Lord Balfour Arrives in 1925 – Hebrew University Dedicated  

In all the hubbub of this week’s elections here in Israel, it was easy to overlook the fact that tomorrow, Shabbat, marks the anniversary of a critical day in the history of the re-establishment of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. On October 31, 1917, the British War Cabinet officially authorized the final release of the famous Balfour Declaration, just a day after a stalemate was broken in southern Palestine.

My friend, Rabbi David Geffen, an American-born author, historian, and educator who has lived in Jerusalem for decades and who turns 88 on Sunday, has penned this retrospective on Lord Balfour which I am proud to offer to my readers with his permission. Hope you find it as enlightening as did I.

“A man of the highest ideals, of the most immaculate concepts and an unfaltering vision” was the manner in which the “Palestine Weekly” described Lord Arthur James Balfour on his arrival in Palestine on March 26, 1925. He had come a week before the dedication of the Hebrew University where he was to be the featured speaker.

To give Balfour his proper place in modern Jewish history, an editorial in the “Weekly” declared: “long after Zionism shall have achieved its predestined purpose, the name of Balfour will be recalled with veneration, as a potent factor in the early beginnings, one might almost say, the makings of New Palestine.”

Born in 1848, Balfour first entered the House of Commons in 1874 as a Conservative. From 1892 until 1895, he was the leader of the opposition and from 1902 to1905 he was the prime minister of Great Britain.

On November 2, 1917, in his capacity as foreign secretary, he sent the famous Balfour Declaration in the form of a letter to Lord Lionel Rothschild. In it he proclaimed that ” His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine a National Home for the Jewish people.”

The day after Lord Balfour arrived here, he was taken to Rishon LeZion where he was honoured at the Central Synagogue in that city. He observed that the Balfour Declaration did not represent the attitude of any one individual or any one nation, but constituted the whole great body of international opinion.

From Rishon he was taken in an open car to Tel Aviv, accompanied by Chaim Weizman and Nahum Sokolov. The pioneer filmmaker, Yaakov Ben Dov, captured Balfour’s arrival in Tel Aviv and his ride through the city’s streets, cheered by exuberant crowds numbering close to 35,000 people. That film can be viewed at the Spielberg Film Archive on Mount Scopus of the Hebrew University. At the National Library, the classic postcards conveying the excitement of that event can be found as well.

Waiting at the arch of welcome constructed at the beginning of Allenby Street, was  Mayor Meir Dizengoff, the chief rabbis of the city, the members of the City Council and an honour guard from the Maccabi youth movement. The City Council members harnessed themselves to Balfour’s car and pulled it to the Herzliya Gymnasia where a large crowd awaited his arrival.

Dizengoff cited Balfour’s dream of Zion Reborn as a direct parallel to the birth of Tel Aviv, the first all-Jewish city. The mayor then proclaimed Balfour, a freeman of the city and announced that Balfour Street, a new thoroughfare, had just been opened to mark this auspicious visit. The 3,000 children in attendance cheered the honoured guest and then performed various marching formations and military drills.

Balfour used the occasion, a moving one for him, to make some observations. He expressed the hope that the future of this land would be grounded in the deep roots of the past. One of the main reasons for that hope, Balfour noted, was that “the Jews knew very well that their future and the future of the immortal country of Palestine and the success of Zionism depended on their conviction that Palestine’s revival should be not only for the Jews and for Palestine but for the whole of humanity.”

“The Jews,” he stressed, “were able to add to the moral life of the world, and their future in Palestine would be worthy of the great traditions of their past.” He admired the creative spirit that had built up that great city, one of the most beautiful sights he had seen, and he shared all their hopes for a beautiful future.

The applause resounded throughout the Gymnasia courtyard and the cheers of young and old visibly touched him. Balfour was then taken for a tour of a few of the sights of the city. Moshe Ordmann, a noted city photographer, took pictures of Balfour on his tour. The postcards made from the photographs show Balfour at the Rutenberg electrical plant, the Agricultural Research station and the Zionist club. These were among the harbingers of the bright future of the city to which everyone looked forward.

That evening, Balfour attended a festive performance of the Saint-Saens opera, “Samson and Delilah,” presented in Hebrew by the Palestine Opera company at the Eden Cinema. After the performance, hatless and in his cape, Balfour walked to the apartment of Shemaryahu Levin where he was staying. He was cheered loudly as he passed through the gaily-lit streets with the constant shout, “Long Live Balfour! Long Live Balfour!”

On his return to Jerusalem the next day, Balfour was moved to send Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Paris the following telegram: “I am satisfied that your life work of promoting Jewish colonization in Palestine is a success.”

The “Doar Hayom” Hebrew newspaper came up with a novel suggestion to commemorate Balfour’s visit. “Every male or female born during the present year should be named Balfour or Balfoura. In this way, his name will be remembered for many generations to come.”

The following week, on April 1, with thousands in attendance at the amphitheatre of the of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, Balfour, in his flowing robes looking like a prophet of old, gave the main address at the dedication. He stressed that Palestine was a land that inspired all humanity with deep religious feeling, a land to which the Jewish People was now returning and in which it would begin rebuilding.

The opening of the university for him meant that a new era had begun. “The great cultural genius that came to an end and has been dormant for so many years,” he pointed out, “is now going to be revived in this land.”

One of many noted Zionist leaders attending the University’s dedication was Louis Topkis of Wilmington, Delaware a leader of the Zionist Organization of America and a founder of the Joint Distribution Committee. On his return to the USA that summer, he described Balfour as a “prince among men. With one stroke of his pen he moved the creation of the Zionist dream into high gear, and now we must labour to make sure that dream is realized.”

David ended his retrospective at this point to which I have appended the following observation. In many respects the reality that is Israel has well surpassed all of the expectations expressed by Lord Balfour on that fateful November day. May we all continue to benefit from Balfour’s vision and from our continued commitment to the Zionist enterprise as well.