POGROMS, RUSSIAN Empire, 1613-1917, PUBLIC opinion, FOREIGN relations of the United States
Abstract
The article discusses the 1903 pogrom in Kishinev, Russia. The pogrom is an example of how American public opinion, led by the Jewish community, forced U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to take a more anti-Russian position. Several events involving Jews in Russia happened before the pogrom in April 1903. The pogrom brought Roosevelt and U.S. Secretary of State John Hay under fire from the Jewish community. It shaped and unified American public opinion as had few earlier issues. From mid-June 1903, Roosevelt and Hay became involved in the issue of the pogrom in particular and Russian anti-Semitism in general.
The article deals with the Balfour Declaration of the British government in 1917, which supported the Zionist plan to create a national home for the Jews in Palestine. Zionists living in England supported the declaration and they embarked on massive campaign to popularize the idea of a British Palestine. But the declaration has coincided with the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Russia which raised the concern of the British government that they might conclude a separate peace. The British government was worried that it would nullify the economic blockade of Germany.
The article deals with the loans provided by Jewish bankers to Russia in the 1890s, specifically the Rothschild-Bleichröder deal. But when the very day the deal was reported, it was learned that mass expulsions of Jews from Moscow, Russia had been decreed, which resulted to the decision of the Rothschilds to withdrew the deal. It is noted that the Jewish press insisted that Jewish financiers should be wary in participating in these kind of loans with any idea that they are going to hold Russia to any promise of better treatment for the Jews.
Published
1973
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.