Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/900775
W hile reviewing the pages of the JN from 75 years ago, I keep my eyes open for big stories. In this instance, I looked for what I thought would be a big historical story on the 25th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Considering the impact the Balfour Declaration had on global Jewish affairs, I was a bit surprised at the meager reporting in the JN. But, of course, WWII was the big story. This month, in 2017, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a letter from British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour on Nov. 3, 1917, to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild. Then, Great Britain still controlled an empire covering 25 percent of the world's territory, so the British Foreign Secretary was one of the globe's most powerful people. Rothschild was a wealthy business magnate, philanthropist and Zionist, perhaps the most famous Jew of his era. It was a very short letter, but it held this prophetic statement: "His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of the Jewish people." Few written words have had a greater impact upon the world. After receiving the news from Rothschild, Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist movement, wrote back, stating: "May I offer you our heartiest thanks — I am sure that when the history of this time will be written, it will be justifiably said that the name of the greatest House in Jewry was associ- ated with the granting of the Magna Carta of Jewish liberties." There were many steps on the 2,000-year path that ended in the establishment of the State of Israel. There was the work of Theodore Herzl, who initiated the founding of the World Zionist Organization at the First World Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. Weizmann, first president of the State of Israel, was a tireless Zionist, a founder of Hebrew University as well as many other organizations in Palestine — and the person who persuaded Lord Balfour of the righteousness of the cause. There were thousands of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, especially after the pogroms in Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and after World War II. They worked the land and established their homes there; they made the desert bloom. And they fought and died in the 1948 War of Independence. The Balfour Declaration was one of the major stepping stones. While the predecessor of the JN, the Detroit Jewish Chronicle devoted a report about the Declaration on its front page, its editorial on page 3 was an ambivalent endorsement, at best. In 1942, on the 25th anniversary of the Declaration, the JN did run a brief story on page 3, but with a big headline: "Christians, Jews Hail Achievements." The story did indeed praise Jewish accomplishments in Palestine, but did not report much more than that. However, World War II was on the top of everyone's mind, a lot of Jewish men were fighting in Allied forces around the globe, and the Holocaust was raging. And, the Detroit Jewish News itself was only a few months old. It was founded by Philip Slomovitz as a voice for Detroit's Jews and as a publication that would support the Zionist cause. Over the past 75 years, the JN has proved itself true to its roots. • Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org. 66 November 16 • 2017 jn From the DJN Davidson Digital Archive Mike Smith Detroit Jewish News Foundation Archivist Detroit Jewish Chronicle and JN played milestone anniversaries differently. Lionel Walter Rothschild Dr. Chaim Weizmann Arthur James Balfour Balfour Declaration Detroit Jewish Chronicle, front page, Nov. 16, 1917 Detroit Jewish News, front page, Nov. 6, 1942 Detroit Jewish Chronicle editorial, Nov. 16, 1917