ByAnonymous, Anonymous
A unique collection of the letters of the English Zionist Sir Leon Simon is coming up for auction next month in Shropshire.
On April 15, Mullock's Auctions of Ludlow are selling the letters of Sir Leon, who helped to draft the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
He hand-wrote the Declaration on a piece of headed notepaper from the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square, Bloomsbury, and later translated it into Hebrew.
Sir Leon, who became a well-established civil servant in Britain, was a member of the Zionist Commission which visited Palestine in 1918.
Many of the letters were written during his courtship to his fiancée, Nellie, between 1915 and 1916. In one letter he writes of his socialist beliefs and how they equate with Zionism.
He says: "Jews are divided into two classes, English and foreign; [the former believe that] whatever English Jews do is right and whatever foreign Jews do is wrong."
The letters are expected to fetch more than £1,000, although it is hoped for more if Israeli archivers bid.