Spying Out the Land: The Zionist Expedition to East Africa, 1905

Abstract

In a leader entitled ‘Jews as Colonists’, published in February 1896, the Jewish Chronicle proudly declared that ‘Jews possess at least three of the most important qualifications which go to make successful Colonists — climactic adaptability, linguistic talents, and trading instincts.’ This colonizing impetus, noted the Chronicle, could be traced all the way back to the ancient Israelites’ mythical ties with both England and Africa: Both the clear language of Scripture and the vaguer hints of a less reliable popular tradition have associated the ancient Hebrews with England and with some of its present colonies. MR. RIDER HAGGARD startled a prosaic generation with an old-world romance of South Africa, in which gruesome horrors and fascinating dreams of wealth untold clustered round the name of ‘King Solomon’s Mines.’ … It is certain that in the gold districts of South and Eastern Africa, traces are still discoverable of very old workings which may have attracted Jewish operators long before the days of Syndicates and Mining Banks. Whether this be true or not, Judea, itself a ‘Colony’ formed by immigrant Jews, sent out shoots long before the Diaspora.1