Herbert Samuel Arrives in Palestine

The Jewish experience between 1914 and 1948 begins and ends with war. In 1914, WWI began, a watershed in both European and Jewish history, as it marked the end of four great empires- the Tsarist, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German Reich. Together, these empires were home to the majority of world Jewry.

In 1916, the physically and ideologically starved Russian populace overthrew the Tsarist government. The successor Provisional Government eliminated legal Jewish discrimination. Before this new freedom could register, however, a new revolution, promulgated by the Bolsheviks, ensued. WWI ended in 1918, but Russian civil war continued through the early 1920s when the Bolsheviks emerged victorious and created The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The USSR, organized according to Marxist/Leninist ideology, did not tolerate religion. Government attempts to “convert” the Jews to communism characterized the interwar period.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire had profound consequences for the Jews, as the Ottomans controlled Palestine, the territory that the World Zionist Organization (WZO, founded 1897) preferred for a Jewish state. During the war, when it became clear that the Ottomans would side with Germany against Great Britain and France, the Allied powers strategized about the fate of the strategically and economically important Middle East. The British were particularly busy strategists, making agreements with three parties regarding the fate of Palestine- the French, the Jews, and the Arabs.

In 1917, after protracted negotiations between the British government and the WZO, Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, which stated British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This was a tremendous victory for Zionism. At the same time, however, the British offered similar reassurances to the Arabs regarding their rights to Palestine. After the war, as the Allies emerged victorious, the United Nations gave Great Britain the mandate to administer Palestine. Under British rule from 1918-1948, Palestine was characterized by increasingly tense relationships among the British, Jews, and Arabs, all of whom felt that they had the right to the same land.

Excerpted from The Story- 1914-1948, MyJewishLearning.com.

Articles

1. The Lights that Failed- European International History 1919-1933, Zara S. Steiner p.361-362.
2. Lawrence of Arabia as Archaeologist, Stephen E. Tabachnick, BAR 23-05, Sep-Oct 1997.
3. Commentary- Iraq- Repeating A Painful History, Stanley Reed, Business Week, November 17, 2003.
4. Mufti over the Middle East, M.P. Waters, H. Barber, London. Click here for more on The Mufti of Jerusalem and Yasser Arafat.
5. Edmund de Rothschild, Hadassah Levy, COJS.
6. Arabs- The Anglo-French Declaration and the Declaration to the Seven, The Emergence of the Jewish Problem 1878-1939,James Parker, Oxford University Press, 1946, p.20.
7. The Formulation of the Minority Treaties, The Emergence of the Jewish Problem 1878-1939, James Parker, Oxford University Press, 1946.
8. Excerpt from A Broken Trust- Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians, 1920-1925, Sahar Huneidi, Library of Modern Middle East Studies 15, I.B. Tauris, 2001.

Images

1. Chaim Weizmann
2. Rachel Bluwstein
3. Versailles Peace Treaty, Title Page
4. Chaim Weizmann and Emir Feisal, 1918
5. R.E. Officers at the Official Opening of the Allenby Bridge, 1918
6. Herbert Samuel Arrives in Palestine, 1920.
7. Herbert Samuel Walking into Jaffa, 1920
8. Dreyfus Soup Kitchen, Feb. 1921
9. Straus Soup Kitchen, Feb. 1921
10. Soup Kitchen in Safed, 1921
11. Albert Einstein and Leaders of the World Zionist Organization, 1921
12. Government House Reception, Mar. 28, 1921

Maps

1. Major Pogrom Centers during the Russian Civil War, 1918-1921.
2. Jewish National Home Determined by San Remo Conference, 1920.
3. The Middle East – San Remo Agreement – 1920
4. British Mandate in Palestine, 1920

Videos

1. Ya’acov Ben Dov- Father of the Hebrew Film, Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive
2. The British Mandate in Palestine

Websites

1. Allenby’s account of the capture of Jerusalem
2. Allenby’s Proclamation
3. First World War.com
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Library of Congress- Churchill and the Great Republic
6. T.E. Lawrence Studies
7. Winston Churchill Falls from Political Power in 1922
8. The World War I Document Archive