Jewish Territorial Organization

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Members of the Jewish Territorial Organization

The Jewish Territorial Organisation, known as the ITO, was a

Uganda Scheme, but only institutionalized in 1905.[1] Its main goal was to find an alternative territory to that of Palestine, which was preferred by the Zionist movement, for the creation of a Jewish homeland. The organization embraced what became known as Jewish Territorialism also known as Jewish Statism (though not to be confused with the political philosophy of the same name
). The ITO was dissolved in 1925.

Overview of territorialism

The first instance of what might be termed Territorialism, though the term did not yet exist, much predated Zionism. In 1825 the

frontier of white settlement—for $4.38 per acre, in order to build a refuge for Jews of all nations.[2]
He had brought with him a cornerstone which read "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tishri, 5586 (September, 1825) and in the Fiftieth Year of American Independence." However, the scheme failed to attract Noah's fellow Jews. It began and ended with the ceremonial laying of that cornerstone.

The

Jews from the Russian Empire and other Eastern European countries, by settling them in agricultural colonies on lands purchased by the committee, particularly in North and South America (especially Argentina
).

Before 1905 some

socialist Zionist groups were more territorialist than Zionist, such as Nachman Syrkin's Zionist Socialist Workers Party (the Z.S.).[3][4]

As early as 1902, Herzl's negotiations with the

British East Africa for Jewish settlement. When Herzl revealed Chamberlain's offer to the Sixth Zionist Congress in August 1903, Israel Zangwill
spoke in favor of the proposal. In his speech to the Congress Zangwill made clear that, though he did not see East Africa as the ultimate consummation of the Zionist cause, he did believe that it proved a particularly useful, temporary (if still somewhat long-term) solution to the Jewish problem in Russia.

In 1903 British cabinet ministers suggested the

Russian Jews in danger. Notwithstanding its emergency and temporary nature, the proposal still proved very divisive, and widespread opposition to the plan was demonstrated by a walkout led by the Russian Jewish delegation to the Congress. Few historians believe that such a settlement scheme could have attracted immigrants, Jewish financial support, or international political support. Since there was strong support on the part of some members of the Zionist leadership, however, peace was kept in the movement by the time-honored parliamentary maneuver of voting to establish a committee for the investigation of the possibility, which was not finally dismissed until the Seventh Zionist Congress
in 1905.

History

The Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO) was founded by British Jewish author, critic, and activist Israel Zangwill and British Jewish journalist Lucien Wolf in 1903 and institutionalized in 1905. The establishment was a response to Herzl's rejection of Uganda proposal, as the ITO led by Zangwill split off from the Zionist movement. It attempted to locate territory suitable for Jewish settlement in various parts of America (e.g. Galveston), and on the African, Asian, and Australian continents, yet with little success.

Zangwill's interest in territorialism began in 1903 in response to the

Federation of American Zionists
Zangwill commented:

The Kishineff massacre has brought home to the blindest the need of a publicly and legally safeguarded home for our unhappy race. When you come to consider where this centralized home should be you will find no place as practicable as Palestine, or at least for a start, its neighborhood.

But few in the

Uganda Scheme
, as the East Africa offer was called, particularly representatives from Eastern Europe who argued that Palestine was the sole acceptable site for a Jewish homeland. Herzl was severely criticized for his willingness to seek a Jewish state outside of the Middle East, and such criticism, Zangwill claimed, contributed to Herzl's death from heart failure in 1904. In a 1905 speech on the East Africa offer he exclaimed:

Herzl is dead: he worked for his people as no man ever worked for them since

Judas Maccabaeus
. His people called him dreamer and demagogue, and towards the end men of his own party called him traitor and broke his heart. He worked for his people: they paid him his wages and he has gone home.

In 1905 the members of the

fiat, and both concurred that the new government should be formed on a modern, democratic basis rather than some earlier biblical ideal or Eastern European Kehilla
structure. This basic agreement between Zangwill and Wolf would lead to the formation of the Jewish Territorial Organisation (ITO), an organisation dedicated to "obtaining a large tract of territory (preferably within the British Empire) wherein to found a Jewish Home of Refuge", and to the elevation of Zangwill to the ITO presidency.

The ITO's members were known as

Galveston, Alaska), Africa (in Angola, establishing several contacts with the Portuguese government, the colonial power at the time), Asia, and Australia, but with little success. The Balfour Declaration and the subsequent British occupation of Palestine had made the territorial alternatives to Eretz Israel less viable. Accordingly, in 1925 the ITO was dissolved and most of its members returned to the Zionist movement.[5]

Other Territorialist Organizations

Zionist Socialist Workers Party

In pre-1917 the

Socialist Revolutionary orientation, and for a time had a considerable influence among Russian Jews. The party supported Herzl during the debate over the Uganda Scheme.[3][4]

USSR

See also: Komzet

After the

Stalin who went on to recognise Israel, along with launching another series of political purges against Jewish organisations within the USSR.[6]

Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization

In the face of the looming

Isaac Nachman Steinberg established the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization (Frayland-lige far Yidisher Teritoryalistisher Kolonizatsye) in London in 1935.[5][7] This organization attempted, unsuccessfully, to pursue Jewish autonomy by obtaining a large piece of territory in sparsely populated areas in Ecuador, Australia, or Suriname. One of the more well-known ventures was the Kimberley Plan, to secure land in Australia.[8] The Kimberley Plan was officially vetoed on 15 July 1944 by Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, who informed Steinberg that the Australian government would not "depart from the long-established policy in regard to alien settlement in Australia" and could not "entertain the proposal for a group settlement of the exclusive type contemplated by the Freeland League".[9]

After the establishment of the

Yiddishist
goals.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0814342077
    – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Image of the City of Ararat (Grand Island, NY) Image in 1825, a Pivotal Year on the Niagara Frontier on New York Heritage
  3. ^ a b The Second Aliyah (1905–1915), retrieved 2023-07-27
  4. ^ a b Kishinev (1903), retrieved 2023-07-27
  5. ^
    S2CID 154121434
    .
  6. ^ a b Veidlinger, Jeffrey (2014-03-04). "Before Crimea Was an Ethnic Russian Stronghold, It Was a Potential Jewish Homeland". Tablet. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  7. ^ "Yivo | Frayland-lige". yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  8. ^ "A Jewish colony in the Kimberleys". Archived from the original on February 4, 2012.
  9. ^ Steinberg, Isaac Nachman (1888–1957) by Beverley Hooper, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, pp. 298–299. Online Ed. published by Australian National University

External links

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