaim Weizmann is, in government circles. Let’s go on. Walter Rothschild, one of the few Rothschilds who was converted to Zionism. And it was to him that the Balfour Declaration was granted. He was vice president. Can we go on, please? Here you have Harry Sacher, extraordinary character and Israelsi.

They were the Manchester crew and they were very much part of the Weizmann circle. And they were very, very instrumental in fighting the Assimilationists. They saw the Anglo Jewish establishment as Assimilationists trying so hard to be British. And consequently, there’s real tension in the community. Can we go on, please? Here you see Israel Moses Sieff. And he actually goes out to Palestine as Weizmann’s secretary. And I hope his granddaughter is listening. He was very, very important in the history of Zionism. So I don’t want you to think all Anglo Jews were against it, but it was a huge division. And it’s on the issue of can you be loyal to Britain and can you be loyal to Zionism? And I don’t believe that issue has actually gone away. Can we go on, please?

Here you see the great Moses Gaster, a Romanian Jew, hugely influential intellectual, very much on the side of Zionism, but no match for the Waley, Weizmann. Don’t forget, they’re also all fighting. The Zionists are all fighting with each other. That’s our tragedy, you know, that’s my analysis. We are such a combative people. It took, even in the Warsaw Ghetto, but that’s another story. Can we go on, please? Here you see others of the great Zionists, remember they’re all outsiders. Nahum Sokolow, who was so important, but he’s Eastern European working in London. Go on, please. Now this was a Jewish aristo who they did manage to co-opt into their side. He was the youngest son of Ludwig Mond, who was a very important industrialist from Germany. He was educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, then he did law in Edinburgh. He becomes a barrister. He enters his father’s company and he becomes managing director. And of course the firm expands.

He is absolutely at the centre of life in the city. Don’t forget, a quarter of the non-landed millionaires in Britain were Jewish at this time. He was a director of many insurance companies of the National Westminster Bank. He created ICI in 1926, which becomes one of the world’s largest industrial corporations. He was its first chairman. He was member of parliament, liberal. As I said, the majority of Jews were liberals. And he served in the coalition government of Lloyd George. He was created a baron in 1910. And in 1928, he becomes Lord Melchid. Now, he was a very strong Zionist. In fact, in 1920, he gave 10,000 to Vladimir Jabotinsky. And later on I will be talking about the huge splits in Zionism. He went to Palestine with Weizmann. Huge philanthropist, president of the British Zionist Federation.

Talmond is a town he founded. He also built a wonderful private villa on the sea of Galilee. He supported Pinicus Rottenberg, and the British, as a result, the British government granted him concessions to produce electricity in Palestine. And the whole fight continues in London as the '20s rage. And after Hitler comes to power, there’s something else that Jews have to face. How are they going to deal with Germany? And that also becomes another very important issue. I’ve mentioned the boycotts. What does one do? How does one help Jews get out of Germany? And also there are conferences in London. The London Conference, the Zionist Congress. There’s also infighting between Weizmann and Louis Brandeis. Brandeis wins, beg your pardon, Weizmann wins. Brandeis actually wanted non-Zionists on the executive. Mond does become chairman of . And very much involved in fundraising.

He was a little bit disparaged by Weizmann, who I know he’s a great man, but he was very, very arrogant. He disparaged him as a bureaucrat. Now let’s come on to another very interesting character. This is Leopold Greenberg. And Leopold Greenberg, he was born in Birmingham, educated at UCS. He’d met Theodore Herzo, and he becomes a huge Zionist. I would suggest to you that when he becomes a Zionist, 99% of the community were either indifferent or non-Zionists. He is a journalist, he edited Young Israel. And he heard that the JC was being sold, so he proposed to the World Zionist organisation, they acquire it. It was rejected by the 1900s and three Congress.

But in 1904, he founded a company to purchase it and found four Jewish backers, including Leopold Kessler, who will be known to many of our South African listeners. He was a mining engineer who’d made a fortune over there. And Greenberg edited the Chronicle. He’s very close to Moses Gaster. And he also had a very close association with Joseph Cohen, president of the English Zionist Organised Federation. He also was close to Joseph Chamberlain, because don’t forget, amongst the British, you have this whole strand, mainly of evangelicals who were still very pro-Zionist. Now can we go on, please?

Another important character was of course Leonard Stein, who was Weizmann’s secretary. And you really should read what he had to say about Zionism and what he had to say about his master. So going on with, going on a little bit about Greenberg. Greenberg becomes more and more of a Zionist, more and more militant. And in fact, it’s his son who is a journalist. And he becomes the editor of the Jewish Chronicle in 1935 to 1946. And he is a supporter of Jabotinsky and he is forced to resign by the managing director, Kessler, the son of Leopold, as being much too divisive. But I’m going to talk about that, because I’m going to do a whole session or probably two sessions on '45 to '48, when the Jewish world went, well, the Zionists went to war with the British. And you can imagine what that’s going to do to Anglo Jewry.

So I think it was important to give you an idea. And I think we have to keep this in our heads, that Zionism, in the majority of countries in Western and Central Europe, if it’s going to grow apart from a few odd people in the cousinhood in Britain, it’s going to grow amongst the Eastern Europeans. In Germany, they fulfilled the Zionists’ dream without being Zionists. I think I’ll stop there. Thank you. Let’s have a look at questions.

Q&A and Comments

Q: Tim says, “When the Nazis put a price on Einstein’s head, did you say he was not in Germany at the time? Did they ask other countries to send him to Germany?” A: I think he was actually in America at the time. They ransacked his villa. They burnt his boats. They were absolutely horrible.

Q: What about the middle class or lower middle class Jews who were shopkeepers? What about the Neo-Orthodox that followed rabbis and their rabbis up here? A: Yes. A lot of Jews, this is the point, this is the educated, the secularly educated rabbinate. Now important to say, as I said to you, the majority of Jews in this country were not Zionists. There’s only 60,000 before 1881. After that, of course, what about the poorer Jews? The majority of poorer Jews were socialists. It’s very important to remember that. A lot of them had the blue box, but Anglo Jewry never went to Palestine. Very, very few Anglo Jews immigrated to Palestine or to Israel later on. It’s very small, right up until the ‘60s. They were grubbling, trying very hard to work out what it meant to be an Anglo Jew. And the reason I talked about the cousinhood, they set the structure. Anglo Jewry still, I think to a large extent, wants to be British. It’s very complicated.

Q: Did the Germans not like Yiddish? A: You are being rational. No, German Jews hated Yiddish. It’s Ostjuden.

Q: What do you say the conversion intermarriage rates were? A: 54% in 1927.

And the first sign is Congress in bar over half the delegates from Eastern Europe. Yes, of course, Tommy. Lovely to hear you, Tommy. And I will be looking at Eastern Europe next week. I’m going to be looking at Poland and Russia. Look, the largest adherence to Zionism were Eastern European Jews. You know, you’re not going to become a Russian, are you? Russia only had a very brief period of opening its arms to the Jews, very short time. And of course, we’re going to see in the second, in the third aliyah, the bulk of them are Polish that are going to go over to Palestine. Zionism had much more traction in Eastern Europe. And don’t forget the tragedy. Zionism was always a movement to save Ashkenazi Jewry. By the time it’s created, it’s too late for the mob. And ironically, it led to the huge exodus from the Arab world, which Lynn Julius and Norman Stillman are talking about, and Hillary Pomeroy, so important.

The Haber brush processor made ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. Subsequently, the ammonia is converted to fertiliser. Also the ammonia is used for making explosives and important development for Germany in World War I. Yes, he was very loyal. The Fritz-Haber story is absolutely fascinating. It’s so poignant. And Monty says it caused the explosion in Beirut Harbour. What do you say about the culture? I do think it’s strange that the entire situation happened in an advanced European country. I guess it’s a lesson. Oh yes, it’s a lesson. Education does not mean enlightenment. That is for sure.

Estelle is saying, look at what’s happening here in London. Yes, are there parallels? Be careful. There is a Jewish state now, and you haven’t got a government in power that is committed to destroying the Jews. Or at this stage, remember Hitler just wanted them out. Right up until 1941, Jews could get out of Germany, which shifts a lot of the blame, you know, to the “allies,” quote-unquote. Edmond, German Jews were really attached to Germany. Do you know the story of Erich Maria Remarque when he arrived in the States? He was asked, “Do you miss Germany?” He replied, “I don’t miss Germany, I’m not Jewish.” I’ll never forget, I once chaired a meeting with a group of German Jewish intellectuals, they’d done so well in Britain. And one of them, he said, “I came from the land of culture to the world of the Philistines.” And he said, “Oh my God, did I really say that?” I mean even with Anita, she loves to talk about Girtha and Sheila. Look, there was a Germany that was wondrous, but it didn’t have the Democratic basis. Never forget that. It’s a complicated story.

Q: Were the differences in the attitude designed to aversion modernity and nationalism to French Jews and Germans rank? A: It’s a very, very important question, Shelly. It deserves a much longer answer. But basically, again, it’s the Eastern European Jews who would turn to socialism or Zionism. The existing French community had the emancipation contract, that’s what they believed in.

Frank says he thought Remarque was Jewish. No, he wasn’t, but his works were burned. His works were burned by the Nazis. I see it and got in first.

Q: What were the conversion into marriage rates of these famous rich Anglo Jews? A: Quite a few of them into marriage. Of course they did. A lot of them wanted to be lords and ladies, it’s complicated. They fell in love with the English aristocracy. They’re a very seductive lot, you know. But they’re not, I’m not going there.

In London’s East end, there are many buildings from the Victorian built for the Jewish poor, it’s a really interesting area of Jewish history. Yes, and we have covered it. You’ll find it online. Yes, and this is the wealthy Jews actually giving money to help the poor Jews. That’s a completely different story. Again, let’s look after the deserving poor, but at the same time they did repatriate.

Q: Isn’t it curious that so many rich German Jews want to be Prussians, while so many upper class British Jews wanting to be aristocrats or liberals? A: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got to think that one through, Shelly. You’re very, very perspicacious, madam. German Jews are like the mythical lemmings. I always think of Dan Schutzen, he’s Israeli academic. I love to quote him, “The Jewish past is my past, the Jewish present is my present, the Jewish future is my future.” It’s very good.

Q: Were there no women involved in these organisations? A: Yes, there were. But you’ve got to, Rosa Luxemburg, of course was very involved. There were women. There were women at the first sign as Congress. But the problem is, it’s because of the role of women, and Carrie you know about this, you know so much about this. In the Maine, it’s the men who come to the fore. Even the great Freud, if you look at how he treated his wife, she even had to squeeze his toothpaste for him. There’s a wonderful book to be written on the story of the wife of the greats. It was very difficult for women to take power in their own right. There were some, in the Second Aliyah, of course there were, because the Second Aliyah were very much into feminism. But it was, look, when did British women get the vote, remember?

Tommy says the modern name was carried by ICI for decades. Thanks, Reina. What happened to yesterday’s lecture on the mandate? Unfortunately, David wasn’t well, but you’re going to have some other lectures on the mandates. In fact, Dennis Davis is going to be talking about it and David will come back to do it. Anthony says, Neville Laski became the recorder of Liverpool in the 1960s when I qualified, he was a tough judge. His reform in its leader, not unlike Germany in 1930. Be careful, Sarah. He’s trying very hard to be a fellow Semite, but it’s complicated. Look, he just wants power.

Speaking personally, I’m finding both the British in elections, the American elections rather depressing. I dream of a world of people who can go beyond themselves. We’ve had great leaders in the past, we seem rather lacking at the moment, whatever your politics. Maizeda came to Cape Town in 1929 from Poland, he was a Bundist. I’ve lectured on this, Barry. The Bundist was created in 1897 in Vilna. In fact, I’ll be talking about it when I talk about Poland because it was a much bigger organisation than the Zionists. What they wanted was a revolution in the Russian Empire, because remember, it’s part of the Russian Empire. They were socialists and they wanted to have Jewish autonomy after the revolution.

Their language was Yiddish, not Hebrew. Hebrew is the language of the Zionists. They were much larger organisation than the Zionists. They were a very, very interesting lot. And I have lectured on it. And they were, of course, in fact, they were outlawed in Russia because I think it was Trotsky, one of the Jewish communist leaders said they are Zionists who suffer from seasickness.

Anyway, that’s it. So I wish you all a good evening, and I will see you next week. And there’s lots of fascinating lectures at the moment, because what I’ve tried to do is to give you many different angles on this particular issue because this is the story of the birth of Zionism and it’s important. Because I would suggest to you, many of the issues that I’m talking about today are just as relevant. In the diaspora, where do our loyalties lie in a multicultural world? Think about it. Lots of love. Bye.