Shortly before they left England the American Zionist Medical Unit

were received by Mr. Balfour, who said he was very happy to be able

to address the deputation of the Unit on their way to Palestine,

where they were going to contribute their share to the beginnings of

a great National undertaking. The far-reaching importance of the idea

represented by Zionism was not sufficiently understood; the influence

of that great National revival would be felt not only by those Jews who

would settle in Palestine, but also by Jewry in every country of the

world, and even by the other nations of humanity, for though Palestine

was but a small country, the good which it had done for mankind was

immeasurable. The destruction of Judea nineteen centuries ago was one

of the great wrongs which the Allied Powers were trying to redress.

This destruction was a national tragedy. It deprived the Jews of the

opportunities enjoyed by other nations, to develop their national

genius and their own spirit to the full extent of which it was capable.

The Jews occupied a unique position among nations of the present day,

because they lacked that element of nationality which appeared to be

indispensable to a complete National life――to the possession of a

National Home. The present moment witnessed the entrance on the world’s

stage of great and important National factors, and he felt sure that

among these the Zionist idea, which had already accomplished so much in

Palestine, would play a noble and beneficial part. He congratulated the

members of the Unit on their great humanitarian mission. He knew they

were moved by a high idea and not by any self-seeking. Nothing, he said,

could be accomplished in this world except under the inspiration of a

great ideal. He wished them Godspeed and complete success.

Direct evidence of the spread of Zionism in America was furnished by a

resolution of the American Jewish Committee, a body which has hitherto

been held to represent the assimilated American Jews and to be hostile

to Jewish nationalism, at a special meeting held on Sunday, April

28th, which was attended by, among others, Mr. Jacob Schiff, Mr. Louis

Marshall, Dr. Cyrus Adler, ex-Judge Mack, and ex-Judge Sulzberger.

The Committee declared by the resolution that it could not be unmindful

of the fact that there are Jews everywhere throughout the world who,

moved by traditional Jewish sentiment, yearn for a Home in the Holy

Land for the Jewish people. This hope, which has been nurtured for

centuries, had the Committee’s whole-hearted sympathy. When therefore,

the British Government made the Declaration which is now supported

by the French Government, that it views with favour the establishment

in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish People, and will use

its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, the

announcement was received by the members of the Committee with profound

appreciation.

The Committee regards as of essential importance the conditions annexed

to the Declaration, “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.” The latter of these conditions corresponded entirely

with the general principles on the basis of which the Committee had

ever striven to attain civil and political rights for Jews the world

over, and with the ideals of all American Jewry.

The opportunity foreshadowed by Mr. Balfour’s letter was welcomed by

the Committee, which would help to the best of its power to realise in

Palestine, placed under such protectorate or suzerainty as the Peace

Congress may determine, the objects set forth in the Declaration; and

the Committee resolved to co-operate with all those who, attracted

by religious or historic associations, shall seek to establish in

Palestine a centre for Judaism for the stimulating of our faith, the

pursuit and development of literature, science, and art in a Jewish

environment, and the rehabilitation of the Land.

The British and Italian Governments indicated to the Zionist

Organization their interest in the welfare of the Jewish people by the

opinion they expressed with regard to the clause in the Rumanian-German

Treaty referring to Jewish rights. Ever since the Treaty of Berlin, the

position of the Rumanian Jews had been one of the scandals of Europe.

That Treaty forbade all legal discriminations on account of religious

faith. This clause was made a useless “_scrap of paper_” by Rumania

considering its Jews “aliens not subject to alien protection.” The

Jew has been prevented from living in country districts or owning

land outside towns. This does not prevent it from being a standing

accusation against the Jews of Rumania that they do not work as

agricultural labourers. They have been excluded from the civil service

and the liberal professions; they have been disfranchised; factories

and mills were forbidden to employ more Jewish workers than one quarter

of their entire staff. Yet the Jews in Rumania by no means gave rise to

this state of affairs by obvious separatism; the younger generation all

spoke Rumanian, both at home and in intercourse with the outer world,

and they wore no distinctive dress.

It should be stated that the Rumanians are a peasant people; the

landowners, all Christians, are largely an absentee class, spending

their money in Western Europe. Anti-Semitism has been a convenient

safety-valve for diverting the discontent of the peasants from the

real authors of their misery.

These anti-Jewish laws have caused an immense exodus of Jews from

Rumania.

Rumania continued its anti-Jewish policy during the war. Rumanian Jews

were registered and supervised as aliens, because, owing to defective

registration, they could not prove that they were born in Rumania.

Many elderly persons were born in places where no registers were kept.

There were no registers before 1866, and it was only in 1880 that the

whole country began to keep such registers. This brings us directly

to the Jewish clause of the treaty with Germany. The German Government

had led the Jews in Germany to believe that it would protect the rights

of Jews in the treaty. But the treaty merely stated that those Jews

hitherto considered aliens were to be naturalized by law if they could

prove that they and their parents were born in Rumania, or that they

had taken part in the war, either in active service or in army service

(_Hilfsdienst_). Such a clause could only open the way to further

equivocations. By the addition of this clause to the general statement

that differences of religious faith shall have no influence on the

legal rights of inhabitants, and in particular on their political and

civil rights, the treaty of 1918 actually went back from the position

taken by the treaty of 1878. It is not even found possible to make

the officers of a regiment in Rumania give a Jewish soldier the paper

necessary to prove that he has served in the army.

The letters to the Author, in which the two _Entente_ Powers (England

and Italy) expressed their desire to rectify this unjust state of

affairs, are as follows:――

FOREIGN OFFICE,

_June 15th, 1918_.

SIR,

In reply to your letter of the 3rd instant, relative to the

question of Jewish rights in Rumania, I am directed by Mr.

Secretary Balfour to state that His Majesty’s Government

fully realize that the enfranchisement promised to the Jews

in Rumania under the recent treaty is less liberal than that

by which the former Rumanian Government had publicly pledged

themselves. They take this opportunity of assuring your

Organization that they are most anxious to do everything in

their power to secure a just and permanent settlement of the

Jewish question in that country.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient, humble Servant,

(_Signed_) W. LANGLEY.

N. SOKOLOW, ESQ.,

35 Empire House,

175 Piccadilly, W. 1.

The Italian Ambassador, the Marquis Imperiali, honoured me with

a communication to a like effect, of which the following is a

translation:――

LONDON,

_August 2nd, 1918_.

DEAR SIR,

On the instructions of His Excellency, Baron Sonnino, I have

pleasure in communicating to you the following:

“The Italian Government recognizing that the provision

contained in the Treaty of Bucharest of May 7th, 1918,

between Rumania and the Central Empires, relating to religious

equality in Rumania, are, so far as the Jews are concerned,

less liberal than those which the Rumanian Government itself

had spontaneously promised to grant, now declares that at the

final settlement of the Rumanian question, it will use its

best endeavours to secure for the Jews in Rumania a settlement

which will definitely assure them of a permanent position of

equality.”

Accept, dear Sir, the expression of my most distinguished

consideration.

(_Signed_) IMPERIALI.

N. SOKOLOW, ESQ.

One of the first practical results of the British Government’s

declaration was the appointment in March, 1918, of a Zionist Commission

for Palestine.

The objects and status of the Commission were laid down as follows:――

The Commission should represent the Zionist Organization.

It should act as an advisory body to the British authorities in

Palestine in all matters relating to Jews, or which may affect the

establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in accordance

with the Declaration of His Majesty’s Government.

The objects of the Commission were:――

1. _To form a link between the British authorities and the

Jewish population of Palestine._

2. _To co-ordinate the relief work in Palestine and to assist

in the repatriation of exiled and evacuated persons and

refugees._

3. _To assist in restoring and developing the Colonies and in

organizing the Jewish population in general._

4. _To assist the Jewish organization and institutions in

Palestine in the resumption of their activities._

5. _To help in establishing friendly relations with the Arabs

and other non-Jewish communities._

6. _To collect information, and report upon the possibilities

of the further development of the Jewish settlement and of

the country in general._

7. _To inquire into the feasibility of the scheme of

establishing a Jewish University._

In order to be able to achieve the foregoing objects the Commission

obtained permission, subject to military necessities, to travel,

investigate, and make reports upon the above-mentioned matters.

The Commission left London on March 8th. It consisted of:――

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the Chairman of the Commission; Mr. Joseph Cowen,

Director of the Anglo-Palestine Company; Dr. Eder, Medical Adviser,

Representative of the Jewish Territorial Organization; Mr. Leon Simon,

selected to be Chairman of the Relief Committee of the Commission;

and Professor Sylvain Lévi, Collège de France. Mr. Israel M. Sieff, of

Manchester, acted as Secretary to the Commission.

Two representatives of Italian Jewry joined the Commission after an

interval of some time――Commendatore Bianchini and Dr. Artom.

The Commission was accompanied by the following gentlemen: Mr.

Aaron Aaronsohn, Agricultural Expert, formerly of the Jewish Colony

of _Zichron Jacob_; Mr. David Levontin, Manager of the _Jaffa_

branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank; Mr. Rosenack, Agent of the Jewish

Colonization Association, and Mr. Walter Meyer of New York.

Major the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore acted as Political Officer and

communicated the Commission’s views and requirements to the Government

and the military authorities.

It had been intended that representatives of the Jews of Russia should

join the Commission, but the disorganization of communications in

Russia caused by the revolution prevented them from doing so until

about October, 1918, when Mr. Isaac Goldberg and Mr. Israel Rosoff

started for Palestine.

A few isolated incidents alone can be referred to here out of a large

amount of work which was done by the Commissioners. They succeeded

in obliterating the ill effects of warfare, they restored refugees

to their homes, restarted the normal course of peaceful activities,

reorganized the hitherto unsatisfactory and disunited _Jerusalem_

communities belonging to the old settlements of pre-Zionist times and

pre-Zionist feelings, and extended the _Hebrew_ system of schools.

The Commission started part of its work in Egypt before it reached

Palestine. The Arabs had been given wrong ideas concerning the

meaning of the British declaration and the intention of the Zionists:

pro-German agents had spread rumours intended to be both anti-English

and anti-Jewish. They declared that rich Jews would exploit the land

of Palestine and would destroy Moslem holy places. Dr. Weizmann met

certain Arab leaders in Egypt and succeeded in removing their fears and

anxieties. It was found that the Felaheen cultivators in Palestine do

not fear the Jews. They realize that the Jewish colonies increase the

prosperity of the country by introducing improved agricultural methods.

But the Effendi Arabs, who are landlords, fear the establishment of a

just rule over the land. These Effendi are largely cosmopolitans and

absentee landlords, living in Syria and Egypt. The Zionists are anxious

to prevent, if they can, any speculation in land, whether by natives

of Palestine or by foreigners. The prosperity of the colonies is bound

up with a just land policy, which will prevent the fruits of a man’s

labour enriching others and will place at the disposal of the Jewish

colonies unused and State lands as well as badly cultivated large

estates.

The Zionists have been fortunate in gaining the confidence of the King

of the Hedjaz and of Prince Feisal.

Although by the Hague Convention the military authorities could not

make any alteration in the laws of the land, they did in two matters

of administration increase the power of self-government possessed by

the Jews. They allowed certain colonies to appoint their own police

and their own Jewish tax-collectors. So corrupt had the Turkish

tax-collectors been, that the Jewish tax-collectors, while taking less

from the colonists, were able to hand a larger sum to the Government.

Much consideration was given by the Commission to the work of

strengthening and supporting the organizations for relieving

distress――orphanages, hospitals, and so on: a work much needed owing

to war conditions. Special reports on the utilities of the various

hospitals, schools, and orphanages were drawn up. In _Jerusalem_ great

distress was found. The _Halukah_ Jews, settled in _Jerusalem_ to study

and pray and entirely dependent on the support of the Jews of other

countries, had been by the war cut off from their means of livelihood.

Widows and orphans were many, the adult men having suffered excessively

from epidemics. The Commission opened laundries and a kind of shirt

factory to provide employment for women and did its best to find

employment for the men, although the importation of raw materials was

very difficult.

On 17th June there was opened at _Jaffa_ the first conference of Jews

of the liberated area of Palestine. Major Ormsby-Gore, the Political

Officer in charge of the Zionist Commission, delivered the following

speech:――

“You have asked me, as Political Officer in charge of the

Zionist Commission which has been sent out to Palestine by H.M.

Government, to attend this historic gathering and to say a few

words of good wishes to you, the representatives of all Jewry

in the occupied part of Palestine, on behalf of my Government.

I do so with a full heart. My Government――the British

Government――has said one or two important things during this

war concerning Palestine.

“My Government has said that, if England and her Allies

win this war, the future Government of Palestine shall

not be Turkish, because in this war England and her Allies

are fighting, not for the extension of any Empire, nor for

the acquisition of further power or further territory, but

they are fighting for an ideal, shared by all our Allies,

namely, that countries shall be governed in the interests and

according to the wishes and the aspirations of the inhabitants

of those countries. We are satisfied when we look at the

results of Turkish rule upon the land and the people of

Palestine, that such rule ought to disappear in the interests

of Palestine and of civilization. The Turkish rule in

Palestine was an alien rule, and was not in the best interests

of any of the inhabitants of Palestine, and, moreover, such a

rule crippled the free development, economic and political, of

this country.

“My Government has said that it wishes to see the people of

Palestine among others freed from the rule of the Turks, but

it has as yet said nothing as to what Government should take

its place――that is a matter for the Peace Conference. But

Mr. Balfour has made an historic declaration with regard to

the Zionists, that he wishes to see created and built up in

Palestine a National Home for the Jewish people.

“What do we understand by this? We mean that those Jews who

voluntarily come to live in Palestine should live in Palestine

as Jewish nationalists, _i.e._ that they should be regarded

as Jews and nothing else, and that they should be absolutely

free to develop _Hebrew_ education, to develop the country,

and live their own life in their own way in Palestine freely,

but only submitting equally with all others to the laws of the

land.

“I shall tell the British Government, when I go back, what the

Jews of Palestine have done already to realize their ideals,

and what they feel with regard to this National Home. I can

say when I go back that I can see in this gathering to-day

the pioneer work of the National Home, _i.e._ a National

Home built up on a _Hebrew_ foundation with a definite

consciousness and ideal of its own. I can say that whether you

come from Russia, from Salonica, from Bokhara, from Poland,

from America, from England, or from Yemen, you are bound

together in Palestine by the ideal of building up a Jewish

nation in all its various aspects in Palestine, a national

centre for Jewry all over the world to look to. This is the

ideal of the future, an ideal which I am convinced will be

realized without doing any injustice or injury to any of your

neighbours here. But while I look forward to the realization

of this ideal, I must remind you of the grim realities of the

present.

“We can still hear the guns, and we are in the midst of a

desperate struggle――not merely between nations, but between

ideals. Be patient with the British Government, who wish you

well. Do not expect a great deal from them, but expect a great

deal from yourselves. At present we are bound to carry on the

Turkish system of law, taxation, and Government. We are bound

to do this by international law, and England has always tried

to respect this international law. England set its seal to

the Hague Convention, which said that when an advance was made

into enemy country, the administration should be military and

not political, and that such military administration should

make no attempt to alter or change the institutions of the

occupied country; it is not our wish that this is so, but it

is so by the rule of law, and we shall do our best to respect

this law no matter who else breaks it.

“It is difficult for a military administration to make radical

changes or to do much to help you and others in the country.

Nevertheless, some great things have been done already; the

British Government has given opportunity to the young men to

join the battalion of Jews from other countries to liberate

this country. This splendid response of your young men will

have a great moral value when history comes to be written.

Every one of these fine and splendid recruits now enrolled and

who are going to the battalions which have come from England

and America, will go as missionaries of Jewish nationalism in

Palestine, so that these men will stay in Palestine and help

to develop it on just and right lines. The British Government

has done something more of great service to you. The

Government has sent out to Palestine the Zionist Commission.

It has sent out Dr. Weizmann, _i.e._ the British Government

has sent out a man in whom it has confidence to help the Jews

in Palestine in their greatest hour of need. What this help

has meant to you I need not go into in detail. The Zionist

Commission speaks for itself. Dr. Weizmann came here as a

stranger to the British authorities, but in a few weeks he

has won for himself, and for the people whom he represents,

a position among the British authorities and amongst all with

whom he has come into contact in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine;

a position which is not merely a help, but a corner stone of

the work which lies before you. The Zionist Commission is in a

position to do much to acquaint not only Jewry throughout the

world, but also the Governments of the Allied countries, with

the needs, ideals, and aspirations of Palestine Jewry. It is,

therefore, only right that you should be guided in patience

by him, your leader, and accept his advice and direction. Dr.

Weizmann is a leader who will see you through. He is a man

worthy of your confidence, as well as of the confidence of all

of the Allied Governments.

“The work of the conference which I am addressing is very

important. You have a great deal to prepare for. You have

to prepare for peace, for the day when war is no more, and

when there will be, please God, a free Palestine. Gentlemen,

make sure that your foundation-stones are truly laid in your

agricultural, cultural, and educational work. So much depends

for civilization on the work for which you are now preparing

and which you will perform during the next few months. You

will be faced with all the difficult trivialities of life, but

in the Zionist movement there is a spirit, and just as good

transcends evil, so does the spiritual transcend the material.

You can build up a centre of civilization here. We English owe

all that is best in our civilization to the Bible, and that

is why we feel a deep interest and a bond of sympathy in the

work which you are doing. The Zionist movement is not merely

a political move, but it is a spiritual force, and if it

succeeds I feel it will bring something great and noble to the

world, a message which will not only do so much for the sad

but beautiful land, but for the scattered hosts of _Israel_

and for humanity.”

Illustration: _Photo by בן־דוב בצלאל ירושלם_

LAYING FOUNDATION STONE OF THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY,

MOUNT SCOPUS, JERUSALEM

_15 Ab, 5678_ _24 July, 1918_

On 24th July, 1918, the foundation-stones of the _Hebrew_ University in

_Jerusalem_ were laid. This was an event which Zionists had conceived

long before, an event likely to be of great importance in enabling

_Jerusalem_ to become a spiritual centre for the still dispersed

communities of _Israel_, and destined, let us hope, to influence and

elevate the mental life, social aspirations and religious conceptions

of the Jews of the world.

The site of the University is a beautiful one. It is on Mount Scopus,

on an estate purchased from the late Sir John Gray Hill of Liverpool,

who was personally in deep sympathy with the scheme. It faces

_Jerusalem_ on the one side and the valley of the _Jordan_ and the

Dead Sea on the other.

At the ceremony of laying the foundation-stones those present included,

besides the members of the Zionist Commission, the Commander-in-Chief

and senior members of his staff, the Military Governor of _Jerusalem_,

staff representatives of the French and Italian military detachments

in Palestine and other officers, the _Mufti_ of _Jerusalem_, Bishop

MacInnes, Anglican Bishop of _Jerusalem_, the representatives of the

Armenian and Greek Churches, the Mayor and Vice-Mayor of _Jerusalem_,

Baron and Baroness Felix Menasce of Alexandria, Maurice Cattaui _Pacha_,

President of the Cairo Jewish Community, Mr. Victor Mosseri, the

Chief _Rabbis_ of Cairo and Alexandria, the _Sephardi_ and _Ashkenazi_

Chief _Rabbis_, and representatives of all Jewish organizations and

committees in _Jerusalem_, _Jaffa_, and the colonies. The day was

declared a public Jewish holiday in _Jerusalem_, and a crowd numbering

about six thousand people witnessed the ceremony.

After the ceremony had been opened by a chant of praise, Dr. Weizmann

laid the first foundation-stone of the University on behalf of the

Zionist Organization. He was followed by the two Chief _Rabbis_ of

_Jerusalem_ and the heads of the United Council, who laid a stone on

behalf of the _Jerusalem_ Community. The _Mufti_ then laid a stone, and

was followed by the Anglican Bishop. Stones were also laid on behalf

of the following: The Zionist Organization, the Jewish Regiment, Baron

Edmond _de_ Rothschild, the town of _Jaffa_, the Colonies, _Hebrew_

Literature, _Hebrew_ Teachers, _Hebrew_ Science, Jewish Artisans and

Labourers, Isaac Goldberg (whose generosity it was that provided so

largely for the purchase of the site), and the Future Generations.

Dr. Weizmann then added his signature to a parchment scroll inscribed

with the blessing:¹

ברוך אתה יי אלהינו מלך העולם שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה׃

¹ “Blessed art Thou O! Lord our God, King of the Universe who

hast preserved us alive, and sustained us and brought us to

(_enjoy_) this season.”

“Wednesday, the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the month of

_Menachem-Ab_, being in the year Five Thousand six hundred and

seventy-eight from the creation of the World, One thousand eight

hundred and forty-nine from the destruction of our second Temple, and

the twenty-first year after the first Zionist Congress called by Dr.

Benjamin Zeeb _ben_ Jacob Herzl, the first year of the Declaration of

the British Government issued through the Rt. Hon. Arthur James Balfour

promising to grant a National Home to the Jewish People in the land of

_Israel_,――the day on which was laid the first stone of the building

which shall become the first _Hebrew_ University in _Jerusalem_. In

testimony of which we add our signatures.” The signatures included

that of the _Sephardi_ Chief _Rabbi_ Nissim Elyashar, the _Ashkenazi_

Chief _Rabbi_ Zerach Epstein, the _Mufti_ of _Jerusalem_, Bishop

MacInnes, Chief _Rabbi_ Uziel of _Jaffa_ in the name of Baron Edmond

_de_ Rothschild, _M._ Libowitz, one of the last of the heroic band of

_Bilu_, Dr. Thon, Mr. D. Levontin, and some boys and girls in the name

of the future generation.

The signed scroll was buried under the first stone.

Dr. Weizmann then delivered an address. He said:――

“We have to-day laid the foundation-stone of the first Jewish

University, which is to be erected on this hill, overlooking

the city of _Jerusalem_. Many of us will have had their

thoughts cast back to the great historic scenes associated

with _Jerusalem_, scenes that have become part of the heritage

of mankind. It is not too fanciful to picture the souls of

those who have made our history here with us to-day inspiring

us, urging us onwards, to greater and ever greater tasks. Many

again will have had their attention riveted on the apparent

contrast between to-day’s ceremony and the scenes of warfare

within a few miles of us. For only a brief moment we are

allowing ourselves to indulge in a mental armistice, and in

laying aside all thoughts of strife we try to pierce the veil

of war and glance into the future. A week ago we were keeping

the Fast of _Ab_, reminding us that the Temple had been

utterly destroyed and the Jewish national political existence

extinguished apparently for ever. But throughout the long

centuries we, the stiff-necked people, have refused to

acknowledge defeat, and ‘_Judæa Capta_’ is once more on the

eve of triumph. Here, out of the misery and the desolation

of war, is being created the first germ of a new life.

Hitherto we have been content to speak of Reconstruction

and Restoration. We know that ravished Belgium, devastated

France, Poland and Russia must and will be restored. In this

University, however, we have gone beyond Restoration and

Reconstruction, we are creating during the period of war

something which is to serve as a symbol of a better future.

It is fitting that Great Britain, aided by her great Allies,

in the midst of tribulation and sorrow, should stand sponsor

to this University. Great Britain has understood that it is

just because these are times of stress, just because men tend

to become lost in the events of the day, that there is a need

to overlay these details by this bold appeal to the world’s

imagination. Here what seemed but a dream a few years ago is

now becoming a reality.

“What is the significance of a _Hebrew_ University――what are

going to be its functions, whence will it draw its students,

and what languages will it speak? It seems at first sight

paradoxical that in a land with so sparse a population, in

a land where everything still remains to be done, in a land

crying out for such simple things as ploughs, roads, and

harbours, we should begin by creating a centre of spiritual

and intellectual development. But it is no paradox for those

who know the soul of the Jew. It is true that great social

and political problems still face us and will demand their

solution from us. We Jews know that when the mind is given

fullest play, when we have a centre for the development of

Jewish consciousness, then coincidently we shall attain the

fulfilment of our material needs. In the darkest ages of our

existence we found protection and shelter within the walls

of our schools and colleges, and in devoted study of Jewish

science the tormented Jew found relief and consolation. Amid

all the sordid squalor of the _Ghetto_ there stood schools of

learning where numbers of young Jews sat at the feet of our

_Rabbis_ and teachers. Those schools and colleges served as

large reservoirs where there was stored up during the long

ages of persecution an intellectual and spiritual energy which

on the one hand helped to maintain our national existence, and

on the other hand blossomed forth for the benefit of mankind

when once the walls of the _Ghetto_ fell. The sages of Babylon

and _Jerusalem_, Maimonides and the _Gaon_ of Wilna, the lens

polisher of Amsterdam and Karl Marx, Heinrich Heine and Paul

Ehrlich are some of the links in the long, unbroken chain of

intellectual development.

“The University, as its name implies, is to teach everything

the mind of man embraces. No teaching can be fruitful nowadays

unless it is strengthened by a spirit of enquiry and research;

and a modern University must not only produce highly trained

professional men, but give ample opportunity to those capable

and ready to devote themselves to scientific research to do

so unhindered and undisturbed. Our University will thus become

the home of those hundreds of talented young Jews in whom the

thirst for learning and critical enquiry has been engrained

by heredity throughout ages, and who in the great multitude of

cases are at present compelled to satisfy this their burning

need amid un-Jewish, very often unfriendly surroundings.

“A _Hebrew_ University! I do not suppose that there is anyone

here who can conceive of a University in _Jerusalem_ being

other than a _Hebrew_ one. The claim that the University

should be a _Hebrew_ one rests upon the values the Jews have

transmitted to the world from this land. Here in the presence

of adherents of the three great religions of the world, which

amid many diversities build their faith upon the Lord who

made Himself known unto _Moses_, before this world which has

founded itself on Jewish law, has paid reverence to _Hebrew_

seers, has acknowledged the great mental and spiritual

values the Jewish people have given to it, the question is

answered. The University is to stimulate the Jewish people

to reach further truth. Am I too bold if here to-day in

this place among the hills of _Ephraim_ and _Judah_, I state

my conviction that the seers of _Israel_ have not utterly

perished, that under the ægis of this University there will

be a renaissance of the Divine power of prophetic wisdom

that once was ours? The University will be the focus of the

rehabilitation of our Jewish consciousness now so tenuous,

because it has become so world-diffused. Under the atmospheric

pressure of this Mount, our Jewish consciousness can become

diffused without becoming feeble, our consciousness will be

rekindled and our Jewish youth will be reinvigorated from

Jewish sources.

“Since it is to be a _Hebrew_ University, the question hardly

arises as to its language. By a strange error, people have

regarded _Hebrew_ as one of the dead languages, whilst in fact

it has never died off the lips of mankind. True, to many of us

Jews it has become a second language, but for thousands of my

people _Hebrew_ is and always has been the sacred tongue, and

in the streets of _Tel Aviv_, in the orchards of _Rischon_ and

_Rechoboth_, on the farms of _Hulda_ and _Ben Shemen_, it has

already become the mother tongue. Here in Palestine, amid the

_Babel_ of languages, _Hebrew_ stands out as the one language

in which every Jew can communicate with every other Jew. Upon

the technical difficulties connected with _Hebrew_ instruction

it is unnecessary for me to dwell at the moment. We are alive

to them; but the experience of our Palestinian schools has

already shown to us that these difficulties are surmountable.

These are all matters of detail which have been carefully

examined and will be dealt with at the appropriate time.

I have spoken of the Jewish University where the language

will be _Hebrew_, just as French is used at the Sorbonne, or

English at Oxford. Naturally, other languages, ancient and

modern, will be taught in the respective faculties; among

these languages we may expect that prominent attention will

be given to Arabic and other Semitic languages.

“The _Hebrew_ University, though intended primarily for Jews,

will, of course, give an affectionate welcome to the members

of every race and creed. ‘For my house will be called a house

of prayer for all the nations.’ Besides the usual schools and

institutions which go to form a modern University, there will

be certain branches of science which it will be peculiarly

appropriate to associate with our University. Archæological

Research, which has revealed so much of the mysterious past

of Egypt and of Greece, has a harvest still to be reaped in

Palestine, and our University is destined to play an important

part in this field of knowledge.

“The question as to the faculties with which our University

may begin its career is limited to some extent by practical

considerations. The beginnings of our University are not

entirely lacking. We have in _Jerusalem_ the elements of a

Pasteur Institute and a Jewish Health Bureau, whence valuable

contributions to bacteriology and sanitation have already been

issued. There is the school of Technology at _Haifa_, and the

beginning of an agricultural experimental station at _Athlit_.

It is to scientific research and its application that we can

confidently look for the banishment of those twin plagues of

Palestine, malaria and trachoma; for the eradication of other

indigenous diseases; it is to true scientific method that we

may look for the full cultivation of this fair and fertile

land, now so unproductive. Here, chemistry and bacteriology,

geology and climatology, will be required to join forces, so

that the great value of the University in the building up of

our National Home is apparent. All that again reminds us of

the fact which one is likely to forget after four years of a

terrible war, with its misapplication of scientific methods,

that we must look to science as to the healer of many wounds

and the redeemer of many evils. Side by side with scientific

research the humanities will occupy a distinguished place.

Ancient Jewish learning, the accumulated, half-hidden

treasures of our ancient philosophical, religious and juridic

literature, are to be brought to light again and freed from

the dust of ages. They will be incorporated in the new life

now about to develop in this country, and so our past will be

linked up with the present.

“May I be allowed, before concluding, to point to one very

important aspect of our University? The University, while

trying to maintain the highest scientific level, must, at

the same time, be rendered accessible to all classes of the

people. The Jewish workman and farm labourer must be enabled

to find there a possibility of continuing and completing their

education in their free hours. The doors of our libraries,

lecture rooms, and laboratories, must be opened widely to

them all. Thus the University will exercise its beneficial

influence on the nation as a whole. The bare nucleus of

the library is already in existence here, and very valuable

additions to it are at present stored up in Russia and

elsewhere. The setting-up of a University library and of a

University press are contemplated soon after the war. Manifold

are the preparations yet to be made. Some of them are already

in progress; some, like the actual building, must necessarily

be postponed until the happy day of peace arrives. But from

this day the _Hebrew_ University is a reality. Our University,

formed by Jewish learning and Jewish energy, will mould itself

into an integral part of our national structure which is

in process of erection. It will have a centripetal force,

attracting all that is noblest in Jewry throughout the world;

a unifying centre for our scattered elements. There will go

forth, too, inspiration and strength, that shall revivify

the powers now latent in our scattered communities. Here the

wandering soul of _Israel_ shall reach its haven; its strength

no longer consumed in restless and vain wanderings. _Israel_

shall at last remain at peace within itself and with the world.

There is a _Talmudic_ legend that tells of the Jewish soul

deprived of its body, hovering between heaven and earth. Such

is our soul to-day; to-morrow it shall come to rest, in this

our sanctuary. That is our faith.”

Dr. Weizmann then read the following message from Mr. Balfour:――

“Please accept my cordial good wishes for the future of the

_Hebrew_ University on Mount Scopus. May it carry out its

noble purpose with ever-increasing success as the years go on.

I offer my warm congratulations to all who have laboured so

assiduously to found this school of learning, which should be

an addition to the forces of progress throughout the world.”

Captain Coulandre, on behalf of the French Government, presented the

following message:――

“Le Gouvernement de la République est heureux d’exprimer

les sentiments de sympathie avec lesquels il accueille la

fondation de l’Université Juive. Il forme des vœux sincères

pour que de là rayonnent les grandes pensées de fraternité

et d’idéal auxquels le Judaisme s’est si fermement attaché à

travers les siècles au cours desquels il a resisté à toutes

les persécutions, et pour que dans un monde débarassé des

violences engendrées par les ambitions forcenées du régime

Prussien les Juifs qui le desireront puissent trouver en

Palestine en parfaite entente avec les autres groupements

ethniques un foyer à la fois intellectuel et social.”

The whole ceremony was a deeply moving one, and produced an effect

which will long remain with those who witnessed it.

The work of the Commission was made possible by the work of the British

Army and its scope was greatly increased by General Allenby’s complete

conquest of the country. In September, 1918, General Allenby secured

a victory which resounded throughout the world by its completeness as

well as by its brilliance. By most skilful procedure the Turkish line

was broken in several places and _Nablus_ and _Beisan_ were captured.

The bridge of the _Daughters of Jacob_ over the _Jordan_ was seized and

British troops wheeling round by quick marches along the coastal plain,

passed through the defile of _Megiddo_ and cut off the greater portion

of the Turkish army. The strong Turkish positions in the hills about

_Nablus_ were surrounded and positions which if directly attacked would

have cost thousands of lives were taken with comparatively few losses.

Eighty thousand prisoners were captured and a vast amount of guns,

munitions, and stores. The cavalry swept northward and captured

_Damascus_ within a few days, and even moved on to _Beirout_ and

_Sidon_ on the coast, while the Arabs under the King of the Hedjaz

defeated the Turks in the south-east of Palestine and Jewish troops

were sent forward to the capture of _Amman_ and _Es-Salt_. In a

period of a fortnight, three armies were defeated and ceased to

exist. Turkey’s military power was destroyed instantaneously. The

only defences left to the Turkish Empire were bad communications,

immense distances, and the submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The victories in Palestine stirred the world and gave new vigour to

Zionist efforts. To the outside world, these victories marked the

first decisive step in the final defeat of the German federation. To

the Zionists, they brought great joy because they definitely ended the

corrupt rule of Turkey. Supported by the most powerful nations in the

world, the Jews are asked to create in Palestine a typically _Hebrew_

society. A great responsibility and a great opportunity are thus

offered to us. We have to consider many new and difficult problems.

But for the solution of these practical problems, we confidently expect

to receive much help from Jews all over the world. The Declaration of

the Allies has been like a trumpet-call. Our wonderful successes in

the world of diplomacy fascinate all to whom the fate of _Israel_ is of

importance. The history of the past few years, which has transformed,

at the cost of terrible injuries to humanity, what seemed dreams into

plain facts, and made what were facts into dream-like memories, will

surely bring us active help from all who sympathize with our ideal,

the ideal for which Jews have unceasingly prayed and hoped for twenty

centuries.

* * * * *

This mighty war has now come to an end and the world breathes freely

once more. The cruelties and horrors of more than four years seem now

like a nightmare. That nightmare has vanished――let us hope for ever.

Day has dawned again, a day of victory, whose power for good outweighs

the evil powers let loose by the world-war. The great armies of the

Western Allies and of the United States of America have been victorious.

In consequence of this victory an old world order has been destroyed

and a new and a better one brought into being. State organizations

which had forced diverse nations into their artificial and incongruous

structures only by power are collapsing like houses of cards. Those

who ruled by the sword perished by the sword. Despotism, supported by

militarism, is shattered. The victory of the Allies ought to be more

than a victory of _one_ group of states over another; this ought to be

the victory of what is good in man over what is evil. This victory must

benefit the conquered not less than the conquerors. One great idea has

been victorious in this war, namely, the national principle: liberty,

equality, and self-determination of all peoples, great and small, old

and young. Every nation has the right to live, given the will to do so.

Every nation has a right to the land in which it grew to be a nation.

It is all one, whether this was accomplished a hundred years ago as in

Belgium, or many hundreds of years ago as in Armenia, or as in Greece

some thousands of years ago. The right of a people to its historical

home cannot be limited by time.

On the basis of this principle a new Europe is shaping itself. Every

nation must have its own land, its share in human civilization,

with its own speech and customs, its right to do as it wills.

Alsace-Lorraine wants to be French, and therefore it shall be French

again. The Czechs and the Southern Slavs wish to form independent

states; Poland, Belgium, Serbia, and others, too, are reasserting

their independence. Wherever historical rights exist, these must now

be realized. Every nation regains now its Zion for which it has longed

and suffered. Although this is a great progress in itself, it would be

a poor safeguard unless the other great principle were also adopted,

the principle of freedom. With the regeneration of national freedom

it follows also that the progress of human liberty, equality, and

social justice both in the existing states and in the old ones now

to be re-established will be assured. No despotism, no subjection of

minorities, but liberty, equality, and fraternity for all citizens,

equal duties and equal rights.

For this ideal seven millions of men, the vigorous youth of mankind,

have sacrificed their lives, and many millions more have been crippled.

For this ideal of justice several countries have been laid waste and

civilization itself has been threatened with complete destruction.

This great ideal of justice, however, will be worthy of the terrible

sacrifices which have been made; it must now be attained.

A new Europe and――a new Asia. Light is shining again from the East. The

glorious British Army has reconquered ancient East for civilization.

The Arabs, our Semitic kindred, the descendants of a chivalrous and

one-time famous race, side by side with inspired Jewish volunteer

forces who had flocked together to fight with love and enthusiasm

for the Land of Promise, have, with the assistance of French and

Italian reinforcements, done their duty in assisting the British Army.

Mesopotamia, Arabia, Syria, and Palestine are now freed for their

nations. An Arabian Kingdom, a free, well-ordered Syria, the remnants

of the unfortunate, hard-tried Armenian nation established as an

Armenian State, and a new _Erez Israel_, all these will have to be

created on a basis of historical rights and of the realization of

the national principle, each under the protection of, and receiving

assistance from, some suitable Great Power, in accordance with their

own desire, in their gradual and peaceful progress towards their

ultimate goal.

What, we ask, will now be the position of the Jews at this juncture?

What will the great victory bring to this people who have been so hard

hit by this war? Hundreds of thousands of Jews have lost their lives,

most of them in countries where they had no share in human rights,

and nothing to fight for. Dying on the Carpathian mountains or in the

plains of Moldavia, the last glance of their closing eyes was turned to

the East, to the hills of _Zion_. Innumerable masses have been maimed,

millions nerve-shattered and starved out, tens of thousands of Jewish

homes, thousands of old Jewish communities wiped out, never to be

reconstructed. Will all this not be taken into account in the general

reckoning of the great victory? Jews live in larger or smaller numbers

in different countries, where they are faithful and devoted citizens.

The majority of the Jewish people have suffered too long and too

bitterly in many countries, and it must be the task of the nations and

their governments, once and for all, to put an end to these unspeakable

sufferings in the old states and in those soon to be founded, by solemn

declarations and binding obligations. The Jews desire to be emancipated,

that is, released from servile tutelage; in a free state they do not

wish to be the only pariahs and slaves. They demand to be free; that

means in the first place that they want to breathe freely, to breathe

wherever they wish without fear that a policeman or a neighbour should

point out to them that a Jew may not breathe everywhere. They demand

to be free; that means in the second place, that they should have the

right to use their powers of mind and body unhindered in any honest

calling, in any useful art, in any branch of science; so that they can

be active and industrious, follow skilled employments, or discharge the

functions of office in order to maintain themselves and their families

and not be a burden upon others. This they desire without having to

fear that the Gentile competitor should be able to say to them: only

Gentile hands, only Gentile craftsmen may be employed in skilled

trades, only Gentile applicants are admitted to official positions,

only Gentile abilities can assert themselves. And as there are too many

of you, we must make laws to limit your activities――otherwise we shall

boycott you! They demand to be free; that means in the third place

that they must be free also as regards their conscience: if their

sons possess sufficient talent and knowledge to serve the country as

scholars or as public officials, they should be able to do so as honest

Jews, and not be compelled to parade as dishonest Christians, that

is to profane the ceremony of baptism and to use the certificate of

baptism as a passport to office; they do not wish to act as hypocrites,

they do not wish to enter Christian communities by lying and knavery,

or to smuggle themselves in that way into civic life. They wish to live

as Jews, that means to maintain and to develop undisturbed in their

true spirit their customs, their traditions, their system of education,

their communities, etc. In short, they wish to be human beings, since

he that may not be a citizen with a citizen’s full rights in the place

where he lives and works and bears his share in all social burdens, has

been denied the right to be a human being; or if rights are granted to

a man under the condition that he should become assimilated and cease

to be what he has been, thanks to his race and the traditions sacred to

him, against that man’s manhood the crime of murder has been committed.

They wish to be free human beings.

This question indeed concerns humanity. It was raised at the end of the

eighteenth century by the great French Revolution, and in some states

with small Jewish populations it has been solved in a spirit of liberty.

France, England, Italy were the pioneers of equal rights for all. The

United States of America were an example in establishing the freedom

of citizenship. Nevertheless the majority of the Jews presented during

the course of the nineteenth century a pitiful spectacle of unceasing

martyrdom――with many shades from semi-emancipation linked with

anti-semitism, to boycott and massacres.

The world is changing all its values, and should there be in

any country a continuation of tyranny, oppression, and barbarous

persecution with regard to the Jews, under any pretext――of which there

has never and nowhere seemed to be a lack――then the great ideal of

this world-war will remain an idle dream. For justice can never exist

together with injustice. This problem of humanity must now be and will

be solved.

But the essential problem of modern political evolution lies deeper

than this: it is the problem of the peoples that have been robbed of

their lands. No matter how the position of the Jews may be ameliorated,

and although many Jews may find a home here and there, nevertheless

the genius of the Jewish people, the energy of its constructive power,

its creative force will have no adequate means of expression. To have

a strong impulse to live their own full life and not to be able to do

so――that is the heart-breaking tragedy of this people. This essential

dilemma is left untouched by the vague formula of Emancipation. Zionism

is the only remedy for the deeper Jewish problem, because Zionism alone

goes to the real root of the trouble. There can be no Emancipation

worthy of the name without a homeland. The greatest danger to Zionism

as well as to anti-Zionism is that the ideal of Zionism on the one

hand and that of Emancipation on the other should be separated, and

that people should come to regard as antagonistic objects which are

essentially related and complementary to one another. Not all Jews

will return to Palestine, but large numbers will. Zionism represents

one of the highest manifestations of that aspiration to free national

existence which is the basis of the reconstruction of the world. When a

people, uprooted for centuries from its soil, scattered like dust over

the whole world, wants to restore its homeland to-day, to have a land

where it can be reunited, then we have before us a proof of the new

power that lies in the national idea. Millions of Jews are attached to

Palestine with all their soul and strength, just as on the first day

of the forced expulsion of their ancestors from their old home: their

prayers, their lamentations, their dreams have centred for generations

upon this magnetic pole of their love and reverence. Hundreds of times

they made desperate efforts to return, but were prevented by powerful

circumstances from doing so, and as soon as they had the opportunity

of beginning again the re-settlement of Palestine, notwithstanding

unspeakable sufferings and the greatest sacrifices, they instantly

and energetically availed themselves of it. If the millions of Jewish

emigrants who formed the new ghettoes of Europe and America from about

1880 to now had had the possibility of going to Palestine, they would

have gladly seized it, because they wished to live as a nation, but

that was not possible at that time. _Israel_ must have its own home.

Palestine must become the spiritual and cultural centre of the Jews.

Properly developed, it can hold millions of homeless Jews who will at

last have their own homeland and their own full nationality. If it is

a misfortune for a people to be robbed of its country, where it could

live in peace and prosperity as a nation and enjoy in common with

the rest of the family of nations the fruits of its labour, then this

misfortune is not smaller but rather has become greater for having

existed two thousand years. If it is an injustice to withhold from

a people a land to which they have a right, then this injustice is

not the smaller, but rather the greater, when a people has suffered

it for two thousand years. Never has a nation governed its own home

for a longer period; no nation’s history, religion, literature, and

traditions are more closely bound up with its land; and no nation has

ever suffered a more terrible martyrdom after having been disinherited.

Can anyone doubt the right of the Jewish people to the land of

_Israel_? The validity of the Jewish title to Palestine rests on

the same basis as the title of any nation to any particular area of

the world where it has ruled and existed for centuries. The Jews’

historical right on the Land of _Israel_, with due consideration for

the rights and interests of the non-Jewish population which will be

safe-guarded and respected, must become the decisive factor in the

question of Palestine.

At last the time has come. The spirit of freedom is on the wing, the

Great Creative Spirit is once more moving among the nations. The new

territorial settlement is going to lay the foundations of the world’s

peace on a basis of justice and national union. The liberation of

oppressed nationalities, the restoration of territories violently

annexed in the past, the recognition of the desire of racial units and

groups for autonomy are the great objects in view. The wrongs of the

centuries are going to be righted, and the Jewish race to be placed on

an equal footing with other races. The Jewish people is standing at a

momentous turning point in its history of four thousand years, to which

the determined labour of Zionism has paved the way. The very roots of

Jewish nationality are set in that soil which after being for ages in

shadow is again turning to light. With the victory of the national idea

Zionism also has won a victory. Now that Palestine is freed, much is

possible which formerly was only an aspiration. The field is immense

and ready. The evil demon of the Pharaohs and of Antiochus Epiphanes

has been cast out; the glorious genius of Cyrus the Great hovers with

wings of love over the wonderful destiny of the Jewish people. Powerful

nations and governments――the guardians of freedom and the champions

of justice――have solemnly pledged themselves to further with all the

forces at their disposal the revival of the Jewish nation in the land

of _Israel_. Under this guiding symbol the problem of Palestine will be

discussed and settled by the Peace Conference among all the important

questions before it. The work is stupendous in its implications and its

responsibilities. No one imagines that this result can be speedily

attained. Its accomplishment will take time, and quite possibly a long

time. To restore a scattered people to a land long neglected is not an

easy task. The Jewish colonization of Palestine must be carefully built,

stone upon stone, by the steady hands of Zionists with that spirit of

self-sacrificing endurance which saved our nationality, with wisdom and

self-restraint. Zionists are aware of what the Holy Places of Palestine,

places of traditional associations and religious faith, consecrated

by a thousand cherished memories, are to the great religions. These

places will receive equal respect; they will be, not less, but more

than hitherto reverently exalted as places of the rarest and sweetest

memories in the world. Zionists have the most scrupulous regard for

all spiritual things and needs of all religions, and are confident that

all Holy Places will be safeguarded by arrangements to be introduced.

Zionists are also alive to the legitimate interests and needs of the

non-Jewish population, whose liberty and welfare, in peace and harmony

and mutual respect, are most essential for the success of the Jewish

national rebirth. The new Jewish centre must be made worthy of its

glorious past. The noblest ambitions of Jews all over the world are

concentrated on this point.

Zionists have now an opportunity never dreamt of――an opportunity that

may never return. The Jewish masses, all those who want to live their

own life, the clean, free life of farmers and settlers, will be enabled

to cultivate all the possibilities of their nature. Industry, art, and

science are to join hands in this great work. The long-desired goal

of the Jewish people, the rehabilitation of the old national home in

the land of their fathers, is nearing realization. This is a great

historical event which must touch and stimulate the imagination of all

for whom history, right of nations, and justice for small nationalities

have any meaning or any message. Ancient Israel, reawakened to new life,

is preparing itself to enter the family of nations as a small but free

nation in its old home.

Zionism is not a mere abstract idea. It is connected by every bond

with modern democracy and aspirations for liberty. All peoples for

whom democracy is not a vain word owe it moral and material support.

The Peace Conference must permit it to attain its ends. The League of

Nations will not be complete if the oldest and most oppressed Jewish

nationality will not have its place there. Of all the consequences of

the Great War and the still greater Victory, none could be invested

with so splendid a degree of romance as the re-establishment of

_Israel_. Of all the small nations which shall spring full fledged from

this world crisis, none will have so ancient a claim, so fascinating

a history as the _Hebrew_ people reinstalled among the consecrated

hills of _Judah_ and by the sacred waters of _Galilee_. This will be

an everlasting memorial to the principle for which the free peoples of

the earth have made the greatest sacrifice in the history of the human

race. And the names of all those who have given their support and help

towards this work of Peace, Justice, and Liberty will live for ever in

the annals of the world and of _Israel_.

APPENDICES

B. M.: British Museum Library.

I. S.: Israel Solomons’ Collection.

I.

THE PROPHETS AND THE IDEA OF A NATIONAL RESTORATION

THE first prophet who has left any definite revelation concerning the

Dispersion of the Jews and their ultimate restoration in Palestine was

Moses, our Law-giver.

“And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies

that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.” (Leviticus

xxvi. 32.)

“And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out

the sword after you; and your land shall be a desolation, and

your cities shall be a waste.” ( _Ibid._ 33.)

“And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their

enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to

destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for

I am the Lord their God.” (_Ibid._ 44.)

“But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their

ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in

the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the

Lord.” (_Ibid._ 45.)

Here we have a promise not to abhor or utterly destroy the Jewish

people, but to remember the covenant which God made with their

ancestors. We find the purport of this covenant in an early chapter

of the Pentateuch:――

“And the Lord said unto Abram, ... ‘Lift up now thine

eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and

southward and eastward and westward;’” (Genesis xiii. 14.)

“for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it,

and to thy seed for ever:” (_Ibid._ 15.)

It is impossible to understand how it can be said that this covenant

will be remembered, if the Jewish people is to continue dispersed, and

is to be _for ever_ excluded from the land here spoken of. As to the

return from Babylonian captivity, that will not answer the intention of

the covenant at all. For to restore a small part of the Jewish people

to its own land for a few centuries, and afterwards disperse it among

all nations for many times as long, without any hope of return, cannot

be the meaning of giving that land to the seed of Abram _for ever_.

Again we read:――

“And the Lord shall scatter you among the peoples,...”

(Deuteronomy iv. 27.)

“But from thence ye will seek the Lord thy God; and thou shalt

find Him, if thou search after Him with all thy heart and with

all thy soul.” (_Ibid._ 29.)

“In thy distress, when all these things are come upon thee,

in the end of days, thou wilt return to the Lord thy God, and

hearken unto His voice;” (_Ibid._ 30.)

“for the Lord thy God is a merciful God; He will not fail thee,

neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers

which He swore unto them.” (_Ibid._ 31.)

This prophecy refers to the thirteenth chapter of Genesis, as is shown

by this thirty-first verse; and confirms again the return to the Holy

Land, and its possession for ever:――

“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come

upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before

thee, and thou shalt bethink thyself among all the nations,

whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,” (Deuteronomy

xxx. 1.)

“and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and hearken to His

voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou

and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;”

(_Ibid._ 2.)

“that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have

compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all

the peoples, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.”

(_Ibid._ 3.)

“If any of thine that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts

of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and

from thence will He fetch thee.” (_Ibid._ 4.)

“And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy

fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do

thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” (_Ibid._ 5.)

Amongst the “things which should come upon them,” which are described

at large in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters of Deuteronomy,

it is particularly said:――

“And the Lord shall scatter thee among all peoples, from the

one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;...”

(_Ibid._ xxviii. 64.)

But observe that subsequently we are told:――

“And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which

thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will

do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” (_Ibid._

xxx. 5.)

which promises do not appear to have been fulfilled during the time of

the Babylonian captivity, or after the return from Babylon.

Here we have in plain words, simple and clear, the fundamental idea

of Moses: the Jewish national future and the possession of the land

for ever. This cannot be explained away by sophistry. In vain some

Jews declare: We are not nationalist Jews, we are religious Jews! What

is the Jewish religion if the Bible is not accepted as an Inspired

Revelation? It is strange and sadly amusing that some Jews, adherents

of the monotheistic principle, describe themselves as Germans, Magyars,

and so on, “of the persuasion of Moses.” If this is not blasphemy,

it is irony. The real Moses, the Moses of the Pentateuch, brands

Dispersion as a curse, and his whole religious conception, with all

the laws, ceremonies, feasts, etc., is built up on the basis of the

covenant with the ancestors, a covenant immovable and unalterable.

No matter whether Jews call themselves religious or nationalist: the

Jewish religion cannot be separated from nationalism, unless another

Bible is invented.

Judaism, or the Jewish religion, is based first upon the teaching of

Moses, and next upon that of the prophets, and it is a favourite claim

of the modern school of Jewish reform that their Judaism is “Prophetic

Judaism,” in opposition to the Judaism of orthodox Jews, who lay

particular stress upon the Talmud. But what do the prophets teach?

The next revelation in chronological order after the inspired

predictions of Moses, is that of Joel the son of Pethuel, who began to

prophesy to the Kingdom of Judah about eight hundred years before the

civil era:――

“Then was the Lord jealous for His land,

And had pity on His people.” (Joel ii. 18.)

“And the Lord answered and said unto His people:

Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil,

And ye shall be satisfied therewith;

And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations;”

(_Ibid._ 19.)

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time,

When I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,”

(_Ibid._ iv. 1.)

“So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God,

Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain;

Then shall Jerusalem be holy,...” (_Ibid._ 17.)

“But Judah shall be inhabited for ever,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation.” (_Ibid._ 20.)

Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, lived in the days of Jeroboam,

the son of Joash, King of Israel, and prophesied to the Kingdom of

Israel from eight hundred and eight, to seven hundred and eighty-three

years before the civil era:――

“And I will turn the captivity of My people Israel,

And they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;...”

(Amos ix. 14.)

“And I will plant them upon their land,

And they shall no more be plucked up

Out of their land which I have given them,

Saith the Lord thy God.” (_Ibid._ 15.)

Hosea, the son of Beeri, prophesied to the Kingdom of Israel, in the

days of the same Jeroboam from about seven hundred and eighty-five, to

seven hundred and twenty-five years before the civil era:――

“For the children of Israel shall sit solitary many days without

king, and without prince,...” (Hosea iii. 4.)

“afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the

Lord their God, and David their king;...” (_Ibid._ 5.)

This prophecy, being given to the Kingdom of Israel in particular,

cannot be applied to the return of Judah from Babylon.

Isaiah the son of Amoz (The First Isaiah) was the foremost of the four

who are called the greater prophets. He lived in the time of Uzziah,

Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah, and prophesied about seven

hundred and sixty, to six hundred and ninety-eight years before the

civil era:――

“And it shall come to pass in that day,

That the Lord will set His hand again the second time

To recover the remnant of His people,

That shall remain from Assyria, and from Egypt,

And from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,

And from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the

sea.” (Isaiah xi. 11.)

“And he will set up an ensign for the nations,

And will assemble the dispersed of Israel,

And gather together the scattered of Judah

From the four corners of the earth.” (_Ibid._ 12.)

“The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,

And they that harass Judah shall be cut off;

Ephraim shall not envy Judah,

And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.” (_Ibid._ 13.)

This prophecy, alone, is sufficiently definite with regard to a second

restoration of Israel, as appears from the eleventh verse, even if

there were no other to be found.

As to the second Isaiah, his prophecies may be called the “Song of

Songs” of the restoration of Israel:――

“Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:

They all are gathered together, and come to thee;

Thy sons come from far,

And thy daughters are borne on the side.” (Isaiah lx. 4.)

“Who are these that fly as a cloud,

And as the doves to their cotes?” (_Ibid._ 8.)

“Surely the isles shall wait for Me,

And the ships of Tarshish first,

To bring thy sons from far,

Their silver and their gold with them,

For the name of the Lord thy God,

And for the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified

thee.” (_Ibid._ 9.)

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make,

shall remain before Me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and

your name remain.” (_Ibid._ lxvi. 22.)

Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and

Hezekiah, kings of Judah, about 750 years before the civil era:――

“I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee;

I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; ...”

(Micah ii. 12.)

“In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth,

And I will gather her that is driven away,

And her that I have afflicted;” (_Ibid._ iv. 6.)

“And I will make her that halted a remnant,

And her that was cast far off a mighty nation;

And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from

thenceforth even for ever.” (_Ibid._ 7.)

“Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham,

As Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

(_Ibid._ vii. 20.)

Here we again meet the covenant of Truth and Mercy sworn unto Abraham,

that the land Abraham then stood upon should be given to him and to his

seed for ever.

Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah,

the son of Hezekiah, prophesied in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon,

king of Judah, about six hundred and thirty years before the ♦civil

era:――

“At that time will I bring you in,

And at that time will I gather you;

For I will make you to be a name and a praise

Among all the peoples of the earth,

When I turn your captivity before your eyes,

Saith the Lord.” (Zephaniah iii. 20.)

♦ “cvil” replaced with “civil”

Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in

the land of Benjamin, also prophesied in the days of Josiah, about six

hundred and twenty-nine to five hundred and eighty-eight years before

the civil era:――

“In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of

Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the

north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto

your fathers.” (Jeremiah iii. 18.)

“In his days Judah shall be saved,

And Israel shall dwell safely;...” (_Ibid._ xxiii. 6.)

“Thus saith the Lord,

Who giveth the sun for a light by day,

And the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by

night,

Who stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar,

The Lord of hosts is His name:” (_Ibid._ xxxi. 35.)

“If these ordinances depart from before Me,

Saith the Lord,

Then the seed of Israel also shall cease

From being a nation before Me for ever.” (_Ibid._ 36.)

“Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying:

The two families which the Lord did choose, He hath cast them

off? and they contemn My people, that they should be no more a

nation before them.” (_Ibid._ xxxiii. 24.)

“Thus saith the Lord: If My covenant be not with day and night,

if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;”

(_Ibid._ 25.)

“then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David My

servant,...” (_Ibid._ 26.)

“But fear not thou, O Jacob My servant,

Neither be dismayed, O Israel;

For, lo, I will save thee from afar,

And thy seed from the land of their captivity;

And Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease,

And none shall make him afraid.” (_Ibid._ xlvi. 27.)

Ezekiel the Priest, the son of Buzi, prophesied in the land of the

Chaldeans by the river Cebar, about five hundred and ninety-five,

to five hundred and seventy-four years before the civil era. In the

thirty-sixth chapter he describes the restoration of Judah and Israel

in words so plain and clear that nobody could possibly mistake them,

and in the next chapter, by the wonderful vision of dry bones reviving,

he shows that, however unpromising the state of Israel may seem, while

they are dispersed through the world, yet will God most certainly

effect the reunion of the tribes which is here foretold:――

“Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them――it shall

be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will establish

them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the

midst of them for ever.” (_Ibid._ xxxvii. 26.)

Chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine give a most circumstantial

description of the return, which excluded the possibility of an

allegorical explanation.

Obadiah prophesied about five hundred and eighty-seven years before the

civil era:――

“But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,

And it shall be holy;

And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.”

(Obadiah i. 17.)

“And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel,

That are among the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath,

And the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in Sepharad,

Shall possess the cities of the South.” (_Ibid._ 20.)

Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, prophesied about

five hundred and twenty years before the civil era, to those that had

returned from captivity. He had the idea of a great future restoration.

“And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the

nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save

you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands

be strong.” (Zechariah viii. 13.)

“I will bring them back also out of the land of Egypt,

And gather them out of Assyria;

And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,

And place shall not suffice them.” (_Ibid._ x. 10.)

Malachi prophesied about four hundred and twenty years before the civil

era:――

“And all nations shall call you happy;

For ye shall be a delightsome land,

Saith the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi iii. 12.)

“Behold, I will send you

Elijah the prophet

Before the coming

Of the great and terrible day of the Lord.”

(_Ibid. _ 23.)

Daniel’s (Belteshazzar) prophecies from about five hundred and

thirty-four, to five hundred and seven years before the civil era

relate not only to the affairs of Judah and Israel, but also to the

various monarchies and kingdoms that are to arise successively in the

world. In the following verses he foretells the national future of his

own people:――

“And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set

up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; nor shall the

kingdom be left to another people; ..., but it shall stand

for ever.” (Daniel ii. 44.)

“And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the

kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people

of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom is an everlasting

kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.” (_Ibid._

vii. 27.)

“... and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was

seen since there was a nation even to that same time; and at

that time thy people shall be delivered,...” (_Ibid._ xii. 1.)

These predictions undoubtedly signify that the Children of Israel shall

_enjoy a kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven_, i.e. upon the

earth, which shall _never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left

to another people_.¹

¹ The most notable _Talmudic_ and _Rabbinical_ passages

referring to the future of the Jewish nation are: _Talm. Bab.

Berachoth_ 28b, 34b; _Shabb._ 118a; _Menahoth_ 45a; _Baba

Mezia_ 3a; _Eduyoth_ VIII. 7; _Kiddushin_ 71a; Gen. _Rabba_

LXXXV. 2; _Hagigah_ 14a; _Sanhedrin_ 38b; 98a, 99a, 110b,

111a; _Erubin_ 43b; Cant. _Rabba_ VII. 10; _Sifri_ on Deut.

1: 1; _Baba Bathra_ 76a. For the views of the _Gaon_ Saadia

_ben_ Joseph (892‒942) see Guttman, _Religionsphilosophie

des Saadia_, Göttingen, 1882, _p._ 236; for Hai _ben_

Sherira _Gaon_ (939‒1038) see _Taam Zekenim_, Frankfort

on the Main, 1854, _pp._ 58‒61; for Abraham _ben_ Chiya

Albargeloni _Ha’nasi_ (called Abraham Judæus and Savasorda)

(1065‒1136) see _Hegion Ha’nefesh_, Leipzig, 1860, _p._ 40

ff.; for Judah Halevi, see his Poems and Kuzari in Cassel’s

edition, Leipzig, 1869, ii. 36‒44, _pp._ 143‒7, p. iv. 23;

pt. i. 115; for Maimonides, see _Hilchoth Melachim_ in his

_Yad Ha’chazakah_, Chs. XI. XII. and _Hilchoth Teshubah_,

Ch. IX. 2; for Nachmanides, see his Comment. to Gen. 2: 3,

and to Exodus 17: 9; for ♦Abrabanel, his books _Yeshuat

Meshicho_, _Mashmia Yeshuah_, _Maeyenai Ha’yeshua_, and

Klausner: Die Messianischen Vorstellungen ... Berlin, 1904,

and also Greenstone: _The Messiah Idea in Jewish History_,

Philadelphia, 1906.

♦ “Abarbanel” replaced with “Abrabanel” for consistency

II.

REV. PAUL KNELL (1615‒64), ISRAEL AND ENGLAND PARALLELED

Israel | And | England | ♦Paralleled, | In a Sermon preached before

| the honourable society of _Grayes_-|Inne, upon Sunday in the |

afternoon, _Aprill 16. 1648_. |

By Paul Knell, _Master in Arts of Clare-Hall_ | in Cambridge. |

Sometimes Chaplaine to a Regiment of Curiasiers | in his Majesties Army.

London, | Printed in the Yeare 1648.¹

(_4to._ 2 _ll._ + 20 _pp._) [B. M.]

♦ “Paralelled” replaced with “Paralleled”

¹ It was re-issued thirty-three years later:――

... London, Printed in the year 1648. And now Reprinted for

a Caution to all those that are given to Change.

Sold by _Randal Tayler_ and _Robert Stephens_, by

Stationers-Hall, near _Ludgate_. 1681.

_4to._ 2 _ll._ + 16 _pp._ [I. S.]

_pp._ 16‒17. “... first, we may compare with _Israel_ for a fruitfull

scituation, being neither under the torrid nor the frozen Zone, neither

burned away with parching heat, nor benummed away with pinching cold,

but seated in a temperate climate & fertile soile; our folds are full

of sheep, our vallies stand so thick with corne that we may laugh &

sing. God hath also fenced us about, like the _Israelites_ in the red

sea, with a wall of water, the waters are as a wall unto us, on our

right hand, & on our left,. .. _And now_, England, _what doth thy Lord

thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all

his waies, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy

heart, and with all thy soule_? But here God may as justly complaine of

us as he did of _Israel_,...”

III.

MATTHEW ARNOLD ON RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

MATTHEW ARNOLD, in his _Literature and Dogma_, insists that

righteousness is in a special manner the object of Bible religion. The

word “righteousness” is a master word in the Old Testament. What would

England have been were it not for the importance which _Jeshurun_, the

upright, attached to the thought and practice of righteousness? She

might have been eminent in law, in arts and sciences borrowed from the

Romans and the Greeks, but she would have been addicted to idolatry

and the gratification of the senses, and would have borne the doom

of destruction within herself. He draws a vivid imaginary picture

of the authorities of one of the English great Universities, the

vice-Chancellor, beadles, masters, scholars, and all, nay, their very

professor of moral philosophy, going in procession to worship at the

shrine of Aphrodite.

“If it had not been for Israel,” he continues, “and the stern check

which Israel put upon the glorification and divinization of this

natural bend of mankind.... And as long as the world lasts, all

who want to make progress in righteousness will come to Israel for

inspiration, as to the people who have had the sense for righteousness

most glowing and strongest; and in hearing and reading the words Israel

has uttered for us, carers for conduct will find a glow and a force

they would find nowhere else. As well imagine a man with a sense

for sculpture not cultivating it by the help of the remains of Greek

art, or a man with a sense for poetry not cultivating it by the

help of Homer and Shakespeare, as a man with a sense for conduct not

cultivating it by the help of the Bible.”¹

¹ _Literature and Dogma_ ... By Matthew Arnold ... London ...

1873 ... _pp._ 26, 36‒37 and 56.

IV.

“ESPERANÇA DE ISRAEL,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

מקוה ישראל | _Esto es_, | Esperança | De Israel. |

Obra con suma curiosidad conpuesta | _por_ | Menasseh Ben Israel |

Theologo, y Philosopho Hebreo. |

Trata del admirable esparzimiento de los diez | Tribus, y su infalible

reduccion con los de | mas, a la patria: con muchos puntos, | y

Historias curiosas, y declara-|cion de varias Prophecias, | por el

Author rectamen-|te interpretadas. |

_Dirigido a los señores Parnassim del_ K.K. | _de_ Talmvd Tora. | En

Amsterdam. | En la Imprension de | Semvel Ben Israel Soeiro.¹ | Año.

5410. |

(_sm._ 8º. 7 _ll. _ + 126 _pp._)² [I. S.]

¹ The surname “Ben Israel Soeiro” used by the printer, a son

of the author, is a combination of those of his paternal

grandparents Joseph Ben-Israel and Rachel Soeiro, who

had been _marranos_. Joseph, a victim of the Inquisition,

on returning to the Jewish fold, it may be surmised,

discarded his gothic patronymic and appropriately assumed

that of Ben-Israel. Their son, the author, married Rachel,

a great-granddaughter of the famous Bible exegete and

statesman Don Isaac Abrabanel, who claimed Davidic descent.

In an age when יחוס.‏ was highly prized, we consequently find

that in the following year, when Samuel printed his father’s

_Nishmath Chayyim_, his surname has become “Abrabanel

Soeiro,” and in the Latin addition, “Ben Israel Abrabanel

Sueiro.” He was born in Amsterdam in 1625. He accompanied his

maternal uncle, David Abrabanel [Manuel Martinez Dormido],

to England, on behalf of his father, arriving here on 1st

Sep., 1654, to open up negotiations with Cromwell concerning

the admission of their co-religionists to this country. It

was decided that the presence of Manasseh was incumbent, and

a pass to Holland, dated 16 May, 1655, was granted to Samuel,

to fetch his father. They arrived in the following October,

and resided here close on two years. On Sunday, the second

day of _Rosh Hashanah_, 5418 [8 Sep., 1657, N.S.: 29 Aug.

O.S.], at the early age of thirty-two, Samuel went to his

Eternal rest. He had conjured his father that he would

take his body to Amsterdam, where he was born, for burial.

Manasseh was then in a precarious state of health, and on

arriving at Middleburg in Zealand, where Ephraim Abrabanel,

the maternal uncle of the deceased, resided, he was unable

to continue the journey. The interment took place at the

local _Beth Haim_, and the Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A., a few

years ago discovered the tombstone³ in the third _carera_,

which has the following inscription:――

Sᴬ. | Do Doctor Semvel | Fº Do Haham Menasseh | Ben Israel |

Faleceo em 2 Tisri | 5418. |

Manasseh’s illness was mortal. His son Joseph had died at

the age of twenty about eight or nine years before, and the

premature death of his last surviving son hastened his end.

A few weeks later, on the 11 Kislev (20 Nov.), he passed

away in the house of his brother-in-law, but fifty-three

years old. He was interred at the _Sephardi Beth Haim_ at

Oudekerk, Amsterdam.

² Another issue, with a similar collation, but apparently from

other type, was printed in the same year. [I. S.]

It appeared again during the last quarter of the nineteenth

century under the following title:――

Origen De Los Americanos. מקוה ישראל.‏ Esto Es Esperanza De

Israel ... Reimpresion ... Del Libro De Menasseh Ben Israel

... Publicado En Amsterdam 5410 (1650) ... y la biografia del

autor, Por Santiago Perez Junquera.

Madrid.――1881....

8º. xxxvi. _pp._ + 8 _ll._ + 126 _pp._ + 3 _ll._ in printed

wrapper as issued. [I. S.]

³ _Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England_,

vol. vii., 1911‒1914 ... Edinburgh and London, 1915 ... _p._

127: “A Dutch Burial-Ground and its English Connections.” By

the Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A.

V.

“SPES ISRAELIS,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

מקוה ישראל | _Hoc est_, | Spes | Israelis. |

_Authore_ | Menasseh Ben Israel | Theologo & Philosopho Hebræo.

Amstelodami. | Anno 1650. |

(_sm._ 8º. 6 _ll._ + 111 _pp._) [I. S.]

_sig._ [A2] Svpremo Angliæ Consessvs Parlamento, _ejusdemque Reipublicæ

Status Consilio Honorando_, Salutem, ac felicitatem omnem, a Deo

apprecatur Menasseh Ben Israel.¹

¹ This translation was probably the work of the author. Bound

up with this copy is a folded engraving of the author by

Salom Italia.

VI.

“HOPE OF ISRAEL――TEN TRIBES ... IN AMERICA――מקוה ישראל

DE HOOP VAN ISRAEL,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

The | Hope of Israel: |

Written | By Menasseh Ben Israel, | an Hebrew Divine, and Philosopher. |

Newly extant, and Printed in | _Amsterdam_, and Dedicated by the |

Author to the High Court, the | Parliament of _England_, and | to the |

Councell of State. |

Translated into _English_, and | published by Authority. |

_In this Treatise is shewed the place where the ten | Tribes at this

present are, proved, partly by | the strange relation of one_ Antony

Monte-|zinus, _a_ Jew, _of what befell him as he tra-|velled over the

Mountaines_ Cordillære, _with | divers other particulars about the

restoration of | the_ Jewes, _and the time when._ |

Printed at _London_ by R. I. for _Hannah Allen_, | at the Crown in

Popes-head | Alley, 1650. |

(_sm._ 8º. 7 _ll._ + 90 _pp._) [I. S.]

_sig._ A3. “To the Parliament, the Supream Court of _England_, and

to the right Honourable the Councell of State, _Menasseh Ben Israell_,

prayes God to give health, and all Happinesse.” But the original

edition in Spanish is dedicated “_A los Muy Nobles, Prudentes, y

Magnificos Señores, Deputados y Parnassim deste K.K. de Talmud Tora_.”

... _Amsterdā. a 13 de Sebat. An. 5410._

In this first English version the name of the translator does not

appear on the title page, nor does “The Translator to the Reader” bear

any signature; but “Moses Wall” does appear on the title pages of two

issues of a second edition which appeared in 1651 and 1652. (_4to._ 5

_ll._ + 62 _pp._) [B. M.]

It was published again under the following title:――

“Accounts Of The Ten Tribes of Israel Being In America; Originally

Published By R. Manasseh Ben Israel.

With Observations Thereon, And Extracts From Sacred And Profane,

Ancient And Modern History, Confirming The Same; And Their Return From

Thence About The Time Of The Return Of The Jews.”

By Robert Ingram, A.M. Vicar of Wormingford and Boxted, Essex.

Colchester: Printed And Sold By W. Keymer; Sold Also By G. G. J. And

J. Robinson, Pater-Noster-Row, London, 1792. [Price One Shilling.]

(8º. 56 _pp._) [I. S.]

There are several _Hebrew_ versions, the first translation appearing

in 1698.

מקוה ישראל חברו ... החכם השלם׃ ... מנשה בן ישראל זצ״ל בלשון גוי הולנדי״אה׃ ¹ועתה נעתק ללשון

הקודש ע״י ... ר״ אליקים בהר״ר יעקב ש״ץ זצ״ל חזן בק״ק אמשטרדם׃ ... נדפס באמשטרדם ... בשנת

[תנח] לפ״ק ... בדפוס קאשמן עמריך.‏‏

(_16mo._ סו (66) _ll._)¹ [I. S.]

¹ It was composed in Spanish in 1650 and did not appear in

Dutch until 1666.

De | Hoop | Van Israël. |

_Een Werck met groote naukeurigheyt_ | _beschreven_: |

Door | Menasseh Ben Israël | Hebreeuws Godtgeleerde en | Wijsbegeer. |

_Waer in hy handelt van de wonderlijcke | verstroyinge der 10 Stammen,

en hare ge-|wisse herstellinge met de twee Stammen Juda | en Benjamin

in’t Vaderlandt. Met veele aen-|wijsingen, naukeurige vertellingen, en

verkla-|ringen van verscheyde Prophetien._ |

Met meer als 90 Beschrijvers bevestight: |

Met een verantwoordingh voor de | Eedele Volcken der Jooden. | _Den 2.

Druck¹ van veel Letter-mis stellingen gesuyvert._ | t’Amsterdam, | Voor

Jozua Rex, Boeck-binder, | op de Cingel, recht over de Appelen-marrickt,

| in’t Jaer 1666. |

(_12mo._ 6 _ll._ + 124 _pp._ [_De Hoop Van Israel._])² [I. S.]

¹ A third edition was published in the same year, with the

following addition:――

De Reysen van R. Benjamin Jonasz Tudelens, In de drie Deelen

der Werelt, als Europa, Asia, en Afrika: ... In’t Nederduyt

overgeschreven door Jan Bara.... 117 _pp._ [B. M.]

² Bound up with this copy is a folded engraving of the Author

by Salom Italia.

It has also been translated into _Yiddish_.

VII.

THE HUMBLE ADDRESSES OF MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

To | His Highnesse | The | Lord Protector | Of The | Common-Wealth Of |

England, Scotland, _and_ Ireland.

The Humble Addresses | Of | Menasseh Ben Israel, _a Divine, and |

Doctor of Physick, in behalfe | of the Jewish Nation_. |

(_4to._ 4 _ll._ + 26 _pp._)¹ [I. S.]

¹ This was probably printed in Amsterdam, in anticipation of

his visit to England.

A second issue from another press, and in which the

collation varies (4 _ll._ + 23 _pp._ [I. S.]) may have

been printed in London, as at the end it has the following

addition:――

“Which is the close of _Rabbi Menesse Ben-Israel_, a Divine,

and Doctor in Physick, in the _Strand_ over against the

_New-Exchange_ in London.”

The British Museum copy of the 23 _pp._ edition has the

following date in manuscript on the title page: “November 5,

1655.”

VIII.

“VINDICIÆ JUDÆORUM,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

Vindiciæ | Judæorum, | Or A | Letter | In Answer to certain Questions

propounded by | a Noble and Learned Gentleman, touching | the

reproaches cast on the Nation of the | Jevves; wherein all objections

are | candidly, and yet fully cleared. |

_By_ Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel _a Divine | and a Physician_. |

Printed by _R. D._ in the year 1656. |

(_4to._ 1 _l._ + 41 _pp._)¹ [I. S.]

¹ In 1743 it was reprinted in octavo form (2 _ll._ + 67

_pp._ [I. S.]). It was translated into German either by

Dr. Marcus Herz (1747‒1803) or by his wife, the celebrated

Henrietta Herz (1764‒1847), and published in 1782, with an

introduction by Moses Mendelssohn (1729‒1786) (_sm._ 8º. LII.

+ 64 _pp._ [I. S.]). It has also appeared in _Hebrew_ [I. S.],

Polish [I. S.], French and Italian.

IX.

ENSEÑA A PECADORES

Libro | Yntitulado | Enseña | A | Pecadores |

Que contiene diferentes | obras, mediante las qua-|lespide el hombre |

piedad à su | Criador. |

En casa y acosta | de _David de castro Tartaz_. |

_En Amsterdam_ | Anno 5426. |

(_12mo._ 88 + ח (8) _pp._) [B. M.]

_Page 2._ “Prologo.... _Aviendo pues el Señor hecho merced al mundo en

traer a luz las obras divinas del H. Ribi Esayah, su memoria sea

para benedicion, las quales son llenas de doctrinas y modos de

encaminar al hombre a la salvacion...._”

_pp._ 61‒79. “Conficion _Muy Copiosa Maravillosa y llena de

divinos conceptos y misterios, hecha por el divino Theologo y

excellentissimo Sabio, Ribi Yshac Askenazi de Loria, Traduzida de

Hebrico, en lengua castellana, por el doctissimo Haham Menasseh

ben Ysrael; el Anno 5383. la qual se puede dezir estando el hombre

enfermo o de ajuno o en qual quiera tiempo_.”

_pp._ 80‒88. Vidvy Penitencial ... Auctor Selomoh De Oliuera.

וידוי כפרה ... שלמה די אוליוירה יצ״ו התחלתו ערב ר״ח אדר ראשון. בשנת מגיני אל אלהים מושיע ישרי לב׃

pp. א‒ה

תושלבע׃

X.

“DE TERMINO VITÆ――OF THE TERM OF LIFE,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

צרור החיים | Menasseh | Ben Israel, | De | Termino | Vitæ: | Libri Tres. |

_Quibus veterum Rabbi-|norum, ac recentium do-|ctorum, de hac

con-|troversia sententia | explicatur._ |

_Amstelodami._ Typis & sumpti-|bus authoris An. 1639. |

(_12mo._ 8 _ll._ + 237 _pp._ + 25 _ll._)¹ [I. S.]

¹ Sixty years later it was translated into English:――

Of The | Term | Of | Life. | viz. | Whether it is fix’d or

alterable; |

With the Sense of the _Jewish_ Doctors, | both Ancient and

Modern, touching | Predestination and Free-Will. |

Also an Explication of several obscure | _Passages_ and

_Prophecies_ in the Old Testa-|ment; together with some

remarkable Cu-|stoms observ’d by the _Jews_. |

_Written in Latin by the Famous_ Menasseh | Ben-Israel _the_

Jew _and now Translated | into_ English, _By_ Tho. Pocock,

M. A. |

To which are added, the Author’s Life, never be-|fore

Publish’d; and a Catalogue of his Works. |

London Printed, and Sold by _J. Nutt_, near |

_Stationers_-Hall, and by the Booksellers of _Lon-|don_ and

_Westminster_, 1699. |

(_sm._ 8º. 6 _ll._ + XVI. + 116 _pp._) [ I. S.]

_sig._ A2. “To _Colthorp Parker_, Esq.;”

* * * * *

_De Termino Vitæ_; | Or The | Term | Of | Life. | Viz. |

Whether it is fix’d or alterable; |

With the Sense of the _Jewish_ Doctors, | both Ancient and

Modern, touching | _Predestination_ and _Free-Will_. |

Also an Explication of several obscure _Passages_ and |

_Prophecies_ in the Old Testament; together with | some

remarkable Customs observed by the _Jews_. |

_Written in Latin by the Famous_ Menasseh | Ben-Israel _the

Jew, and now Translated into_ English. |

To which are added, the Author’s Life, never be-|fore

Publish’d; and a Catalogue of his Works. |

London, Printed for _W. Whitwood_ at the _Rose_ | and

_Crown_ in _Little-Brittain_. 1700. | (_sm._ 8º 6 _ll._ +

xvi. + 116 _pp._ + _l._ [_catalogue_]). [I. S.]

_sig._ A2. “To _Colthrop Parker_, Esq.;”

* * * * *

Of The | Term | Of | Life, | Viz.: | Whether it is fix’d or

alterable; | With the Sense of the _Jewish_ Doctors, | both

Ancient and Modern, touching Pre-|destination and Free-Will. |

Also an Explication of several obscure | Passages and

Prophecies in the Old Testa-|ment; together with some

remarkable | Customs observed by the _Jews_. |

_Written in Latin by the Famous_ Menasseh | Ben-Israel

_the Jew, and now Transla-|ted into_ English, _By_ Tho.

Pocock, A.M. | _Rector of_ Danbury _in_ Essex, _and Chaplain

to his | Grace the Duke of Bedford_. |

To which are added, the Author’s Life, by the Translator;

and a Catalogue of his Works. |

London, Printed for Tho. Baker at the | _Bible_ and _Rose_

in _Ludgate-street_. 1709. | (_sm._ 8º. 8 _ll._ + xxiv. +

117 _pp._ + 1 _l._) [I. S.]

_sig._ A2. “To _Christopher Tilson_, Esq.; Of The Treasury.”

XI.

“נשמת חיים――DE IMMORTALITATE ANIMÆ,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

ספר נשמת חיים על ענין הנשמה ... מנשה בן ישראל ... פה ק״ק אמשטרדם נדפס בדפוס בן המחבר שמואל

אברבנאל סואירו בשנת [תיב] לפ״ק׃

(_4to._ 8 + קעד (‎174) + 2 _ll._) [I. S.]

Some editions, which are excessively rare, have this Latin addition:――

נשמת חיים | Menasseh Ben Israel | Libri Quatuor | De | Immortalitate

Animæ. |

In quibus multæ insignes & ju-|cundæ quæstiones ventilantur, | uti

videre est, ex argu-|mento operis. |

Amstelodami, | Apud Autoris filium | _Samuel Ben Israel Abrabanel

Sueiro_. |

Anno ϲlͻ. ͻlϲ. LI. |

(8 _ll._) [I. S.]

_sig._ A2. (Epistola Dedicatoria) Ferdinando III. Augustissº. Romanorum

Imperatori....

Sig. A4². Augustissimi Imperatoris _Servus humillimus_ Menasseh Ben

Israel.

Amstelodami Calendis Decembris Anno ϲlͻ. lͻϲ. LI.

XII.

“RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM,” BY JOHN SADLER

Rights of the Kingdom; | Or, | Customs of our Ancestours:... With an

Ocasionall Discourse of _Great Changes_ yet | expected in the World. |

London, | Printed by _Richard Bishop_. 1649.|¹

(_4to._ 4 _ll._ + AA‒MM + F‒Z + A‒C in fours.) [I. S.]

_sig._ G4. “How they are Now, I need not say, although I might also

beare them witnesse, that They are yet Zealous in Their Way. nor

doe they wholly want, ingenuous able men. of whom I cannot but

with Honour, mention Him, that hath so much obliged the world, by

his learned Writings; _Rab Menasseh Ben Israel_: a very learned,

Civill Man, and a Lover of our Nation.

“The more I think upon the Great Change, now comming on Them, and

All the World; the more I would be Just and Mercifull to Them, to

All.”

¹ It was republished thirty-three years later anonymously, as

was the first issue.

London: Printed for _J. Kidgell_. 1682. _4to._ 4 _ll._ +

319 _pp._ [B. M.]

XIII.

“NOVA SOLYMA,” EDITED BY REV. WALTER BEGLEY

Nova Solyma The Ideal City; Or Jerusalem Regained

An Anonymous Romance Written In The Time Of Charles I.

Now first Drawn From Obscurity, And Attributed To The Illustrious John

Milton.¹

With Introduction, Translation, Literary Essays And A Bibliography

By The Rev. Walter Begley

vol. i., ii.

London John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1902.

(_p._ 4). “The book was first presented to the public in small octavo

form with this title page:

Novæ | Solymæ | Libri Sex. | Londini Typis Joannis Legati.| MDCXLVIII. |

¹ The author was Samuel Gott (1613‒1671), see “The Authorship

of Nova Solyma,” by Stephen K. Jones (1910), and B.M.

Catalogue.

“The book contained three hundred and ninety-two pages, of which the

last contained the errata and the printer’s short notice to the reader.

There was no preface or introduction of any kind, and no notes. The

only printed extra was this Latin motto in the middle of the blank page

facing the title:

‘_Cujus opus, studio cur tantum quaeris inani?_’

‘_Qui legis, et frueris, feceris esse tuum._’

which I turn thus:

(_p._ 5). “‘Whose is the book?’ do you ask. ‘Why start such a bootless

enquiry?

If you but read and enjoy, you will have made it your own.’” (_pp._

5‒6). “... The next year the same book was published again――an evident

attempt to utilise the unsold remainder, as there was no difference

whatever, except a new title page with the old fly-leaf motto included

in it and a page at the end containing the autocriticon. In the only

copy I have seen, [St. John’s College, Cambridge], the title page runs

as follows:

Novæ Solymæ Libri Sex; sive Institutio Christiani.

1. De Pueritia.

2. De Creatione Mundi.

3. De Juventute.

4. De Peccato.

5. De Virili Aetate.

6. De Redemptione Hominis.