On this day: the Balfour Declaration

A month later, Lord Rothschild told a crowd of nearly 3,000 British Jews at the London Opera House in Kingsway: “We are met on the most momentous occasion in the history of Judaism for the last eighteen hundred years.

“We are here to return thanks to His Majesty's Government for a declaration which marked an epoch - for the first time since the dispersion, the Jewish people have received their proper status by the declaration of one of the great powers".

Although it was a striking message, the use of the word “homeland” rather than “state” was a source of contention. Many historians view the document in light of the First World War, as an attempt to bring the United States into the allied fold.

The original copy of the declaration is kept in the British Library.

The Balfour Declaration, whilst hailed as miraculous, did not immediately change the fortunes of the Zionist movement. Lloyd George’s government fell in 1922 and a series of less-favourable White Papers and decisions were made by the British government on the future of Palestine throughout the mandate period.

It was, of course, not until 1948 that the “national home” became a reality.

What the JC said: With one step the Jewish cause has made a great bound forward…a new epoch for our race…Amidst all that is so dark and dismal and tragic throughout the world, there has thus arisen for the Jews a great light. It is the perceptible lifting of the cloud of centuries, the palpable sign that the Jew-condemned for two thousand years to unparalleled wrong – is at last coming to his right.

See more from the JC archives here