By
Shalva Weil
6 min read
In a rare communication to the Anglo-Palestine Jews' Club, written a decade before the Balfour declaration, a representative of the British Mandate suggested that Gaza would be an ideal place for an English Jewish colony. It would be profitable both materially and morally, it was stated, and although the British government outwardly may pretend they didn't like the idea of foreigners residing and colonising within its limits, inwardly it would display friendship and liking.
I found the epistle among another few hundred letters belonging to my brother (Prof. Elroy Dimson) and my late grandfather, Zechariah Dimson. In 1902, Zechariah Dimovitch, as he was known then, had arrived with his parents as an immigrant from Poland to take up work as a rabbi in England. He was born near Graivo in Russian-Poland and had studied at the best yeshivot in Eastern Europe. In 1903, he took up a position as the rabbi of the Stroud Jewish community.
Only eight years previously, Chief Rabbi Herman Adler had visited the thriving Stroud community but, by 1902, it was in the grip of a decline caused by the demise of the local clothing industry, in which many Jews were involved. By 1908, the synagogue had virtually closed. The last Stroud rabbi and shochet from 1904-5 was our grandfather, whose ministry included Cheltenham and Gloucester as well as Stroud. By that time, the once wealthy congregation could hardly afford his modest stipend.
One Friday, Zechariah came up from Stroud to the East End in London to buy kosher wine at the Frumkin corner shop on Commercial Road.The shop had been established by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Frumkin, who had built the first house in Petach Tikva in Palestine, but had been forced to leave in 1898 when the local Arabs started rioting and he feared for his life.
Besides his scholarly works and agricultural prowess, Frumkin had also studied vinology and planted the first wine grove in Petach Tikva. He was little interested in business, so he left the shop's day-to-day transactions in the hands of two of his six children: Eliahu (the grandfather of former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks) and Rachel. Frumkin spent his time in the libraries of Great Britain.
Almond trees, fig trees, vines could be planted with several other trees without the need of water. Orange gardens will thrive splendidly
On the day that Zechariah visited the Frumkin shop, he was served by the young, vivacious Rachel. Brought up in Petach Tikva, she spoke fluent English, Yiddish, Hebrew and Arabic, and was knowledgeable about both religious and secular matters. She was fond of English poetry, and was eager to help the young rabbi acclimatise to London.
By 1906, they were married. They were both 22 years old. Zechariah wrote all his diaries and early correspondence in Hebrew; other letters were written in Yiddish, French and other languages. But, once in England, Zechariah sent Rachel, my grandmother, reams of love letters in stilted English learned from his best friend, a Christian minister whom he had met on a train.
From the earliest days of their marriage, Zechariah quickly became involved in Anglo-Jewish life and politics. There are letters from Chief Rabbi Adler and Chief Rabbi Dreyfus of Paris, and communications from other leaders of Anglo-Jewry. In 1916, Zechariah Dimson was appointed rabbi of Artillery Lane synagogue and befriended Rabbi Kook, who headed a congregation down the road.
Rachel and Zechariah were zealous Zionists. Zechariah was twice elected a delegate for the Mizrachi party to the Zionist congresses in Marienbad in 1921. (I have inherited a Seder plate from Carlsbad and a Carlsbad penknife with Shabbat Shalom inscribed on it).
In 1919, Zechariah's own parents decided to emigrate to Palestine. Every member of the extended family came to take leave of them at Victoria Station. Although our father, David Dimson, was only nine years old at the time, he recalled vividly how the station resounded to the sounds of Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem, nearly 30 years before the declaration of the state, as they bade them farewell.
In 1923, Zechariah decided to visit his parents in Palestine and, as the vice-chairman of the Jewish National Fund, he was requested to write a survey of settlements for possible settlement of Anglo-Jewry. Unfortunately, he contracted typhoid and was hospitalised in Jerusalem.
In the hospital ward, he wrote a letter dated December 26 1923 to his "Fellow Zionists" telling them how much he enjoyed his trip to Eretz Israel. He particularly liked the "great Emek colonies in the Valley of Jezreel where I saw the daily work of sowing and planting proceeding in the hands of Jewish peasants." He winds up his letter by beseeching Anglo-Jewry to support the projects of the Jewish National Fund and the Zionist cause.
Zechariah died at the age of 39 in the Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem. His friend Rabbi Kook, now Ashkenazi chief rabbi (appointed by the British Mandate), eulogised him, along with Rabbi Sonnenshein from the strictly Orthodox community of Jerusalem. Rabbi Zechariah Dimson is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem next to his parents.
Among his papers was a letter that had been handed to him in 1909. This was written by Alexander Antonio Knesevich, British consul agent in Gaza. Knesevich's family originated in Austria and came to Palestine in 1885. Knesevich was the first British consul in Gaza, when the British were replacing the mighty Ottoman Empire, and drawing up the borders of Gaza with Egypt.
In 1906, he was approached by some Muslim notables and asked to attend a confidential meeting on the beach. The Muslim family heads claimed to represent the whole Arab population, including the Bedouin, and asked if the British government could move its "protection" over Gaza as far north as Ashdod.
Evidently, Knesevich was not very impressed by the sincerity of these Muslim elites, and preferred the Jewish initiative. He therefore replied to an enquiry from Moses Levene, an American Jew, who was secretary of the Anglo-Palestine Jews' Club.
Levene was also familiar with Palestine. In 1904, he had written about his visit to Jaffa, in 1907 he had written a tract on Arabian customs in Palestine and, in 1910, he had published a piece about a carriage ride to Haifa.
According to Knesevich, Anglo-Jewish settlement in Gaza was the answer. And so, in 1907, he responded to Levene. In view of today's situation, this hitherto unknown letter exposes many of the ironies of history:
From: A. Knesevich,
British Consul Agent,
Gaza, Palestine
June 8, 1907
To: Mr Moses Levene,
Honorary Secretary,
The Anglo Palestine Jews' Club
Dear Sir,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your esteemed favour of June 4th. I need not say that I was very pleased to hear of your intentions and proposition, and I wish your enterprise all success and prosperity.
Your desire of forming a sort of colony of British Jews at Gaza or about the place is quite in place and time, and it is the thing that Gaza needs to develop its trade and commerce. I heartily invite you to take courage and be strengthened and begin at once. I promise you any help I can afford, and as the colonialists will mostly be British subjects I will have the right to protect them. I promise to cooperate for the establishing and the good of your proposed colony. Only I wish you could begin at once to execute your intentions.
And now to reply to your questions, let me say:
1. Firstly, you ask as to where and what land could be bought. There is a tract of unsowed land between the town and the sea. It is about twenty thousand Dunams on both sides of the road to the sea. I think this will do splendidly for your purpose.
2. Almond trees, fig trees, vines could be planted with several other trees without the need of water. Orange gardens will thrive splendidly. The water is not very deep. About four or five years ago a certain man has planted an orange garden in the place and it is thriving nicely…
3. Building land will bring good return in the future. But building big "magazins" on the shore or storehouses to store barley and other grain will bring good return at once.
4. I cannot quite tell you the price of land now. The land is Government property and when you have come down to Gaza and seen the land and are pleased with it you must not trouble about the price…
5. I cannot quite guess how the Government would be disposed towards your colony… Although outwardly the Government would dislike foreigners to reside and colonise within its limits, it could but show friendship and liking inwardly. All this by God's help I guarantee to facilitate for you and you can rely upon God to help me to do for you anything that you require…
Wishing you again success by the help of the Great God of Israel, and with the kindest regards,
I am, Yours sincerely, A. A. Knesevich.