Trudy Gold
Philosemitism and Proto-Zionism in Britain

Trudy Gold - Philosemitism and Proto-Zionism in Britain

- Today, I’m tackling what I find is an absolutely fascinating subject, Philosemitism and Proto-Zionism. So we are in Victorian England. And remember, in Victorian England, it’s the height of empire. The population is about 31 million. The Jewish population is infinitesimal. And I keep on repeating this, up until 1880, there are 60,000 Jews in the whole of Britain. Britain was a very, very self-confident country at this stage. And the other point to make is, of course, within England, the class system was absolutely stratified. That those who ruled were the wealthy, the landed. Some of them ruled through paternalism and did try and improve, but there was the beginning of a tide of liberalism at home. Having said that, if one looks at what happens outside of Britain itself, for example, the Indian mutiny, the Irish potato famine, there’s a lot of horror going on in the empire. And one could say that there’s a certain smugness about England, because certainly, what I’m going to start with first is events that are happening in the Jewish world, which leads to an incredible amount of criticism from the English of the governments, which are the perpetrators. And can we please start with the first, if you don’t mind, Emily, the Damascus Affair? Okay, now, let me also talk a little bit to give you background on this. I know many of you will know the story. Now, basically, please don’t forget that we’ve already begun to look at the slow process of emancipation. And there are, at the core of Anglo Jewry, bearing in mind the cousinhood is emerging, a group of incredibly well-respected, important figures who have access to court circles. The Damascus Affair was a particularly nasty event in the Turkish Empire, where a young boy disappears in the Jewish quarter of Damascus.

And very much whipped up by the French and Austrian consuls, the rumour went around that the boy had been murdered by the Jews and it was blood libel. Now, it became very, very complicated and widespread, it spreads to Constantinople. And in the end, there’s such an outcry that Sir Moses Montefiore, who is so popular in England, with the blessing of the British crown, with the blessing of Queen Victoria, who he was very close to, he goes to Constantinople and finally attains from the sultan a firm and denying the blood libel. Now, back home in England, there is an incredible outcry about it. Remember the press, the press is very, very important. So are periodicals, so are papers. It becomes a hugely important case. There is a big rally at Mansion House. Mansion House is the seat of the Lord Mayor of London, who attends, businessmen, bankers, and some of the clergy. And it really makes a huge stir. And if you recall, when Moses Montefiore comes back to England, he is in fact knighted by the queen for this. Now, it also has to be said that England was very anti-papist. So a lot of, one could make the case, things are never completely straightforward, are they? One could make the case, yes, there was a huge amount of support for these Jews in trouble and the idea of the blood libel, but there’s a lot of talk about mediaeval, mediaeval Catholic superstition. And when, if you think about it, England had been responsible for the first blood libel. So, but on the other hand, it was very, very, it was very important, there was a huge noise. Britain saw itself also as far more civilised than the other countries. Can we go on, please? The next slide, Emily. Pope Gregory XVI, the Ancona Decree. Pope Gregory is a very, very conservative pope.

He is trying to hold back the tide of liberalism and also conservatism. And in 1843, the Ancona Decree ordering Jews to not to employ Christians, to refrain from any friendly contact with Christians. Ancona is one of the papal states. Remember, the pope is not just a religious leader, he is a secular prince. They could only live in the ghetto and not allowed into the book trade, think papal index. This is very much the papacy fighting a rear guard action. In fact, Daniel O'Connell, member of parliament, and one of the most impressive speakers at the Damascus rally, and a Catholic, he spoke out. In the end, there was an international outcry and it stopped, but this is again, is it because of pro-Jewish sentiment? Bearing in mind, of course, that particularly in the city of London and most of the rallies are held in mansion house, there is this kind of support for Jews. Jews are very useful in the city and there aren’t very many of them. Can we go on, please? This is Nicholas I of Russia. When Nicholas made a private visit to London, a committee of very prominent Gentiles, including peers, bishops, privy counsellors, and a few MPs actually offered itself to the board of deputies, the British Jewry. Remember the board had been founded in 1760, bringing together the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim to actually ask him to have far more compassion for the Jewish population. Nicholas I was known as the military czar and he had created something called the Cantonist system. Jewish boys, serfs, serf boys had to go into the army for 25 years. Jewish boys had to serve for 31 years and the first six years was what we call, was really a Russification process. They were made to eat pork. They were, when they were taken away, the parents sat Kaddish for their children. They sat Shabbat and said the Kaddish and it was a terrible decree.

And so you have a lot of sympathetic Gentiles. And of course, now with the penny post, with letters coming out, with the spread of the press, people are far more aware and there was a huge outcry against primitive Russia. So again, another rally in Mansion House. So when incidents abroad are really seen to be very anti-Jewish, I don’t really want to use the word anti-Semitic yet because it’s a racial term and it’s not coined until 1878. With Nicholas, it was far more theological. Unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church was violently anti-Jewish at this stage. So can we go on please, Emily? The Mortara affair. This was again, a very, very dark affair. Again, the paper states, what happened was a little Jewish boy who’d been secretly baptised by his Christian wet nurse was taken to the house of the Jesuits. This is a Christian boy. She secretly baptised him and the Pope refuses to give it back. And there’s a mammoth petition about this. And consequently, it was sent to the French ambassador who was very much the leading Catholic in the UK. And this is the petition. Where it is a dishonour to Christianity in the eyes of Jews among all nations that the seizure of Edgar Mortara should be supposed to be consistent with the principles of Christianity, we the undersigned British Christians do hereby protest. By October, 1859, it was signed by hundreds of influential Brits, took columns of space in the Times newspaper, the Archbishop of Canterbury signed, the Archbishop of York, Durham, four Dukes, 23 peers of the realm, 19 Anglican bishops, 36 members of Parliament, the Lord Mayor of London and 78 other mayors of other cities and heads of five of the Oxford colleges, the Provost of Eton and several many important businessmen.

And it gives you a notion of just how challenging the British thought this was. The delegation also expressed concern to Lord John Russell, who was the foreign secretary. And it was led by some sort of pattern in all of this. There were rallies in London, there were rallies in Liverpool, Anglican city solicitor and the Lord Mayor of London, he took part in all these pro-Jewish demonstrations. There were many liberal philosophies and some of them, some are motivated, of course, by anti-Catholicism. There was also protests all over America. So it was a fascinating situation. And so basically, I’m giving you a few examples of appalling events in Jewish history where you’re getting a tremendous amount of support from Britain and from high sections of British society. Can we go on please? Romania. Now, when we looked at Romania, I talked a lot about this. And of course, what happened in 1872, violence erupted following the arrest and sentencing of four rabbis on a charge of stealing the Easter wafer. Again, Romanian orthodoxy. There was a huge protest meeting at Mansion House and convened by the mayor. This was after an approach for the newly formed Anglo-Jewish Association, which I mentioned to you last week. The Anglo-Jewish Association was very important. It was headed up by seriously influential members of the Cousinhood who felt that they had the gravity and also the support to approach non-Jews. They set up a relief fund. 34 members of parliament participated, peers, bankers, aldermen, other city officials. Resolutions passed condemning the occurrences. They demanded damages, a guarantee for a Romanian jury, civil rights led by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who I’m going to talk about soon. The bishops get involved and the speakers includes Thomas Fowle Buxton. He’s important because he was responsible for the abolition of slavery in the empire. It’s also about the tide of liberalism. And if you recall, Benjamin Disraeli refuses to ratify Romanian independence until Romania offers civil rights to the Jews.

And this was a fight that the icon, Moses Montefiore was such an icon. He had become involved in all of this. So can we go on, please? Expulsion of the, no, there was a central, there was explaining an important point. Jews attended, but non-Jews dominated the proceedings. There was Anglican clergy and ministers of every denomination. There were 40 public cities in Britain and a number of Oxford graduates called for a university public protest. In the end, a letter of solidarity was sent to Rabbi Nathan Adler, who was the chief rabbi. A protest letter was signed by nearly 2000 Oxford graduates. You see here, there was another rally, of course, after the expulsion of Jews from Moscow. When Grand Duke Sergei, who was the brother of Alexander III the Tsar, when he was made governor of Moscow, his present was the expulsion of 20,000 Jews with 24 hours notice. Now, an appalling thing. They were actually manacled in chains. And we’re talking now about a community that had been incredibly useful to Russia. And they’re being sent back into the pale of settlement. 1,200 people attended a rally, organised this time by the International Working Men’s Club. And they were addressed by Edward Averling and his wife, Eleanor Marx, who was the daughter of Karl, representing female trade unions, and by William Morris, who was a celebrated poet, of course, the designer and a socialist. So it’s not just the aristocrats now. These are middle-class socialists who are working with the poor of London. So it’s coming from both sides. Can we go on, please? The Dreyfus Affair. Huge sympathy for Dreyfus. Was this also, though, to do with anti-French hostility, which had swept through Britain? Manufacturers, ironically, there was a boycott.

You know, when you think of the BDS, some British manufacturers withdrew from the Great Paris Exhibition. So they were using this boycott as a weapon. And an address of sympathy to Madame Dreyfus was drawn up by the London Daily Chronicle. 12,000, 112,000 people signed. 80,000 of them attended a rally in Hyde Park. But behind it, it’s not just pro-Jewish sympathy. It’s anti-French, it’s anti-Catholic, and also to show that God is an Englishman, which is, by the way, the title of a very interesting book, and that British justice is infinitely superior. And don’t forget, though, that the Russian pogroms coincided with the Aliens Act, which I’m going to look at next week. Don’t forget that in 1905, the British introduced an Aliens Act, restricting the number of Jews coming into this country, because at that stage, for alien, read Jew. But nevertheless, there were still protests against the pogroms. And this time, it was presided over by Lord Rothschild, archbishops, et cetera, et cetera. And this is a message from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Sympathy, which England feels for the members of the Jewish race, who have recently suffered so terribly, is wide and deep. Of the essence, it is of the essence of our Christianity to express it by word and by act. And the support from the leader of the opposition, Balfour, from Joseph Chamberlain, the Duke of Devonshire. And this is what Balfour, who later is going to be so important in the history of the Jews, this is what he writes. The treatment of their Jewish citizens by European nations from mediaeval times onwards is certainly the darkest blot on the history of Christendom. Now, this is Chamberlain.

An indelible disgrace upon our Christian civilization. Letters read out from the Lord Chief Justice, the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge, George Bernard Shaw, and the President of the Royal Academy. Next slide, please. Next slide, Emily. The Baylis Affair. Another appalling case in Russia, where a Jew was accused of using the blood of murdering a Christian boy for Passover. In fact, this case was fascinating, because a Russian, even though the Tsar gave a medal to the prosecuting attorney, Nicholas II gave a medal, nevertheless, a Russian jury found Baylis innocent. And it’s important to remember that the same time as the Baylis Affair, there was a man called Frank in the Southern States who was also accused of a blood libel. And in his case, he was lynched. So, America, Russia. Now, World War I, the watershed, the cheapening of life, the Bolshevik Revolution, which was seen by many as a Jewish revolution, also, inverted commas, too many Jews coming into the country, inverted commas again, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in Britain, increased nativism and social antisemitism after the First World War. So, it kind of, it halts, but you have this incredible burst in the 19th century of what I will call philo-Semitism. Now, as I said, motivation is always complicated, but nevertheless, we did have this outpouring and something else that was happening in England, and I’m going to call it proto-Zionism, which again, is very complicated in its motivation. May we have the next slide, please, Emily? Now, proto-Zionism, as I’ve already talked to you at another time, goes back to, it actually goes back to Puritanism, and it’s tied up with the restoration of the Jews, and behind it is the notion that for the Jews, the Jews have to go back to their own country for the Christian Messiah, Jesus, to come again, and this is John Owen, a very important nonconformist church leader. He was a theologian, he was an Oxford academic. Don’t forget, Oxford and Cambridge started out as theological centres.

He was briefly an MP in Cromwell’s parliament. He was a friend of Cromwell, who made him vice-chancellor of Oxford University, so he’s an important man, and this is what he wrote. “Moreover, it is granted that there should be a time and season during the continuance of the kingdom of the Messiah in this world wherein the general ability of the nation of the Jews or the world over shall be called and effectually brought into the knowledge of the Messiah with which mercy they shall receive deliverance from their captivity.” So the prerequisite of the coming of the Messiah, again, is for the Jews to be returned to their own country so that they will convert to Christianity. The Christian motive is very, very strong, but it is going to lead to this extraordinary proto-Zionism, which is very important to Herzl. Can I see the next slide, please? Charles Wesley. He was very important because he was the leader of the Methodist movement. He was very prolific. He wrote over 6,500 hymns, Oxford-educated, and Oxford, he formed something called the Holy Club, a Christ church with his brother John, or Methodists. They were evangelicals. Evangelicals need to convert. He journeyed to America, which was also undergoing a huge revivalist movement. Think of the Puritans, think Plymouth Rock, think of all the Protestants escaping persecution. He later returned to Britain, and this is one of the hymns he wrote. Right now, their brethren bring and gathered out of every land, present to Zion’s king of all the ancient race, no one be left behind, but each impaled by secret grace, his way to Canaan find. Again, the Jews must come back to England, sorry, must come back to the Holy Land, as they called it. The next slide, please.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury, unbelievably important in the history of proto-Zionism. He was the eldest son of the Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Anne Spencer, the daughter of the fourth Duke of Marlborough, one of the most important aristocrats in Britain. And may I point out, when I’m talking about the aristocrats, they had many stately homes. They had hundreds of servants. They lived like potentates. I don’t think there could be many of the seriously rich today who could live as these characters lived. But they believed it was their right, and they lived these very kind of formal lives. It’s very important to realise just how formalistic the English class system was. Now, surprise, surprise, he was educated at Harrow and Oxford. Majority of British politicians of huge note up until the 20, I was going to say, the 21st century, I’m going to stick by it, still is eaten in Oxford, and sometimes Harrow and Oxford. He got a first-class honours degree and a doctorate. He’d grown up in a very, very loveless family, but it’s the family housekeeper who influenced him. She gave him a pattern of Christian love that was going to later shape all his social action. And also, he was a huge philanthropist. He was very aware of the plight of the poor. It’s paternalism. And when he was at Harrow as a boy, he witnessed a pauper’s funeral, and it had a huge indent on him. You know, this boy from a loveless family who is inspiring him, his wonderful nanny, and he sees what poverty is like. In 1826, he becomes a member of parliament for a pocket borough. What’s a pocket borough? Believe it or not, in Britain, at this stage, there were MPs who would represent clumps of land under the sea, and they were completely in the largesse of aristocrats. And he becomes MP for Woodstock, which, of course, is controlled by the Duke of Marlborough, who is his grandfather. So basically, he has a seat. He rises very quickly in parliament. He becomes a very, very important spokesman for what he sees as the injustices.

And I’m going to use words which are used at the time that many of you will find inappropriate, but I need to use them so you understand the context. He was appointed to the committee on pauper lunatics and lunatics asylums in Middlesex. And the situation of these people was unbelievably appalling. They would be left at the weekends, chained naked in rooms, only with straw. They would lie on straw. They would, all the excrement, they’re then hosed down. And in this particular asylum he went to, there was no soup. They’re washed down in freezing water, and there was a towel for 160 people. And the asylum was described, quote, as a mere place for dying. And he’s going to spend 30 years trying to help these unfortunate people. And the problem was he wanted the certificate of insanity to be more difficult. For example, women were completely controlled by their husbands. When a woman married, under the Woman’s Property Act, it all goes to her husband, okay? Now, let’s say you want to get rid of your wife. Two friendly doctors could say that she was insane. She would then be committed to what they called a lunatic asylum. I’m just giving you a few examples. It was an appalling, appalling injustice. And he fights for a long time for the certificate of insanity to be much more difficult. He was also involved in the fight to help with children. I mean, 1833, he was responsible for introducing the 10-Hour Act, that children shouldn’t work more than 10 hours a day.

I’m talking children. Think chimney sweeps. 1842, the Miners and Collieries Act, the Chimney Sweep Regulations Act. 1844, he becomes president of what they called the Ragged School Union. He wanted to establish volunteer schools for the poor. He was first president of the Society for the Suppression of Opium. Since China had opened up to Western trade, opium was coming into London. There were lots of opium dens in Limehouse. You know, one in 12 women in London were meant to be prostitutes because if you hadn’t got the protection of a man, either a father or a husband, and you had children to feed, and it was terrible for the poor of London, Gin Alley, and there are these individuals now who are very much trying to improve it, not because they believed in social justice in terms of trying to rid England of the class system. Don’t forget, there is a man working at the British Museum who, beavering away, writing Das Kapital, who wants to overthrow the whole of the system. It’s fascinating because he actually applied for British citizenship when Disraeli was prime minister, and he didn’t get it because he wasn’t loyal to his own thing. Of course, I’m talking about Karl Marx. Now, for those of you who are living in Britain or those of you who come to Britain, his memorial is actually Piccadilly Circus. You know Eros? It was erected in 1893, and to honour his philanthropy, it’s mistakenly known as Eros. It’s actually his memorial. Now, this is a nice little bit of history for you. He married Emily, daughter of the fifth Earl of Calper. His wife was probably the natural daughter of Lord Palmerston who later became her official stepfather. You know, a lot of these aristos, he wasn’t like it, but a lot of these aristos of that generation were quite wild men. It was 10 children. Now, this is where it gets interesting. His fourth child was Antony Evelyn Melbourne Ashme, and his second wife, Mary, was daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. Stay with me. They have one son, so this is Shaftesbury’s grandson. The next generation, his granddaughter was Edwina Ashley. Her other grandfather was Sir Ernest Casale, the hugely important Jewish magnate.

So ironically, in the end, Edwina, and can we have a look at a picture? Come and look at a couple of pictures, please. Can we move on? There you see the Statue of Eros in Piccadilly. I must admit, it was only when I was doing some research I found that out. It’s fascinating, isn’t it? It’s a memorial to Lord Shaftesbury. Can we go on, please, Emily? Here you see Edwina Mountbatten. Yes, quite a woman. Married, of course, to Lord Mountbatten, who had such an influence over King Charles as a young man, and was, of course, was murdered by the IRA. So, but I want to go on now a little more with his work. Now, Lord Shaftesbury. So I’ve needed to establish that he was very important in terms of social justice in England. He was an evangelical Anglican who did believe on the imminent second coming. He was violently opposed to the Roman Catholic Church. He didn’t, he was violently opposed to ritual amongst high Anglicans, but he did approve, ironically, he was a fair man. He approved of Catholic emancipation. He was president of the British Foreign Bible Society, and also president of the Evangelical Alliance. He was very close to a man called Edward Bickerstaff, who was a Scottish missionary and evangelical who was responsible, wait for it, for the Society for the Conversion of the Jews. So, he was an early proponent of the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land for the purpose of evangelism. They must be converted. And after the conquest of Greater Syria, can we see the next slide, please? Mohammed Ali, okay. He, I’ll be talking about him when we talk more about Zionism. After the conquest of Greater Syria in 1831, this is the Albanian governor of Egypt. In fact, his dynasty is going to rule right up until Farouk of Egypt was disposed in 1952. And he takes the lab. He was still loosely part of the Turkish Empire, the Ottoman Empire, but his conquest changed the conditions of European operations in the Middle East.

And Shaftesbury manages to persuade the foreign minister, Palmerston, to send a British consul to Jerusalem in 1838. There is an awakening in interest in Jerusalem and also the foreign powers are looking. The Turkish Empire is the sick man of Europe. And of course, it’s going to be Benjamin Disraeli who capitalises on this when Ferdinand de Lesseps builds the Suez Canal in Egypt. And what happens with that, of course, is that it cuts the sea route to India by four and a half thousand miles. So, think empire. This is also about empire as well. These characters believed in the power of the empire. They believed in the rightness of Britain. But what is also fascinating, and I’m going to be talking more about him next week when I talk about his novels, is that in the end, this party of conservatism is going to take to its heart a middle-class Jew boy, quote, unquote. So, the strangeness of England. Now, so this British consul is a man called James Finn. Can we see James Finn, please? Here we see James Finn. He was a totally devout Christian who belonged to the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. The society had actually begun back in 1809. William Wilberforce, who was so involved in stopping slavery, he desired to promote Christianity amongst the Jews. It’s also tied up with the missionary movement. But you’ve got to remember, missionaries went to China, missionaries went to India, because they really believed that even a foetus in the body of a pagan woman would be damned. They believed it was their duty to convert. And now the original agenda is going to be, and I’m quoting, declaring the messiahship of Jesus to the Jews, and also to non-Jews, obviously, teach the church its Jewish roots. This is important. There’s going to be a revival of Hebrew in England, the learning of Hebrew, encouraging the physical restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, encouraging the Christian messianic Jewish movement, which did begin amongst poor Jews in London and spread across Europe. So here you have missionaries going into the east end of London.

I’m talking later now. This is particularly after 1881 to try and convert Jews. In the first meeting amongst the Jews, though, was back in 1813 in East London. This is the first recorded assembly of Jewish believers in Jesus. And it’s a forerunner of the Jews for Jesus movement. Two missionaries were sent to Jerusalem in 1836 to provide that one of them was a convert from Judaism. They were doctors. One was a pharmacist. One was a doctor. They were to provide medical care. And by 1844, there’s a 24 bed hospital in Jerusalem to help the Jewish poor. In its heyday, there were over 250 missionaries. The society was very active in establishing Christ Church Jerusalem, which is the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East. Now, today, of course, it attracts a lot of criticism from the Jewish community because it is a stumbling block in Jewish Christian relations. In fact, in 1992, George Carey was the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 150 years to decline to be the patron of the organisation because he felt it damaged interfaith work. But ironically, today, it is a very pro-Zionist organisation and expresses the view that the Jews deserve a state. And it’s particularly important today in America. Fascinating, isn’t it? Now, James Finn, when he was in Jerusalem, he purchased land. He purchased land called Abraham’s Kerem Avraham, which became, he wanted to prepare the coming again of Jesus. So what he does, he sets up a farm for poor Jews in Jerusalem to be involved in agriculture. The situation of the Jews in Jerusalem was appalling. Montefiore was helping. So was an American called Judith Toru. They were sending a lot of money in to try and make the community more self-sufficient. He employed Jewish labourers to build the first houses there in 1855. He also helped establish an experimental farm for the poor Jews of Jerusalem in a village just outside Bethlehem.

You know, in a way, you can say this sort of movement back to the land is almost a forerunner of the second Aliyah. Now, he also argued, Shaftesbury doesn’t just argue for restoration because of the second coming of the Messiah. He also argues for the economic and political advantages to Britain. And this is what he wrote in this article. Adapted to the growth of produce required by Great Britain. The finest cotton may be obtained in almost unlimited abundance and silk. Oil, the very fatness of the land. Capital and skill are alone required. The Jews who could take themselves to agriculture in no other land, I having found, were returned in greater numbers and becomes once more the husbandmen of Judea and Galilee. He was steeped in the Bible, was Shaftesbury, as was James Finn, the restoration of the Jews. He also, in the lead up to the Crimean War, he wrote to the prime minister that Greater Syria, that is the term that the Turks, the Ottomans used for what is today, which is today Israel, Syria, that whole area, it was known as Greater Syria. The term Palestine is used actually, no, I’m not going to go there, it’s too complex, but I will talk about it when we come on to Zionism. He said, Syria was a country without a nation in need of a nation without a country. Now, this, the man Connolly, a man Connolly is cited as using even earlier the phrase, a land without people for a people without a land. It was first used by Alexander Keith in the Church of Scotland. Now, again, it later became very, very problematic, that phrase. So, Shaftesbury at first was not in favour of Jewish emancipation. But he did have this notion that he should be the man who should bring the Jews back. He wrote in his diary, who will be the Cyrus of modern times, the second chosen to restore God’s people.

And after he persuaded Palmerston to appoint a British vice consul, he wrote, the ancient city of the people of God is about to resume its place amongst the nations. And three years later, despite the objections of Gladstone and other Anglicans, he persuaded Prime Minister Peel to support the creation of a bishopric in Jerusalem. And the first bishop was a converted Jew, Michael Solomon’s Alexander, the son of a rabbi and himself once a rabbi. And this is what Shaftesbury said, “To see a native Hebrew appointed by the Church of England to carry back to the holy city, the truths and blessings which Gentiles have received from it.” He though, at first though, he was against Jewish emancipation. He was unmoved by Disraeli’s pronouncement. Jews should be admitted because they are the authors of your religion. But he said, Christianity should prevail in public, in private life, not in public. And he argued very strongly that Christianity must prevail publicly in Britain. But he stated, quote unquote, the Hebrew people, the most remarkable nation that has appeared on the face of the earth, a people of powerful intellect, of cultivated minds, their literature extended in an unbroken chain down to our times, embracing every subject of secular religious knowledge, but he couldn’t himself want to eliminate the oath but until later on, he does go with it. So summing up, these ideas are very important in Puritan thought, but it’s through Shaftesbury that they really enter public discourse. And in 1840, as I said, and this is important, the Times reported that the government was considering Jewish restoration. Now, can we go on, please? Over the pond to Herman Melville, of course, the very important American novelist, the author of Moby-Dick.

And I believe you cannot graduate from American high school unless you have read Moby-Dick. He himself, he was also an evangelical. He made a personal and professional visit to the land of Israel. He spent 19 days in Palestine at Mount Hope, which was a Christian-owned settlement outside Jaffa whose mission was to make farmers of the Jews to accelerate the second coming. And this is what he said. The idea of making farmers of the Jews is in vain. In the first place, Judea is a desert. In second place, the Jews hate farming. Beside the number of Jews in Palestine is comparatively small and how are the hosts of them scattered in other lands to be brought here? Only by a miracle. And he wrote a very long poem, Clarol, a pilgrimage and poem to the Holy Land, that he begins to show a huge interest in Judaism and Jews. And this is what he wrote. He also wrote in his very long poem, he’d studied the Jews. He wrote about Hillel. He wrote about Moses Mendelssohn. He wrote about Uriel Acosta. This is important. Important intellectuals in the 19th century in Britain and in America are becoming very, very interested in Jews. This is what he wrote. The Hebrew seers announced in time the return of Judah to her prime. Some Christians deemed them at hand. Here was an object up and on with seed and tillage helped renew, helped reinstate the Holy Land. And at the same time in America, you have a very important American millionaire, William Eugene Blackstone, published his book, Jesus is Coming. He believed in the restoration of the Jews, but he’s the first to absolve them of the need to convert to Christianity. And the book is translated into Yiddish. And he has a very important conference in Chicago, a resolution of sympathy for oppressed Jews in Russia. He recommends resettlement of Jews in Palestine and he lobbies President Harrison. He’s important, Blackstone, because he doesn’t need conversion.

413 prominent American citizens, US Chief Justice, Speakers of the House of Representatives, Chair of Foreign Affairs, et cetera, et cetera. And Rockefeller signed. Why should not the powers which under the Treaty of Berlin give Bulgaria to the Bulgarians, Serbia to the Serbians, not now give Palestine back to the Jews? These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro and Greece were wrested from the Turks and given to their national owners. Does not Palestine rightfully belong to the Jews? I think we have time for one more individual. And that is the extraordinary William Hechler. Here you see him. His father was a German-born priest, an Anglican. He comes to England. He studies at the Anglican Ceremony in London. He was preparing for a missionary career, but when the mother dies, his son, William, has to attend boarding schools in London. Very, very bright. He studies languages, English, German. He studies Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, extraordinary, and African dialects. His father took a position in the London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. His father was deeply philo-Semitic, and it influenced his son. And his interest in Palestine evolved as he becomes more and more involved in the developing evangelical restoration. He becomes an Anglican clergyman. He’s both an Anglophile and a Germanophile. He served in the Franco-Prussian War as a clergyman, for the Germans, of course. He also dispensed medical aid. He was wounded. He then became a missionary in Lagos, in Nigeria. And then after a about of malaria, returns to his father’s home. His father’s now living in Germany, where his father is involved in missionary work with the Jews.

By 1873, and this is very important, can we see the next slide, please? He becomes the tutor to the children of Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden. And through Frederick’s son, Ludwig, he develops a very close relationship with the Grand Duke’s nephew. Can we see his face, please? The next one, the next slide. That nephew is Kaiser Wilhelm II. Now, Ludwig, and this is all going to come together. Ludwig died prematurely, so Hechler accepted a position in Ireland. He married. He returns to England as a minister for the Church of England. What he dreamt of was to become the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. He was unsuccessful, but he becomes chaplain at the British Embassy in Vienna. He becomes more and more, of course, Catholic Vienna. He is there from 1885 to 1910. Turn of the century Vienna, which we’ve talked about at such length. Just put yourself into the picture of turn of the century Vienna. Trotsky, Successionism. So he becomes very involved, and 10% Jewish. In Jewish Restorationism, he travels to Germany in his official capacity. He wants to look at the situation of the Jews. He’s particularly shattered by the Russian pogroms. In Odessa, can we see the next slide, please? In Odessa, can we go on? He meets a man called Leon Pinsker. The author, Leon Pinsker, very important in the history of Zionism. He had believed in acculturation. The pogroms finished it for him. He wrote auto-emancipation, that famous phrase. He says, the Gentile world suffers from judophobia. It is a psychic aberration. It is a 2,000-year-old disease. It is incurable. And he meets with Hechler. He has a profound impact on Hechler. He then, Hechler then goes to Constantinople. He attempts to deliver through the British ambassador a letter to the Sultan from Queen Victoria, a restoration solution to antisemitism. The British ambassador refused to deliver it. In 1884, Hechler writes his own treatise, The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine. And he says, the Jews should return as a precondition for the return of Jesus.

It is the duty of every Christian to love the Jews. He didn’t necessarily believe that conversion was a precondition for the restoration to Palestine. Now, on May the 10th, 1896, the Reverend William H. Hechler, a chaplain to the British embassy in Vienna, called on me. We’re going to see who that me is in a minute. And he says, this is what this particular person wrote in his diary. A likeable, sensitive man, he waxed enthusiastic over my solution. He regarded my movement as a prophetic crisis, one he foretold two years ago. He had calculated in accordance with a prophecy dating from Omar’s reign, 637 to 638, that after 42 prophetic months, 1,200 years, Palestine would be restored to the Jews. That would make it 1897 to 1898. When he read my book, he immediately turned to Ambassador Monson and told him, the full ordained movement is here. I declare my movement to be biblical. He wanted to place my tract in the hands of some German princes. He knows the Kaiser, and he thinks he can get me an audience. And of course, you all know who that was, and let’s have a look at him. He met Theodor Herzl. And through Hechler, Herzl meets the Grand Duke of Baden, and convinces him. In 1898, he met the Kaiser, who discussed it with the Sultan. Unfortunately, the Sultan wasn’t interested, so Herzl thought he had failed. But this is an extract from the Daily Mail, 1898. An Easter surprise. Eastern surprise. Important result of the Kaiser’s tour. It has not been generally reported, but when the Kaiser visited Constantinople, Dr. Herzl, head of the Zionist movement, was there. Again, when the Kaiser entered Jerusalem, he found Dr. Herzl there. These were no mere coincidences, but the visible sign of accomplished facts. Now, it was Hechler who first pushed Herzl on his way to meeting important dignitaries. Herzl, Hechler had become a very important character.

Before his death, Herzl ordered that the Zionist community remember and honour Hechler. And Hechler was, of course, Herzl died tragically young. And Hechler was his bedside the day before he died. He was the last non-family member to be with him. And he recounted Herzl’s last word. He said to Hechler, Greek Palestine for me, I gave my heart’s blood for my people. Now, after Herzl’s death, Hechler later retired. He continued spreading the word. He became a friend of Martin Buber. He died aged 80 alone in 80 North Hill Highgate. In 2010, his forgotten unmarked grave was rediscovered. It led to the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation in the British Christian Zionist Movement put an appropriate memorial erected on the 31st of January, 2011. I was going to talk about Lawrence Oliphant. He needs much more time. I’ve mistimed as usual. So I will rethink my schedule. So what I’ve, I think, shown you that this tradition in England was very, very strong. Problem for many Jews with the conversionist element, but gradually that conversionist element, certainly with characters like Hechler, was not necessary. So shall we have a look at some questions, please?

Q&A and Comments:

Q: Are you saying there was philosemitism in Britain as long as there were few Jews living there and as so long as there was anti-Catholic feeling? Still have no picture and sound goes out sometimes.

A: Look, basically, if you want to be cynical, I think that’s very much part of it, but also it was part of Christian millennial thought.

Leo Frank, yes, of course. The Baylis trial, remember, is 1911 to 1913, and 1913 is Leo Frank, so it’s fascinating.

Yes, Kelv is saying regarding the mention of the Frank lynching in the American South, there’s currently a musical on Broadway based on the Frank affair called Parade. I haven’t seen it. I don’t know what any of you think of that. Eros Arrow is supposed to point down Shaftesbury Avenue, of course, named for Shaftesbury.

Q: Was Lord Mountbattle not an influence on Philip rather than on Charles?

A: He was, Maria, he was an influence on both of them. You’ve got to remember, Finch Phillip was a pretty remote father, and Mountbattle was far more of a father to Charles, but of course, Philip, he was desperate to marry Philip off to Princess Elizabeth. He was up to his neck in it.

Q: This is from Septon. Is it not strange that the goal of the missionaries and Chabad Lubavitch are the same convert Jews?

A: But at least Chabad is converting within Judaism. Is it a sect, I ask myself?

This is from Geoffrey. Geoffrey Ben-Nathan, a permanent photographic exhibition of the Finns. Good works is maintained in the forecourt of their Jerusalem, the headquarters, by the Karlin Hasidic sect. Oh, that is interesting. Elizabeth Ann Finn’s book, “Palestine Peasantry,” is absolutely vital for understanding the Aboriginal culture of the peasant fellaheen from 1964. The book was published posthumously by her son. Thank you very much for that. That’s what I love about us. And if I’m correct, Prince Philip’s deaf mother was also sent to an asylum. She was treated very badly by her husband and his family. Saw this in a documentary a number of years ago.

Now, Princess Alice, never forget that she was very, she did have a breakdown. She was a very, very religious Christian. And she saved Jews in Greece. She is awarded, she is in the category of the righteous at Yad Vashem, and that’s why Charles went to visit Yad Vashem, to honour his grandmother. And so has William.

Q: Can you recommend that strings of all these vignettes together as a cohesive?

A: Unfortunately, no, I can’t, Mark. There is no one book, really, that I would recommend to you. I’ve had to go in a lot of places for these kinds of things. Read biography. Read biography of Lord Shaftesbury. Read biography of Hechler. But nobody… look, I’m looking at it from the outside in. And I’ve had to put it together. I don’t know one great book that I could say to you, this will give you all the strings.

Parade just won the Tony. The cast saves the Kaddish before each performance. And didn’t Leopold Stutt also win the Tony?

Am I saying that they’re obsessed with Jews? I’m not sure what I think about these things, honestly, Susan, not about the Kaddish on stage. I had problems when I saw the play about the Lehman Brothers as well. I’m not sure.

I hear seagulls. I am by the coast in, yes, Selina, I am by the coast. I’m right at the end of Britain. I’m visiting my daughter in Cornwall.

I think that’s everything, Emily. Thank you very, very much. And I will see you all next week. Thank you.