Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship (Hardcover)

~ Sir Martin Gilbert (Author)
Key Phrases: grand committee, national home, Jewish State, White Paper, House of Commons (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This work by acclaimed Churchill biographer Gilbert examines an often-neglected aspect of the British leader's career: his relationship to Jews and Jewish issues. Drawing on a treasure trove of primary documents, Gilbert shows how Churchill grew beyond the kind of friendship with individual British Jews that his father enjoyed into a supporter of Jewish causes—most notably a Jewish state in Palestine. (In later years, Churchill even referred to himself as an old Zionist.) Gilbert shows that Churchill recognized as early as 1933 that Hitler's regime posed a grave danger for European Jewry. Yet, as Gilbert shows, in the late 1930s, Churchill upset Zionist leaders with his support for limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine out of a concern for British interests in the Arab world. The work is chock-full of narrative, with little interpretation, and some readers might wish for more discussion of questions, such as Churchill's description of Bolshevism (which he loathed) as a Jewish movement. But this work is a must-read for those interested in Churchill and in Jewish history. 8 pages of photos; maps. (Nov. 1)
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From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Glenn Frankel

"Even Winston had a fault," Gen. Edward Louis Spears, a dear friend of Winston Churchill, once told historian Martin Gilbert. "He was too fond of Jews."

Spears's remark, which rather neatly epitomized the pervasive anti-Semitism of Britain's ruling class, is Gilbert's jumping-off point for his sympathetic but ultimately disappointing account of the singularly warm and supportive relationship between the greatest British leader of the 20th century and the Jewish people. From the moment he first launched his public career as a member of Parliament, through his years as Cabinet secretary, political outcast and heroic wartime prime minister, Churchill cultivated personal and financial ties with Jews, praised them and became an ardent champion of a Jewish national home in Palestine. It was, writes Gilbert, an unusual partnership of "a remarkable man and a remarkable people."

Churchill's profound admiration for the Jews, which was not shared by many of his closest political colleagues, was all the more amazing because it survived the rise of Bolshevism, which Churchill abhorred and which he believed was dominated, intellectually and politically, by men and women of Jewish origin. It even survived the turbulent years during and after World War II when Zionist extremists conducted a campaign of political murder against British officials, policemen and soldiers. That campaign reached its nadir with the 1944 assassination in Cairo of Lord Moyne, Britain's top colonial administrator in the region and one of Churchill's closest friends, and the 1946 bombing of British administration offices at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, in which 91 people died.

Why did the great man shower his affection on a people that could be, by his own reckoning, so cantankerous and problematic? It was, Gilbert writes, partly because Churchill saw Jewish ethics as the foundation stone for Western moral teachings. The Jews, Churchill wrote, "grasped and proclaimed an idea of which all the genius of Greece and all the power of Rome were incapable." Impressed with what he saw as Jews' sense of loyalty, vitality, self-help and determination, he endorsed their national aspirations. A Jewish homeland "will be a blessing to the whole world," he told an audience in Jerusalem in 1921.

It's also the case that Churchill had little use for Muslims. As early as 1899 he wrote of the "fanatical frenzy . . . fearful fatalistic apathy . . . [and] degraded sensualism" of Islam. "Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities," he added, "but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it." While Britain's post-World War I mandate called for it to foster democratic institutions in Palestine, Churchill consistently delayed them, knowing that a freely elected legislative assembly dominated by an Arab majority would have cut off Jewish migration.

Churchill was often accused by political opponents and anti-Semites of being in the pocket of wealthy Jews. Lord Alfred Douglas, the poet and former lover of playwright Oscar Wilde, alleged that Churchill accepted bribes from Jewish financiers during World War I to manipulate wartime information for their financial advantage while he was secretary of the Royal Navy. Douglas was convicted of criminal libel and sentenced to six months in prison.

Gilbert, who is author of the definitive eight-volume Churchill biography, persuasively discredits these claims. He is less successful in debunking longstanding allegations by critics such as Israeli historian Michael J. Cohen that Churchill, while expressing horror and concern, did little or nothing to prevent the Holocaust. After Jewish leaders pleaded with the Allies in 1944 to bomb the railway lines to Auschwitz, Churchill instructed his foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, "Get anything out of the Air Force you can and invoke me if necessary." Nothing happened. The Royal Air Force, it seems, had other priorities, and Churchill never followed up.

Hundreds of thousands more Jews died between July 1944 and the death camp's eventual liberation in January 1945 by Soviet troops. According to Cohen, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, one of Churchill's public admirers, told a closed session of the Zionist Political Committee in London in June 1945 that Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and other Western leaders had ignored his pleas. "Nobody cared what happened to the Jews," Weizmann complained. "Nobody had raised a finger to stop them being slaughtered."

Gilbert's book is an ardent hagiography of a great man, and the portrait at times seems less than three-dimensional. Even less enthralling is Gilbert's reliance on long quotations from Churchill's speeches and writings. We get page after page of Churchill's remarks to the House of Commons on this issue and that, interspersed with one-line sentences from Gilbert. This is history as stenography, and the book inevitably feels like a set of out-takes from Gilbert's masterly biography. Its subject may be intriguing, but little here seems new or surprising.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805078800
• ISBN-13: 978-0805078800
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #241,579 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great leader and friend- , October 18, 2007

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Martin Gilbert the official biographer of Winston Churchill is also well-versed in modern Jewish history. In this work he traces the lifelong attitude and relationship of Churchill to the Jewish people. He points out that Churchill's father was particularly friendly with Jews, and did something not done in his day, invited Jews to their home. As a young person Churchill thus had the acquaintance of Jewish friends of his father who he respected. Gilbert shows that Churchill throughout his life maintained this sympathetic attitude towards the Jews. He was a strong and enthusiastic supporter of the Zionist enterprise, and in 1917 a supporter of the Balfour Declaration.
In a review in the Sun Nancy Schleifer quotes Churchill ardently supporting the Jewish cause in the Holy Land,
"The Jews have developed the country, grown orchards and grain fields out of the desert, built schools and great buildings, constructed irrigation projects and water power houses and have made Palestine a much better place to live then it was before they came a few years ago. To Jewish enterprise, the Arab owes nearly everything he has. Fanaticism and a sort of envy have driven the Arabs to violence."
He during the first War defended Jewish friends who were falsely accused of disloyalty to Britain. Churchill believed that Biblical morality and teaching was the fundamental foundation- stone in the building of the ethics of humanity. Churchill believed that Jews being true to their religion and people could also be true and loyal to the various countries in which he lived.
Nonetheless he was wary of Jewish participation in world- communism and warned against this. He too at a time when it was critical for Jews did not allow the free immigration to then 'Palestine' because of British geopolitical considerations in regard to the Arabs. In 1940 he called for the deporation of potentially enemy aliens including many Jews. Churchill's basic sympathy to the Jews did not lead him to force major action to save Jews during the Holocaust though he did advocate bombing the rail- lines to Auschwitz.
Churchill was a great leader probably the greatest the twentieth century knew. It is ironic and terrible that he who fundamentally sympathized with the Jews could not or did not prevent the greatest destruction they had ever known at the very time he was conducting the battle against the Jews worst enemy- a battle which would save mankind for freedom.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn why Churchill was a Zionist and why Zionism is a Great Movement, November 21, 2007

By	John Adam (Michigan USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I knew a fair amount about Winston Churchill and recognized his greatness but I did not know that he was a strong Zionist. Churchill's words are clear, his insight and knowledge rare among politicians. He recognized the evil of Nazism and Communism and recognized the contributions of the Jews and moral teachings of Judiasm. He saw the problems with Islam and the tribalness of Arabs. He knew the Jews needed to be restored to their historical homeland, which had been left a desert during the centuries of Ottoman rule. Churchill saw that Jews have as much right to a place in the Middle East as the Arabs, Turks and Persians. He knew that Israel would be an ally of the US and Britain and a beacon of modernity to the Arabs, which is part of the reason it has been attacked.

Martin Gilbert's lastest book is another significant work on Churchill and world history. We need more Churchills and Gilberts!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More insight into the astounding Mr. Churchill, January 16, 2008

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

The 20th Century produced many astounding men, many of them evil. One of the few great democrats of the age was Winston S. Churchill. Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Churchill, has produced one enthralling volume after another.

Churchill's involvement with public life and, more importantly, his impact upon it never ceases to amaze. To read of everything Churchill was involved with - some of the most momentous events of the century that still reverberate today - staggers the imagination.

In this volume, Gilbert examines Churchill's relationship with Jews in general and his involvement with the Balfour Declaration, Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel.

Churchill's first 'political involvement in Jewish concerns" occurred in 1904 when he stood for election for Manchester North-West, where a third of the population was Jewish.

From that point on, Churchill's career often came into contact with Jewish concerns or, conversely, concerns about the Jews. He long supported the aspirations for a Jewish homeland. He protested mistreatment of the Jews by the Russians, Germans and others. He was deeply offended by the radical Jewish terrorists who sought to hasten the creation of Israel. He believed there was a need to turn Jews toward Zionism and away from Bolshevism.

Churchill, indeed, considered himself to be a Zionist.

Churchill's humanism, tolerance, foresight, classic liberalism and just plain decency are all on display in this wonderful volume. By concentrating on this one small aspect of Churchill's many interests, the magnificence of the man is brought into sharp relief. Others, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ernest Bevan suffer in comparison to Churchill in this particular area.

All in all, this is a wonderful book, typical of Gilbert's skill as a researcher, historian and writer. It is also necessary reading for anyone who wishes to be more fully informed about the seemingly intractable problems we face in the area today.

Jerry