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I am Daniel Deronda

By Judith Rice

Theodor Herzl, Nov. 25, 1895 Cardiff, Great Britain ~~~

If you do not want to be forgotten when you die, Benjamin Franklin said:

"Write something worth reading about or do something worth writing about."

Saying on the homeroom wall of Mr. Pugliesi, Blair High School

Daniel Deronda is both the title and the fictional protagonist of the enormously popular late Victorian novel written by George Eliot. It was published in 1876.

Women writers in Victorian England commonly assumed male pseudonyms for marketing reasons. Victorian chauvinism reluctantly acknowledged women with the ability, intelligence and art to write popular fiction with deep social and societal content. George Eliot's real name was Mary Anne Evans.

The great Zionist early 20^th century historian Nahum Sokolow said, "Daniel Deronda paved the way for Zionism". The novel was a "literary preparation for the Balfour Declaration." It was more than a literary preparation for the Balfour Declaration it was a masterpiece affirming Jewish national identity that stirred the hearts of millions of Christians and Jews alike. The novel gave words, gave legitimacy, gave spirit to the Jewish soul seeking a path, a reason to return to their ancestral homes, to adopt what later became known as Zionism.

Evans was born, November 22, 1819, in England; South Farm, Warwickshire. She was educated at boarding schools until the death of her mother when she was 16. Her father needed her to return and manage their house. Her home life was filled with a spiritual, evangelical intensity. She knew and the read the Old and New Testaments. Biblical Jewish history was as much a part of her education as was English history.

Mary Anne moved to London in 1850. She was Introduced to new ranges of ideas and rebelled against the tight Puritanical strictures of Evangelical life. She felt that the form of Christian worship had deviated and demeaned the message of Jesus. It was in London that she was introduced to Charles Christian Hennell's book, Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity. Hennell wrote "the Jews held more rational notions concerning the Deity than any other ancient people. " He continued, reflecting a powerful intellectual religious ideal in Britain, "the restoration of Israel will come with the expiation of sin…..Jacob shall be restored as a nation; a fresh race of Jews shall spring up, and become a firm and flourishing people."

Evan's intellect demanded new and reaching horizons of inquiry that her sex generally was prohibited from reaching. Early in 1848 she began a lifelong translation of and interpretation of the works of Baruch Spinoza, the excommunicated controversial Dutch giant of Jewish philosophic thought. Her work was never accepted for publication.

A lonely spinster by Victorian standards, she met George Henry Lewes in 1851. They fell deeply, devotedly in love. Lewes, a married man, was unable to obtain a divorce from his wife. Lewes was an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre . They lived together, as man and wife, each reinforcing, encouraging the other's careers and efforts, supporting each other in frequent issues of ill health until his death in 1878. Lewes never achieved the contemporary recognition or historic fame that George Eliot did.

George Lewes encouraged Mary Anne's writing of fiction. Her first effort, The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton was serialized in 1858 in Blackwood's Magazine. She was an instant success. For the next twenty four years, until her death in 1880, she wrote prolifically; Adam Bede 1859, The Lifted Veil, 1859, the Mill on the Floss in 1860, Silas Marner, 1861 and on. Daniel Deronda was to be her last work.

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As a young man of 20, Henry Goldsmid took a position with the British East India Company in 1832. He settled in Bombay where he met and married his wife Jesse Sara. Both Henry and Jesse were Christian converts. They were the descendents of influential Jewish families with long important ties to Britain. Henry and Jesse were married in 1845. A year later their son, Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid was born, October 6, 1845, at Puna, Bombay. He was baptized in the Church of England. Henry rose quickly in the India Service becoming a highly respected colonial administrator and financial manger. Over-working, steadily, intensely, Henry died, 1855. The Goldsmid family returned to England.

Ninety two years earlier (1763), Aaron Goldsmid was the first Goldsmid to settle in England. He had two sons, Benjamin and Abraham. The brothers became extremely successful businessmen prospering as bill brokers in the developing London money markets. Both brothers were well respected for their public and private generosity. Benjamin Goldsmid, in particular, was deeply involved in the founding of the Royal Naval Asylum.

They lost their fortunes when the markets collapsed during the Napoleonic wars. Deeply depressed, they committed suicide within two years of each other.

The Goldsmid family is a socially and marital cohesive family. They have a long and proud, social, economic, political and military history interwoven deeply with the Jewish life of 19^th century Great Britain. A Goldsmid reputedly served as a General during the Napoleonic war. Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid (1808-1878) became the first Jewish barrister and later represented the Reading constituency in Parliament. He energetically worked for the passage of the Jewish Disabilities Act and was a founder of the Great Jews Free School. He was a major contributor to Jewish charities and the University College. His nephew Sir Julian Goldsmid assumed his baronetcy eventually becoming a privy councilor. Dying without a male heir, Sir Julian was succeeded by Osman Elim d'Avigdor who took the name Goldsmid.¹

Sir Frederick John Goldsmid (1818-1908) graduated King's College London and entered the Madras Army in 1839. He served in the China War of 1840-41. He commanded Turkish troops in the Crimea, 1855-56. After a long career, he retired a Major-General in 1875. Sir Frederick Goldsmid is best remembered for his services in exploration, surveying and peacemaking. He played a significant role in negotiating the borders of Persia from Baluchistan and Afghanistan. He was awarded the K.C.S.I. (Knight Commander of The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India), in 1871.

Sir Frederick John Goldsmid's sister married Henry Edward Goldsmid, the father of Albert Goldsmid.

Albert Goldsmid graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1866. He was four months short of his 20^th birthday when he was commissioned an officer of the 104^th Foot (Infantry). 1871 he became the adjutant of the battalion and Captain in 1878. He rose to major five years later in 1883, lieutenant-colonel in 1888 and colonel April 21, 1894 assuming command of the Welsh regimental district at Cardiff. He served as assistant adjutant-general during the South African Boer war.

A young lieutenant in the India Service, Goldsmid learned of his Jewish heritage. Feeling that he had been improperly denied his identity and the faith of his fathers, he converted to Judaism. His parents were dismayed. He was 24 years old. Twelve years later, in 1882, he was asked about his conversion with the canard of "dual loyalty". Goldsmid responded through the London Jewish Chronicle – "Britain is my father and Israel is my mother." His noted in later life, his decision to convert never impacted his career with the British army.

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George Eliot's Daniel Deronda appeared in serialized form in 1876. It was an instant, major success. It was an extraordinary story of life, love, the importance of identity and purpose. Daniel Deronda is actually two stories united by the title of the character.

The novel begins in August 1865 when Daniel Deronda encounters Gwendolen Harleth in Leubronn, Germany. Deronda raised as an English gentleman, the alleged illegitimate son of Sir Hugo Mallinger, was traveling in Europe trying to find some purpose to his life. Gwendolen and Daniel lock eyes. He is instantly attracted to, but wary of, the beautiful, stubborn and selfish Gwendolen. In a show of arrogance and disregard she loses heavily at roulette, while eyeing Deronda.

The next day, Gwendolen receives a letter from her mother telling her that the family is financially ruined. She is asked to return home. Realizing that she has irresponsibly lost all of her money, Gwendolen pawns a necklace to continue gambling and regain her losses.

In a fateful moment however, her necklace is returned to her by a porter. Daniel saw her pawn the necklace and redeemed it for her. She returns home, Deronda continues on with his travels. The potential relationship is pregnant with possibilities but both characters move for the time being in separate directions.

Gwendolen returns home and relocates to more modest living arrangement in the country with her family. She meets and reluctantly agrees to marry Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt, the nephew and legal heir of Sir Hugo Mallinger. She agrees to marry Grandcourt to provide for her family but also because of his great wealth and the material comforts that that would bring her. She marries him in spite of the fact she learned Grandcourt has a mistress, Lydia Glasher and several children by her. Gwendolen enters into the loveless marriage that is mutually manipulative and socially correct.

Daniel returns home and learns of Gwendolen's marriage to Grandcourt.

Out boating one day, he spots a woman attempting to drown herself. He immediately rescues her. Her name is Mirah Lapidoth. She is a Jewess. Despondent, Mirah had run away from her father, whom she feared would force her into an arranged marriage. Her father had kidnapped her after separating from her mother. He hoped to capitalize on Mirah as a singer. Mirah had gone to London hoping to find her mother and brother. Unable to locate them, she despondedly made her decision to kill herself.

Deronda is moved by the tale and resolves to help Mirah find her mother and brother. He travels to London and is introduced to a world he only vaguely heard of – the Jewish immigrant world of London's East End.

Searching through a mysterious, confusing and at times repulsive world of Jewish life and poverty he meets a young consumptive Jewish man. His name is Mordecai. Mordecai is a person of faith, not religious faith but of a passionate faith in a future, a destiny linked to the proud past of the Jewish people. It is his vision that the Jewish people will once again return to Palestine to restore their "Promised Land". They return to restore a home for the Jewish people. He is considered delusional, even a bit insane, by the Jewish family that looks after him.

Mordecai looks after Ezra Cohen's book store when he is away. Deronda wanders in to the store to get off the street with a quickly grabbed book to purchase. He is more interested in meeting the proprietor, Ezra Cohen. Ezra Cohen was Mirah's brother's name. Mordechai sat behind the counter.

"You are a man of learning--you are interested in Jewish history?" This was said in a deepened tone of eager inquiry.

"I am certainly interested in Jewish history," said Deronda, quietly, curiosity overcoming his dislike to the sort of inspection as well as questioning he was under.

But immediately the strange Jew rose from his sitting posture, and Deronda felt a thin hand pressing his arm tightly, while a hoarse, excited voice, not much above a loud whisper, said--

"You are perhaps of our race?"

Deronda colored deeply, not liking the grasp, and then answered with a slight shake of the head, "No." The grasp was relaxed, the hand withdrawn, the eagerness of the face collapsed into uninterested melancholy, as if some possessing spirit which had leaped into the eyes and gestures had sunk back again to the inmost recesses of the frame; and moving further off as he held out the little book, the stranger said in a tone of distant civility, "I believe Mr. Ram will be satisfied with half-a-crown, sir."

Mordecai sensed something about Deronda that Deronda did not about himself. Daniel did not want to say anything to Mirah later but returned to the shop again, ostensibly, to do more business. He is invited to share in a Sabbath meal by the Cohen family.

To his surprise, Mordecai joins them. "Then he (Ezra) held up his finger as a sign that conversation must be deferred. He, Mordecai and Jacob put on their hats, and Cohen opened a thanksgiving, which was carried on by responses, till Mordecai delivered himself alone at some length, in a solemn chanting tone, with his chin slightly uplifted and his thin hands clasped easily before him. Not only in his accent and tone, but in his freedom from the self-consciousness which has reference to others' approbation, there could hardly have been a stronger contrast to the Jew at the other end of the table. It was an unaccountable conjunction--the presence among these common, prosperous, shop keeping types, of a man who, in an emaciated threadbare condition, imposed a certain awe on Deronda, and an embarrassment at not meeting his expectations.

No sooner had Mordecai finished his devotional strain, than rising, with a slight bend of his head to the stranger, he walked back into his room, and shut the door behind him.

'That seems to be rather a remarkable man," said Deronda, turning to Cohen, who immediately set up his shoulders, put out his tongue slightly, and tapped his own brow. It was clearly to be understood that Mordecai did not come up to the standard of sanity which was set by Mr. Cohen's view of men and things…………

……….Deronda, feeling that it would be hardly delicate to protract his visit beyond the settlement of the business which was its pretext, had to take his leave, with no more decided result than the advance of forty pounds and the pawn-ticket in his breast-pocket, to make a reason for returning when he came up to town after Christmas. He was resolved that he would then endeavor to gain a little more insight into the character and history of Mordecai; from whom also he might gather something decisive about the Cohens…..."

Returning to the bookstore, Deronda is drawn to Mordecai as Mordecai is to him. They agree to meet and talk. Mordecai latches on to Deronda.

"You will be my life: it will be planted afresh; it will grow. You shall take the inheritance; it has been gathering for ages. The generations are crowding on my narrow life as a bridge: what has been and what is to be are meeting there; and the bridge is breaking. But I have found you. You have come in time. You will take the inheritance which the base son refuses because of the tombs which the plow and harrow may not pass over or the gold-seeker disturb: you will take the sacred inheritance of the Jew." Deronda had become as pallid as Mordecai. Quick as an alarm of flood or fire, there spread within him not only a compassionate dread of discouraging this fellowman who urged a prayer as one in the last agony, but also tie opposing dread of fatally feeding an illusion, and being hurried on to a self-committal which might turn into a falsity…………..

'Do you forget what I told you when we first saw each other? Do you remember that I said I was not of your race?'

'It can't be true,' Mordecai whispered immediately, with no sign of shock. The sympathetic hand still upon him had fortified the feeling which was stronger than those words of denial. There was a perceptible pause, Deronda feeling it impossible to answer, conscious indeed that the assertion "It can't be true"………… You are not sure of your own origin.'

It was true. Deronda was not sure of his own origin.

Deronda is increasingly tormented not knowing who he really is and where he came from. "I have never known my mother. I have no knowledge about her. I have never called any man father. But I am convinced that my father is an Englishman.'

Deronda's deep tones had a tremor in them as he uttered this confession; and all the while there was an undercurrent of amazement in him at the strange circumstances under which he uttered it. It seemed as if Mordecai were hardly overrating his own power to determine the action of the friend whom he had mysteriously chosen.

'It will be seen--it will be declared, said Mordecai, triumphantly."

Deronda returns home to speak with Sir Hugo about his actions. He knows what Sir Hugo would say about Mordecai.

"A consumptive Jew, possessed by a fanaticism which obstacles and hastening death intensified, had fixed on Deronda as the antitype of some visionary image, the offspring of wedded hope and despair: despair of his own life, irrepressible hope in the propagation of his fanatical beliefs."

Yet Deronda is drawn back to Mordecai to continue his journey into the strange world of the Jews.

They meet again but have nowhere to meet to talk alone. Mordecai suggests that perhaps Daniel would enjoy joining him at a Philosopher's Club meeting he attends regularly. "They are few--like the cedars of Lebanon--poor men given to thought." Afterwards there may be time to speak privately.

Deronda is welcomed to the group, a mixed group of tradesmen, small merchants, both Jewish and not.

The evening's discussion is open but quickly turns to the meaning of nationality. "Unless nationality is a feeling, what force can it have as an idea?"

"Granted, Mordecai," said Pash, quite good-humoredly. "And as the feeling of nationality is dying, I take the idea to be no better than a ghost, already walking to announce the death."

"A sentiment may seem to be dying and yet revive into strong life," said Deronda. "Nations have revived. "That is a truth," said Mordecai. "Woe to the men who see no place for resistance in this generation! ……………But who shall say, 'The fountain of their life is dried up, they shall forever cease to be a nation?' Who shall say it? Not he who feels the life of his people stirring within his own……………

"I don't deny patriotism" said Gideon, "but we all know you have a particular meaning, Mordecai…. "I'm a rational Jew myself. I stand by my people as a sort of family relations, and I am for keeping up our worship in a rational way. I don't approve of our people getting baptized, because I don't believe in a Jew's conversion to the Gentile part of Christianity. And now we have political equality, there's no excuse for a pretense of that sort. But I am for getting rid of all of our superstitions and exclusiveness. There's no reason now why we shouldn't melt gradually into the populations we live among. That's the order of the day in point of progress. I would as soon my children married Christians as Jews. And I'm for the old maxim, 'A man's country is where he's well off.'"

"That country's not so easy to find, Gideon," said the rapid Pash, with a shrug and grimace.

(Mordecai) "What I say is, let every man keep far away from the brotherhood and inheritance he despises. Thousands on thousands of our race have mixed with the Gentiles as Celt with Saxon, and they may inherit the blessing that belongs to the Gentile. You cannot follow them. You are one of the multitudes over this globe who must walk among the nations and be known as Jews, and with words on their lips which mean, 'I wish I had not been born a Jew, I disown any bond with the long travail of my race, I will outdo the Gentile in mocking at our separateness,' they all the while feel breathing on them the breath of contempt because they are Jews, and they will breathe it back poisonously….Is it not truth I speak, Pash?"

(Gideon) "I am for making our expectations rational."

……………. (Mordecai) "There is a degradation deep down below the memory that has withered into superstition. In the multitudes of the ignorant on three continents who observe our rites and make the confession of the divine Unity, the soul of Judaism is not dead. Revive the organic centre: let the unity of Israel which has made the growth and form of its religion be an outward reality. Looking toward a land and a polity, our dispersed people in all the ends of the earth may share the dignity of a national life which has a voice among the peoples of the East and the West--which will plant the wisdom and skill of our race so that it may be, as of old, a medium of transmission and understanding."

…………………. This was the genial and rational Gideon, who also was not without a sense that he was addressing the guest of the evening. He said--

"You have your own way of looking at things, Mordecai, and as you say, your own way seems to you rational. I know you don't hold with the restoration of Judea by miracle, and so on; but you are as well aware as I am that the subject has been mixed with a heap of nonsense both by Jews and Christians. And as to the connection of our race with Palestine, it has been perverted by superstition till it's as demoralizing as the old poor-law. The raff and scum go there to be maintained like able-bodied paupers, and to be taken special care of by the angel Gabriel when they die. It's no use fighting against facts. We must look where they point; that's what I call rationality. The most learned and liberal men among us who are attached to our religion are for clearing our liturgy of all such notions as a literal fulfillment of the prophecies about restoration, and so on. Prune it of a few useless rites and literal interpretations of that sort, and our religion is the simplest of all religions, and makes no barrier, but a union, between us and the rest of the world."

"No," said Mordecai, "no, Pash, because you have lost the heart of the Jew….I say that the effect of our separateness will not be completed and have its highest transformation unless our race takes on again the character of a nationality. ……….Then our race shall have an organic centre, a heart and brain to watch and guide and execute; the outraged Jew shall have a defense in the court of nations, as the outraged Englishman of America. And the world will gain as Israel gains. For there will be a community in the van of the East which carries the culture and the sympathies of every great nation in its bosom: there will be a land set for a halting-place of enmities, a neutral ground for the East as Belgium is for the West. Difficulties? I know there are difficulties. But let the spirit of sublime achievement move in the great among our people, and the work will begin."

"Ay, we may safely admit that, Mordecai," said Pash. "When there are great men on 'Change, and high-flying professors converted to your doctrine, difficulties will vanish like smoke."

Deronda, inclined by nature to take the side of those on whom the arrows of scorn were falling, could not help replying to Pash's outfling, and said--

"If we look back to the history of efforts which have made great changes, it is astonishing how many of them seemed hopeless to those who looked on in the beginning.

……….."Amen," said Mordecai, to whom Deronda's words were a cordial……….. Let the torch of visible community be lit! Let the reason of Israel disclose itself in a great outward deed, and let there be another great migration, another choosing of Israel to be a nationality whose members may still stretch to the ends of the earth

Mordecai had stretched his arms upward, and his long thin hands quivered in the air for a moment after he had ceased to speak.

……………"I justify the choice as all other choice is justified," said Mordecai. "I cherish nothing for the Jewish nation; I seek nothing for them, but the good which promises good to all the nations. The spirit of our religious life, which is one with our national life, is not hatred of aught but wrong. The Master has said, an offence against man is worse than an offence against God.

……………. "I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice. The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The Messianic time is the time when Israel shall will the planting of the national ensign."

…………………." The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory. Let us contradict the blasphemy, and help to will our own better future and the better future of the world--not renounce our higher gift and say, 'Let us be as if we were not among the populations;' but choose our full heritage, claim the brotherhood of our nation, and carry into it a new brotherhood with the nations of the Gentiles. The vision is there; it will be fulfilled."

"With the last sentence, which was no more than a loud whisper, Mordecai let his chin sink on his breast and his eyelids fall. No one spoke."

The evening ended. Deronda was in deep disturbing thought about Mordecai, about himself about who he was. His quest to help Mirah had not been resolved. He had not located her mother or her brother.

At a later visit with Mordecai an innocent comment suddenly shook Daniel. Mordecai revealed his real name. "Mordecai is really my name--Ezra Mordecai Cohen." Ezra was Mirah's brother's name but there were many Jews named Ezra.

They were talking of their families and how "fate" brought Daniel to the bookshop. Mordecai spoke of his sister Mirah. Daniel is dumbstruck. He knew that Mirah's real name was changed, for stage and anti-Semitic reasons, from Cohen to Lapidoth.

Mordecai was Mirah's brother.

Daniel brought Mirah to Mordecai. The lost brother and sister were reunited.

Deronda's own life was still uncertain, undetermined, undefined until a letter arrived at Sir Hugo's. Daniel was summoned.

"This was the letter which Sir Hugo put into Deronda's hands:--

TO MY SON, DANIEL DERONDA.

My good friend and yours, Sir Hugo Mallinger, will have told you that I wish to see you. My health is shaken, and I desire there should be no time lost before I deliver to you what I have long withheld. Let nothing hinder you from being at the Allegro dell' Italia in Genoa by the fourteenth of this month. Wait for me there. I am uncertain when I shall be able to make the journey from Spezia, where I shall be staying. That will depend on several things. Wait for me-- the Princess Halm-Eberstein. Bring with you the diamond ring that Sir Hugo gave you. I shall like to see it again.--Your unknown mother,

LEONORA HALM-EBERSTEIN. "

Sir Hugo confirmed that he was not Daniel's father. He was to go see him mother in Genoa where all would be revealed to him.

Daniel's life is in a turmoil. Gwendolen Grandcourt's life is also in turmoil. She resolves to leave her husband if her true friend Deronda will but stay with her. Before she can make the change Daniel leaves for Genoa and Grandcourt announces to Gwendolen they will be departing immediately to sail the Mediterranean.

Arriving in Genoa, Daniel waits to be called to his mother's home. He feelings are mixed, confused, anxious, eager and afraid.

"When Deronda presented himself at the door of his mother's apartment in the Italia he felt some revival of his boyhood with its premature agitations. The two servants in the antechamber looked at him markedly, a little surprised that the doctor their lady had come to consult was this striking young gentleman whose appearance gave even the severe lines of an evening dress the credit of adornment. But Deronda could notice nothing until, the second door being opened, he found himself in the presence of a figure which at the other end of the large room stood awaiting his approach."

"You are a beautiful creature!" she said, in a low melodious voice, with syllables which had what might be called a foreign but agreeable outline. "I knew you would be." Then she kissed him on each cheek, and he returned the kisses. But it was something like a greeting between royalties."

"I used to think that you might be suffering," said Deronda, anxious above all not to wound her. "I used to wish that I could be a comfort to you."

"I am suffering. But with a suffering that you can't comfort," said the Princess, in a harder voice than before, moving to a sofa where cushions had been carefully arranged for her………….

"Deronda seated himself and waited for her to speak again. It seemed as if he were in the presence of a mysterious Fate rather than of the longed-for mother.

………"No," she began: "I did not send for you to comfort me… I have not the foolish notion that you can love me merely because I am your mother, when you have never seen or heard of me in all your life. But I thought I chose something better for you than being with me. I did not think I deprived you of anything worth having."

……………."I did not want to marry. I was forced into marrying your father--forced, I mean, by my father's wishes and commands; and besides, it was my best way of getting some freedom. I could rule my husband, but not my father. I had a right to be free. I had a right to seek my freedom from a bondage that I hated."

………"And the bondage I hated for myself I wanted to keep you from. What better could the most loving mother have done? I relieved you from the bondage of having been born a Jew."

"Then I am a Jew?" Deronda burst out with a deep-voiced energy that made his mother shrink a little backward against her cushions. "My father was a Jew, and you are a Jewess?"

"Yes, your father was my cousin,"

………"I am glad of it," said Deronda…….

………"Why do you say you are glad? You are an English gentleman. I secured you that."

"You did not know what you secured me. How could you choose my birthright for me?" said Deronda."

"I chose for you what I would have chosen for myself. How could I know that you would have the spirit of my father in you? How could I know that you would love what I hated? --if you really love to be a Jew." The last words had such bitterness in them that any one overhearing might have supposed some hatred had arisen between the mother and son."

She told Daniel about Sir Hugo. He had loved her once. She asked only that he take her son and raise him as an English Gentleman never knowing he had been born a Jew. Sir Hugo had done his duty. His mother had remarried and was baptized. She had a new life as a princess but was haunted by her past and needed to make some sort of peace with her son as death grew near for her. She could not bring him into her life. He was part of her but not part of her.

"Is it not possible that I could be near you often and comfort you?" said Deronda. He was under that stress of pity that propels us on sacrifices.

"No, not possible," she answered, lifting up her head again and withdrawing her hand as if she wished him to move away. "I have a husband and five children. None of them know of your existence."

Deronda felt painfully silenced. He rose and stood at a little distance."

……………"Then are we to part and I never be anything to you?"

"It is better so," said the Princess, in a softer, mellower voice.

………..After pausing a little, she added, abruptly, "And now tell me what you shall do?"

"Do you mean now, immediately," said Deronda; "or as to the course of my future life?"

"I mean in the future. What difference will it make to you that I have told you about your birth?"

"A very great difference," said Deronda, emphatically. "I can hardly think of anything that would make a greater difference."

"What shall you do then?" said the Princess, with more sharpness. "Make yourself just like your grandfather--be what he wished you--turn yourself into a Jew like him?"

…………"But I consider it my duty--it is the impulse of my feeling--to identify myself, as far as possible, with my hereditary people, and if I can see any work to be done for them that I can give my soul and hand to I shall choose to do it."

"Good-bye, my son, good-bye. We shall hear no more of each other. Kiss me."

He clasped his arms round her neck, and they kissed each other.

Deronda did not know how he got out of the room. He felt an older man. All his boyish yearnings and anxieties about his mother had vanished. He had gone through a tragic experience which must forever solemnize his life and deepen the significance of the acts by which he bound himself to others."

Daniel at long last knew who he was and where he was from. He knew whom he loved, Mirah and not Gwendolen. He understood his future and the purpose of his life – his people.

Parallel to the story of Deronda meeting his mother, Gwendolen Grandcourt and her husband went sailing alone in a small boat. An unforeseen wind kicked up and Grandcourt was knocked into the water. Gwendolen hesitated, and then tried unsuccessfully to save her husband. He drowns in the boating accident. Gwendolen is suffering from mild shock. Deronda comes to consol her and let her know he would be by her side as a friend.

After meeting his mother, Daniel travels to Mainz to meet an old friend of his father, Joseph Kalonymos and retrieve a chest of papers of his fathers.

He tells Kalonymos:

"But I will not say that I shall profess to believe exactly as my fathers have believed. Our fathers themselves changed the horizon of their belief and learned of other races. But I think I can maintain my grandfather's notion of separateness with communication. I hold that my first duty is to my own people, and if there is anything to be done toward restoring or perfecting their common life, I shall make that my vocation."

"Ah, you argue and you look forward--you are Daniel Charisi's grandson," said Kalonymos, adding a benediction in Hebrew."

Daniel returns to London. He seeks out Mirah and declares to her:

"Seest thou, Mirah," he said once, after a long silence, "the Shemah, wherein we briefly confess the divine Unity, is the chief devotional exercise of the Hebrew; and this made our religion the fundamental religion for the whole world; for the divine Unity embraced as its consequence the ultimate unity of mankind. See, then--the nation which has been scoffed at for its separateness, has given a binding theory to the human race.

Daniel tells Mordecai:

"And you were right. I am a Jew."

………."We have the same people. Our souls have the same vocation. We shall not be separated by life or by death."

………………'Our religion united us before it divided us--it made us a people before it made Rabbanites and Karaites.' I mean to try what can be done with that union--I mean to work in your spirit. Failure will not be ignoble, but it would be ignoble for me not to try."

Daniel slowly wraps up the pieces of his old life. He visits Gwendolen at her home to consol and separate from her. He has a different path to follow.

"What makes life dreary (he tells her) is the want of motive: but once beginning to act with that penitential, loving purpose you have in your mind, there will be unexpected satisfactions--there will be newly-opening needs--continually coming to carry you on from day to day. You will find your life growing like a plant."

"This sorrow, which has cut down to the root, has come to you while you are so young--try to think of it not as a spoiling of your life, but as a preparation for it. ………….You can, you will, be among the best of women, such as make others glad that they were born."

The words were like the touch of a miraculous hand to Gwendolen.

……………"What are you going to do?" she asked, at last, very mildly. "Can I understand the ideas, or am I too ignorant?"

"I am going to the East to become better acquainted with the condition of my race in various countries there," said Deronda, gently--anxious to be as explanatory as he could on what was the impersonal part of their separateness from each other. "The idea that I am possessed with is that of restoring a political existence to my people, making them a nation again, giving them a national center, such as the English has, though they too are scattered over the face of the globe. That is a task which presents itself to me as a duty; I am resolved to begin it, however feebly. I am resolved to devote my life to it. At the least, I may awaken a movement in other minds, such as has been awakened in my own."

He tells Gwendolen of his plans to marry Mirah.

Sobs rose, and great tears fell fast….. At last she succeeded in saying, brokenly--

"I said--I said--it should be better--better with me--for having known you."

Mirah and Daniel marry.

"So, when the bridal veil was around Mirah it hid no doubtful tremors--only a thrill of awe at the acceptance of a great gift which required great uses. And the velvet canopy never covered a more goodly bride and bridegroom, to whom their people might more wisely wish offspring; more truthful lips never touched the sacrament marriage-wine; the marriage- blessing never gathered stronger promise of fulfillment than in the integrity of their mutual pledge. Naturally, they were married according to the Jewish rite."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Hovevei Zion ( , Lovers of Zion), were small, primarily Eastern European Student organizations that became the forerunners and foundations of the modern Zionist movement. First appearing about 1880-1882, their central purpose was to solve the Jewish Problem by returning to the ancient land of Israel as agriculturalists even though it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Earlier Jewish return to the land movements in Russia had failed, crushed by unrelenting anti-Semitism. Without the financial generosity of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the idealistic, poorly prepared, equipped and naïve immigrants also would have failed.

By 1882, three small, very tenuous settlement efforts existed in Palestine. The first and most notable was Rishon Le Zion (First in Zion). Two years later the loosely organized Hovevei Zion movement was formally structured. 34 delegates met in Katowice, Poland. They elected Dr. Leon Pinsker chairman and Rabbi Samuel Mohilever president. Dr. Pinkser was the author of Auto-Emancipation – an early "Zionist" solution to the Jewish problem. Rabbi Mohilver was an early advocate of what came later to be understood as Religious Zionism.

Even before the meeting of the Katowice convention, even before the first publication of Auto-Emancipation by Pinsker, Albert Goldsmid followed the tiny, budding efforts at Jewish return to Palestine. He recognized the precarious and undefended nature of the settlements. He understood that no one would come to their aide if threatened or physically attacked.

Albert Goldsmid followed, with deep interest and serious concern, the nascent effort at Jewish return to Palestine. He understood that, certainly not the Ottomans, no one would protect and defend the tiny agricultural efforts. In May and June of 1882, he wrote to the Belfast editor of the London Jewish Chronicle demanding that the settlement effort be controlled and supported by Jews in Western Europe to prevent crises and catastrophes. He further suggested a formation of a quasi –self defense force for the colonies. "It is a task I should not hesitate to undertake were it confided to me and it would be to me a labour of love." 1883, Colonel Goldsmid took a year leave from the British army to travel to Palestine. He wanted to see as Daniel Deronda explained to Gwendolen Grandcourt, "I am going to the East to become better acquainted with the condition of my race in various countries there."

In Palestine, Goldsmid linked up with Sir Laurence Oliphant. Oliphant, (1829–1888), was an English Gentleman, a traveler, writer, Christian mystic, and active supporter of the return of the Jewish people to Palestine. He was one of the most important Christian figures of Victorian England supporting the idea of the Jewish Restorationism. They toured and observed the Hovevei Zion efforts and Palestinian conditions for Jewish return. Oliphant's Jewish aide, Naphtali Herz Imber, was a Ukrainian who had moved to Palestine. He would later write the Jewish National Anthem – the Hatikvah.

Stirred by the experience, Colonel Goldsmid returned to England and did all he could to establish British Jewish awareness for the Jewish return to the land movement. Goldsmid was convinced that only Palestine could be considered as the solution of the Jewish Problem.

Progress in Britain was slow. Jewish acceptance of Jewish return to Palestine was met with strong resistance by the established Jewish community. Goldsmid's message was considered romantic, even insane. Still he made progress and the movement grew slowly.

1890, the Russian government legitimized the Hovevei Zion movement. The French Hovevei Zion movement was brought together in 1891 by Elim Henry d'Avigdor. The English Hovevei Zion movement achieved a unifying structure when Colonel Goldsmid became the Chief. It was modeled on military lines with Statutes of organization for executive, president, chairman and individual chapters he called "Tents". Goldsmid traveled, energetically throughout Great Britain and Ireland organizing and building support for the Jewish return to Palestine.

Goldsmid recognized a fundamental flaw in the return movement in Palestine. There was no national language of the Jewish people. Language was a polyglot of Turkish, Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, Yiddish and German, etc. The lingual bond of Israel, the common denominator of people-hood and national identity, was missing. The ancient language that knit the people of ancient Israel to the land, to the bible and to the ghetto of his day was not spoken as a living language. Colonel Goldsmid suggested a solution. His suggestion was to return Hebrew as a living language that would bind the nation of Israel in Palestine together.

Terror and horror, murder, rape, confiscation, oppression and legal tyranny was the fate of Russian Jewry in the 1880's. It made international news. Even across the Atlantic in America, a major petition to President Henry Harrison was assembled by the Reverend William E. Blackstone (1891). It was signed by over 400 of America's leading personages calling for a solution to the Jewish problem – a return to Palestine. Nothing was being done of a practical response except by the Hovevei Zion who continued buying small pieces of land, dreaming of resettlement and hoping for support from the great Jewish philanthropists such as Baron de Hirsch and his Jewish colonization efforts around the world.

With the death of his only son Lucien, Edmund de Hirsch resolved to create a lasting legacy to help the Jewish people. The Jewish Colonization Association was incorporated in London under the Companies Acts of 1862-90. The controlling shares were deliberately subscribed almost entirely by Baron de Hirsh when he purchased 19, 993 non-dividend accruing shares of the initial 20,000 shares solicitation at 100 pounds a share. Lord Rothschild, Sir Julian Goldsmid, E. Cassel, F. D. Mocatta, and Benjamin S. Cohen of London, and S. H. Goldschmidt and Solomon Reinach of Paris subscribed for one share each to ensure board voting representation. The Society had a capital base of 2,000,000 pounds; an enormous amount of capital all focused on resettling Jews, but not in Palestine.

The Society's purpose was defined in its statues.

"To assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any parts of Europe or Asia, and principally from countries in which they may for the time being be subjected to any special taxes or political or other disabilities, to any other parts of the world, and to form and establish colonies in various parts of North and South America and other countries for agricultural, commercial, and other purposes." "To establish and maintain or contribute to the establishment and maintenance in any part of the world of educational and training institutions, model farms, loan-banks, industries, factories, and any other institutions or associations which in the judgment of the council may be calculated to fit Jews for emigration and assist their settlement in various parts of the world, except in Europe, with power to contribute to the funds of any association or society already existing or hereafter formed and having objects which in the opinion of the council may assist or promote the carrying out of the objects of the association."²

Baron de Hirsch had been approached by Dr. W. Lowenthal to consider the possibility of settling Jews in the vast open, under- populated lands in Argentina. February 1891, Baron de Hirsch acted. Lands were purchased and some Jews were resettled but it became quickly apparent that an efficient administrator, who understood the need for chain of command control, was imperative. At the suggestion of the British Prince of Wales, Colonel Albert Goldsmid was recommended. Again, Colonel Goldsmid obtained a leave of absence from the British army for a year (1892) to bring order, organization and structure to the effort to rescue the Jews.

February 27, 1892, the British "Tents" of the Hovevei Zion gathered to wish the Goldsmid's good luck in Argentina. He had worked for ten years, towards a Palestinian solution for the Jewish people. Reluctantly, he agreed to go. It was his duty. Departing March 10, 1892 he called the Argentinean effort "the Nursery ground for Palestine." "The Jewish question will never be solved until a Jewish State, guaranteed by the powers is established in the land of Israel."

Returning a year later Colonel Goldsmid had overseen approximately 700 families settling in Argentina. The cost was enormous. 1894, Goldsmid was elected the leader of the Hovevei Zion of England and Ireland. A year later, 1895, Goldsmid recognized the needs of Jewish youth in Britain and his desire to train them to be Zionists. He created the Jewish Lads Brigade. The Jewish Lads Brigade was structured along lines very similar to the American Boy Scout movement. ³ Today, 114 years later, the Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade continues to serve Jewish youth in the U.K.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

January 5, 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus⁴ was secretly convicted by a French military court of espionage for the Germans. Theodor Herzl⁵, an assimilated Jewish Viennese correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse covered the story in Paris. 1896, Herzl publishes, Der Judenstaat, the Jewish State. The Jewish world, the world itself, is changed forever.

Theodor Herzl

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Theodor Herzl ( ) Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl, was born May 2, 1860 to middle class assimilated Jewish parents in Budapest, Hungary. When he died forty four years later, July 3, 1904, he was eulogized as the "The Seer of the State of the Jews," ( ). He was the father of modern political Zionism.

Growing up assimilated, marginally Jewish, with little Jewish religious or cultural exposure, Herzl sought personal identification with the Germanic Burschenschaft fraternal organizations. The Burschenschafts, jingoistic, racist, Germanic focused groups whose motto was Ehre, Freiheit, Vaterland ("Honor, Freedom, Fatherland"), revealed at their core to be anti- Semites. Herzl tried to be part of the ideals of the Germanic movement. He could not. To the young Herzl, anti-Semitism was the antithesis of the Germanic ideal. He disassociated himself from them. His fraternity expelled him in a vicious confirmation of their racial anti-Semitism.

Unsuccessful in law, business, modest as a playwright, Herzl found a vocation as a "feuilleton" attached to the largest newspaper in Austria, the Neue Freie Presse. Assigned to Paris in 1894, his responsibilities as a "feuilleton" was to provide local and international news coverage in a serialized story form, lightly flavored with political commentary.

Herzl's understanding and relationship to his Jewish identity was shaped by his experiences as a young college student, the rise of political anti-Semitism and the ultimate shocking reality of the Dreyfus Affair. June, 1895, he wrote in his diary: "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism... Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism." He struggled to find a solution for the Jewish Question. The Dreyfus experience was the final transformative shock for Herzl.

Herzl kept a diary, which he actively maintained with his ideas, impressions and events from April 1895 until his death in 1904. Believing he was on a course with destiny, Herzl kept copies of his letters. He even kept his train tickets, classified and appropriately stored in separate envelopes. Herzl's story and the story of Zionism is incredibly preserved because of his deliberate forethought.

Herzl's diaries are a window into Herzl the man. His innermost thoughts and personality is nearly naked. The myth is stripped away and the man struggling with a great idea, with himself and others, to bring his vision to life cries out. The diaries read easily as the flowing narrative of history, of Herzl and the Zionist movement. The private window of his daily life, sometimes written in great detail is fascinating in the range, the breath, the hopes, the failures and the possibilities of Herzl and Zionism. The sequential flow of history is almost quote-able without commentary.

April 1, 1895, Herzl interviewed Alphonse Daudet, a French anti-Semitic writer. Herzl had translated an article for him. They discussed the "Jewish Question". Herzl's thoughts were still germinating. The discussion left a deep positive impression on Daudet. He suggested to Herzl, that he consider writing a book, a novel similar to Uncle Tom's Cabin, expressing his views and giving them life to the general public.

Six weeks, April through mid May the seeds of Herzl's ideas, a separatist solution to the Jewish Question, continue to evolve, develop and blossom into a full conception of a Jewish State. Herzl pondered where to locate his new Jewish refuge, his new state. He left open options that did not necessarily involve Palestine but did include South America where large tracts of land could be purchased as Baron de Hirsch had done. He was quite familiar with what was being done.

June 2, Herzl met with Baron de Hirsch. He could not convince him of the idea of a Jewish State.

Herzl began writing in his diary about the Jewish Question. He wrote extensively of his solution; how to establish a state and about the various issues of an independent state, from money, to defense to prostitution. The outline was originally intended for the Rothschilds because Herzl believed that the "midget millionaires", as he sarcastically called the Jewish moneyed aristocracy, would be the key to buying a homeland. The outline grew to almost 65 pages. The "Address to the Rothschilds" outline became his opus on Zionism, Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State.

Herzl knew how things were done. An idea simply could not be presented and acted upon. He needed to be introduced through contacts he had with Vienna's Chief Rabbi Moritz Gudemann to gain access to the Rothschilds. It was a pattern he would use over and over again. Herzl repeatedly sought access to power through third parties. He was captivated by titles, nobility, their power, their wealth. He failed to understand the true power of the Jewish people was in the people.

Rabbi Gudemann opened the door not to the Rothschilds but to Narcisse Leven. Leven was the cofounder of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the French statesman Adolphe Crémieux . The Alliance worked to safeguard the human rights of Jews around the world. Herzl met with Leven but could not persuade him of his solution to the "Jewish Question."

Leven broadened Herzl's limited view of the history of the Jewish struggle to return home. Herzl wrote in his diary, September 20, 1895, "Leven thought that especially in Russia I would find many adherents. In Odessa, for example, there had lived a man named Pinkser who had fought for the same cause, named, the regaining of a Jewish national home. Unfortunately, Pinsker was already dead. His writings are said to be worthwhile. Shall read them as soon as I have time.

Another Jew in England, Colonel Goldsmith, was also an enthusiastic Zionist and had wanted to charter ships for the re-conquest of Palestine.

"I will keep the Colonel in mind. All this is a confirmation of my thinking. We have the most wonderful human material that can be imagined."⁶

Herzl played out his relationship with Rabbi Gudemann and parlayed it into an introduction to the Chief Rabbi of Paris Zadoc Kahn.

Nov. 16 Herzl writes:

"Conversation with Chief Rabbi Zadoc Kahn. I read the address to him….

Zadoc Kahn seemed to listen to my two-hour reading with interest.

Afterwards he also professed himself to be a Zionist. But he said that a Frenchman's
"patriotism" also had its claims.

Yes, a man has to choose between Zion and France.

Zadoc Kahn is of the breed of little Jews. I shall be surprised if I get any serious help from him."⁷

"Paris, November 17

Talked with Nordau."⁸

Nordau was born Simon Maximilian or Simcha Südfeld on 29 July 1849 in Budapest, then part of the Austrian Empire. His father was Gabriel Südfeld, a Hebrew poet. His family were religious Orthodox Jews and he attended a Jewish elementary school, then a Catholic grammar school, before achieving a medical degree. He worked as a journalist for small newspapers in Budapest, before heading to Berlin in 1873, and changing his name. He soon moved to Paris as a correspondent for Die Neue Freie Presse and it was in Paris that he spent most of his life.

Nordau was an example of a fully assimilated and acculturated European Jew. He was married to a Protestant Christian woman, despite his Hungarian background, he felt affiliated to German culture, writing in an autobiographical sketch, "When I reached the age of fifteen, I left the Jewish way of life and the study of the Torah... Judaism remained a mere memory and since then I have always felt as a German and as a German only."⁹

"His was the second case of understanding me in a flash. The first was Benedikt. But Nordau comprehended me as an adherent, Benedikt, for the time being, as an opponent.

Nordau will, I believe, go with me through thick and thin. He was my easiest conquest and possibly the most valuable to date. He would make a good president of our Academy or Minister of Education.

He recommended me to the Maccabean Club of London, which I first heard mentioned by him. But this club is quite plainly the ideal instrument for my needs: artists, writers, Jewish intellectuals of all kinds compose its membership. The name of the club itself really tells enough. Colonel Goldsmid is said to be a member, also Mocatta, who had likewise been mentioned to me several times.

Nordau is giving me an introduction to the Maccabean,(and) Israel Zangwill, who is a writer.

I asked Nordau to come to London with me. He promised to come later if I needed him.

~ ~ ~

In the afternoon at Zadoc Kahn's home.

My Salzburg acquaintance, Leven, was there – listless, tepid, and sluggish as he had been in Salzburg. From his objections I could tell he had not comprehended my plan either on that occasion or on this one.

Later, a few other Jews showed up. I suspect that they had been asked to come by Zadoc….

One by one I had to trot out all my arguments again. Not a single new note in the discussion.

For the present, the French Jews apparently will not have anything to do with the matter. They are still too well off.

I turned to Leven in no uncertain terms. "I must be very infelicitous in my use of language. For, things which I have explained to you twice are still unintelligible."

When he emphasized his French nationality, I said: "What? Don't you and I belong to the same nation? Why did you wince when Lueger was elected? Why did I suffer when Captain Dreyfus was accused of high treason?"

At parting I said to him: "You and your kind will never go along with me!"

The young Rabbi said: "I will go with you!"

Herzl acts quickly and travels to London to meet Israel Zangwill.

"Zangwill was born in London on January 21, 1864 in a family of Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia (Moses Zangwill from what is now Latvia and Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill from what is now Poland ), he dedicated his life to championing the cause of the oppressed. Jewish emancipation, women's suffrage, assimilationism, territorialism and Zionism (understood as a national liberation movement) were all fertile fields for his pen.

Zangwill received his early schooling in Plymouth and Bristol. When he was nine years old Zangwill was enrolled in the Jews' Free School in Spitalfields in east London, a school for Jewish immigrant children."¹⁰

Zangwill was a crucial contact for Herzl to the Maccabeans in London.

"November 21 London

Visit to Israel Zangwill, the writer. He lives in Kilburn. N. W. A drive in the fog through endless streets. Arrived a bit out sorts. The house is rather shabby. In his book-lined study Zangwill sits before an enormous writing table with his back to the fireplace. …Israel Zangwill is of the long nosed Negroid type, with very woolly deep-black hair, parted in the middle; his clean-shaven face displays the steely haughtiness of an honest ambitious man who has made his way after bitter struggles. The disorder in his room and on his desk leads me to infer that he is an internalized person. I have not read any of his writings, but I think I know him. He must bestow all the care that is lacking in his outward appearance on his style.

Our conversation is laborious. We speak in French, his command of which is inadequate. I don't even know whether he understands me. Still, we agree on major points. He, too, is in favor our territorial independence.

However, his point of view is a racial one-which I cannot accept if I so much as look at him and at myself. All I am saying is: We are an historical unit, a nation with anthropological diversities. This also suffices for the Jewish State. No nation has uniformity of race.

We soon get down to practical points. He gives me the names of several suitable men:

Colonel Goldsmid, the painter Solomon, Rabbi Singer, Mocatta, Abrahams, Montefiore, Lucien Wolf, Joseph Jacobs, N.S. Joseph, and, of course, Chief Rabbi Adler.

I shall meet these men next Sunday at the banquet of the Maccabeans and arrange a conference for Monday at which I shall present my plan.

Colonel Goldsmid-for me the most important-is stationed at Cardiff with his regiment.

Zangwill is asking him by telegram to come here. Otherwise I shall have to go to Cardiff to see him."¹¹

Four days later Herzl takes the train to Cardiff to meet Colonel Goldsmid.

"November 25, at Cardiff

With Colonel Goldsmid. ... When I arrived at the station I was met by the Colonel, in uniform. Medium height, small black mustache, anglicized Jewish face, with kind, intelligent, dark eyes.

A small dog-cart was waiting outside the station. The Colonel had his horse and rode it either in front or in back of the wagon. We exchanged a few words as we rode through Cardiff to his house, "The Elms."

He said to me with a cheerful expression: "We shall work for, the liberation of Israel."

Then he told me that he was Commandant of Cardiff and the surrounding district, and showed and explained to me the sights of the city.

…….In the afternoon I read my plan to the Colonel. He doesn't understand much German; the exposition dragged a little. ..

But he said: "That is the idea of my life."

He cannot undertake leadership in the project, for it is something political, and as an officer he is not allowed to engage in active politics.

But if the movement got started, he said, he would leave the British and enter the Jewish service. Only, instead of "Jews" he would prefer to say Israelites." Because Israel embraces all the tribes.

He showed me the flag of the Hovevei Zion, with the symbols of the twelve tries. In contrast, I unfurled my white flag with its seven stars.¹²

In spite of that, we understood, we understand each other.

He is a wonderful person.

After dinner, while the ladies and the other English colonel in the party were in the drawing room, I went to the smoking room with Goldsmid. And then came the remarkable story.

"I am Daniel Deronda," he said. "I was born a Christian. My father and mother were baptized Jews. When I found out about this, as young man in India, I decided to return to the ancestral fold. While I was serving as a lieutenant, I went over to Judaism. My family was indignant at this. My present wife was also a Christian of Jewish descent. I eloped with her, and we had a civil marriage in Scotland, to begin with. Then she had to become a Jewess, and we were married in a synagogue. I am an orthodox Jew. This had not done me any harm in England. My children Rahel and Carmel had had a strict religious upbringing and learned Hebrew at an early age."

That, and his tales of South America, sounded like a novel. Because he has worked for Hirsch in Argentina and knows the local conditions, his advice is worth heeding: that only Palestine can be considered.

The pious Christians of England would help us if we went to Palestine. For they expect the coming of the Messiah after the Jews have returned home.

With Goldsmid, I suddenly find myself in another world, He wants to deliver the Holy Sepulcher to the Christians stone by stone: part of it to Moscow, another part to Rome!

Like Montagu, he too thinks of a Greater Palestine. "¹³

Herzl returns to Vienna confident at the success he had in London and continues working on his book.

"December 24

I was just lighting the Christmas tree for my children when Gudemann arrived. He seemed upset by the "Christian" custom. Well, I will not let myself be pressured! But I don't mind if they call it the Hanukah tree – or the winter solstice."¹⁴

Herzl is having trouble finding a publisher for his book. It is rejected in Berlin and elsewhere. Finally a publisher is found. The proofs are prepared and sent. The Jews of Vienna try to prevent the publication of Der Judenstaat.

February 14, 1896 Der Judenstaat is finally published. Initially It is a sweeping success, it is controversial, it is makes Herzl the butt of jokes and ridicule.

"February 27

Ludassy attacks me in the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung. "Zionism is madness born of desperation. Away with such chimeras!"¹⁵

"March 7

In the Berlin Allgemeine Israelitishe Wochenscrift, Klausner pounces on me and "pans" my book roughly in the foul-mouthed tone of Berlin theater hyenas turning thumbs down on a premier performance.

~ ~ ~

The local Zionists want to stage rallies in support of my tract."¹⁶

Three days later, an extraordinary Christian minister came to see Herzl. It was a visit that would change Zionist history. His name was Reverend William Hechler. He was the British Chaplain to the British Ambassador in Austria.

"March 10

….When he read my book, he immediately hurried to ambassador Monson (British Ambassador to Austria) and told him: the fore- ordained movement is here!

Hechler declares my movement to be a "Biblical" one, even though I proceed rationally in all points.

He wants to place my tract in the hands of some German princes. He used to be a tutor in the household of the Grand Duke of Baden, he knows the German Kaiser and thinks he can get me an audience." ¹⁷

"March 16

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, I visited the Rev. Hechler. Next to Colonel Goldsmid, he is the most unusual person I have met in this movement so far. He lives on the fourth floor; his windows overlook the Schillerplatz. Even while I was going up the stairs I heard the sound of an organ. The room which I entered was lined with books on every side, floor to ceiling.

Nothing but Bibles. "¹⁸

Hechler was to be fundamental to all of Herzl's plans. It was through Hechler that Herzl made the first diplomatic breakthroughs to the upper echelons of state political power and influence. Hechler and his connections were the key to all of Herzl's dreams for the creation of the Jewish state. The state would be created by and protected by the great powers of Europe. It would be a top down creation of the great for the small. It would be the solution to the Jewish problem because it would be in the interests of the heads of state to solve their Jewish Questions.

The following ninety days were days of incredible, hope, energy, possibility and reception for Herzl. He was received by the Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden because of Hechler. The Chief Rabbi of Sofia, Bulgaria proclaims Herzl the Messiah. Hovevei Zion groups welcome him to join with them. Jewish student groups proclaim for him. Aaron Marcus, Hasidic leader, writes to Herzl from Podgorze. He mentions the prospect of winning the cooperation of the three million Hasidim in Poland. Middle of May: The English translation of "Der Judenstaat" is published in London. May 19: Herzl is received by Agliardi, the Papal Nuncio in Vienna. June 15 , Herzl and Count Newlinski travel to Constantinople. Herzl succeeds in visiting a number of highly placed individuals, including the vizier ( June 23), Herzl is received as a journalist of the Neue Freie Presse not as a potential head of State.) Herzl offers Turkey that the Jews would undertake the regulation of Turkish finances if they would be given Palestine. He promises much because he believes he will be able to deliver anything. At the end of his first trip to meet the Sublime Porte, Herzl cannot obtain even an audience with the Sultan. June 29, he leaves Turkey in possession of the "Commander's Cross of the Order of the Medjidje" as the only visible evidence of the seriousness of the negotiations.

It was the first insinuation that Herzl's meteoric rise in the world's non Jewish eyes was slowing. He had gone to see the Turks with an idea to pay off the Turkish debt, in return for Palestine, and was not even admitted to see the Sultan. The only accomplishment he could show for his efforts was a Turkish medal. For millions of Jews living in poverty and hopelessness in Eastern Europe, just beginning to learn about Herzl, it was a shining star. It was "the" beginning of salvation.

Herzl, disappointed, knew he must press on. He arrived in London, July 5 in preparation for a major address to the Maccabeans the following evening. Herzl is hampered because his English is very poor.

"July 5

Goldsmid excused himself. He can't get away from Cardiff tomorrow on account of a battalion inspection. "

July 5: Meeting with Claude Montefiore and Frederic Mocotta of the Anglo-Jewish Association who are anti- Zionist."¹⁹

"July 10

Goldsmid is here.

After luncheon we talked in his smoking room which is half in the basement. His house in Princes Square is a bit quaint. The Goldsmid-d'Avigdors are one of the best Jewish families and the house contains beautiful mementoes.

Goldsmid seemed cooler than he did that time in Cardiff – or was I more easily satisfied in the early days?

Nevertheless, I stirred him up with an account of my results up to date. But what he liked best of all, unless I am mistaken, was my word that I would withdraw from the leadership of the movement if Edmond Rothschild joined it. By this I want to show the latter that I do not care about my personal leadership. Goldsmid pointed out that he could not lay any prominent part as long as he was on full pay. Incompatibility, etc. Still, I could see that he agreed in principle.

I requested him to introduce me to Arthur Cohen, Queen's Counsel, as the latter is a friend of the Duke of Argyll, who important in the Armenian Committee.

I ask asked him to get the Prince of Wales to give me an introduction to the Czar. "²⁰

Herzl is very confident of his reading of his position with British Jewry.

July 12 Herzl addresses a mass rally in London's East End. It is a huge event. Thousands have come to see and hear him. It is a very positive affirmation of his support amongst the recent immigrant Jews mainly from Eastern Europe. Herzl interprets it as a confirmation of general British Jewish support.

"July 14

Last night I did the most stupid or the most clever thing I have yet done in this matter.

The Hovevei Zion Society had invited me to their "headquarters Tent." This is being held out in the East End, at the Spanish synagogue at Bevis Marks. I came late; the discussion had been going on for an hour and half

(Continued at Folkestone, July 15)

And I had been its subject before my arrival – as young de Haas who had been waiting for me at the gateway, informed me. The Hovevei Zion want to offer to join with with me if I pledge myself not to attack them again.

My entrance was greeted with friendly drumming on the tables, and as usual I was given the place of honor. On the other side of Chairman Prag sat Goldsmid, looking a bit gloomy. ……

They read lengthy reports about a settlement which is to be founded and is to cost I don't know how many hundreds of pounds: so- and-so-many oxen, so-and-so-many horses, seeds, timber, etc.

The question was asked whether the colonists were protected, and it was answered in the negative.

I tied onto that when my project came up for discussion. I said I wanted only the kind of colonization that we could protect with our own Jewish army. I had to oppose infiltration.( gradual, piecemeal, resettlement of Palestine) I would not interfere with the efforts of the Zionist societies, but Edmond Rothschild's sport must cease at all costs. Let him subordinate himself to the national cause and then I would not only be prepared to give him the highest position, but also pay for his assumption of leadership with my own resignation.

A storm ensued.

Dr. Hirsch spoke against me at great length.

Rabbinowicz, my friend from the East end, declared that no Hovev Zion could ever come out in opposition to Edmond Rothschild. He hoped that Jewish history would not have to record any strife between Edmond Rothschild and myself.

Ish-Kishor asked Colonel Goldsmid up to what point a Hovev could go along with me unofficially.

Goldsmid gave an evasive answer, saying that naturally he could dictate no one's the Hovevei Zion.

I got up and said:

"I shall formulate Mr. Ish-Kishor's question more precisely.

He means: does the Colonel regard my secret steps to be in any way practical and to be taken seriously?"

The Colonel said haltingly: "Well…..if Dr. Herzl – I mean, if the people to whom he spoke – if they are not acting in bad faith, then Dr. Herzl has already achieved a remarkable result."

I then declared that I could not abandon my stand on infiltration even if I thereby lost the support of all the Hovevei Zion societies, which are now under a central organization.

Thereupon the chairman, Mr. Prag, adjourned the meeting with a dry, curt "Good-bye, Dr. Herzl!"

Goldsmid drew me aside and told me that in the afternoon, at the Queen's garden-party, he had not been able to get to the Prince of Wales and therefore had been unable to do anything in the matter of an introduction.

Accordingly, now as previously, it will be left for me to do everything by myself.

In the street, I immediately took Rabbinowicz by the arm and said: "Organize the East End for me."

Then I drove with Herbert Bentwich, who is devoted to me, to the House of Parliament, where I wanted to speak with Stevenson about the Armenian problem.

Bentwich called my attention to my mistake: I had been too brusque; I should not have told the Headquarters Tent that they had bungled things, but should have praised their ideas and past achievements as exemplary.

He was right. And yet I immediately had the feeling that in addition to having been frank, my attitude could have been wise, despite its momentary bad effect."²¹

Herzl returns to the Continent but with a slow awareness something is wrong.

"July 16

I am satisfied with the result of my trip to London.

The conditional promise of Montagu and Goldsmid to join in with us if Edmond Rothschild and the Hirsch Fund participate and the Sultan enters into positive negotiations suffices me for the present.

July 17

Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that both Montagu and Goldsmid declined to preside at the East end meeting. Nor did either of them attend the banquet of the Maccabean Club.

But I need them – consequently –"²²

Herzl is in Paris presenting his ideas to the French Rothschilds.

"July 19

Yesterday I delivered the "address to the Rothschilds."………………..

The adherence of the Londoners is not enough for him. Sir S. Montagu wanted to stand behind him that he could well understand. But as for Colonel Goldsmid, in a letter he had just received, Goldsmid had represented my undertaking as downright dangerous.

This news staggered me greatly. I should never have expected this from Goldsmid. It he is against me, why didn't he tell so with military candor, why did he leave me confident and on that Hovevei Zion evening expressly assure me of his sympathy in my undertaking, provided that I was not being led astray in Constantinople?

Colonel Goldsmid will no longer be counted upon. "²³

Herzl is in the whirlwind since the appearance of Der Judenstaat and his intense focus on the correctness, the rightness of his mission had let arrogance supersede common sense. He had walked into the British center of Zionism where they were making facts on the ground, building communities, spending their personal fortunes, reputations and energy to make Israel real. He had walked in, a virtual unknown just a few months earlier and told them they must follow him. He had walked in and told them to stop what they were doing, make themselves subservient to his control and views. Deeply offended by this Austrian who was so full of his mission as to denigrate their accomplishments, their efforts of over a decade, they rightly pushed Herzl aside. Goldsmid's recommendation to Baron Rothschild about Herzl was accurate – he was dangerous. It was not that they disagreed with the final goal but his methods, if unsuccessful he could damage the Zionist efforts beyond repair.

"August 3

….Since it is possible that I shall need a replacement for the unreliable Goldsmid, Glaser is to be cultivated."²⁴

Herzl in a pique dismissed Goldsmid in his diaries. In the pragmatic world that Herzl was being increasingly forced to live in, he kept his opinions to himself. He learned, never burn a bridge, he may need to cross again.

By October, Herzl was making overtures to Goldsmid and Montagu to see if they would act on behalf of the Zionist negotiations with the Sultan over Palestine.

"October 19

I am writing him that I am now trying to obtain an audience with the Emperor of Russia. Also, that I have spoken with Mahmud Nedim about the Turkish finances and their rehabilitation through Jewish money. I am asking de Haas whether he thinks that Montagu and Goldsmid would accept an invitation from the Sultan to make proposals in Constantinople."²⁵

Over the next six months Herzl and Goldsmid continue corresponding. Slowly they try to work out their relationships. Herzl is trying to keep everyone in the fold for the upcoming First Zionist Congress in Munich.

"March 14

For the rest, Colonel Goldsmid's rapprochement is welcome in view of the Munich Congress."²⁶, ²⁷

Yet, tensions between Herzl and Goldsmid, between the developing Herzl Zionist supporters and the old line Hovevei Zion remained very strong.

Jacob deHaas, Herzl's representative in London wrote to Herzl that Goldsmid wishes Herzl to withdraw for the better of the movement. He wants to avoid a division within the ranks.

"March 29

A dispirited letter from de Haas in London. Col. Goldsmid, he writes, sent for him and implored him to stay away from the Congress, so that there might be no "split" in the ranks of the Hovevei Zion. Instead, I should attend the delegates' conference of all Zionist in Paris next autumn.

I am writing Haas to start marching with his followers, without delay and undaunted.

A split – tant pis (too bad)!

I've had enough of all these Pickwick Clubs and "headquarters." ²⁸

Herzl responds to Col. Goldsmid. He speaks openly, firmly. He clearly has a sense that destiny, direction is with him.

"April 4

My dear Colonel;

Thanks for the cordial tone of your letter. I, too, am sincerely devoted to you and only regret that you fail to understand me.

The Munich Congress is a settled affair from which I can no longer withdraw. But it is a necessity as well. Ask Rev. Gaster to show you the letter in which I recommend to the I.C.A. making a land –purchase with immigration rights, which is possible now. My proposal, as Zadoc Kahn has written me, was placed ad acta (on file). These gentlemen want to do and will do nothing.

I have waited long enough. In August it will be two years since I took the first practical steps in the Jewish cause. I wanted to act, without stirring up the masses, through direction from above, in cooperation with the men who had already played a prominent part in Zionism. I have met with no understanding, no support. I have had to on alone. At the Munich Congress I shall call upon the masses to resort to self-help, since no one else want to help them.

As for your proposal to make the participation of the Hovevei Zion contingent upon the Paris Central Committee, I consider it pointless. I know the Paris decision in advance. It will be a refusal………..

The Sultan and his counselors know the Jewish plan. I have spoken quite openly with the Turkish statesmen, and they did not take offense. They will not give us Palestine as a independent state at any price; as a vassal state (perhaps like Egypt) we could obtain the land of our fathers in a very short time. We could have it today, if the proposals I made in London and Paris had been taken up last July. Can you understand my anger and my impatience?

You, Colonel, ought to enter the Turkish service as a general, like Woods, Kamhovener, v.d. Goltz, and other foreign officers, and in that capacity you would be in command in Palestine under the suzerainty of the Sultan. Upon the break –up of Turkey, Palestine would then fall to us or to our sons as an independent country. Was the plan so senseless? The financial arrangement was even simpler, if the money magnates had joined with us the way I had proposed it. Montagu gave his approval to my loan project.

Since it didn't work that way, it must work another way. I believe you are mistaken if you expect no financial strength from the masses. Each man has only to make a small sacrifice and the amount raised will be enormous. That will be the job of the world-wide propaganda which is to have the Munich Congress as its starting point. This being a financial matter, it will not be my concern. In Munich there will also be financial experts who will take care of this part of the task.

After a long time a Jewish National Assembly will again be held in Munich!

Isn't this something so great that every Jewish heart must beat higher at the thought of it? Today still in a foreign land, leshonoh haboh (next year) perhaps in our ancient home?

As for you, Colonel Goldsmid, who moved so deeply that evening in Cardiff when you told me the story of your life and began with the words, "I am Daniel Deronda" –don't tell me that you are unwilling to take part in this Jewish National Assembly. I could understand it if you had to have regard for your personal position as an officer. But from a Zionist point of view you cannot possibly have any objections.

That I have no selfish aims you must believe. Just now, at the parliamentary elections, three seats were offered me in districts where the Jews have a majority. I declined. I have no personal ambition whatever in the Jewish cause.

Put me to the test. Once again I make the following proposal: join forces with Edmond Rothschild, Montagu and anyone else you please. Give me your word of honor that you will carry out what I initiated in Constantinople – and I shall pledge my honor to withdraw permanently from the direction of the Jewish cause.

If you find this impossible, then combine your strength with me. Let us work together!

However, if it should come to a split between the "big" money-Jews and ourselves, it is not we who shall be badly off, but they. On the other side will stand a few money-bags with their shnorrers (beggars) and lackeys – on this side, we with all the noble, courageous, intelligent, and cultivated forces of our people

With Zion's greetings,

Your sincere friend,

Th. Herzl"²⁹

Herzl ordered de Haas to muster the forces in London even if it means splitting the Hovevei Zion. Herzl is playing hard ball. He hopes to force the English to conform. Herzl loses.

"June 8

The English "Headquarters" of the Hovevei Zion have officially dissociated themselves from the Munich Congress and announced this in a dry, malicious notice. The Jewish Chronicle carried this announcement on June 4.

"The Proposed Zionist Conference at Munich."

"A meeting of Headquarters Tenet of the Hovevei Zion Association was held on Monday last, the Chief, Colonel Goldsmid, presiding. It was resolved that the Association should take no part in, nor send any delegates to, the Congress convened by Dr. Herzl, which is to meet at Munch in August next."³⁰

Yet Goldsmid did not want to totally sever his relationship with Herzl. He too sensed there was a change in destiny associated with Herzl.

"Aug. 14

….Colonel Goldsmid writes me a letter oozing with friendship. I am answering that he should still come, otherwise he would be eliminated from the nationalist movement forever; I will build him a golden bridge."³¹

It was apparent to Goldsmid that Hovevei Zion was splitting over the First Zionist Congress. British Hovevei Zion members were going to be to be present. He could smell the change, change was in the air.

August 29-31 the First Zionist Congress assembles in Basil, Switzerland. It is a resounding success. Hechler and two other "Christian Zionists", as Herzl terms them, attend.

The Zionist movement is growing by the thousands.

Herzl's personal life is showing sign of severe distress. His wife's personal fortune is vanishing under his constant need for more and more money for the Zionist cause. Herzl, himself, was never very wealthy. He was never able to generate very much money from his writings.

"March 12, 1898

…My wish for Basel: to transfer the entire financial structure to England. Months ago, when I asked Col. Goldsmid to act as trustee, he did not want to. Now he is like to be willing.

I am tired, my heart is out of order. "³²

The Zionist movement continues growing rapidly. Herzl tries to manage multiple roles including making a living.

Aug. 28-31, 1898 The Second Zionist Congress meets in Basel. Plans for the Colonial Trust to manage the funds needed for the Zionist movement and the creation of a Jewish homeland progress. What is most exciting for Herzl was that the connection begun by Reverend Hechler have at long last resulted in tangible fruit.

October 18 Herzl is privileged to an audience with the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II in Constantinople. The Kaiser is on his way to visit the Holy Land. Herzl feels he has every encouragement that the German Kaiser will act as the great power sponsor of the Jewish State. He believes that the Kaiser is favorably disposed to the project.

Herzl will meet the Kaiser two more times during the Kaiser's Holy Land visit. Herzl meets him, October 28 at Mikveh Israel. He is formally received by the Kaiser in Jerusalem, November 2. It soon becomes clear to Herzl and the Zionist delegation that the Kaiser has had a change of heart about the Zionist movement and Herzl's Jewish State. Wilhelm II paid much more attention to the German Templar Colonies in Palestine than to Herzl or the Jews.

It was Herzl's first visit to Palestine.

The next day, November 3, Herzl wants to leave Palestine immediately. November 16, he is back in Vienna. The Zionists put a good face, a positive face on for the world. The results are not particularly encouraging.

Herzl and the Zionist movement zigzags from 1898 to 1903. The Colonial Trust, a quasi bank for the Zionist movement is created with difficulty and chartered in London. The early German orientation of the Zionists fails. Herzl shifts his attention to an accommodation with Turkey to establish a Jewish vassal State but that fails even after Herzl manages to meet with the Sultan. The Czar rejects Herzl and Zionism. The dreamed support from Jewry's storied money class does not materialize. American Zionism is almost invisible. The British Zionists and the Hovevei Zion movement finally agree to Herzl's international Zionist control. The bad relationship between Herzl and Goldsmid is passed over. Goldsmid recognizes defeat. He is a good soldier. He joins with Herzl.

Through five years of dynamism, the Zionist movement continues growing. It has little success or accomplished results on the ground to show. The choice of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe is America first and Britain second. Palestine is but a trickle. The plight of the refugees fleeing Russia is horrific.

December 26 – 31, 1901, The Fifth Zionist Congress convenes in Basel. The Jewish National Fund is established.

Late 1902 and into 1903 was to prove a momentous year of possibility for the Zionist movement. It was to be a year where the first tangible results on the ground, the creation of a Jewish quasi State, are possible. It will not be in Palestine.

From the time the British took control of the Suez Canal in 1869, it was Britain's lifeline to India and its Empire in the East. Control of, protection of the canal was vital to British interests. By 1903 it was increasingly obvious that relations between Britain and Turkey had soured. German capital linked the sick man of Europe, Turkey, to Germany tighter and tighter. The question of protection of the canal was quite real in British minds. At one time, British foreign policy favored propping up the Sultan and his decayed Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans would provide protection for the Eastern flank of the canal. It was implicit if Britain's "friend" was Turkey. With German influence over the Turks dominant, the canal was vulnerable. The logical need was a buffer to defend the canal and Egypt from the East. It was Herzl who publically suggested a solution.

The subject of the Jews as a buffer "State" to the East of the Canal was broached by Herzl when he testified before the British Royal Commission on Alien Immigration in London, 1902. The land mass to be suggested for settlement of the Jews was the coastal plain area of El Arish, in the Northern Sinai. It was near Palestine but not Palestine. The British were interested.

December 18, 1902, Great Britain favors the sending of a small commission to the Sinai Peninsula to report on conditions and prospects.

Herzl's spirits, his hopes are buoyed though his health is markedly deteriorating. Herzl undertakes the efforts to organize and prepare the survey expedition to the Sinai. The project is deemed secret and not generally known by the Zionist movement.

"January 17, 1903

In the evening Col. Goldsmid, who had returned from his trip to Southampton to see Claude, called me on the telephone. The result of his trip has been satisfactory. Further details in person today. ….

Later.

Colonel Goldsmid was here. He wants to be in on the expedition. I accepted him. He will get 100 pounds for the trip, plus expenses.

He intends to win the Lord Mayor and the King for us."³³

Goldsmid's importance to Herzl and the expedition is growing.

"January 18

If he can't, (Greenberg), this task will devolve upon Col Goldsmid whom I also want to win over the Egyptian Jews, Suarez, etc.

January 19

I am continuing to organize the expedition.

This morning Kessler, Colonel Goldsmid, and a representative of Cook's came to see me.

I made all the arrangements as far as Ismailia. From there on Kessler will take over. I gave them only the main outlines.

…….Colonel Goldmsid will bring good maps from the War Office, and is going to be very valuable in general.³⁴

"January 26

Planning for the expedition

"On Tuesday, February 3, Colonel Goldsmid will go to Ismailia as quartermaster, along with Laurent, Stephens, and Joffe, in order to inspect the camels, provisions etc.

…..Goldsmid's function is more decorative, but he will be useful for dealing with English authorities and, if needed supplying military protection. As a quartermaster, too. He is in command of the movements which are decided upon in the expedition council under Kessler's chairmanship, with Kessler casting the deciding vote in case of a tie."³⁵

"February 27 Vienna

Yesterday a very interesting report from the expedition also came.

Oskar paints the desert picture with good colors.

Colonel Goldsmid gives a real English log-book

Kessler is brief and clear."

"March 3

I am now confronted with a new situation. I shall not send Greenberg to Cairo again if it can be avoided. Goldsmid will be good now; he is more of a diplomat than a soldier, anyway.

Matters stand like this, however. On the Sinai Peninsula the situation is confused in a way favorable to us. I must differentiate: Possession, power, and right.

The Egyptian government has possession, the English government has the power, the Turkish government has the right.

First I shall have possession assigned to me by the Egyptian government, then I shall demand from the English government as much power as possible, and finally, I shall acquire the right to go with it from the Turkish government, moyennant (by means of baksheesh.)

My instructions to the new negotiators, Goldsmid and Kessler will be in keeping with that."³⁶

Herzl is so confident and convinced of Goldsmid's ability that he entrusts the completion of negotiations for the only tangible success of the Zionist movement on Goldsmid.

"March 10 Vienna

My dear Kessler:

When you receive this letter in Cairo, your expedition will, with the help of God, be safely over. I don't know the final result, of course, but to the extent of our dear Col. Goldsmid's log book that has reached me to date I see that the expedition has proceeded purposefully. Accept as early this my hearty congratulations and the thanks of the Zionist Movement.

Now, in the name of the A.C. I should like to entrust you with a second assignment which is connected with the one you have just completed.

You see, I wish to entrust Col. Goldsmid and you jointly with the completion of the negotiations which Greenberg started on my instructions. "³⁷

The importance of the El Arish negotiations became critical. Factors outside of Goldsmid's control convinced Herzl he must travel to Cairo and be directly involved in the process. Herzl was seeking a charter for the Jewish State from the Egyptian government. The problem of settlement was water.

In Cairo, awaiting Goldsmid and Kessler, Herzl attended a lecture. His observations are very prescient.

"March 26

Yesterday afternoon I went to a lecture about the canalization of Chaldea by Sir William Willcocks, a locally celebrated authority in matters of irrigation. Chaldea is the land which the Sultan offered to me last year.

Apart from a few details, the lecture was dreadfully boring. What interested me most was the striking number of intelligent looking young Egyptians who packed the hall.

They are becoming the masters. It is a wonder that the English don't see this. They think they are going to deal with fellahin forever.

Today their 18,000 troops suffice for the big country. But how much longer?

…………What the English are doing is splendid. They are cleaning up the Orient, letting light and air into the filthy corners, breaking old tyrannies, and destroying abuses. But along with freedom and progress they are also teaching the fellahin how to revolt.

I believe that the English example in the colonies will either destroy England's colonial empire – or lay the foundation for England's world dominion. "³⁸

Even with Herzl present Lord Cromer preferred to deal with Englishmen. Lord Cromer was the British representative in Egypt.

"March 28

…..I sent Goldsmid to see Boyle; however, he came back two hours later and reported he had spent the entire time with Cromer, who had sent for him immediately.

Cromer had spoken with him in somewhat the same vein he had with me – but obviously for much long.

This shows that Cromer wishes to deal with Englishmen. So I decided to entrust the continuance of the negotiations to Goldsmid and Kessler…"³⁹

For all of Herzl's accomplishments, he was still viewed by the majority of the world as dreamer, a charlatan, a madman, a cynical opportunist. His own countrymen viewed him with distain, as meaningless fluff that will blow away with the first wind. Perhaps because of where Herzl, the obscure Viennese newspaperman had come from in just a few years, his perception of himself was not clear even to himself. If he really saw himself as the majority of Europe saw him, he might not have tried. To the most of the world, and even to many Jews, Herzl was a troublesome Jew.

Herzl wrote in his diary in a fit of pique.

"April 2

Baron Oppenheim, the German Legation Councillor, has twice left his card at my hotel and invited me to lunch today, although I have never met him.

On the other hand, the Austrian Consul, Baron Braun, hasn't even replied to my card which I had sent to him.

Counterpart to Okolicsanyi at the Hague.

As far as the diplomats of my fatherland are concerned. I don't exist. They treat me as though I were air, these idiots of whose existence not a soul will any longer have an idea when my name will still shine through the ages like a star."⁴⁰

Herzl expended much time, effort and health in Cairo. The talks dragged on for the El Arish charter and over the issue of water. Herzl had hoped to divert water from the Nile to irrigate the El Arish area and make it habitable for the Jews who would come. Frustrated but pressed by other demands of the Zionist movement, he returns to Europe. He returns but not before putting Goldsmid in charge. Central to the negotiations were topological reports. Water, water and water would be the final issues.

Herzl was desperate. He knew that the water issue could break the negotiations. He was not willing to risk his best hope of any practical success to the Zionist movement. He abandons the water demand for the moment.

From his ship he writes in his diary:

"April 7, on the Adriatic Sea

Aboard the "Bohemia."

I have given Goldsmid instructions to get from Cromer, if at all possible, the concession without Nile Water, for the time being, to leave the water question, since Cromer won't do it any other way…."⁴¹

Returning to Europe, Herzl continues to try and coerce the Rothschilds for financial support. He waits daily for confirmation and prepares instructions to Goldsmid how the charter should be titled and his place in the charter. He is very over confident. It may have been a confidence of exhaustion.

"April 23, 1903

My dear Col. Goldsmid

Many thanks for your very interesting log-book and kind letters.

In reply to your remark page 6, (April 10) It is a matter for your consideration" etc:

You can, if such alteration is demanded by the Government have the concession made out "to Dr. Th. Herzl. President du conseil de surveillance du (chairman of the Council of the) Jewish Colonial Trust Ld. London."

And kindly observe: conseil de surveillance, not conseil d'administration (board of Directors). I am not a financial man.

I should prefer it to be given to Dr. H., President du comite d'action du movement sionniste (chairman of the Actions Committee of the Zionist Movement.)

Only as they probably would not like to raise on this occasion certain political questions relative to the boundary line, it is preferable to put there only my name.

I hope to go soon to London and see Mrs. Goldsmid.

With kindest regard, my dear colonel, I am your sincerely,

Herzl"⁴²

The days of delay turned into weeks.

May 6, Goldsmid telegraphs Herzl that the water estimates of the Zionist surveys are being rejected. It does not look good.

May 7, Goldsmid telegraphs Herzl. The El Arish project is finished. Herzl and the Zionists have lost.

"Lord Cromer recommends abandonment

Have protested against abandonment"⁴³

May 11, 1903, the Egyptian government informs Goldsmid that they have denied the Zionist the concession and the charter. Two days later, Goldsmid embarks for home.

Aboard ship he writes Herzl what happened:

"May 13

Letter from Goldsmid, dated May 6. The explanation:

Sir William Garstin (topologist) has declared that we would need five times as much water as Stephens stated; also, the laying of the siphons would involve tying up traffic in the Suez Canal for weeks."

Herzl continues in his diary about Goldsmid. The tone is suspicious almost paranoid. Herzl is exhausted. He refers to an earlier rejected British offer of Uganda for a Jewish homeland.

"In the fruitful morning hours of yesterday and today I made the new plan which is necessary after the miscarrying of this scheme.

I started out from Chamberlain's Uganda suggestion – and hit upon Mozambique. I will try to get this inactive land for a Chartered Company from the Portuguese government, which needs only, by promising to meet the deficit and to pay a tribute later. However, I want to acquire Mozambique only as an object of barter in order to get for it from the English government the entire Sinai Peninsula with Nile water summer and winter, and possibly Cyprus as well – and for nothing.

I also suspected Goldsmid of acting, more than was proper, his own boss of the concession. I found a trace of this in his suggestion that the administrator of the colony (by which he evidently meant himself) should also be appointed governor by the government.

In the report that arrived today there is another trace! Namely, his writing to Sir Eldon Gorst that he had to supply information in reply to urgent cablegrams from London and Vienna.

From London? Who sent him a cablegram from there?

C'est donc pour se donner une contenance (so it is to make himself look important.)"⁴⁴

"May 16

I thought the Sinai plan was such a sure thing that I no longer wanted to buy a family vault in the Dobling cemetery, where my father is provisionally laid to rest. Now I consider the affair so wrecked that I have already been to the district court and am acquiring vault No. 28."⁴⁵

The El Arish plan failure was total. It ended Herzl's hopes for 1903. His sense of failure was only multiplied by the horror of the Russian Kichenev massacres of Jews that same year. Jews were butchered in the street like animals.

Herzl survived on hope for the next opportunity. His periodic bouts with familial depressive illness do not permanently keep him away from his dream.

"September 22, 1904

Col. Goldsmid writes that he has been invited to Balmoral by the King. I am wiring him:

Try to get him for our previous scheme in which you collaborated. A combination of both the former and the present scheme would be a complete success, being a satisfaction for ideal as well as material interests.

Tell him also that I shall come to England at end of October.

Please don't spare telegrams; there may be a necessity of quick decisions.

I remain still Alt-Ausee Styria."⁴⁶

Nothing came of Goldsmid's visit to the King of England at Balmoral.

The last entry in Herzl's diaries re: Colonel Albert Goldsmid came six months later.

March 30, 1904

I was going to use Col. Goldsmid as a cover for the Turkish business.

But Goldsmid died in Paris two days ago. A loss."⁴⁷

Herzl was so desperate to find a solution to the Jewish problem he pushed the Uganda objective as an interim home. It split the Zionist movement. The Russian delegations walked out. It was Palestine or nothing.

Herzl died July 3, 1904. The last person to see him, other than his family before his death, was his friend Reverend William Hechler. Years later Hechler revealed Herzl's last words to him.

"Tell them all my greetings, and tell them that I have given my heart's blood for my people." ⁴⁸

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot) died December 22, 1880. Her impact on Jewish attitudes toward Zionism was very significant.

Emma Lazarus                       Eliezer Ben Yehdua                     Henrietta Szold

Daniel Deronda inspired the great Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus, best known for penning the words on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", to promote Zionism. Lazarus dedicated her famous five act play, Dance of Death, to George Eliot. "This play is dedicated, in profound veneration and respect, to the memory of George Eliot, the illustrious writer, who did most among the artists of our day towards elevating and ennobling the spirit of Jewish nationality."

Because of Daniel Deronda, Eliezer Ben Yehuda choose to move to Palestine, as his mission in life, to bring Hebrew back as a living language. He rejected becoming a Russian revolutionary. Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah and the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, was also influenced by Daniel Deronda. She chose to make her life work Zionism. She chose to dedicate her life to the aide and support of all people, Arab, Jew and Christian, in Palestine.

Did Theodor Herzl read Daniel Deronda. His diaries are silent on that point. He notes only that he planned to read it someday. Yet, he felt it important to recognize that Colonel Albert Goldsmid proclaimed himself to be Daniel Deronda twice. The fact that Herzl noted the self description of Goldsmid as Deronda twice in his diaries indicates that he fully understood the significance of the designation and may in fact have read the book.

Was Herzl Daniel Deronda? He, like Goldsmid, began life born a Jew but in every way he behaved as a non-Jew. He even considered at one time a solution to the Jewish question to be conversion to Christianity. As he became more and more deeply immersed in his mission, his purpose to help the Jewish people, his identity as a believing Jew reemerged. Toward the end of his life, he began instructions for his son Hans in Judaism. Herzl finally understood himself in terms of being Daniel Deronda. He understood his goal, his mission, his purpose in life as a Jew. He dedicated his life, his fortune, his honor and his future to the welfare of the Jewish people.

Ironically, it was Herzl's death that brought the Zionist movement back together after the mistaken trauma Herzl introduced out of desperation, the Uganda settlement diversion. The Zionist Congress of 1905 definitively ended any consideration of Uganda as an interim solution. It was to be Palestine and Palestine alone, or nothing for Zionism. The structures and institutions Herzl created, survived after him. Though he was unsuccessful in accomplishing any material goals for Zionism while he lived, what he started brought the dream to reality in 1948.

Who finally was Daniel Deronda? Was he Colonel Goldsmid? Was he Theodor Herzl?

Daniel Deronda was both of them. Deronda is everyone who believes in a dream. It is all people who believe in something bigger than themselves, in a better future for their families, their people and tomorrow.

Judith Rice is an associate member of the American Zionist Historical Society

Amzhs@hotmail.com

² http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=271&letter=J#ixzz0aAyQmZRX

³ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Lads%27_Brigade

⁴ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus

⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl

⁶ Pg. 243 The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, edited by Raphael Patai, translated by Harry Zohn, vol 1, Herzl Press and Thomas Yoseloff Press, New York, New York 1960.

⁷ Ibid. pg. 272.

⁸ Idib. Pg. 272

⁹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Nordau

¹⁰ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Zangwill

¹¹ Ibid, Herzl Diaries, pg. 276

¹² The seven starred Herzl flag reflected his socialist tendencies and the concept of the seven hour work day.

¹³ Ibid pg. 281

¹⁴ Ibid 285

¹⁵ Ibid. pg.307

¹⁶ Ibid. pg. 309

¹⁷ Ibid. pg. 310

¹⁸ Ibid. pg. 311

¹⁹ Ibid. pg. 409

²⁰ Ibid. pg. 413

²¹ Ibid. pg. 422

²² Ibid. pg. 423

²³ Ibid. pg. 427

²⁴ Ibid. Pg. 449

²⁵ Ibid. Pg. 484

²⁶ Ibid. pg. 522

²⁷ Herzl had planned for the Congress to be in Munich. Very strong opposition from a coalition of Orthodox and Liberal Jews in Munich, violently anti-Zionist, forced the Congress to move to Basel.

²⁸ Ibid. The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, Pg. 531

²⁹ Ibid. Pg. 532

³⁰ Ibid. Pg. 558

³¹ Ibid. Pg. 575

³² Ibid 618

³³ Ibid. Pg. 1388

³⁴ Ibid. Pg. 1394

³⁵ Ibid. Pg. 1396

³⁶ Ibid. Pg. 1432

³⁷ Ibid. Pg. 1433

³⁸ Ibid. Pg. 1444

³⁹ Ibid. Pg. 1453

⁴⁰ Ibid. Pg. 1461

⁴¹ Ibid. Pg. 1465

⁴² Ibid. Pg. 1470

⁴³ Ibid. Pg. 1480

⁴⁴ Ibid. Pg. 1487

⁴⁵ Ibid. Pg. 1491

⁴⁶ Ibid. Pg. 1565

⁴⁷ Ibid. Pg. 1619

⁴⁸ http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Jewish+History/Herzl/Theodor+Herzl +2004+31.htm

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