The 93rd Anniversary Of The Balfour Declaration--Which Was Written By Someone Else

Daphne Anson writes about the unusual background of the Balfour Declaration--the man who signed it is not the one who actually wrote it: The Mosque-Founder’s Nephew who drafted the Balfour Declaration – Leopold Amery, the “Secret Jew”:

The Balfour Declaration – issued 93 years ago this coming Tuesday, 2 November, and in effect the State of Israel’s founding charter – bears the name of Britain’s Foreign Secretary, who signed it in the form of a letter to Anglo-Jewry’s de facto leader Lord Rothschild, who was asked to make its contents known to the Zionist Federation. It was authored not by Balfour but by the political secretary to Lloyd George’s Cabinet, Leopold (Leo) Amery (1873-1955). In October 1917 he was given several unsatisfactory drafts of what became known as the Balfour Declaration and asked to finalise it.
To the resulting document the full cabinet (Amery was not a member, his first cabinet post being First Lord of the Admiralty in the “Die-hard” Tory administration of 1922) made only two minor amendments. One altered his promise of a “National home for the Jewish race” – an interesting wording in view of who and what its author was – to “Jewish people”. The other omitted the final seven words of his draft, which spoke of the rights “enjoyed by Jews in any other country who are contented with their existing nationality”.

Leo Amery was, in the words of Professor William Rubinstein, who definitively traced his maternal Hungarian Jewish genealogy a decade ago (attribution at the foot of this post) and first made the full intriguing story known – though perhaps not as well-known as it might be – in essence a “secret Jew”. One of the most prominent British statesmen of his time, known especially as an advocate of imperial preference and Empire unity, the super-patriotic, extremely able Amery (shown here on Lloyd George’s left) may well have become British prime minister had he not stood only five feet four inches in height (at Harrow School he was known as “the pocket Hercules”, for his remarkable upper body strength, and may have been distantly related to Houdini).

Anson delves into Amery's family background, revealing the fact that he--like many in his family--converted to Christianity:

However, Amery, whose Anglican baptism in India was performed by the Rev. Henry Aaron Stern, yet another converted Jew or “Hebrew Christian” in the Leitners’ circle, was fully alive to his Jewish heritage and frequently exerted his influence on behalf of Jewish causes. It’s been suggested that he hid his Jewishness in order to escape antisemitism at Harrow (where he was a brilliant student) and for the sake of his career within the Conservative Party – he was very close to his mother in view of his parents’ divorce and she was ambitious for him, probably advising that any hint of foreign origin could damage his prospects.

In his autobiography he says – probably truthfully – that although he had heard of Herzl, he was “completely unaware” that a Zionist movement existed until he heard about it from enthusiastic gentile Zionist Sir Mark Sykes during the First World War.

Amery's contribution to the establishment of the State of Israel did not end with the Balfour Declaration:

As assistant military secretary to the Secretary of State for War, Amery played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Jewish Legion, consisting of three battalions of Jewish soldiers who served, under Britain’s aegis, in Palestine during the First World War and were the forerunners of the IDF. “I seem to have had my finger in the pie, not only of the Balfour Declaration, but of the genesis of the present Israeli Army”, he notes proudly.

As Dominions Secretary (1925-29) he had responsibility for the Palestine Mandate, robustly supporting the growth and development of the Yishuv – Weizman recalled Amery’s “unstinting encouragement and support” and that Amery “realized the importance of a Jewish Palestine in the British imperial scheme of things more than anyone else. He also had much insight into the intrinsic fineness of the Zionist movement”.

Leo Amery was a fascinating personality, and I suggest you read Daphne Anson's post to get the full picture of who Amery was--and about his uncle, the one who founded Britain's first mosque in 1889.

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