Important Chapter in Zionism Concluded i
With Demolition of 77 Great Huss Al Street

By JOSEF FRAENKEL

I

Jewish NeWs Special
Correspondent in London

Nehemia dej Lieme. "Die Welt"
ceased publication. In 1908, the
Hebrew organ, "Haolam" was pub-
lished in Cologne, then in Vilna,
and later in Odessa, until the year
1914. Jewish news was issued by
the Copenhagen Bureau in a bulle-
tin distributed to Jewish papare all
over the world. Besides, a Yiddish
paper, "Die Folks Stimme", ap-
peared under the editorship .of S.
Bernstein.

VIENNA
When the Zionist Organization
was founded, Vienna was the cen-
ter of Zionist activities. Theodor
Herzl, president of the ZO, and
members of the Zionist Executive
(at that time called Small Actions
Committee) L. Kahn, 0. Kokesch; I
J. Kremenetsky, Oscar Marmorek
III
and M. T. Schnirer, lived there and
LONDON
the Central Office was housed at
During the First World War.
No.
11 Rembrandtstrasse, and Sokolow and Tschlenov arrived
after the second Zionist Congress from Copenhagen and stayed on in.
(1898)_ it No. 9 Tuerkenstrasse. London to conduct political activ-
Inquiries from all over the world ities together with Chaim Weiz-
would arrive, to which Herzl him- mann. On Feb. 8, 1917, one day
self often replied. He did not use after the historical meeting at the
a typewriter, and his thousands of home of Haham M. Gaster between
letters took the place of broad- Sir Mark Sykes, Weizmann and
-casts in spreading Zionism.
. others. S. Tolkowski, H. Sacher,
The first official General Secre- Leon Simon, I. M. Sieff, S. Marks,
tary was Mathias ACher ( Nathan s: Landman and A. M. Hyamson
Birnbaum) who resigned after a sent a memorandum to Sokolow
short time. In the Central Office proposing the establishment of a
the following secretaries were "secretariat which involves an of- '
functioning: A. H. Reich, I. Schalit flee and archives". Not until Au-
and M. Berkowicz (for Hebrew and gust. 1917. a few months before the
Yiddish). The headquarters of the Balfour Declaration, was a "Zion- .
Jewish National Fund. under the ist Organization s London Bureau"
direction of Krernenetsky, were opened at 175 Piccadilly, under
also in Tuerkenstrasse. At Rem- the direction of S. Marks, with S.
brandtstrasse and later at Tuerken- Landman as "Secretary and Solici-
strasse was the -editorial office of tor."
the official paper. "Die Welt - .
Officially. Warburg remained
which was under the editorship of president of the ZO with his head-
S. R. Landau d for only a short quarters in Berlin. and it was in
time), I. Schalit, S. Werner. E. July 1920 that ;Weizmann was
Rosenberger, B. Feiwel, J. Uprimy elected president of the ZO by the
and _then Martin Buber. A. Pollak Zionist Conference in London. land
was the administrator.
Sokolow as chairman of the execu-
II
tive. Thus. London became the seat
COLOGNE-BERLIN-
of the Zionist Central Office. The
COPENHAGEN
"London Bureau" of 175 - Piccadilly
After the death of Herzl, David became the "Central Office" at 77
.Wolffsohn of Cologne was elected Great Russell Street.
in 1905 president of the ZO. In
The JNF was transferred from
due course. the Central Office was
transferred to Cologne, in the The Hague to Jerusalem. e under
the
direction of Menahem kissish-
Karolingerring. followed by -Die
kin. Of the 26 officials. 14 moved
Welt" as well as the JNF.
The new executive consisted of to Jerusalem.
The 12th Zionist Congress at
five persons and each of them
lived in a different country or Carlsbad .(1921) again elected
Weizmann
and Sokolow, as well as
town: L. Greenberg (London). J.
Kann (The Hague), J. Bernstein- an executive consisting of 14 per-
Kohan ( Odessa), Alexander Mar- sons. of whom six were entrusted
morek (Paris) and M. Ussishkin to represent the Zionist Organiza-
(Yekaterinoslav). In spite of this. 'tion and to administer its func-
Wolffsohn succeeded in strengthen- tions in Palestine. But London '
ing the ZO. In 1907 the executive was chosen by the Congress as
was controlled by Wolffsohn, Kann headquarters of the executive.
and 0. Warburg.
Great Russell Street (GRS) be-
Nahum Sokolow was the gen- gins in Tottenham Court Road,
eral secretary, and later Siegfried continues- in :Bloomsbury Place
Hoofien took over the secretariat. (where, at No. 2. the Poale Zion
Among others the following were has its office), and ends in South-
engaged at the central office: A. ampton Bow (where, at No. 65,
Robinson (secretary of Wolffsohn). the JNF of England and Ireland.
M. Rbsenblueth, J. Berger, and I. Is housed). GRS, .which has existed
Cohen (for English correspond- since 1670. was inhabited by the
ence). "Die Welt" was edited by - nobility and gentry", and the
J. Klatzkin. followed by Sokolow, huildings at 75, 76, and 77, which
B. Feiwel, J. Loewy. and. A. Coral-; belong to the Duke of Bedford,
nik. At the head of the JNF was were erected in the 18th century.
M. I. Bodenheimer with N. Cross At first they had the numbers 83,
and S. Kaplansky as secretaries. 84 and 85 but, when the building
More .than 40 people were em- of the British Museum began,
ployed by the JNF.
these numbers were changed to 75.
In 1911, 0. *Warburg of Berlin 76 and 77. No. 77 was once the
became president of the ZO and in town house of the Bishop of .Chi-
the executive were A. Hantke, V. chester, and-later of the architect
Jacobson, S. Lewin and Sokolow. Louis Cubitt, co-designer of Kings
In 1913. Y. Tschlenow was in- Cross Station. Thomas H. Wyatt.
cluded. The Zionist officials went president of the Royal Institute of
to Berlin. Nearly 30 persons British Architects, lived there. To-
worked at the central office at No. day GRS is .full of publishing
8 Saechsische Strasse. K. Blumen- houses and book shops, and here
feld was secretary and A. Avadio intellectuals, artists and students
was private secretary to Warburg. have their lodgings.
The editorship of -"Die Welt" was
If one—so it is said in Zionist
taken over by M. Zobel and then
R. Lichtheim. The JNF remained circles—asks a policeman: "Where
is the office of the ZO?", he usual-
in Cologne.
When the First World War ly replies: "The first building after
broke out, a Copenhagen Bureau, the British Museum", but when
under the direction of L. Motzkin, asked: "Where is the British Mu-
was opened, to underline the neu- seum?", the policeman generally
trality of the • organization. M. says: "The first building before the
Rosenhlueth, S. Bernstein and office of the.Z0."

I

others left Berlin for neutral Den-
mark. Officially, the headquarters
of the ZO remained in Berlin, but,
because of the establishment of the
Copenhagen Bureau, Zionist activ-
ities were able to continue in both
the countries of the Entente and of
the Central European Powers.
The headquarters of the JNF
were transferred to The Hague,
and came under the direction of

N. de. Lieme and J. Simon, mem-
bers of the Executive, and J. Co-
hen rented the buildings at num-
bers 76 and 77. to set up the head-
quarters of the ZO, and a short
time later took over No. 75 for the
English Zionist Federation, which
moved from 69 Leadenhall Street,
also under the Presidency of Weiz-
mann and the secretaryship of H.
J. Morgenstern. -

THE

The Zionist Federation (ZF) but no longer is Mizrachi.
achieved important victories for
The conflict between Justice L .
ionism. The headquarters of the
Brandeis and Weizmann, the
ZO could not have carried. out pub- early resignation of N. de Lieme
lic actions in England without the and J. Simon, and the appearance
active cos-operation of the ZF. The of officials in London from Copen-
officials of the ZF were steadfastly hagen and Berlin, as well as of old
loyal to Zionism and Weizmann and new member of the execu-
could always colunt on the ZF in tive, hindered the work in GRS.
whatever had to be done. The or- At first there were 110 officials.
gan of the ZF was the "Zionist Re- then the number fell to 60, in 1922
view" ( 1917-1952) under the edi- to 41, and with time decreased still
torship of A. M. .mson, L. Si- further. However. in Eretz Israel
mon, P. Goodman, M. Perlzweig, G.
(Continued on Page 58)
Cohen. M. Pearlman, A. S. Super
S. Levenberg, etc. Since 1952, "The
Jewish Observer And Middle East
Review", edited by Jon Kimche,
has appeared. The ZF also pub-
liShed the quarterly "Gates of Zi-
on" and the "Zionist Year Book;"
both edited by J. Litvin for the
past ten years. Today L. Bakstan-
sky is the general secretary of the
ZF (since 1930)", the honorary
president is I. M. Sieff, the pres-
ident is Sir Barnett Janne, and
the chairman is Harold . Miller.'
and
The Federation of. Woman Zion-
ists, with Miss R. Ginzhurg as sec-
retary, also moved to 75 GRS. But
today, at 107 Gloucester Place.
they belong -to the. Most active or-
ganizations with 190 affiliated so-
cieties. Mizrachi. at that time af-
filiated to the ZF. plso had their
offices at GRS for a short time .
Poale Zion and Nlapam have been
affiliated to the ZF for many years.

DETROIT -JEWISH NEWS
Friday, September 4, 1964 23

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