English Zionist Federation Congress (September 1905)
Charles Dreyfus and Chaim Weizmann represented Manchester at this EZF conference. Their report was of great interest to their fellow Zionists because the conference had had to consider the divisive question of whether or not to accept the British Government’s offer of a tract of land in East Africa as an alternative Jewish homeland.
CHARLES DREYFUS REPORTED
"that his duties as a delegate had been of an arduous nature, and that as such he had encountered perhaps the most trying time in his life… [After voting] some of the English delegates had behaved even worse than the Russians… Mr Zangwill had issued a [Territorialist] programme antagonistic to that of Zionism; they therefore could not recognise his work as coming within the limits of true Zionism… When there were men in the Cabinet like Messrs Greenburg and Cowen, who were not in a position to carry out the mandate given by Congress, they ought not to remain as ministers, and should be asked to resign…
There was no country that appealed more to the heart of the Jew than Palestine, there was no part of it that was not covered with the blood of their ancestors; in that country the Book of Books had been written, and he ventured to say that book was not closed yet, for they hoped to add another chapter to it."
CHAIM WEIZMANN REPORTED
"Mr Zangwill, as the author of [the novel] ‘Children of the Ghetto’, had no doubt painted the interior Jewish life of their people quite faithfully; he had, however, failed to penetrate the great depths of the Jewish soul. The Territorialist party might in his opinion be placed on the same footing as the Jewish Colonisation Association, and he (Dr W), was prepared to wish them every success, but on one condition, namely that they did not interfere with the great Zionist movement. That movement could only occupy itself with Palestine."
(Jewish Chronicle, 8 September 1905)
Local report of the seventh Zionist Congress (Zionist Banner, Sept 1905)
