Trudy Gold
Israel Zangwill, the ‘Jewish Dickens’ and the Kilburn Wanderers, Part 1

Trudy Gold - Israel Zangwill, the ‘Jewish Dickens’ and the Kilburn Wanderers, Part 1

- Okay, everyone now having yesterday swapped with Patrick and looked at the court circle around Edward VII. Looked at really the court Jews who lived these fabulously wealthy lives. I’m now taking you in a completely different direction, and for my next two sessions I’m going to be looking at a group of intellectuals called the Kilburn Wanderers, whose mission, they actually state their mission, what they wanted to do, and I’m going to read it from Israel Zangwill’s, one of Israel’s Zangwill’s books where he says, “What they intended to do was to bring together, to focus Jewish forces to gather, not the celebrities, but the men of brains,” remember their writing in the turn of the century. They don’t mention women at this stage, though he was a feminist. “As many more brains were available than was desired, it was thought best to confine the membership almost exclusively to those engaged in the learned professions.” And he talks about why he’s doing this. And I live around this area and it’s absolutely fascinating for me to think that 120 years ago, a group of Jewish intellectuals came together really to talk about Jewish identity and how they fitted into the modern world and what I’m hoping to do, if I’ve timed myself correctly, tonight I’m going to be looking at one of the most important of them all, Israel Zangwill, and then Lucien Wolf. And next session I’m going to be looking at the others of them, all of whom are incredibly important. They were also responsible for the first Jewish historical exhibition in Britain. They set up the Jewish Historical Association.

And the dilemmas that they faced are still the dilemmas that we face. And that’s why I thought they would be a particular interest. So let’s have a look at Israel Zangwill. Who was he? Can we see his face, if you don’t mind. Yeah. Now, before I get into his biography, I’m going to write something that, he becomes Anglo Jews’ most important writer. And you’ll see at the end of the presentation, he was even on the cover of “Time Magazine,” he becomes the voice of Anglo Jewry. So I want to read to you how he agonised about what it meant to be a Jew. He’s going to be active from really the last 50 years of his life intellectually. And he’s going to have to face all the dilemmas. He begins really with the group, the Kilburn Wanderers. Then the Maccabean, who I’m also going to talk about, he is a Zionist and then a territorialist. Then back to being a Zionist, he married a woman who was a suffragette and a real feminist. He becomes a feminist. He is a socialist. He is also a brilliant playwright. And we’ve got a very special session, second session when Professor Brian Cheyette is actually going to give you an analysis of probably his most famous play, “The Melting-Pot,” which he coined the term really to deal with America. So it’s quite an important session. So I want you to listen to this very, very carefully. I would recommend all his books to you. “reamers Of The Ghetto,” “Children Of The Ghetto” are my favourites. Also, I’ve been reading a selection of his essays, which was codified after his death by his wife.

He’s just, not only do I think he writes beautifully, but all the dilemmas he touches on are so, I find them, so acute in my own soul. So let me just read to you what he had to say about being a Jew. “I have long pondered between our triple names, Hebrew, Jew, and Israelite. The Hebrew is the idealist, the Jew, the adherence of historical system, the Israelite, the Jew by birth, who may become the patriot or the nationalist. The secret of our discrepancies is some of us are one and two, and some of us are all these three things.” He says, he writes this in, by the way, in 1892. “The emancipated Jew has a far more complex problem to face than the emancipated Christian. The Jew will not be worsted in the age, in the age long fight. He will not be worsted in the age and in the age long fight. Like the old guard he dies, but he does not surrender. And another thing is certain, if the Jew died, the Hebrew will persist. There are indeed those who tell us that the Greek is going to beat the Hebrew after all that Hellenism is to rule the roost. Now it’s true that Hebraism does tend to a puritan narrowness in opposition to the sensuous conception of life. It is on the side of art and general culture that the Jew needs most development. His aesthetic faculty is swallowed up in his spiritual, even his conception of beauty is almost entirely the beauty of holiness, which is sublime but not complete. But these ideals are not in necessary opposition. In one soul, Greek may meet Hebrew. Moral aspirations may wed with artistic and conscience be reconciled to culture.” Let me repeat this because this is the dilemma of the Jew, the emancipated Jew, the Jew who has the modern world.

What will he have to sacrifice? So let’s repeat it. “But these ideals are not in necessary opposition. In one soul, Greek may meet Hebrew. Moral aspirations may wed with our artistic and conscience to be reconciled to culture. The ideal human should have something of a very Jewish trait, I mean humour.” And he was very funny by the way, Israel Zangwill. “A life consciously devoted to intellectual and moral development would be inhuman.” Well, I would add to that boring. “I would not care to live in a world of perfect freaks if it is this humanity, this saving touch of humour, which one finds in many of the great Jews of the past.” So in 1892, he’s writing about it and it’s something he ponders on all his life. What is the solution of the Jewish problem? So let’s get into his biography please. Can we see the first slide? He was born in Whitechapel. And here you have a lovely view of Whitechapel. This is before the 1880s, before you have the flood of Eastern European Jews into Whitechapel. He was the second son of five children of Moses Zangwill, who was a peddler and a rabbinic student. And his wife Ellen, he came from Latvia. The father was from Latvia, the mother was from Poland. So they had both escaped the Pale of Settlement and they were dirt poor. And this comes up so much in his writings. He describes himself as a Cockney Jew. And one of the most important aspects of his early writings, particularly in his wonderful book, “Children of the Ghetto,” which really made him famous, he tried to straddle the device, the divide that all immigrant children face. He is a second generation, he is born in England, in an England that has emancipated the Jews. There is not a very large Jewish population.

Anglo Jewry is totally run by the cousin hood. And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to explore the, the great and the good before we actually got on to the people. He was absolutely fascinated by Jewish identity. He had an early schooling in Plymouth and Bristol. Remember his father’s an itinerant peddler. Then they come back to the East end and he goes to the Jewish free school. Now the other, can we see the next slide please? Here you see the Jewish Free School. It was a fascinating institution and it’s still the largest Jewish school in England. Today 70% of Jews who affiliate send their children to Jewish schools. Interesting. That’s why I think these kind of, looking back 120 years, the same dilemmas are there. He was poor, remember? But the school didn’t just provide religious and secular education, you will remember of course, that the president of JFS was of course Baron Nathan Rothschild. And he had instructed the parents not to send their kids to Heide, but to make them into English gentlemen. And this is the kind of thing that Zangwill is going to ponder. What does it mean to be an English gentleman? What does it actually mean to be a Jew in England, the second generation? How much of the outside world do you take? How much do you take of your own tradition? The school fed the children, it clothed the children and provided healthcare. And remember he was very poor. But not only that, he was also incredibly clever. One of those creatures that I call the ilowee, those incredibly clever individuals who can push the world on. In fact, today one of the houses at JFS is actually named for Zangwill. Now while teaching, he becomes a teacher, age 14, he then goes to UCL. Can we see the next slide please? University College London.

Remember, that is the Godless Institution in Gower Street. It had been created in the 1830s for people who couldn’t take the Protestant oath at Oxford in Cambridge. To graduate you had to swear on the true faith of a Christian on the St. James’ Bible, which exempt, which excluded Catholics, free thinkers and of course Jews. But the establishment called it the Godless place in Gower Street and whilst he was there, of course he got a first. He studied French and English and a fascinating subject called moral sciences. Now he was in a bit of a dispute with the school, which led, he found it too constricting. So he’d left and devoted himself to writing. He began his career as a journalist. Can we see the next slide, please? He contributed to Jerome K, Jerome’s periodical, “The Idler,” and also to Jewish periodicals. Very quickly he makes a name for himself. He has a wonderful style, but it’s in 1892 that his first novel, “Children Of The Ghetto” comes out. And that makes him absolutely famous. He puts him at the centre of writing London. He becomes known as the Jewish Dickens. And I’m reading a crit on it from a professor actually at the University of Georgetown. “It created a sensation in both Britain and America. It was the first Anglo Jewish bestseller and establishes Zangwill as the literary voice of Anglo Jewry. The novel is set in 19th century London, an inside look into the immigrant community and all the problems of identity of the second generation, also as mysterious to the established Jewish community as to non-Jews.” Because you’ve got to remember, the Anglo Jews were already here. You’ve had the Sephardin, the wealthy merchants then you had Ashkenazi settlement from east West, from Central Europe, many of whom were dirt poor and were being looked after by the Sephardin and made into English gentlemen.

But now this is the beginnings. Remember it’s 1892. The floodgates already opened by this stage. So what you are dealing with here is the second generation immigrants and how are they going to adapt to English society? And it’s really also the tussle between the observant Jew and the push towards England. Is it possible to be an observant Jew in England? So throughout the 1890s and really onwards and onwards, he’s a social critic, he’s a brilliant speaker and he becomes quite an important, he becomes quite an important speaker in non-Jewish circles. And of course he has his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. He mixes not just in Jewish circles but in non-Jewish circles. He is a socialist. Can we go on with the slides please? He also becomes a contributor to “Puck,” one of the most important periodicals of the time where most of the good English and American writers wrote. So he knew a lot of them. This is the point. See him at the centre of literary, the literary Anglo world, which of course meant also America. Can we go on? Yes, now this is another fascinating book. It’s called “Dreamers Of The Ghetto” and obviously only managed to concentrate on a couple of them because that is not my forte. I’m really a historian and a biographer. And you are going to have the treat of “The Melting-Pot” tonight from, of course from Brian Cheyette. So, the “Dreamers Of The Ghetto,” I think will really appeal to you, can you go on? This is the introduction to it. “In dream I saw two Jews that met by chance. One old stern-eyed, deep-browed, yet garlanded with living light of love around his head. The other young with sweet, seraphic glance.

Around went on the town’s Satanic dance hunger a-piping while at heart he bled. ‘Shalom aleichem,’ mournfully each said. nor eyed the other straight, but looked askance. Sudden from church out rolled an organ’s hymn. From synagogue, a loudly chaunted air. Each with its prophets high acclaimed instinct. Then for the first time met their eyes, swift-dimmed in one strange style, silent, piteous gaze and dim with bitter tears of agonising despair.” He got it. He got the problem of Christianity in Judaism. He was an incredibly astute thinker. It’s very important that you take that on. He’s also going to write “Ghetto Tragedies,” “King Of The Schnorrers,” but it’s “Dream Of The Ghetto” I want you to have a look now at the chapter headings, because I think you’ll find them very, very interesting. A child of the ghetto, “Joseph The Dreamer,” Uriel Acosta, the story of Acosta, who of course was excommunicated by the Machamad in Amsterdam, “The Turkish Messiah,” that Sabbatai Zevi, “The Maker Of Lenses,” “The Master Of The Good Name,” the Baal Shem Tov. “Maimon The Fool And Nathan The Wise,” Moses Mendelssohn, “From A Mattress Grave, his story of Heinrich Heine. Heine who was also trapped between the world of the Greek and the Jew. "The People’s Saviour.” And who do you think the people’s saviour is? “The Primrose Sphinx.” That is Disraeli. “Dreamers In Congress,” coming onto that in a minute. “The Palestine Pilgrim,” The Constellation Of Christendom.“ Please read this book if you love history and if you love quote unquote "The non-Jewish Jew,” that title of is of Isaac Deutsche, you will wallow in this book. It’s faction. But he’s taken these incredible characters like Heine, like Disraeli, and he’s done something with them, something quite extraordinary.

He’s absolutely rooted in Jewish history and with the other Kilburn Wanderers and the Maccabeans, he’s going to be involved in creating the first exhibition of Jewish history in 1893. Can we go on please? This is the woman who he married Edith Ayrton. She, as I said, she was a feminist, she was a writer. She was also brought up as a Jew. So he marries Jewishly. He’s not observant, but he’s very culturally Jewish. Some of the characters that he was friendly with in the Kilburn Wanderers later the Maccabeans, are going to be quite religious and are going to be responsible for setting up Hampstead synagogue. But that is another story. Can we go on please? Okay. That is the play, “The Melting-Pot,” his most famous play that you’re going to hear more about later. Next slide. Okay, 24 Oxford Road Kilburn. I went and took a picture of it. Why? Because that was the home of Israel Zangwill. And in November, 1895, A landau drew up outside that house and out stepped an extraordinary individual who looked like a Hebrew prophet, a man with a deep beard, flashing eyes and a dream. He’d been sent to 24 Oxford Road, Kilburn by another very famous writer, Max Nordau. And there is where he met Israel Zangwill, and he convinced him of his dream. And what happened from then on is of course, that he is introduced to the Maccabeans.

And I’m going to talk about that in my next session with you. And Asha Myers, who’s in the Maccabeans, he’s also, he’s the secretary of it. And they hold the meetings in his house. It’s Asha Myers who commissions that young man, of course, Theodor Herzl to write out his scheme in “The Jewish Chronicle.” Zangwill becomes very attracted to his ideas and becomes very attracted to Theodor Herzl. He himself takes a group of the Maccabeans to Palestine to have a look round, men and women. And he is there at the first Zionist Congress. And at the end of the first, at the end of the first Zionist Congress, this is one of the things he writes, which I think is so moving. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yay, we wept when we remembered Zion. By the rivers of Basel, we resolved to weep no more.” So he’s very much tied up now with Theodor Herzl. And he’s still writing, he’s still getting on with his life. But at the same time, he is a committed Zionist. And then within the Zionist organisation, this is now not the time to talk about all the work that Theodor Herzl has done. There are many lectures on that in lockdown, and eventually they will all be available to you. But suffice to say that it’s Herzl who creates political Zionism. When he holds the conference in Basel, he demands that it is very formal. Everyone has to wear top hats and frock coats. It lasts three days and at the end of it, he actually writes in his diary. “Today, we created the Jewish state. Maybe in five years, certainly in 50, it will be a reality.” And Herzl with his incredible charisma, he spends the next few years of his life absolutely devoted to the cause of the creation of the Jewish state. He has most luck with the British. And can we see the next slide, please?

There you see the extraordinarily magnetic Theodor Herzl. Can we go on please? This is the Maccabeans, which I’m going to talk a lot more about next session. Here you see Joseph Chamberlain. Joseph Chamberlain was a fascinating self-made liberal politician. He’d made his career in Birmingham as a manufacturer, then he becomes mayor of the city. Remember, in England, trade is not necessarily a dirty word. He wasn’t too fond of the aristocracy. He goes into politics and becomes president of the Board of Trade under Gladstone, he’s a liberal. And then in 1897, he’s Secretary of state for the colonies, by the way, for our South Africans, he was involved in the Boer War and gets a very very bad press and how much was he involved in the establishment of concentration camps in South Africa. But in 1902, he meets with Theodor Herzl. Remember, Herzl has introductions through the Maccabean to many important people in British society because when we go into further detail of the Maccabeans, next time you’re going to see that there are a formidable bunch of people with a lot of contacts. So Herzl meets Chamberlain, who is impressed with him because Chamberlain is a real creature of the empire. And he’s also a creature of se settling in areas of the British empire, which was absolutely vast, which he sees as underpopulated. And they first come up with an offer of land in el-Arish in Sinai, but that doesn’t really go anywhere because it’s pointed out that they would have to divert the water supply of the Nile and that might not be very good for the Egyptians.

And then he’s offered territory in British East Africa. The land, Joseph Chamberlain actually saw the land as he was passing by on the Uganda railway. That’s why it’s called the Uganda Offer. And he offers Herzl a Jewish homeland in Uganda. Now, can we see the next slide please? There had been a particularly appalling pogrom in Kishinev between the 19th and the 21st of April, 1903. Easter Day, very much whipped up by the editor of the local newspaper, the “Bessarabets,” a man called Pavel Krushevan, who later on serialised the protocols of the elders of Zion. Some of his more choice headlines, “Death to the Yids,” “Death to the Jews,” he whipped the mob up. There was a blood libel tail that a young child had disappeared and the blood was being used for the Passover bread. And it led to the mob going on the rampage. It lasts for two days. And according to the Yiddish “Daily News,” which was reported by the “New York Times” on the 28th of April, the mob was led by priests. And the general cry, “Kill the Jews,” was taken up all over the city. That is a report in the “New York Times” based on a report in the “Yiddish Daily News.” Now the figures are quite appalling. 49 Jews murdered, 92 gravely injured. Hundreds of women were raped. 1,500 homes destroyed. Now, what made the Kishinev pogrom more acute than all the other pogroms that were happening in Russia? Kishinev was near the telegraph, which meant there was a telegraphed station. So the news was flashed all over the world, number one. And number two, it was a garrison town.

There were 16,000 Czarist soldiers actually there. And the problem was they did nothing for two days. And when they finally cleaned it up, it took them, a couple of hours to clean it up. And it’s because of this that Herzl decides to put the offer before the Zionist Congress. And he’s completely backed in this by Max Nordau and by Israel Zangwill, not necessarily forever, but let’s do something because what is the purpose of Zionism? Herzl Zionism was to find a cure for antisemitism to say that the Jews are a nation that basically acculturation and assimilation has failed. He’s very well aware of racial politics. The Jews are a separate race in inverted commas. And only if we have our own entity will we ever be safe. But because there was this terrible pogrom and because something is offered, let’s go for it. So consequently, what you see happening is he puts the offer before the Congress with the support of Zangwill and the support of Nordau, but it’s turned down. The overwhelming bulk of the Congress are delegates from Eastern Europe. They are delegates from the Pale of Settlement. They’re far more seeped in Jewish culture than Herzl or Nordau or Zangwill on one level. And they say only in the ancient homeland can it happen. So consequently, they turn down the Uganda offer. And can we see the next slide please? Theodor Herzl or dies pretty soon afterwards. And this is what Zangwill wrote about him. “Farewell, O Prince, farewell, O sorely tried. You dreamed a dream and you have paid the cost. To save a people leaders must be lost.

By foes and followers be crucified. Yet ‘tis your body only that has died. The noblest soul in Judah is not dust, but fire that works in every vein and must reshape our lives rekindling Israel’s pride. So we behold the captain of our strife, triumphant in this moment of eclipse. Death has but fixed him to immortal life. His flag upheld the trumpet on his lips, and while we weeping render our garment, he next year we cry next year, Jerusalem.” And of course, in 1914 he was buried in Vienna. There are extraordinary descriptions of his funeral by Stefan Zweig actually who witnessed it, how 3,000 people came to his funeral. But what is Zangwill saying that basically it was the horror of trying to run the Zionist organisation that killed him. Now, what is the truth? I think Zangwill is over egging it. But nevertheless, nevertheless, this is his eulogy to a man he absolutely adored. Can we see the next slide, please? Okay, this is Ito, the Jewish Territorial Organisation. What happens is that he realises that what the Jews need is something immediate. He’d spoken in favour of the Uganda Offer. He did say that he didn’t see East Africa as the ultimate consummation of Zionism, but he wanted to take the British offer. So when after Herzl’s death, he breaks away from the Zionist organisation and contacts a British journalist, a man called Lucien Wolf, who is also a member of the Maccabeans and have been a member of the Kilburn Wanderers. And they create the Jewish territorial organisation in 1905. So this is what he, he went to America, remember, he’s a very famous man to the Federation of American Zionist, he commented, “The Kishinev massacre has brought home to the blindest and the need of a publicly and legally self safeguarded home for our unhappy race. When you come to consider where this centralised home should be, you’ll find no place as practical as Palestine, but at least for a start, its neighbourhood.”

But unfortunately, very few in the Zionist organisation actually supported it. So, and as I said, the offer in the night, he tries to put it before the Uganda, the Zionist Congress again in 1905. But it’s totally rejected. And that’s why he goes to Lucien Wolf. And the ITO’s members are going to be known as territorialists. And what they’re going to do is to look for territory wherever they can get it. So let’s have a look at Lucien Wolf, please, who was also a fascinating individual. He came from a different world to Zangwill, but they worked together on a lot of different things. He was born in London. He also was the child of immigrants, but much wealthier. His father was a pipe manufacturer, a man called Edward Wolf from Bohemia. His mother, Celine, came from Vienna. And by the age of 17 another incredibly bright man and also a career in journalism. The two of them worked together on Jewish papers for example, the Jewish Quarterly Review, where you have some incredible writers. Now, he becomes the editor of “The Jewish World” and he specialises in foreign affairs. He has a glittering career. He takes the name Diplomaticus and he writes a fortnightly review. Now he very much sees himself as an upper middle class Englishman. That’s the world he really wants to be a part of. But the pogroms of 1881 and everything that happens in Russia deeply affect his sensibilities as a Jew. And he writes supplements for “The Jewish Chronicle” called “Darkest Russia.” And actually it’s his preference for Germany over Russia that causes the end of his journalist career. Because of course, Russia is going to be allied to Britain in this First World War.

A huge enthusiast for Jewish history. He organised the Anglo Jewish Historical Exhibition on the immigration of Jews to Britain in 1893. And what the Jews had done for Britain, he becomes one of the founders. He’s first president of the Jewish Historical Association. Many of the Kilburn Wanderers are going to be with him in that. But he is no follower of Zionism. He said, “No wonder all antisemites are enthusiastic Zionists. And to him all that mattered, Jewish identity as far as he was concerned, and the yearning for Zion was about religiosity. So even though the two of them were completely opposed to each other over this, they come together over territorialism. He was far more involved in the Anglo Jewish establishment. In 1888, he joined the conjoint committee of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo Jewish Association, and which in effect made him Anglo Jewry’s foreign minister. And jumping on, later on, he was really the man behind the main criticism, the main Jewish criticism of the Balfour Declaration, which was summed up by a member of the British cabinet, Edwin Montague, who’s a Jew. He said, "How can you send me to India representing Britain when at the same time you are telling me my home is at the end of the Eastern Mediterranean?” He had a very glittering career, though he becomes part of Anglo Jewry’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. He helped draught the minorities treaty and he becomes the advisor to the Committee for Refugees at the League of Nations. He’s also a prolific writer. But listen carefully to the books he writes.

He writes about the Treves family in England. They were an important family of bankers. Menasseh Ben Israel’s mission to Oliver Cromwell, the legal suffering of the Jews in Russia. He writes the story of the Montefiore family, the Queen’s Jews. This is what Israel Feinstein, wonderful Judge Feinstein, said of him. “He was a robust defender of Jewish interests as he saw them. He was not only a journalist, historian and communal civil servant, but a pragmatic politician connecting with his power of articulating cases, his mastery of European languages and his vast knowledge and contacts. He had a deep and self-conscious loyalty to Britain that was combined with an intense desire to save Jews, protect and advance their civil rights and encourage the development of a recognisable Jewish culture. He saw the Jewish cause as part of the wider human cause. He could not bring himself to regard the expansion of liberalism in the West as a flash in the pan, he had thrown his lot in with the enlightenment.” You can see the way he’s dressed. That’s a cartoon, nice beautiful cartoon. He saw himself as also as an upper middle class Englishman. He was a Jew, but he had no time for Zionism, the idea of a Jewish state. But on the other hand, he would help with the territorials and something else. In many ways, his most important act, as far as I’m concerned, is his working on the fact that the protocols of the elders of Zion were a forgery.

When the protocols that notorious forgery that came out of Russia promoting the idea of this Jewish world Power conspiracy, it hit England in January, 1920 and the “London Times,” they actually said, “Have we escaped a Pax Germanica to fall into the sway of a Pax Judaica?” It sold out in England. We know that Winston Churchill read it. It brings together the notion Jews as capitalist, Jews as communists, the kind of canard that you are seeing so much today on the net. The Jewish world conspiracy. By 1925 editions had sold out in England. Henry Ford in America was sponsoring 500,000 copies. Now, Lucien, the other man, there are two men who are going to expose it as a forgery. One is Philip Graves and the other one is Lucien Wolf. And what he does is he brings to, he actually does an investigation into the source of the protocols. Let me just give you the reason he had to do it. This is from “The Spectator” of October the 16th, 1920. “We shall be justified in moving with great caution in our admission of Jews to the foolish rank of citizenship. We must drag the conspirators into the open, tear off their masks and show the world how ridiculous as well as how evil and dangerous are such pests in society.” So, because of his work and that of Graves, it finally was decided it was a literary forgery. And on August the 21st, “The Times” published on its centre pages that the protocols were a forgery based on the book, “Dialogue Aux Enfers” between Machiavel and Montesquieu by Joly and that’s a satire on Napoleon III.

And it led to Eyre and Spottiswoode, a very prestigious publishing company declining to publish it again. Lucien Wolf is absolutely tireless in debunking it. So, and when he writes it, he says, “I confess to a feeling of shame at having to write this article at all. That reputable newspapers in this country should be seeking to transport here the seeds of antisemitism from Prussia. It is for this reason that I have limited myself to the specific charges formulated by these publications. So having said that, he was a robust defender of Jews. But in the "Jewish Quarterly,” back in 1905, “Jewish Quarterly Review,” he had written an article on the Zionist peril. But as I said, he’s working now on the Jewish Territorial organisation and the other important aspect of that is that Israel Zangwill finds an ally in America who is going to help actually fund the colonisation of Jews. And that man is the extraordinary Jacob Schiff. Let’s have a look at Jacob Schiff. Next slide, here you see Jacob Schiff. Now he is the man who is going to fund their most successful project. This is Zangwill in London and Schiff in the States. It’s called the Galveston Project, the Galveston Movement, which operated between 1907 and '14 to divert Jews from the pogroms of America, away from the congested communities of the east.

Something, the same sort of thing that Baron de Hirsch was doing. And Jacob Schiff, a fascinating character. I’m going to tell you a little bit about him because another man who walked the world. He was born in Frankfurt. He came from a rabbinic family who could trace their roots back to 1300s. He had both a religious and a secular education. When he’s 18 years old, he decides that America is more for him. And off he goes through introductions, his family are wealthy, he works for a New York brokerage firm and later becomes a partner. He marries Therese Loeb, the daughter of Solomon Loeb, head of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. He entered his father’s law firm. He’s an absolute financial wiz kid. And he felt, it was his brain and the attribution of his finances that developed corporations such as American Rubber, Westinghouse Electric, American Telephone and telegraph finance, the main financier of the Union Pacific Railroad. He also felt himself to be very strongly a Jew. He was a reformed Jew and he’s going to be active in the establishment of the Jewish Theological Seminary, for which he’s going to recruit another member of the Maccabeans and Kilburn Wanderers, a man called Solomon Schechter, who I’m going to talk about in my next session. He loved Jewish knowledge. He’s a reformed Jew, he’s also an American and he’s proud to be an American. That’s why he’s prepared to support the Jewish Colonisation Association, but not Zionism. He’s first and foremost an American. He had a great love of literature. He was the money behind the Jewish Publication Society, funded a new translation of the Bible.

He helped establish the Jewish division in New York library. He was also a benefactor to Harvard and to Cornell. He was a huge contributor to the Montefiore Hospital, of which he was president for 35 years. The Semitic Museum at Harvard, $1 million to Barnard College. He contributed to the American Red Cross and also to the Henry Street settlement. He is one of the American lords of the earth. He’s also one of the founders of the American Jewish community and sat on the Jewish Welfare Board. Also, his donations aided the publication of the Jewish Encyclopaedia. And I wanted also to bring your attention to something else he was involved in. He hated Russia. Remember he’s involved with Zangwill in London, in pushing Jews to Galveston. He wants to go to Texas to keep them away from New York. He realises that the overcrowdiness in New York would lead to antisemitism. So also to get them very much like Baron de Hirsch, let’s get them into more profitable kinds of employment. So he plays a central role. This is fascinating. During the Japanese, the Russian Japanese War, he hates the Russians and he secures a $200 million loan for the Japanese. It’s because he is so deeply angered by Czarist antisemitism. He refuses to participate in any Russian loans and also uses his influence to prevent other firms from doing so. Later on, when the communists nationalised everything, his firm weren’t touched, not with the Rothschilds, who also refused to get involved in Russia. He was a large scale contributor to relief of the pogroms.

But as I said, he’s strongly anti-Zionist. So however, what happens to both Schiff and to Zangwill is, they have a slight change of heart with the Belfour Declaration. When the Belfour Declaration is finally issued, this is what Zangwill says. “Zionist demands are not based on immediate Jewish autonomy. Zionist demands not based on immediate Jewish autonomy, were dis dishonest and self-defeating. Such a national home would nearly be a crown colony with a predominantly Arab population neither Jewish nor national, nor a home.” So he does, because that was when Weitzman was playing with all sorts of names. But he does come back to the fold of helping the Zionists. Jacob Schiff also supports the Balfour declaration because what does a Jewish homeland mean? So going back to, I wanted to introduce you to some of these characters who were so, they were all grappling around with Jewish identity. And what I find absolutely fascinating, look, Schiff died in 1920. Zangwill died in 1926. So we’re dealing with a hundred years ago. As I said to you right at the beginning, the dilemmas they face are still the dilemmas we are facing in England. And I have a hunch that you are facing in America and Canada or South Africa, wherever else you are. Is it pop, how does one live as a Jew and be pop? Whatever we mean by that. Religious, cultural, if it’s a religious definition, in many ways it’s easier. And how does one live in the modern world as well?

So, but let’s finally continue with Zangwill, as I said, can we go on to the next slide please, Harry? Thank you. Yeah, there you see/ This is the Galveston movement. This is to get these young Russian Jews out to Texas. Over 10,000 of them go. And it’s the biggest success of the Jewish Colonisation Association in Texas. Can we go on please? Now he was also a feminist, so was his wife. And he was involved in the men’s league for women’s suffrage. He felt very strongly that women should participate fully in every aspect of life. His wife was a writer, very, very clever woman. And she was really involved in all of this. So he joined that organisation. And here, can we go to the next slide? And this was a very, very close friend of his Eleanor Marx. “The Melting-Pot,” by the way, was made into a film in 1915. But he also wrote plays and Eleanor Marx, in her spare time was an actress and she was a close friend of Israel Zangwill. They worked together because remember he’s also a socialist. And the next slide please. That is the Jewish League of Women’s suffrage.

The Jews had to have their own separate movement. And let’s have a look at the final slide. What a tribute there you see the cover of “Time Magazine” and there you see Israel Zangwill, so I’m going to stop there. But what I intend to do next time I see you on Tuesday, I’m going to go on with the Kilburn Wanderers and I’m going to talk about some of the other incredible characters like Lucien Wolf, sorry, like Solomon J. Solomon, Asher Myers, Joseph Jacobs, Herbert Bentwick, and of Joseph Jacobs of course is going to go to America. So is Solomon Schechter. Solomon Schechter most famous for the Geniza. So there’s a lot to talk about. This bunch of Jewish intellectuals living in the same area that I’m living in today, who tried to raise the level of Anglo Jewry very much in a different way from the wealthy. So all these ways of trying to deal. So let’s see what you think of it and see what kind of questions we’ve got.

Q&A and Comments:

Jews fees.

Q: “Are his books still in print?”

A: Yes, you can get them.

Oh. Alright. I am going to. Ooh boo, okay, I’m going to try very hard, Brian. It was, David, it was actually the delegation from Kishinev itself. That’s what got everyone riled. Weitzman was totally against it. You see, they were rooted in the Pale of Settlement. You see people like Lucien Wolf, he was always anti-Zionist. They were terrified of a ghetto in the Middle East.

Q: “Should we call the protocols a work of fiction?”

A: Yes, Myrna, I think we can go with that.

Yes, Faynor and Raphael are saying, “There’s still streets in Galveston named after the local Jewish dignitaries and the La Rosenberg Library. The role of Theodore Motzkin, if I can get round to it. Oh, thank you. She’s just, Anelle Hella Mari. Yeah. Haven’t heard from you for a while.

"Just pulled 'Children Of The Ghetto’ and ‘Dreamers Of The ghetto’ off the bookshelf. Very inspired.” They are wonderful. Because I’m very interested in non-Jewish Jews, “Dreamers Of The Ghetto” I often read, it’s very beautiful.

Oh, this is from Selena. “I grew up in Manchester, followed by 10 years living in London and never heard these details before. Not a lot of people do know about the Kilburn Wanderers. It’s actually, I think, quite upsetting. I’m going to talk. My daughter luckily runs Jewish Book Week and I’m going to talk to her about it, see if we can come up with something, I think they should be given back their place. But I don’t know if any of you want to go into debate with me, because I do think, I do think that many of the dilemmas we talk about today are there.

And Abigail said she’s just ordered the Zangwill books from Thrift Books.

Q: Do any of you have anything to say about the various dilemmas that face Anglo Jews, American Jews? Is it possible to be a Jew in the modern world? Is integration possible?

A: The children of the Enlightenment certainly believe that. And I was one of them, but I’m really beginning to question it now. Anyone wants to rise to that? No, nobody wants to rise to it?

Q: "Is it possible that Jews had their own suffragette organisation for cause they were screwed?”

A: No Gene, not in this case. I know that sometimes they do, but not in this case. I think also a lot of them were Yiddish speaking. It’s the East end, remember? And I, look, it’s complicated, isn’t it? When you look at the march pass by the senator, the Jews march on their own. I’ve often wondered about that. They fought in the First World War. Maybe it’s to prove that Jews were part of that.

Carla’s just bought “Children Of The Ghetto.” It is a wonderful, wonderful book. As I said, there was a silent film made in 1915, but I can’t find a copy of it. I dunno if any of you can. Wonderful if we.

Oh, this is from Selena. It’s possible to be a Jew in the modern world. I think your Jewish upbringing is strong and Torah knowledge Sound, yeah. What you’re saying is you can only do it if you walk the tightrope that Moses Mendelssohn’s tightrope be a Jew at home and a man in society. Speaking honestly, I had a far better British English education than I did a Jewish education. But that was my generation. I had to make up for it later. And when I went to university, there was no way you could start study Jewish history. Martin Gilbert was the pioneer of that in this country.

Q: “Can you tell us why the Jewish population is so small when they had such an influence in the Jewish world?”

A: Well, I don’t know that they did have such an influence in the Jewish world. What happened to most of the Kilburn Wanderers is they went to America. The problem with Anglo Jewry is, oh God, I think one of the problems is they tried so hard to be English gentlemen. And the majority of those, the wealthy, their children intermarried into the aristocracy. Today we have a huge responsibility because the great diaspora communities are over. Come on, if you think about what happened in the Shoah, the largest community in Europe was of course Poland. And it’s over. So France is the largest community in Europe, but the majority of French Jews are Jews from Algeria and Morocco. The majority of the indigenous French population of the majority of the Ashkenazi Jewish population, they’re very much the minority now in France, Anglo Jewry. But Anglo Jewry still can’t make up its mind if it’s in British or Jewish. It’s very complex.

This is from Shelley, “Not easier to be religious if you think there’s a lot of good in outside culture. Feel like I’m falling into the Grand Canyon.” But Shelly, think about what I first read with Zangwill. Why cannot we hold both in our heads? Is there really a contradiction?

You know, Heine, that’s why I suggest you read “Dreamers Of The Ghetto.” Heine talks about this. He said, “I now know that the,” let me get this right. “I now know that the Greeks were powerful, that the Greeks were beautiful, but the Jews were powerful men.” There is a clash between Hellenism and Judaism. Can it be reconciled? What is wrong with the beauty Jews appreciating the beauty of literature, the beauty of music? If you think of the golden age in Spain, which by the way, Israel Zangwill, I haven’t really spent enough time talking about his knowledge of Jewish history. He studied, they did, certainly did it in the golden Age of Spain. There have been periods where Jews are very adept at the outside world, but also very great Jewish scholars. Solomon Schechter did it. It takes an incredible amount of effort, I agree with you. And also it’s easy for the practitioner to be a cultural Jew.

“Not easy with white supremacists.” Can you go further on that, Sandra, if you don’t mind. “Not easy with white supremacists.” Can you go further? I’m not quite sure exactly what you mean, so I don’t want to comment.

Marcia, “My sister is a conservative rabbi, one of America’s first on a major pulpit, hers in Washington, I’m a secular cultural Jew. I could write my own, okay in the tension. I could write.” I love that, Marcia. “I do my best myself. I don’t identify with any stream, other stream than Orthodox. But then I’m from a very traditional Sephardi family. Torah is definitely seeped in my family history. Maiden name, Rodriguez Perrera.” Wow. Yeah.

Q: “How do you feel about organisations who solicit money to combat antisemitism? Is that a pipe dream?”

A: Look, I think we all have to fight in our own way. Is it possible to fight antisemitism is my question. Many of my close friends do, and I would never in any way can counsel anyone to stop supporting very, very good organisations. Do I personally, look, one thing I do know as a student of history and also as the close friend of Robert Wistrich, maybe he coloured me a little too much. But what I do believe when there’s an economic, social, and political upswing, antisemitism will alleviate. Today, of course, the biggest problem we face is the image of Israel. To quote the great Jonathan Sacks, “First they hate our religion, then our race, then our nation.” And I’m not making any political comments about Israel, by the way. I’m not talking about that. I’m just talking about the fact that Israel gets more opprobrium, I believe, than any other country in the world. And that to me is antisemitism. I’m going to stand by that. And that doesn’t mean I’m supporting the Israeli government. I’m not making any political comments.

Q: “Were many Jews in the Menshevik Revolution? Were Russian Jews favouring the Japanese in ‘05?”

A: Yes. The majority of the Mensheviks were Jews, by the way. When they met again in this area, I think, when Lenin convened, Lenin and Trotsky convened a meeting in, that’s when they made the division between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. 90% of the Mensheviks were Jewish. There were only 44 people by the way. And for 50% of the Bolsheviks were Jewish. I don’t know how the Russian Jews stood over Japan. There’s a very interesting side issue on this.

Oh and by the way, Jacob Schiff was awarded the highest medal that Japan can give. In the war, because of course the Japanese conquered Shanghai. The Germans wanted them to deport the Jews. They didn’t, was something called the Fuji Plan, which is absolutely fascinating. The Fuji is a delicate Japanese puffer fish. But if you eat it in the wrong place, it poisons you. That’s how they regarded the Jews.

“South African Jews,” this from Monty, “who grew up in small county towns, who were fluent in the Afrikaans language, were called Boer Judah.” Have I got that right, Monty?

Oh, this is from Michael. “I have a share certificate in the Jewish colonial trust issued in 1991.” Wonderful.

Q: This is from Selena. “Today’s Jewish world is as it was predicted to be. Most Jewish people live in Israel and many diaspora communities are finding it more expensive than ever to survive. Except huge centres like UK, London, Manchester, USA, Lakewood, New York, Baltimore, Florida. Are we going back to our lovely big ghettos?

A: I don’t know Selena, but don’t forget Israel has only just overtaken America. And also it’s very difficult with the Jews to predict, look, look how long our history is. However dark it gets, I really do believe there is a Jewish destiny, and I’m not saying that as a particularly religious person, but I do believe in Jewish destiny.

Rose. Rose says, "I think one can reconcile religion and secular life as long as one is not fanatical.” Yes, I think so.

This is Michael. “Me thinks that British Judeans think that they’re Brits, but the Brits absolutely see them as kites.” Oh Michael, I love your humour. “White supremacists in America.” Okay, that is very, very problematic, isn’t it? Unfortunately, we are seeing polarisation of politics as well, aren’t we? But that always happens when there’s political, economic and social chaos. Study history. There’s a wonderful quote of, I dunno who said it, but somebody sent me the key ring,

“The tragedy.” You know that line, those of us who learn the less, who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. The second line should be those of us who know the lessons of history are doomed to stand by and watch them be repeated. “White supremacy has upped its anti, everyone activism. Jews in the USA face unprecedented, open anti-Semitism.”

Selena, the problem with anti-Semitism, it’s coming from the white supremacists and the fascist, right? But it’s also coming from the extreme left as well. That’s the problem. Speaking very personally, as someone who did believe in the enlightenment, and I haven’t quite let it go. I am a liberal. Yeah, I still think I’m a liberal and I hate extremism in any form. I hate ideology, which says everything I think must fit into a pattern. That’s the danger. Because when we’re in trouble and the world is in trouble, people look for easy solutions. Along comes a man who says, “Oh, you are all the greatest.” Follow him. That hasn’t changed. That’s what we, and I think Wendy said this many, many times. Sometimes we have to leave history and go to the field of psychology. What makes us want to follow the herd? But going back to what I’ve been talking about today, I find this area particularly interesting because it is all about the dilemmas that face Jews. What are the dilemmas that face us today? Have they changed much? How do we fit into society? I think if you live in Israel, despite all the other problems you face, in the end, you’re pretty sure what your identity is. But if you live in the diaspora, you do have all these issues.

This is Abigail, “Yes, the Renaissance in the Spanish golden age are two periods when there was an incredible intermingling of Jewish knowledge and world knowledge.’ Yes, it has happened, hasn’t it Abigail? There have been periods. Selena says it seems that God is showing us nowhere outside Israel is totally safe for us and our spiritual and physical needs as practising Jews. the world we live in, unfortunately Selena, is pretty unsafe, isn’t it? Selena does not agree.

"But I don’t agree, but neither, but I am a proud Jew in the modern world.”

This is Marion, “I grew up in a strongly Jewish family, not necessarily religious, in Leeds, and always had a Jewish identity as I grew up in a non-Jewish neighbourhood and in secular life,” yeah. Selena saying Israel standard living has been increasing steadily. “Would it be possible to set up conversations amongst us online?” Yes, it will be. That’s one of the facilities, a chat room. That’s one of the facilities that the team are looking at. Look, I can’t even pronounce languages. They’re keeping me out of it. I do the content, they keep me out of it, but I know I was speaking to some of my colleagues and there will be a chat room definitely.

Oh, Jonathan’s got a copy of “The Fugu Plan.” Incredible.

“This link is an incredible expose on the backdrop to the psychology of antisemitism.” Thank you, Abigail. You can all see that. I hope. Not Fuji, but Fugu. Thank you, Fugu.

“Not returning to ghettos. Living openly and proudly as Jews, as an example to the world how to run a safe society for everyone.” Yes. That’s a lovely dream, Selena. Lovely dream.

Ted says, “It’s very possible to be comfortable with one’s Judaism in Canada. My antisemitism permit persists. We are not affected on a day-to-day basis. Well, one of the issues that I personally find very, I’m very angry about even the BBC a few months ago talked about boys wearing yamakas not being very safe at London University. Now that I find completely offensive, and the fact that it was reported on the BBC, so.

Marian says, "The problem is that if parents today don’t feel that being Jewish is important, their children want to not absorb it.” But having you said that Marian, 70% of Anglo Jews who identify, their children are going to Jewish schools. Now, that’s not necessarily because they have become religious. It’s also got a lot to do with economics. As a Catholic friend of mine said very cynically, when she had to decide on schools for her own children, she said, “On your knees, save the fees.”

“The day is close,” Selena, “when Israel will stand as a model to the world and nations will no longer attack it. But we recognise God and admire and respect us.” That’s a lovely, lovely sentiment.

This is from Stuart. “In the US a lot depends on geography. I grew up in New York City and now live in Montgomery County, Maryland outside Washington. Being Jewish is easy, in both places is easy. But anti-Semitic acts mostly by school aged children have increased.”

This is Selena. “I understand the roots of antisemitism from a secular perspective, from a Torah perspective, antisemitism stirs its ugliness when we Jews are not doing our job of being a light unto the nations.” Oh my dear Selena, That is such a terrible burden to put on people, isn’t it? To be the light unto the nations. You know what Hitler once said, “I can never forgive the Jews for inventing moral conscience,” but of course they didn’t. But on the other hand, I think that’s got a lot to do with antisemitism.

Oh, this is from Selena. “It’s not my dream, it’s a prediction interpreted from Torah by rabbis for Messianic era and return of the third temple.” Beautiful Jew, beautiful.

Book on the Fugu, can somebody please, could somebody please write, “Whoever,” I’m sorry, I haven’t got the name. “Whoever talked about the Fugu book, could somebody write it out?” Shelly says, “Very few American Jews send their kids to Jewish schools.”

Selena, “Funny on your knees, fewer fees.” This is from, Selena’s recommending a “Defence Of Hashem In Matters Of The Holocaust,” Rabbi Miller.“ Okay, thank you all. Thank you very much. I will see it.

Don’t forget that this evening Brian Cheyette is talking about "The Melting-Pot.”

So hopefully you will see it and I wish you all a very goodnight, God bless.