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Title page also has, handwritten in Hebrew: "From the library of M. V. Ros[?man]." Paper yellowed. A few illustrations. Nahum ben Joseph Samuel Sokolow (10 Jan 1859 Wyszogrod, Poland - 17 May 1936 London) Zionist leader, author, translator, and a pioneer of Hebrew journalism. Born to a rabbinic family in Wyszogród, Poland (then Russian Empire), Sokolow began writing for the local Hebrew newspaper, HaTzefirah, at age 17, quickly won a huge following that crossed the boundaries of political and religious affiliation among Polish Jews, from secular intellectuals to anti-Zionist Haredim, eventually had his own regular column, then became the newspaper's senior editor and a co-owner. He was a prolific author and translator. His works include a 3 volume history of Baruch Spinoza and his times, and other biographies. He was the first to translate Theodor Herzl's utopian novel Altneuland into Hebrew, giving it the name Tel Aviv (literally, "An Ancient Hill of Spring"). which in 1909 was adopted for the first modern Hebrew-speaking city: Tel Aviv. In 1906 he was asked to serve as secretary general of the World Zionist Congress. He then spent years crisscrossing Europe and North America to promote Zionism. During World War I, he lived in London, where he was a leading advocate for the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which the British government declared its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. On 6 Feb 1917 a meeting was held in Maida Vale with Dr Weizmann to discuss the results of the Picot convention in Paris. Sokolow and Weizmann pressed on after seizing leadership from Gaster; they were granted official recognition from the British government. At 6 Buckingham Gate on 10 Feb 1917 another was held, in a series of winter meetings in London. The generation of Anglo-Jewish Association assimilationists, Greenberg, Cowen and Gaster were stepping down or being passed over. ".those friends . in close cooperation all these years", Weizmann suggested should become the EZF Council (English Zionist Freedom) - Manchester's Sieff, Sacher and Marks, and London's Leon Simon and Samuel Tollowsky: the Zionists take over of Jewish leadership in Britain. While the war was raging outside, the Zionists prepared for an even bigger fight; the survival of their home land. They issued a statement on 11 Feb 1917, and on 12th, they received news of the Kerensky take over in Petrograd. Tsarist Russia was very anti-semitic. But incongruously this made the British government even more determined to help the Jews. Chaim Weizmann wrote to the Manchester Zionist, Harry Sacher, who became a focus for the view that Sokolow and Weizmann had capitulated; forfeiting the right to lead by "preferring British Imperialism . to Zionism". Sacher distinguished his Manchester base as different from the "London folk". He did not trust the Foreign Office, nor Weizmann's tactics. In a letter to Tollowsky, Weizmann branded Sacher as "Draufheher" - German extremist Sokolow acted as Weizmann's eyes and ears in Paris on a diplomatic mission with Sir Mark Sykes to negotiate with the French. The idea that the Jews would form a new kind of Triple Entente under the Ottoman Empire was unsettling to them. Nonetheless the delegation left for Paris on 31 March 1917. One purpose of the Entente was to strengthen the hand of Zionism in USA. "The Jews represented a powerful political and economic force.if subterranean influence". Sokolow did not know of the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement and hidden British/French understanding on Middle Eastern policy matters. He believed that he must report to Weizmann that what France really meant by a "Greater Syria", taking the whole of Palestine for themselves. In a series of letters in April and May 1917, Weizmann accused Sokolow of letting the Zionists down in negotiations with France. Sokolow countered that . . . Seller Inventory # 008919
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