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Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship
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First published June 4, 2007
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About the author
Martin Gilbert
251 books419 followersThe official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
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Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
https://twitter.com/sirmartin36
https://www.facebook.com/sirmartingil...
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 22, 2022
A pivotal and scholarly study by one of the greatest historians of the 20th century and official biographer of Winston Churchill into Churchill's very special relationship with the Jewish people and his support for the Jewish cause and the Jewish national liberation movement- Zionism.
Churchill's father Randolph was himself berated by associates because of his friendship with individual Jews.
Winston Churchill would take this friendship further into the public domain and was a supporter of the Balfour Declaration promising a restoration of the Land of Israel to it's ancient inhabitants the Jews.
Churchill saw the evils of both Bolshevism/Communism and Nazism and led the fight against both diabolical systems.
He rightly pointed to the cruel excesses carried out by Bolshevik commissars and foresaw the great struggle for the soul that would last to the current day between Zionism and Communism. The fact that the Zionist cause would distract young Jews from advancing Communism and give them an alternative focus-that of rebuilding the Jewish ancient home in their ancient homeland- the drive of Communism for world domination, is in my opinion the real root of the hatred of Leftist Jews for Zionism and Israel.
Churchill endorsed Zionism and charged Jewish Bolsheviks with engineering a world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization'. While Churchill was correct to condemn Bolshevism and Jewish-born Bolshevik criminals, his description of Bolshevism as a 'Jewish movement' was an anomaly in his usual friendly attitude to the Jewish people, and was a gross exaggeration and generalization.
In 1921 Churchill visited 'Palestine' and at Gaza was greeted by howling mobs crying 'Death to the Jews: Cut their throats", part of the very early hostility shown to the Jewish people by the Arabs of the area, and fanned by the Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.
Churchill was determined that British commitment to Jewish statehood and immigration into the Land of Israel would not be compromised by the drive to appease Arab rage as exactly would be done with the White Paper of 1937 by the great appeaser of 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain. Churchill pointed out that the Jews in pre-state Israel at the time were under unprovoked deadly attack in the 1920s and 1930s by Arab mobs, and urged the British authorities to protect the Jewish people of the Levant.
These attacks grew more intense in the 1930s with the fifth aliyah of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to pre-state Israel, as well as the radio broadcasts from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which blew the flames of Arab rage against the Jews into an inferno.
Churchill was up against the machine of the British establishment in his campaign for Jewish rights in Palestine and was opposed by most of the British Cabinet at the time. Chamberlain said 'if we have to offend either the Arabs or the Jews, let it be the Jews' and Anthony Eden's secretary wrote that Eden was immovable on the subject of Palestine as he 'loves Arabs and hates Jews'.
It was Churchill who drew attention to the large scale immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, leading to a tripling of the Arab population in the first two decades of the British Mandate,
In 1938 quoting from the official British mandate census figures in Parliament at Westminster Churchill noted that 'in the past 15 years between 1923 and 1938 there had been according to the official figures an increase of 300 000 in the Arab population and 315 000 in the Jewish population.
Churchill opposed the infamous white Paper of 1937 that gave the Jews only a third of Western Palestine , a fraction of land [promised by the Balfour Declaration.
"Therefore it would seem to me, having regard to our wartime pledges, that it would obviously be right for us to decide now that Jewish immigration shall not be less in any given period than the growth of the Arab population arising from the animating and fertilising influence of the Jews'
Churchill warned against Nazi persecution of the Jews from 1933 and when the news of the mass slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust by the Nazis became apparent he warned that the Nazis responsible for these horrors should be put to death.
He also endorsed the call by Zionist political leader Moshe Shertok (later Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett) for the Allies to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz, which was not ultimately carried out.
Roosevelt I learned here wished to qualify Churchill's statements on the Nazi atrocities with the word 'alleged' and Roosevelt too was talked out of supporting a Jewish national home in Israel by the Saudi King.
Churchill opposed as leader of the opposition Britain's senseless 'squalid war against the Jews' in Palestine carried out by the Attlee and Bevin government , and seems to be aware that this was the most shameful and despicable moment in Britain's proud and illustrious history .
He spoke against the British governments aid of the Arab aggression with arms and officers after Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948 and urged Britain to recognize the fledgling state of Israel.
On Churchill's 80th birthday on 30 November 1954, Foreign Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett wrote to Churchill "Your staunch advocacy of the Zionist idea, your belief in justice and ultimate triumph and your joy in it's consummation with the rise of an independent Israel have earned you the everlasting gratitude of the Jewish people."
An interesting aside in this book is that is that Churchill's father Randolph was greatly influenced by the Jewish Prime Minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli,.
Oner November evening in 1947 Churchill had fallen asleep while painting and dreamed that he was talking with his father. During the conversation Lord Randolph said "I always believed in Dizzy, the old Jew. He saw into the future, We had to bring the English working man into the picture"
Churchill would have urged Britain to stand by Israel w
Merged review:
A pivotal and scholarly study by one of the greatest historians of the 20th century and official biographer of Winston Churchill into Churchill's very special relationship with the Jewish people and his support for the Jewish cause and the Jewish national liberation movement- Zionism.
Churchill's father Randolph was himself berated by associates because of his friendship with individual Jews.
Winston Churchill would take this friendship further into the public domain and was a supporter of the Balfour Declaration promising a restoration of the Land of Israel to it's ancient inhabitants the Jews.
Churchill saw the evils of both Bolshevism/Communism and Nazism and led the fight against both diabolical systems.
He rightly pointed to the cruel excesses carried out by Bolshevik commissars and foresaw the great struggle for the soul that would last to the current day between Zionism and Communism. The fact that the Zionist cause would distract young Jews from advancing Communism and give them an alternative focus-that of rebuilding the Jewish ancient home in their ancient homeland- the drive of Communism for world domination, is in my opinion the real root of the hatred of Leftist Jews for Zionism and Israel.
Churchill endorsed Zionism and charged Jewish Bolsheviks with engineering a world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization'. While Churchill was correct to condemn Bolshevism and Jewish-born Bolshevik criminals, his description of Bolshevism as a 'Jewish movement' was an anomaly in his usual friendly attitude to the Jewish people, and was a gross exaggeration and generalization.
In 1921 Churchill visited 'Palestine' and at Gaza was greeted by howling mobs crying 'Death to the Jews: Cut their throats", part of the very early hostility shown to the Jewish people by the Arabs of the area, and fanned by the Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.
Churchill was determined that British commitment to Jewish statehood and immigration into the Land of Israel would not be compromised by the drive to appease Arab rage as exactly would be done with the White Paper of 1937 by the great appeaser of 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain. Churchill pointed out that the Jews in pre-state Israel at the time were under unprovoked deadly attack in the 1920s and 1930s by Arab mobs, and urged the British authorities to protect the Jewish people of the Levant.
These attacks grew more intense in the 1930s with the fifth aliyah of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to pre-state Israel, as well as the radio broadcasts from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which blew the flames of Arab rage against the Jews into an inferno.
Churchill was up against the machine of the British establishment in his campaign for Jewish rights in Palestine and was opposed by most of the British Cabinet at the time. Chamberlain said 'if we have to offend either the Arabs or the Jews, let it be the Jews' and Anthony Eden's secretary wrote that Eden was immovable on the subject of Palestine as he 'loves Arabs and hates Jews'.
It was Churchill who drew attention to the large scale immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, leading to a tripling of the Arab population in the first two decades of the British Mandate,
In 1938 quoting from the official British mandate census figures in Parliament at Westminster Churchill noted that 'in the past 15 years between 1923 and 1938 there had been according to the official figures an increase of 300 000 in the Arab population and 315 000 in the Jewish population.
Churchill opposed the infamous white Paper of 1937 that gave the Jews only a third of Western Palestine , a fraction of land [promised by the Balfour Declaration.
"Therefore it would seem to me, having regard to our wartime pledges, that it would obviously be right for us to decide now that Jewish immigration shall not be less in any given period than the growth of the Arab population arising from the animating and fertilizing influence of the Jews'
Churchill warned against Nazi persecution of the Jews from 1933 and when the news of the mass slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust by the Nazis became apparent he warned that the Nazis responsible for these horrors should be put to death.
He also endorsed the call by Zionist political leader Moshe Shertok (later Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett) for the Allies to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz, which was not ultimately carried out.
Roosevelt I learned here wished to qualify Churchill's statements on the Nazi atrocities with the word 'alleged' and Roosevelt too was talked out of supporting a Jewish national home in Israel by the Saudi King.
Churchill opposed as leader of the opposition Britain's senseless 'squalid war against the Jews' in Palestine carried out by the Attlee and Bevin government , and seems to be aware that this was the most shameful and despicable moment in Britain's proud and illustrious history .
He spoke against the British governments aid of the Arab aggression with arms and officers after Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948 and urged Britain to recognize the fledgling state of Israel.
On Churchill's 80th birthday on 30 November 1954, Foreign Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett wrote to Churchill "Your staunch advocacy of the Zionist idea, your belief in justice and ultimate triumph and your joy in it's consummation with the rise of an independent Israel have earned you the everlasting gratitude of the Jewish people."
An interesting aside in this book is that is that Churchill's father Randolph was greatly influenced by the Jewish Prime Minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli,.
Oner November evening in 1947 Churchill had fallen asleep while painting and dreamed that he was talking with his father. During the conversation Lord Randolph said "I always believed in Dizzy, the old Jew. He saw into the future, We had to bring the English working man into the picture"
Churchill would have urged Britain to stand by Israel while it is under genocidal attack by terror and world radicalism and also would have urged a better deal for Britain's indigenous working classes.
Churchill's father Randolph was himself berated by associates because of his friendship with individual Jews.
Winston Churchill would take this friendship further into the public domain and was a supporter of the Balfour Declaration promising a restoration of the Land of Israel to it's ancient inhabitants the Jews.
Churchill saw the evils of both Bolshevism/Communism and Nazism and led the fight against both diabolical systems.
He rightly pointed to the cruel excesses carried out by Bolshevik commissars and foresaw the great struggle for the soul that would last to the current day between Zionism and Communism. The fact that the Zionist cause would distract young Jews from advancing Communism and give them an alternative focus-that of rebuilding the Jewish ancient home in their ancient homeland- the drive of Communism for world domination, is in my opinion the real root of the hatred of Leftist Jews for Zionism and Israel.
Churchill endorsed Zionism and charged Jewish Bolsheviks with engineering a world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization'. While Churchill was correct to condemn Bolshevism and Jewish-born Bolshevik criminals, his description of Bolshevism as a 'Jewish movement' was an anomaly in his usual friendly attitude to the Jewish people, and was a gross exaggeration and generalization.
In 1921 Churchill visited 'Palestine' and at Gaza was greeted by howling mobs crying 'Death to the Jews: Cut their throats", part of the very early hostility shown to the Jewish people by the Arabs of the area, and fanned by the Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.
Churchill was determined that British commitment to Jewish statehood and immigration into the Land of Israel would not be compromised by the drive to appease Arab rage as exactly would be done with the White Paper of 1937 by the great appeaser of 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain. Churchill pointed out that the Jews in pre-state Israel at the time were under unprovoked deadly attack in the 1920s and 1930s by Arab mobs, and urged the British authorities to protect the Jewish people of the Levant.
These attacks grew more intense in the 1930s with the fifth aliyah of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to pre-state Israel, as well as the radio broadcasts from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which blew the flames of Arab rage against the Jews into an inferno.
Churchill was up against the machine of the British establishment in his campaign for Jewish rights in Palestine and was opposed by most of the British Cabinet at the time. Chamberlain said 'if we have to offend either the Arabs or the Jews, let it be the Jews' and Anthony Eden's secretary wrote that Eden was immovable on the subject of Palestine as he 'loves Arabs and hates Jews'.
It was Churchill who drew attention to the large scale immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, leading to a tripling of the Arab population in the first two decades of the British Mandate,
In 1938 quoting from the official British mandate census figures in Parliament at Westminster Churchill noted that 'in the past 15 years between 1923 and 1938 there had been according to the official figures an increase of 300 000 in the Arab population and 315 000 in the Jewish population.
Churchill opposed the infamous white Paper of 1937 that gave the Jews only a third of Western Palestine , a fraction of land [promised by the Balfour Declaration.
"Therefore it would seem to me, having regard to our wartime pledges, that it would obviously be right for us to decide now that Jewish immigration shall not be less in any given period than the growth of the Arab population arising from the animating and fertilising influence of the Jews'
Churchill warned against Nazi persecution of the Jews from 1933 and when the news of the mass slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust by the Nazis became apparent he warned that the Nazis responsible for these horrors should be put to death.
He also endorsed the call by Zionist political leader Moshe Shertok (later Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett) for the Allies to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz, which was not ultimately carried out.
Roosevelt I learned here wished to qualify Churchill's statements on the Nazi atrocities with the word 'alleged' and Roosevelt too was talked out of supporting a Jewish national home in Israel by the Saudi King.
Churchill opposed as leader of the opposition Britain's senseless 'squalid war against the Jews' in Palestine carried out by the Attlee and Bevin government , and seems to be aware that this was the most shameful and despicable moment in Britain's proud and illustrious history .
He spoke against the British governments aid of the Arab aggression with arms and officers after Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948 and urged Britain to recognize the fledgling state of Israel.
On Churchill's 80th birthday on 30 November 1954, Foreign Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett wrote to Churchill "Your staunch advocacy of the Zionist idea, your belief in justice and ultimate triumph and your joy in it's consummation with the rise of an independent Israel have earned you the everlasting gratitude of the Jewish people."
An interesting aside in this book is that is that Churchill's father Randolph was greatly influenced by the Jewish Prime Minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli,.
Oner November evening in 1947 Churchill had fallen asleep while painting and dreamed that he was talking with his father. During the conversation Lord Randolph said "I always believed in Dizzy, the old Jew. He saw into the future, We had to bring the English working man into the picture"
Churchill would have urged Britain to stand by Israel w
Merged review:
A pivotal and scholarly study by one of the greatest historians of the 20th century and official biographer of Winston Churchill into Churchill's very special relationship with the Jewish people and his support for the Jewish cause and the Jewish national liberation movement- Zionism.
Churchill's father Randolph was himself berated by associates because of his friendship with individual Jews.
Winston Churchill would take this friendship further into the public domain and was a supporter of the Balfour Declaration promising a restoration of the Land of Israel to it's ancient inhabitants the Jews.
Churchill saw the evils of both Bolshevism/Communism and Nazism and led the fight against both diabolical systems.
He rightly pointed to the cruel excesses carried out by Bolshevik commissars and foresaw the great struggle for the soul that would last to the current day between Zionism and Communism. The fact that the Zionist cause would distract young Jews from advancing Communism and give them an alternative focus-that of rebuilding the Jewish ancient home in their ancient homeland- the drive of Communism for world domination, is in my opinion the real root of the hatred of Leftist Jews for Zionism and Israel.
Churchill endorsed Zionism and charged Jewish Bolsheviks with engineering a world wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization'. While Churchill was correct to condemn Bolshevism and Jewish-born Bolshevik criminals, his description of Bolshevism as a 'Jewish movement' was an anomaly in his usual friendly attitude to the Jewish people, and was a gross exaggeration and generalization.
In 1921 Churchill visited 'Palestine' and at Gaza was greeted by howling mobs crying 'Death to the Jews: Cut their throats", part of the very early hostility shown to the Jewish people by the Arabs of the area, and fanned by the Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini.
Churchill was determined that British commitment to Jewish statehood and immigration into the Land of Israel would not be compromised by the drive to appease Arab rage as exactly would be done with the White Paper of 1937 by the great appeaser of 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain. Churchill pointed out that the Jews in pre-state Israel at the time were under unprovoked deadly attack in the 1920s and 1930s by Arab mobs, and urged the British authorities to protect the Jewish people of the Levant.
These attacks grew more intense in the 1930s with the fifth aliyah of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to pre-state Israel, as well as the radio broadcasts from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which blew the flames of Arab rage against the Jews into an inferno.
Churchill was up against the machine of the British establishment in his campaign for Jewish rights in Palestine and was opposed by most of the British Cabinet at the time. Chamberlain said 'if we have to offend either the Arabs or the Jews, let it be the Jews' and Anthony Eden's secretary wrote that Eden was immovable on the subject of Palestine as he 'loves Arabs and hates Jews'.
It was Churchill who drew attention to the large scale immigration into Palestine of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, leading to a tripling of the Arab population in the first two decades of the British Mandate,
In 1938 quoting from the official British mandate census figures in Parliament at Westminster Churchill noted that 'in the past 15 years between 1923 and 1938 there had been according to the official figures an increase of 300 000 in the Arab population and 315 000 in the Jewish population.
Churchill opposed the infamous white Paper of 1937 that gave the Jews only a third of Western Palestine , a fraction of land [promised by the Balfour Declaration.
"Therefore it would seem to me, having regard to our wartime pledges, that it would obviously be right for us to decide now that Jewish immigration shall not be less in any given period than the growth of the Arab population arising from the animating and fertilizing influence of the Jews'
Churchill warned against Nazi persecution of the Jews from 1933 and when the news of the mass slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust by the Nazis became apparent he warned that the Nazis responsible for these horrors should be put to death.
He also endorsed the call by Zionist political leader Moshe Shertok (later Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett) for the Allies to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz, which was not ultimately carried out.
Roosevelt I learned here wished to qualify Churchill's statements on the Nazi atrocities with the word 'alleged' and Roosevelt too was talked out of supporting a Jewish national home in Israel by the Saudi King.
Churchill opposed as leader of the opposition Britain's senseless 'squalid war against the Jews' in Palestine carried out by the Attlee and Bevin government , and seems to be aware that this was the most shameful and despicable moment in Britain's proud and illustrious history .
He spoke against the British governments aid of the Arab aggression with arms and officers after Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948 and urged Britain to recognize the fledgling state of Israel.
On Churchill's 80th birthday on 30 November 1954, Foreign Minister of Israel Moshe Sharett wrote to Churchill "Your staunch advocacy of the Zionist idea, your belief in justice and ultimate triumph and your joy in it's consummation with the rise of an independent Israel have earned you the everlasting gratitude of the Jewish people."
An interesting aside in this book is that is that Churchill's father Randolph was greatly influenced by the Jewish Prime Minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli,.
Oner November evening in 1947 Churchill had fallen asleep while painting and dreamed that he was talking with his father. During the conversation Lord Randolph said "I always believed in Dizzy, the old Jew. He saw into the future, We had to bring the English working man into the picture"
Churchill would have urged Britain to stand by Israel while it is under genocidal attack by terror and world radicalism and also would have urged a better deal for Britain's indigenous working classes.
April 22, 2011
Very interesting account of Churchill's involvement in the support of Zionism. Good feel for the societal demeanor during the early 1900's and thru to 1970's. A good read encompassing the history of England and it's "right" to declare Isreal as a place for Jew's to escape anti-semitism and enjoy freedom.
September 18, 2021
And to think - without Churchill, Israel may still be at war against the the UK. Without Churchill, the UK may have once again expelled the Jews.
April 12, 2022
The author's devotion to Churchill's memory is clear and may at times cloud his judgement but the book is an intriguing read. On one thing I was left uncertain: what persuaded Churchill, in his youth, to favour Zionism?
Gilbert skirts around the point somewhat. After all for an English boy at the end of the nineteenth-century who attended one of the prominent public schools – Harrow – one would not expect a Zionist to be the outcome. Gilbert suggests, I think uncertainly, that reading the Old Testament was a major factor. Personally I have always felt that reading the King James Bible defined Churchill's literary style and speech-writing and little else - I am not sure it had much effect on his political or social views. Then there is his father's association and friendship with members of the British Jewish elite and the suggestion that Churchill came to respect and admire them from those contacts. Gilbert mentions it briefly and brings in Churchill's visit to Paris at the time of the Dreyfus affair. The whole of that discussion – Churchill's early days - takes up about four pages.
For the little that it is worth I am persuaded that, when Churchill began his political career, he was more pragmatic and inspired by his patriotic duty to the Empire. He knew of the Zionist cause and the desire for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and his experience with Jewish entrepreneurs, scientists and politicians made him certain that such a Jewish state could be created and made to survive politically, economically and militarily. To have such a state in Palestine and to have it beholden to Britain for its creation and survival would be a very useful tool to set against Egypt and the other Muslim states if a threat against the Suez Canal were ever made. The canal was essential to connect Britain to India and the growing importance of Iranian oil. Thus Churchill's support for the Balfour Declaration.
Later the Holocaust changed everything and then the Cold War changed it all again. The author makes clear that Churchill's stance in favour of Jewish nationhood remained firm and resolute and he continued to play a major part in the establishment of Israel and securing its survival in a hostile environment. I would recommend the book even to those who would question pro-Zionist motives. It could be an education for us all.
Gilbert skirts around the point somewhat. After all for an English boy at the end of the nineteenth-century who attended one of the prominent public schools – Harrow – one would not expect a Zionist to be the outcome. Gilbert suggests, I think uncertainly, that reading the Old Testament was a major factor. Personally I have always felt that reading the King James Bible defined Churchill's literary style and speech-writing and little else - I am not sure it had much effect on his political or social views. Then there is his father's association and friendship with members of the British Jewish elite and the suggestion that Churchill came to respect and admire them from those contacts. Gilbert mentions it briefly and brings in Churchill's visit to Paris at the time of the Dreyfus affair. The whole of that discussion – Churchill's early days - takes up about four pages.
For the little that it is worth I am persuaded that, when Churchill began his political career, he was more pragmatic and inspired by his patriotic duty to the Empire. He knew of the Zionist cause and the desire for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and his experience with Jewish entrepreneurs, scientists and politicians made him certain that such a Jewish state could be created and made to survive politically, economically and militarily. To have such a state in Palestine and to have it beholden to Britain for its creation and survival would be a very useful tool to set against Egypt and the other Muslim states if a threat against the Suez Canal were ever made. The canal was essential to connect Britain to India and the growing importance of Iranian oil. Thus Churchill's support for the Balfour Declaration.
Later the Holocaust changed everything and then the Cold War changed it all again. The author makes clear that Churchill's stance in favour of Jewish nationhood remained firm and resolute and he continued to play a major part in the establishment of Israel and securing its survival in a hostile environment. I would recommend the book even to those who would question pro-Zionist motives. It could be an education for us all.
June 22, 2023
Well-written but odd. The title describes the book to a T: It focuses on contacts Churchill had with various Jews, their plans and arguments, and his efforts on the behalf of the Jews during the Nazi regime and in Palestine. The book doesn't fill in much background about the relevant historical trends (which would have been too voluminous to include). I sense that Gilbert wrote this book to fill in a gap he saw in the historical record left by Churchill as well as by Gilbert himself.
August 17, 2020
This was a book group selection, and I thought it sounded interesting. My mistake. I felt like I was back in college and should have had s highlighter in hand. Although factually interesting, the book was filled with far too many quotes, which made it interminable. Give me wish the abbreviated Cliff Note version rather than this.
October 19, 2025
'thoroughly enjoyed another Sir Martin Gilbert gem. You will learn a lot about the origins of the Arab-Israel conflict here. Sir Churchill was a very good friend to secularist, Weitzman and supported the Balfour Declaration even against much pro-Arab, British political opposition.
June 29, 2017
A fascinating story homing in on the re- establishment of Israel . Does not shirk the complexity of the situational politics but presents an engaging account .
June 28, 2024
An interesting account of Churchill and his relationship with Jews. Much here that I didn't know. I was also very surprised to see how often his own Cabinet stymied him in relation To Palestine
August 22, 2025
Thoroughly and brilliantly researched by one remarkable man, Sir Martin Gilbert, about another, Sir Winston Churchill.
December 31, 2022
Absolutely the most powerful synopsis of Churchill and his love and respect of the Jewish people
I am overwhelmed and highly recommend this book and author
May Churchill rest in peace
I am overwhelmed and highly recommend this book and author
May Churchill rest in peace
May 14, 2015
"We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics, which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization."
Sir Martin Gilbert has written several books on Churchill and on World War II. In this one he traces the life long relationship between Churchill, British Jews, and Zionism (the movement dedicated to creating a home for Jews in Palestine). The book was well written and explored the attitudes of Churchill's contemporaries (often unsympathetic towards Zionism, Pro-Arab, and sometimes clearly anti-Semitic) and contrasts them with Churchill's support for Jews and the Balfour declaration. This was an easier read than I thought it might be.
An interesting interview with the author: http://www.aish.com/ci/a/48961901.html
Sir Martin Gilbert has written several books on Churchill and on World War II. In this one he traces the life long relationship between Churchill, British Jews, and Zionism (the movement dedicated to creating a home for Jews in Palestine). The book was well written and explored the attitudes of Churchill's contemporaries (often unsympathetic towards Zionism, Pro-Arab, and sometimes clearly anti-Semitic) and contrasts them with Churchill's support for Jews and the Balfour declaration. This was an easier read than I thought it might be.
An interesting interview with the author: http://www.aish.com/ci/a/48961901.html
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May 9, 2011I’ve always had a problem with seeing Churchill as a friend of the Jews. After all, he presided over the Britain that actively thwarted the attempts of Jews to escape the clutches of Hitler and flee to Palestine (the Palestine that was to have been a national home for the Jews). Allowing unlimited immigration to Palestine during this terrible era may well have saved many (even most?) of the six million, and I’ve yet to hear a reasonable explanation as to why he did not permit this.
Whatever else he may or may not have done for the Jews or Zionism in his lifetime is surely overshadowed by this massive failure.
Anyway, I’m curious at to what his biographer has to say in this regard.
Whatever else he may or may not have done for the Jews or Zionism in his lifetime is surely overshadowed by this massive failure.
Anyway, I’m curious at to what his biographer has to say in this regard.
April 1, 2019
I have read many books on WW II, particularly those related to the Holocaust and those who helped the Jews, but this is the first book that deals with Winston Churchill's efforts to save the Jews and establish a homeland for them. My interest in the book was peaked by seeing the documentary An Unlikely Obsession, based on that book.
March 28, 2009
This book is a fascinating recounting of Churchill's support of the Jews from his early life onward. I'm learning so much about a topic about which I knew very little.
December 2, 2016
More, Churchill and the Zionists. Interesting more than compelling.
September 3, 2020
Well written and a fascinating read.
April 21, 2013
Eloquent though not uncritical account of Churchill's record with Jews.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews