“Over five years later, on November 11, 1925, crowds filled the ‘Hurva’ synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem to commemorate the armistice which concluded the First World War. As thunderous cannon fire ushered in a two minute moment of silence.Rabbi Kook addressed the audience, “We the Jewish people, have kept silent not only for two minutes but for two thousand years. The nations robbed our Land from us; they plundered our cherished soil; they spilled our blood; and we always kept silent. We suffered for two thousand years of indescribable afflictions, but we kept our peace. …”Our silence today is our protest, our outcry: Return the theft! Return our holy places, which you took by force!”
The general perception at the time was that the deliverance of the Jews was forthcoming, thanks to the declaration of the British government.
As nations issued statements of support for the Balfour Declaration, the British statement granting statehood to the Jews in the Land of Israel, issued on November 2, 1917, Jewish communities around the world paused and celebrated.
The American Jewish Zionist Newspaper, the Maccabaean, termed the Balfour Declaration, ‘The Jewish Magna Carta,’ The American Jewish Chronicle, “A Turning Point in Jewish History,” The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, the “The End of the Galut.”
The Religious Zionist movement, Mizrahi, issued a statement that “It seems that Holy Providence which guided Israel in its long night of exile is about to reward the Jewish people for all their suffering and tribulations.”
In one celebration, a reported crowd of 100,000 danced outside the US Consulate in Odessa.
Christian Zionists around the world were elated as well.
On Sunday evening December 2, 1917, crowds gathered in the London Opera House, which was filled to capacity with over 2,700 in attendance. An over flow crowd met simultaneously in the Kingsway Theatre of London. The rally was entitled a “Great Thanksgiving Meeting,” by the London Jewish Chronicle and it featured members of the British Government and leaders of British Jewry.
At the rally, speeches were delivered with the frequent theme portraying the British as liberators of the Jewish people from millennium of suffering. British Member of Parliament, Colonel Mark Sykes called the event a “Turning point in the history of the whole world.” MP Robert Cecil proclaimed, “The keynote of our meeting this afternoon is liberation.” MP Herbert Samuel, who would later become the first British High Commissioner over the Middle East, pronounced the words, “Next year in Jerusalem” and decried those who had doubted that British promise of Jewish statehood.
