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Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship

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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!

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.

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.

This smart, well researched and readable book makes an often controversial subject easy to understand and easier still to be sympathetic towards. Famed author and historian, Sir Martin Gilbert offers us through direct sources, a simple yet profound road map in which we see Mr. Churchill navigate his way through his many relationships with Jews, and those opponents in his own political party, as well as the minefield which is Middle East politics. I for one, though a student of the Middle East never knew just how close Mr. Churchill was to the Jewish people, Zionism, and his continued support through out the decades for a Jewish state in the region.

"Some people like Jews and some do not, but no thoughtful `person' can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world" Winston Churchill

I strongly recommend this book for your reading pleasure, education, and enlightenment. It is an outstanding historical document.

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

Winston Churchill, for as long as he can remember, has been connected with Jews. Coming from a family with close Jewish ties, though not through blood, he has always had friends from this ethnicity. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill was often rebuked by the English aristocrats about his many Jewish friends. Learning about the biblical characters in his school, he was often fascinated with their stories and with their lives.

Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, draws on letters, speeches, newspaper articles and other resources to provide a clear depiction of his friendship with one of the most persecuted races in the world: the Jews.

Reading this book was very eye opening. I have always heard about Churchill through his famous quotes often featured at graduations and other ceremonies-and through those I had developed a certain respect for him. However, after reading this book, I consider him one of the greatest men who ever lived. Sure he had faults; he would be the first to admit that. But what set him apart was the fact that he was willing to stand up for what he believed in, even when popular opinion was against it. He was an ardent supporter for a Jewish state and played a key role in bringing that to pass. Many considered his love for Jews one of his major faults; however, he was not swayed by what others thought him.

Martin Gilbert's portrayal of Churchill and his relationship with Jews is very enlightening. It explores this often-neglected topic, captivating the readers from the very beginning as it traces his first Jewish friendships to his Jewish friends he had during the time he was Prime Minister. I really enjoyed this book that also includes photographs that chronicle his relationship with them.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended to any history buff!

From the vast materials that he has accumulated about Churchill, Sir Martin Gilbert has now selected material relating to Churchill's relationship with the Jews. Throughout his life, Churchill was a staunch supporter of the Jews and of the Zionist cause. His father had many friends among the wealthy leaders of Anglo-Jewish society - Lord Rothschild, Sir Ernest Cassel, Baron de Hirsch - friendships which his son inherited. Churchill entered Parliament in 1901, where he strongly opposed both the Conservatives' Aliens Bill of 1904 and the Liberals' Aliens Act of 1906. At the 1906 General Election he had become MP for North-West Manchester, where a third of the electorate was Jewish (and where he first met Chaim Weizmann, who had settled in Manchester in 1904.) Long before the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, Churchill spoke up in favour of Zionism, and he was of course an enthusiastic supporter of that document. When he was made Colonial Secretary in 1921, he became responsible for Mandate Palestine.

At that time Arab opposition to the Balfour Declaration and to Jewish immigration into Palestine was already very strong, and in Britain also there were second thoughts about the wisdom of the Declaration and attempts to undo it. Churchill vigorously opposed these, admired the contribution the Jews had already made to Palestine, and insisted that the Arabs would themselves benefit from this. He had no intention of limiting immigration or of allowing any representative institutions to Palestine as a whole because the Arabs would have a majority there. The Churchill White Paper of 1922 reaffirmed this policy, but also said that `the Jewish National Home in Palestine is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole'. Gilbert quotes from a letter of gratitude from Weizmann soon afterwards, but does not mention that actually many Zionists, Weizmann included, felt let down by the White Paper, because they in fact hoped that Palestine as a whole would eventually become a Jewish State. But Churchill, now in opposition, attacked the Passfield White Paper of 1930, which recommended restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine.

Churchill - out of office in the 1930s - early saw the danger that Hitler's accession to power represented; and among the articles he wrote and the speeches he made on the subject, the Nazi persecution of the Jews was always among the items he singled out. It led to an increase in Jewish immigration, which in turn contributed to the Arab Revolt of 1936. The Peel Commission in 1937 eventually came out with a Report recommending that no more than 12,000 Jews should be admitted to Palestine in any one year. Giving evidence before it, Churchill thought that it would be wise for tactical reasons temporarily to limit immigration somewhat (later in 1937 he proposed a figure of between 30,000 and 35,000 a year - comparable to the increase of the Arab population); but in principle he maintained that Britain should admit as many Jews as possible, and he envisaged the possibility that one day in the distant future they might indeed be the majority in Palestine. He expressed some contempt for the Arabs, and some of his answers to the questions he was asked (unpublished at the time) make for crude and intemperate reading today for anyone who is not an insensitive Zionist. The Peel Commission also proposed the partition of Palestine between an Arab state and a tiny Jewish state about a third of the size of Israel of 1948. Weizmann reluctantly accepted this, but Churchill, siding with Jabotinsky, vigorously opposed it on the grounds that such a small state could not defend itself against Arab attacks. And he made a blistering speech against the government's adoption of the MacDonald White Paper in May 1939 which effectively was a repudiation of the Balfour Declaration.

When Churchill became Prime Minister, he pressed repeatedly for a change of policy embodied in the MacDonald White Paper: for arming the Jews in Palestine, for admitting illegal immigrants, for ignoring Arab objections; but he could not get this through Cabinet against the stubborn resistance from the Foreign Office, and the War Office and the administration in Palestine. Only in September 1944 did he get his way to the extent that the War Office agreed to the formation of a Jewish Brigade with its own Star of David flag.

There were Zionists who had long regarded the British government as hostile to their aspirations, and, with the MacDonald White Paper still in force, the fact that the British prime minister was personally pro-Zionist cut little ice with some of them. The Irgun and the Stern Gang fought British troops in Palestine, and in November 1944 the Stern Gang assassinated Lord Moyne, a personal friend of Churchill's. (A month later, during the trial of Moyne's murderers, it even considered assassinating Churchill himself.) But Churchill remained committed to the Zionist cause, in the teeth of his Cabinet's opposition, which, to Weizmann's despair, made it impossible for him to abolish the White Paper immediately after the surrender of Germany and the liberation of the concentration camps.

But then he lost office in 1945 and had to watch the events in Palestine from the sidelines. From the Opposition benches he continued to make powerful speeches against the `squalid' war which the British were fighting against the Jewish militants; rather than that, he suggested the surrender of the Mandate which in due course the government was forced to do.

Right at the end of his second premiership, in 1955, Churchill supported the idea that Israel might join the Commonwealth; and when, soon after his retirement, the Suez War broke out, he publicly supported the actions that Eden's government had taken and justified the participation of Israel, which had acted `under the gravest provocation'.

Throughout this comprehensive account, the superb eloquence of Churchill sparkles magnificently against Gilbert's sober prose.

A pivotal and scholarly study by one of the greatest historians of the 20th century and official biographer of Winston Churchill into Churchill's very special relationship with the Jewish people and his support for the Jewish cause and the Jewish national liberation movement- Zionism.
Churchill's father Randolph was himself berated by associates because of his friendship with individual Jews.
Winston Churchill would take this friendship further into the public domain and was a supporter of the Balfour Declaration promising a restoration of the Land of Israel to it's ancient inhabitants the Jews.
Churchill saw the evils of both Bolshevism/Communism and Nazism and led the fight against both diabolical systems.
He rightly pointed to the cruel excesses carried out by Bolshevik commissars and foresaw the great struggle for the soul that would last to the current day between Zionism and Communism. The fact that the Zionist cause would distract young Jews from advancing Communism and give them an alternative focus-that of rebuilding the Jewish ancient home in their ancient homeland- the drive of Communism for world domination, is in my opinion the real root of the hatred of Leftist Jews for Zionism and Israel.
Churchill endorsed Zionism and charged Jewish Bolsheviks with engineering a world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization'. While Churchill was correct to condemn Bolshevism and Jewish-born Bolshevik criminals, his description of Bolshevism as a 'Jewish movement' was an anomaly in his usual friendly attitude to the Jewish people, and was a gross exaggeration and generalization.

In 1921 Churchill visited 'Palestine' and at Gaza was greeted by howling mobs crying 'Death to the Jews: Cut their throats", part of the very early hostility shown to the Jewish people by the Arabs of the area, and fanned by the Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.
Churchill was determined that British commitment to Jewish statehood and immigration into the Land of Israel would not be compromised by the drive to appease Arab rage as exactly would be done with the White Paper of 1937 by the great appeaser of 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain. Churchill pointed out that the Jews in pre-state Israel at the time were under unprovoked deadly attack in the 1920s and 1930s by Arab mobs, and urged the British authorities to protect the Jewish people of the Levant.
These attacks grew more intense in the 1930s with the fifth aliyah of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to pre-state Israel, as well as the radio broadcasts from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which blew the flames of Arab rage against the Jews into an inferno.

Churchill was up against the machine of the British establishment in his campaign for Jewish rights in Palestine and was opposed by most of the British Cabinet at the time. Chamberlain said 'if we have to offend either the Arabs or the Jews, let it be the Jews' and Anthony Eden's secretary wrote that Eden was immovable on the subject of Palestine as he 'loves Arabs and hates Jews'.
It was Churchill who drew attention to the large scale immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, leading to a tripling of the Arab population in the first two decades of the British Mandate,
In 1938 quoting from the official British mandate census figures in Parliament at Westminster Churchill noted that 'in the past 15 years between 1923 and 1938 there had been according to the official figures an increase of 300 000 in the Arab population and 315 000 in the Jewish population.
Churchill opposed the infamous white Paper of 1937 that gave the Jews only a third of Western Palestine , a fraction of land [promised by the Balfour Declaration.
"Therefore it would seem to me, having regard to our wartime pledges, that it would obviously be right for us to decide now that Jewish immigration shall not be less in any given period than the growth of the Arab population arising from the animating and fertilising influence of the Jews'


Churchill warned against Nazi persecution of the Jews from 1933 and when the news of the mass slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust by the Nazis became apparent he warned that the Nazis responsible for these horrors should be put to death.
He also endorsed the call by Zionist political leader Moshe Shertok (later Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett) for the Allies to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz, which was not ultimately carried out.

Roosevelt I learned here wished to qualify Churchill's statements on the Nazi atrocities with the word 'alleged' and Roosevelt too was talked out of supporting a Jewish national home in Israel by the Saudi King.
Churchill opposed as leader of the opposition Britain's senseless 'squalid war against the Jews' in Palestine carried out by the Attlee and Bevin government , and seems to be aware that this was the most shameful and despicable moment in Britain's proud and illustrious history .
He spoke against the British governments aid of the Arab aggression with arms and officers after Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948 and urged Britain to recognize the fledgling state of Israel.

On Churchill's 80th birthday on 30 November 1954, Foreign Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett wrote to Churchill "Your staunch advocacy of the Zionist idea, your belief in justice and ultimate triumph and your joy in it's consummation with the rise of an independent Israel have earned you the everlasting gratitude of the Jewish people."

An interesting aside in this book is that is that Churchill's father Randolph was greatly influenced by the Jewish Prime Minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli,.
Oner November evening in 1947 Churchill had fallen asleep while painting and dreamed that he was talking with his father. During the conversation Lord Randolph said "I always believed in Dizzy, the old Jew. He saw into the future, We had to bring the English working man into the picture"

Churchill would have urged Britain to stand by Israel while it is under genocidal attack by terror and world radicalism and also would have urged a better deal for Britain's indigenous working classes.

I began with a prejudice. Winston Churchill is one of my greatest heroes.
Another prejudice. Martin Gilbert is also one of my favorite authors. Gilbert writing on Churchill could be nothing but wonderful.
The book was up to my expectations, and then some. I have read volumes and volumes on the life and activities of Winston Churchill, but found many new facts in insights. I was totally pleased and highly reccomend this book to any one . Admirer or critic.
Herschel Sennett

Churchill was arguably the most distinguished statesman who lived in the 20th Century. His accomplishments are legion and one cannot think of what took place over that century without mentioning his role in it. Martin Gilbert has spent most, if not all, of his respective career chronicling Churchill's life and deeds. Now, Gilbert has come out with this book which examines one aspect of Churchill's life - an aspect that is perhaps less well known. That aspect is the relationship between Churchill and the Jewish community in England and the world.

As Gilbert tells the story, Churchill had always been exposed to and befriended Jewish people. This lasted practically from the moment he was born until his death. His parents introduced him to several influential Jewish families that he retained ties with throughout his life. During his stings in the British government in both World Wars, he interacted with many of the more prolific and historical Jewish figures of the age in the British Admiralty (Like Chaim Weizmann) as well as Albert Einstein and many others.

What I did not know until I read this book was how involved Churchill was in the Zionistic movement and how much of a force he was in the establishment and creation of Israel as a result of this movement. Starting from the World War 1 era, when he was part of the group that was involved in the Balfour Declaration and on through the declaration of the state, Churchill was a very active Zionist. Some of the other unknown tidbits - at least unknown to me prior to reading this book - was the Churchill played a large role in the negotiation of the Balfour Declaration. As a for instance, Gilbert writes that Churchill was offended by Ibn Saud (the King of Saudi Arabia) because part of the deal behind the Balfour Declaration was Britain's commitment to making independent Arab states in Saudi Arabia and Trans-Jordan. A deal that the Arabs rejected after they got their portion of it.

Churchill was also engaged in the deliberations and debates about limiting Jewish immigration to Israel between the World Wars. Gilbert chronicles several of Churchill's speeches and essays in which he provides data, time and time again, that the Arab immigration into Israel was proportionality the same as the Jewish immigration, but numerically much larger. Every time, Churchill points this out as a complete refutation of the Arab argument that allowing more Jews into the area would displace Arabs who lived there for millennia. In addition, Churchill never ceases to show how the Jewish immigration and activities have turned dessert areas into productive farms. Areas that had been declared impossible to cultivate had been turned into green oases which produced food aplenty. In other words, all the Arab arguments were false and malicious and inspired by greed, and Churchill kept that in the forefront of the political debates of the time.

When World War II broke out, Churchill still found time to help the Jews either escape from Europe were the Holocaust was hunting them down and killing over 6 million of their numbers. He would take time out from his duties to write letters and speeches and influence the United States and other countries while attempting to mollify the Jewish leader - especially after the extent of the holocaust started becoming known. Following the war, Churchill was out of the government, but still played a key role in the establishment of the modern State of Israel, and in eventually getting Great Britain to recognize the country.

For me this book contained much information that was new. I was not aware of Churchill's involvement in many of these events and tasks and my admiration for him has only risen as I read his letters, speeches, and essays. While the book is focused only on this one small aspect of Churchill's life and career, it is a fascinating read. I am taking one star away from my rating of this as this slice of information is probably too small and too specific to interest the general reader. However, if you are one of those who are interested in learning how the current borders of the Middle East were formed, and why certain events took place, then this book will help fill the void. Gilbert's writing and resources are well-documents and referenced and are of much more believable a nature than most of what passes for Arab documentation of today.