Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship [Hardcover]

Martin Gilbert (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0805078800 | ISBN-13: 978-0805078800 | Publication Date: October 16, 2007 | Edition: First Edition

An insightful history of Churchill's lifelong commitment--both public and private--to the Jews and Zionism, and of his outspoken opposition to anti-Semitism

 

Winston Churchill was a young man in 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was convicted of treason and sent to Devil's Island. Despite the prevailing anti-Semitism in England as well as on the Continent, Churchill's position was clear: he supported Dreyfus, and condemned the prejudices that had led to his conviction.

Churchill's commitment to Jewish rights, to Zionism--and ultimately to the State of Israel--never wavered. In 1922, he established on the bedrock of international law the right of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. During his meeting with David Ben-Gurion in 1960, Churchill presented the Israeli prime minister with an article he had written about Moses, praising the father of the Jewish people.

Drawing on a wide range of archives and private papers, speeches, newspaper coverage, and wartime correspondence, Churchill's official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, explores the origins, implications, and results of Churchill's determined commitment to Jewish rights, opening a window on an underappreciated and heroic aspect of the brilliant politician's life and career.

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 Booklist

Winston Churchill has been the subject of many of this author's 54 books, including an 8-volume biography, and some of Gilbert's books have been about the Holocaust. (He points out that for more than half a century, Churchill's life intertwined with Jewish issues.) Consequently, for 40 years he has essentially been collecting material for this book. Churchill served as a young member of Parliament from 1904 to 1908, with many Jews among his constituents; as a cabinet minister in 1921 and 1922, responsible for determining the future status of the Jewish National Home in Palestine; as a war leader from 1940 to 1945; and as peacetime prime minister from 1951 to 1956, aware of and sympathetic to Jewish concerns. Drawing on private papers, speeches, newspaper coverage, and wartime correspondence, Gilbert examines the origins, implications, and results of Churchill's commitment to Jewish rights. A perceptive and engrossing account, written by one of the foremost historians of our time. Cohen, George

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (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
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sir Martin Gilbert is one of the leading historians of his generation. An Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford - of which he was a fellow for thirty years - he is the official biographer of Churchill and the author of eighty books, among them Churchill - A Life and The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. For more information please visit http://www.martingilbert

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 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
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This review is from: Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship (Hardcover)

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!

36 of 43 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 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship (Hardcover)

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where would Israel have been without Churchill?, December 14, 2007

By 

Ben K. Harris - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship (Hardcover)

This is an exciting account of Churchill's relationship to the Jewish people from the earliest phase of his political career. He developed a strong bond with the developing state of Israel, and it seems unlikely, without his brilliant supportive speeches in parliament for several decades that we would have a state of Israel today. Gilbert does a superb job of bringing us up to date on Churchill's contributions, from the time of the Balfour declaration to Israel Statehood in 1948.