I did a blog for Wednesday but was not sure if the questions for tomorrow were required, so I picked two anyway.

Amanda Aussems

Blog Questions

For November 15, 2013 (Friday)

What was the Balfour Declaration and how did the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann convince the British government to make the declaration in November of 1917?

The Balfour Declaration was one of the greatest political achievements of the Zionist movement. Issued on November 2, 1917 the declaration arose in order to provide the Jewish people a national home. Based on this declaration, the home was to be found in Palestine, yet it would not take up the whole state (just a part of it). The British War Cabinet, whom issued the Balfour Declaration, reviewed it many times, carefully choosing how to phrase certain parts of it. They sought to suggest that through the declaration, Palestine was to be one of many “homes” in which Jews can live and that they would not take over the rights of the non-Jews. It also states that the Jews’ economic rights and status would not be negatively targeted. already in Palestine. was to establish a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people. The declaration would have never emerged if it was not for Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann convinced the British government to issue the Balfour Declaration. Chaim, who was a successful chemist and aided in advancements in explosives using acetone proved vital to the war effort. The had been a chemist whose advances in the production of acetone, which are used in explosive production, were crucial to the British war effort. The British War Cabinet recognized his incredible importance and was open to hearing his Zionist views and innovations.

What was the dispute between Chaim Weizmann and Louis Brandeis, the American Zionist leader, about?

Basically, the dispute between Chaim Weizmann and Louis Brandeis was due to the fact that each Zionist leader viewed Zionism in two completely different ways. Brandeis was not truly concerned with establishing a homeland in Palestine for the Jews. Instead, he felt that American ideals such as cultural pluralism, self-determination and democracy to be fundamental in the Zionist movement. His beliefs further separated him from Weizmann and the rest of the eastern European Zionist movement. Weizmann viewed Brandeis as a competitor due to the fact that Brandeis was a man of political, intellectual, and moral authority. Brandeis felt that “the Balfour Declaration officially recognized Zionist aspirations and attention now had to be placed on the construction of a sound economy in Palestine”. Weizmann, on the other hand, felt that the political work of the Zionists was just getting started.  The dispute between the two Zionist leaders continued and at a Zionist conference in London in 1920, Weizmann called out Brandies, publicly stating that, “…We are different, absolutely different. There is no bridge between Washington and Pinsk” further declaring that the two would not agree on how Zionist practices should be carried out (Efron 363).