Lucien Wolf
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Lucien Wolf (20 January 1857 in London23 August 1930) was an English
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish journalist, diplomat, historian, and advocate of rights for Jews and other minorities. While Wolf was devoted to minority rights, he opposed Jewish nationalism as expressed in
Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
, which he regarded an incentive to anti-Semitism. In 1917 he co-founded the anti-Zionist League of British Jews.


Early life

He was the son of Edward Wolf, a London pipe manufacturer, and his wife Céline (born Redlich). Wolf's father was a
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
n Jew who came to England as a political refugee after the
1848 revolution The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...
, and his mother was Viennese.


Career in journalism

Wolf began his career in journalism as early as 1874, at the age of seventeen, becoming a writer for the ''Jewish World'' and remaining at this position until 1894; from 1905 to 1908 he would serve as its editor. He specialized in
foreign affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
and
diplomacy Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of State (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international syste ...
and became a highly respected expert on the subject. In 1877 he became assistant director of the ''Public Leader''. From 1890 to 1909 he was foreign editor of '' The Daily Graphic'', writing under the pseudonym ''Diplomaticus''. From 1895 to 1905 he wrote under the same pseudonym for the '' Fortnightly Review''. As indicated by his pseudonym, Wolf's writings dealt primarily foreign affairs and diplomacy and he became a respected expert in these fields.''Guide to the Papers of Lucien Wolf(1857-1930) ...''
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Mirror page: http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=109129
The outbreak of the anti-Jewish
pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...
s in Russia in 1881 sparked his interest in Jewish affairs. He became a sharp critic of the
Czar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
ist regime and attempted to draw attention to the plight of
Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...
. In 1912 Wolf founded and wrote a supplement named ''Darkest Russia'' to the '' Jewish Chronicle''. With the outbreak of the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Wolf's preference for the more liberal German government to the Russian practically ended his career in journalism, as the British were allied with Russia against Germany.


Anglo-Jewry

Wolf was an enthusiast for Jewish history, and promoting Jewishness. In London he organised the 1887 Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition charting the immigration of Jews to Britain from across Europe over the centuries. In 1893, Wolf was one of the founders and the first president of the
Jewish Historical Society of England The Jewish Historical Society of England (JHSE) was founded in 1893 by several Anglo-Jewish scholars, including Lucien Wolf, who became the society's first president. Early presidents of the JHSE included Hermann Adler, Michael Adler, Joseph Ja ...
. His historical writings rarely extended beyond the aristocracy, exhibiting his own upper-middle class pretensions. Against racial anti-Semitism, he championed Judaism, even offering eugenic justifications for its superiority.


Anti-Zionism

Lucien Wolf was opposed to political Zionism. As an
assimilationist Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or fully adopts the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group. The melting pot model is based on this concept. A relat ...
, he believed Jewry was a spiritual and religious identity and not a nation. He vigorously opposed the new Zionist movement, that had been formed in Manchester. As a powerful editor, Wolf had access to ministers, whom he lobbied frantically to prevent the issuing of the
Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...
. When the Declaration was made public on 2 November 1917, he soon co-founded the anti-Zionist League of British Jews. Wolf understood
Nahum Sokolow Nahum ben Joseph Samuel Sokolow ( ''Nachum ben Yosef Shmuel Soqolov'', ; 10 January 1859 – 17 May 1936) was a Jewish-Polish people, Polish writer, translator, and journalist, the fifth President of the World Zionist Organization, editor of ''H ...
and
Chaim Weizmann Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( ; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organization and later as the first pre ...
's position as threatening the nationality status of British Jews, and wrote "No wonder that all anti-semites are enthusiastic Zionists". The yearning for a home land was historical and fundamental to the essence or quintessence of Jewishness. But to Wolf this "yearning" was primarily only religious.


Conjoint Committee

In 1888, Lucien Wolf became a member of the Conjoint Foreign Committee (CFC), a coordinating organ of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews The Board of Deputies of British Jews, commonly referred to as the Board of Deputies, is the largest and second oldest Jewish communal organisation in the United Kingdom, after the Initiation Society which was founded in 1745. Established in 17 ...
and the Anglo-Jewish Association. Around the start of the First World War, he was appointed secretary, which led to his contacts at the British Foreign Office. He served effectively as "Foreign Secretary" representing Anglo-Jewry, having frequent meetings with members of the Cabinet. After the CFC had published an anti-Zionist manifest in May 1917 without first consulting the Board of Deputies and AJA, the Committee was criticized and the mainly pro-Zionist Board of Deputies withdrew its delegates from the CFC. By the end of 1917 the Committee was re-established under the new name Joint Foreign Committee (JFC). This time, the AJA was allotted a minority of members in the Committee. Lucien Wolf became again its secretary and held this function until his death in 1930.


1919 and after

Wolf was part of the Anglo-Jewish delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He helped draft the
Minority Treaties The Minority Treaties are treaties, League of Nations mandates, and unilateral declarations made by countries applying for membership in the League of Nations that conferred basic rights on all the inhabitants of the country without distinction ...
, which guaranteed rights for ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority populations. The Jewish delegations to the conference were split along different ideological lines. Western Europeans were cautious of both Zionism and diaspora nationalism, wanting Jews to be integrated with society. During the 1920s anti-Semitism became more intensive and organised, particularly in Poland, which had one of Europe's largest Jewish minority populations. The following year in 1926, he went to Portugal to aid the
Marrano ''Marranos'' is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as well as Navarrese jews, who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued t ...
s. Wolf continued to write extensively and in an outspoken manner against Zionist proponents, which he believed was leading to conflict and crises. In 1927
Romanian Jews The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after ...
continued to be victims of pogroms: his work and expertise was recognised by appointment as an Advisor to the Committee for Refugees for the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
at Geneva, which he founded in 1929.


Some works by Lucien Wolf


Newspapers

* The Zionist Peril, ''The Times'', 8 September 1903


Articles

* Parallels of the 17th and 20th Centuries (1885) * 'Jewish Education', ''A Lay Sermon'' – Manuscript (1886) * A Final Note on the Resettlement" published in ''The Jewish Chronicle'' (1886) * Surrey Families (Jews in England) (1887) * The City of London and the Jews (1888) * Early History of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation (1889) * "Situation of Jews in Bagdad", reprint from ''The Jewish Chronicle'' (1889) * The Zionist Peril, ''Jewish Quarterly Review'', 17 October 1904, p. 1–25. * "Anglo-Jewish literary ability", ''Anglo-Jewish Literary Annual'' (1905) * The Jewish National Movement, ''Edinburgh Review'', April 1917, pp. 303–318. * "Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question" ''Jewish Historical Society of England'' (London 1919) * ''The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs'' (1920): this is an edited compilation of articles – published previously in various periodicals – denying the authenticity of ''"
The Protocols ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multipl ...
."'' * ''The Jewish Bogey and the Forged Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion'' (London 1920) * 'Jews in the Canary Islands, Being a calendar of Jewish cases extracted from the records of the Canariote Inquisition in the collection of the Marquess of Bute', ''Jewish Historical Society'' (1926) * "Report on the "Marranos" or Crypto-Jews of Portugal", ''Anglo-Jewish Association'' (1926)


Books

* ''The Russian Conspiracy or Russian Monopoly in Opposition to Britain Interest in the East'' (Birmingham 1877) * ''Sir Moses Montefiore: A Centennial Biography with Selections from Letters and Journals'' (Paris, 1885) * ''The Treves Family in England'' (1896) * ''Menasseh ben Israel’s Mission to Oliver Cromwell'' (1901) * Introduction: in E Semenoff, The Russian Government and the Massacres: A Page of the Russian Counter-Revolution (London 1907) * The Legal Sufferings of The Jews of Russia (London 1912) * ''Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question: With Texts of Protocols, Treaty Stipulations and Other Public Acts and Official Documents'' (1919) * ''The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs: The Truth about the Forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' (1920) *''The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs, or The Truth about the Forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' (1921) * ''The Montefiore Family'' (c1921) * ''The Geneboten Jubilee: The Romance of a Bohemian Village'' * ''The Queen's Jewry 1837–1897'' * ''Anti-Semitism''


Memoranda

* Memorandum on Russian discrimination against British Jews (Passport Question) (1890–1891) * Memorandum and correspondence regarding Lucien Wolf's meeting with the Russian Minister of Interior Viacheslav Konstantinovich Plehve (1903) * Outrages on the Jews (Appeal by the Russo-Jewish Committee) (1905) * Memorandum on the treaty rights of Jews in Romania (1908) * Memorandum on Russian discrimination against British Jews (Passport Question) (1912) * Rights of British Jews Travelling in Russia" (1913) * Conjoint Foreign Committee to Sir Edward Grey regarding British Jews in Russia (1913) * Greetings to the merican JewishCongress from Lucien Wolf (1916) * Report on the Polish Negotiations in Paris (1919) * Report on his interview with Paderewski (1919) * Romania and the Minorities Treaties – "Draft of a Treaty with Roumania" (1920) * Memorandum on the Austrian Interpretation of Article 80 of the Treaty of St. Germain (1921) * Russo-Jewish Refugees in Constantinople (1922) * Report on Immigration Possibilities in Portugal and Spain (1926)


References


Bibliography

* . Retrieved 30 January 2006. * * *


External links

* *
Guide to the Papers of Lucien Wolf (1857–1930) and David Mowshowitch (1887–1957)
at the
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Establi ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Lucien 1857 births 1930 deaths Contributors to the Encyclopædia Britannica English historians English Jews English male journalists Jewish historians Members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Protocols of the Elders of Zion Jewish British anti-Zionists British anti-Zionists Jewish British writers 20th-century British diplomats