Sejarah Zionisme, 1600-1918/Volume 2/Bab 49c

CHAPTER XLIXC.

The Year 1906—The Pogroms—Emigration—Conder and his Activities—An Emigration Conference—The Eighth Congress—The Question of the Headquarters.

The year 1906 was one of the ans terribles in the annals of Jewish history. It was a year of bloodshed and terror. Not even the dark ages extracted so heavy a toll of Jewish blood: something like 1400 pogroms took place all over the Ghetto. In many districts the Jewish population were completely exterminated. The number of persons directly affected, that is to say of those whose houses, shops, or factories were the objects of attack and pillage, reached a total of some 200,000 to 250,000. To this number must be added that of the clerks, workmen, etc., indirectly affected by the destruction of factories and shops, which could not be ascertained. The casualty list was estimated at approximately 20,000 murdered and 100,000 injured. Public opinion was stirred up. Why had those Jews suffered; what sins had they committed? Their loyalty and steadfastness to Judaism, instead of winning respect and admiration for their faithfulness, had called down upon them a treatment so immeasurably atrocious that it outdistanced the conventional words of sorrow and suffering and tempted many thinking men to ask whether the vaunted tolerance of the twentieth century was anything but an extravagant dream. If other nations suffer, they afterwards get freedom and indemnity. If in 1860 the Christians in Syria had suffered, their suffering afterwards brought them an autonomy. But what of the Jews? Every day it becomes clearer that it is impossible to allow the Jews to remain a prey to revolution and counter-revolution, between which they are crushed just as the corn is ground between the upper and nether millstones. “Emigration, then.” But whither? The mass of Jewish emigrants, in spite of all Emigration Committees (which were established in America), resists dispersion; it holds together like a swarm of bees. In New York and elsewhere gigantic Jewish cities have sprung up that have become a menace to the safety of the present inhabitants and therefore to the possibility of further Jewish immigration. Attempts made to substitute agricultural colonies at an enormous expense by philanthropists have met with failure everywhere except in Palestine, where it seems that at last an effective form of organization has been discovered. There alone the immigrant Jew finds himself at ease in language and customs, and to that land he brings the indescribable imperishable feeling of home that elsewhere comes to him but slowly and gradually.

Palestine is not far from Russia and Roumania, and is unquestionably so adapted for cultivation that as soon as the soil has been prepared the main stream of present emigration can be directed thither. And, further, it is the connecting link between the three great human divisions of the earth, while its commercial future promises to be of the brightest. It is therefore natural that the Jews, longing to possess the land of their fathers, should be encouraged to immigrate both on political and industrial grounds.

This great and powerful problem has roused English public opinion, but the Zionist propaganda has made considerable progress since 1900. One of the foremost English authorities who supported a Zionist solution of the Jewish problem was Colonel Claude Reignier Conder, to whom we have referred several times in this book. Some space must be devoted to a brief reference to the activities of this wonderful man in connection with Palestine.

Colonel Conder’s name will always be associated with the exploration of Palestine and with the history of Christian sympathy in this country for the colonization of Palestine by the Jewish people. No other person has ever done as much as he for the correct interpretation of the Bible with reference to Palestine. He was born on December 29, 1848, and was trained for the Royal Engineers. He was associated, almost from its creation, with the Palestine Exploration Fund, which was founded in 1865. He was only twenty-six when, as a Lieutenant, he went out to join in the survey of Western Palestine. He returned to England in September, 1875, having surveyed 4700 square miles. He brought with him a mass of notes, special surveys, observations and drawings, which formed the bulk of the material for a work which may be said to have become historical: Tent Work in Palestine. It is a book which even now well repays perusal, if only for the light it throws upon the geography and topography of Palestine, and the many incidents and experiences it records. The remaining 1300 square miles of the survey were finished by Lieutenant (later Lord) Kitchener in 1877. The scientific results of the work occupied some twenty-six memoirs, one to every sheet of the map. The whole of Western Palestine was mapped out on a scale which showed every ruin and waterway, every road, forest and hillock. More than a hundred and fifty biblical sites were ascertained and from these the boundaries of the tribes were worked out and the routes taken by the invading armies traced. The other books and memoirs on Palestine which Conder published form a library in themselves. In addition to the one already mentioned, there are Heth and Moab and Memoirs of the Survey of Western Palestine in 1883. This was followed in 1890 by Memoirs of the Survey of Eastern Palestine, The Bible in the East in 1896, The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1897, The Hittites and their Language in 1898. Besides these must be mentioned his Handbook to the Bible (1879), Primer of Bible Geography (1884), and Palestine (1891), which contained in one small volume a handy summary of all that was known of the geography of the country up to date. His last work, published only a year before he died, was on the City of Jerusalem. Special notice is also due to his Judas Maccabeus and The Jewish Tragedy, in which he deals with Jewish history from a national point of view.

Conder pointed out that Zionists are the natural leaders to whom the destitute and oppressed Jews turn for counsel and guidance, that “emigration has not settled the eternal question,” and that “a nation without a country must be content with toleration as all that it can expect.” He, too, sees the only solution in Palestine, and declares that Englishmen should be “only too glad to see Palestine increasing in civilization and prosperity as an outpost in the neighbourhood of Egypt.” (See Appendix LXXXV.)

The Zionist Organization called, in 1906, mainly under the pressure of the pogroms, a conference of representatives of Jewish organizations at Brussels, to discuss the question of emigration, particularly to the East. A number of organizations—including the Anglo-Jewish Association—sent their delegates; others, probably in consequence of their anti-Zionist tendencies, declined. Resolutions in favour of investigating the condition of the emigration to the East were accepted, and a committee was elected; but nothing practical resulted from these efforts, except a little “rapprochement” between Zionism and the “Hilfsverein” which, however, in consequence of deep differences of principle, was only superficial and of a short duration.

The work of the Zionist Organization, without losing sight of the political aspect, devoted itself more and more to the work in Palestine. The Eighth Zionist Congress at the Hague, August, 1907, with Wolffsohn and Nordau as Presidents, was attended by a considerably increased number of delegates, and among them a number of English Zionist leaders. The report says about Zionism in England: “In England the devoted zeal of the Zionists has removed the difficulties which formerly existed. The Federation worked systematically and well, and the Movement has received a considerable impetus. The old and trusted workers co-operate with the younger spirits.”

The Ninth Zionist Congress at Hamburg, December, 1909, with Wolffsohn and Nordau again as Presidents, was well attended (about four hundred members—and for the first time in the history of the movement, delegates were in attendance from Turkey). The impression driven home with irresistible force was the sustained and unflagging interest of all present in the movement. Among the English delegates were: Dr. Gaster, Dr. Samuel Daiches, Mr. Joseph Cowen, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Mr. L. J. Greenberg, Mr. Herbert Bentwich, Mr. Norman Bentwich, Dr. Fuchs, the Rev. J. K. Goldbloom, and Mr. Leon Simon.

The Congress found itself confronted with the problem of organization. Several delegates were of the opinion that the task of leadership was too difficult for a Small Actions Committee, consisting of three persons, and that the headquarters should be removed to a larger centre. This view was not influenced by any personal sympathies or antipathies: it was dictated by considerations of an important character. Others were opposed to any change. This was an internal fight which had to be fought out, as in any other democratic movement, with the weapons of reason and conviction, and it was fought out. This Congress could not radically solve the question and it was left to the next one to bring the solution.

Zionism, however, remained as strong as ever. The disputes, far from being symptoms of weakness, were symptoms of growing interest, devotion and enthusiasm for the common cause.