Pre-Israel Palestinian History A Tale of a
Covered in `British in Mid East' NordicConvert

As background material, "The from Americans who taught and
British in the Middle East" by studied there and from the school's
Sarah Searight, published by students generally, the background
Atheneum, provides interesting is important for a knowledge of
data about the attractions that area currently developing situations.
had for the British people for cen- Much has been written about
"the road to India," British inter-
Subtitled "Social History of the ests in acquiring commercial and
British Overseas," we have here, other rights, the situation in Syria
as the author herself indicated, "A where France played a major role
study of the British who lived or for many years. In Miss Searight's
were associated with the Middle story we have a recapitulation of
East between the middle of the these events and aspirations.
16th century and the outbreak of
Proselytization played a role in
World War I."
Christian interests in the Middle
Thus, the reader is admonished East and there are interesting ref-
in advance not to expect here his- erence to these activities in Miss
tory in any form of the events that Searight's account which states:
marked the British mandatory
"From 1839—after lengthy nego-
power's existence in Palestine and
tiations in Constantinople—the pres-
the relationships with Zionism and ence of a British consul in Jerusa-
the soon-to-emerge Jewish state.
lem ensured a measure of protec-
Because it deals extensively with tion for visitors as well as for the
the historic occurrences and the
missionaries who were flocking to
peoples in the area under discus. the Holy City. Missionary activity
sion, this volume has much merit
was mainly directed to the conver-
for historians and currently also in
sion of the Jews, since proselytiza-
great measure for Israel.
tion among Muslims was expressly
Richly illustrated, the old photo-
forbidden and among oriental
graphs of events of the recent cen-
Christians politically dangerous.
turies add glamor to an important
The London Society for Promoting
story about the peoples and the Christianity among the Jews sent
faiths they adhere to, the aspira-
its first mission to Jerusalem in
tions and the life that marked the 1820 and the first bishop, Michael
Middle East and its glamor, its Alexander, of the joint Anglo-
fantasies, its role prior to having Prussian see was a converted Jew.
emerged into a multitude of Arab Alexander was remarkable for his
states and Israel reborn.
lack of tact in a position which
Drawing upon folklore, we come demanded extreme delicacy, refer-
across such compositions as "The ring in his first sermon to the
Relation of this Combatte" by "a 'usurped government' of the Otto-
chaplain with literary fancies," mans and starting to build the
Henry Teonge, (1675) in whose Anglican cathedral (under the aus-
verses is this stanza:
pices of the London Society) before
... God blesse King Charles; the Canning had wheedled permission
Duke of York;
to do so from the sultan. Relations
The Royall family;
between the Anglican mission and
From Turkes and Jewes that cut the Jewish communities were al-
no porke
ways acrimonious; one member of
Good Lord deliver me.
the mission who was tactless
There is much here about pil- enough to try preaching in the open
grimages to Jerusalem. about Jaffa street in the Jewish quarter, was
driven out by rabbis with stones
and the River Jordan.
The current role of the Druze and dead cats. Edward Lear wrote
and Maronite groups in Lebanon that 'the idea of converting (the
and elsewhere in several of the
Middle East countries lends special
importance to Miss Searight's dis-
cussion of these groups. The follow-
ing reference is especially note-
worthy:
LONDON (JTA)—Simon Wiesen-
"British and French agents thal, the "Nazi-hunter" who track-
fomented the uprising in 1840 of ed down Adolf Eichmann, Franz
Christians and Druzes in Leba- Paul Stangl and 900 other Nazi
non against the Egyptians and criminals, has issued a worldwide
their ally, Bashir II Shihah, appeal to help save his Documenta-
Druze ruler of Mount Lebanon. tion Center in Vienna from what
Over the next 20 years the power he fears is imminent closure by
of the Druze chieftains actually the Austrian government.
declined, accentuated by the con-
In a letter being circulated to
version to Christianity of the rul-
"our friends abroad," Wiesen-
ing branch of the Shihab
thal states his apprehension over
Druze jealousy of the Maronites,
threats made against his center
aggravated by the conflicting in-
at the June 11 Congress of
terests of the European powers,
Austria's ruling Socialist Party.
led in 1860 to Druze massacres of
He reports that Minister Leopold
an estimated 11,000 Christians, Gratz called the center a "secret-
spreading from the mountain to
agent organization."
many parts of Syria, including
The letter continues: "Presently
the towns where the Muslim we are the only ones to be active
hatred of the more prosperous against the Nazis . . . We know
and better educated Christians very well that the Socialist Party
was most strongly felt. In 1861 needs the votes of the former Nazis
France, Britain and Turkey ne- to reach the majority. It is report-
gotiated the Organic Regulation, ed that there might be a Nazi
establishing an internationally amnesty."
guaranteed regime under a Chris-
Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of
tian administrator directly re- Austria has indicated he will not
sponsible to the sultan. The rela- be influenced by American pro-
tive peace and quiet which this tests against his government's ap-
ensured lasted until the outbreak parent threat to close down the
of World War I.
center, according to a letter from
"The 19th century also saw the Wiesenthal received here.
arrival in Syria of American
Harry Evens, a lawyer who has
Presbyterian missionaries who aided the Wiesenthal cause, told
established the first independent the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
system of education in the Mid- he had received a letter to that
dle East. In their schools in the effect from Wiesenthal.
Lebanese mountains and at the
In the letter, dated June 29,
American University of Beirut Wiesenthal reported that in a tele-
(founded 1866) they taught and vision interview, Dr. Kreisky was
inspired the first generation of asked whether protests by the in-
Christian Arabs, many of whom vestigato r's "co-religionists in
were at the forefront of the America" would "raise difficul-
nationalist movement in its early ties" over the reported closing of
days."
the center. Dr. Kreisky replied:
In view of the sad experience in "That is not important."
the years preceding Israel's emerg-
Like every man of sense and
ence and thereafter from anti-
Israel propagandists who stemmed good feeling, I abominate work.
—Aldotis Huxley.
from the Beirut University school,

Close of Anti-Nazi
Center Is Feared

Jews) to Christianity in Jerusalem
is to the sober observer fully as
absurd as that you should institute
a society to convert all the cab-
bages and strawberries in Covent
Garden into pigeon pies and Tur-
key carpets.'
"Alexander's successor, Samuel
Gobat, found the rate of conversion
among the Jews so discouraging,
that he turned to the oriental Chris-
tians— with as little success, in
spite of the courage of his mission-
aries in withstanding the hostility
of the religious leaders of those
communities into which they ven-
tured. It is interesting to compare,
the animosity of oriental Christians
in Palestine to the intrusions of
other denominations with the suc-
cess of American and British mis-
sionaries and teachers among the
Maronite and Greek Orthodox
Christians of Lebanon. At Bhaw-
wara, for instance, a village not
far from Beirut owned by Colonel
Charles Churchill (who had settled
in Lebanon after the 1841 expedi-
tion), an Englishman, John Low-
thian, opened the first of a series
of schools which evoked remark-
ably little oppostion, in spite of
their secondary task of converting
to Protestantism.
"In spite of the failure to achieve
a mass conversion of Jews, Jeru-
salem was to some extent resusci-
tated from the lifelesness of which
early 19th century tourists com-
plained by the revival of religious
interest displayed by visitors, mis-
sionaries and consuls .. .
"The condition of Palestinian
Jews in western Europe, in particu-
lar the patriarchal British Jew,
Moses Montefiore, who visited
Jerusalem on several occasions in
the 19th century. Towards the end
of the century the influx of perse-
cuted, Zionist-inclined Jews from
eastern Europe aroused the sym-
pathy, among others, of the eccen-
tric Laurence Oliphant, who first
came to Palestine in 1879 to try to
find a suitable site for a colony of
eastern Euorpean Jews. Having
failed to persuade the sultan to
grant them land for their project,
they set up house in Haifa, joining
the strange community of expatri-
ate mystics, prophets and fanatics
who had chosen to settle there ..."
Up to the Zionist era that led to
Israel's rebirth the author treats
her subject with keen perception
and has covered much ground. As
preliminary history for study before
reaching the modern era, Miss Sea-
right's "The British in the Middle
East" serves a valuable purpose.

By MOSIIE H. ZIRIN

Conversion in a risky topic to

write—or talk—about these days;
mention the word—and the chances
are that somebody's blood-pressure
will hit a dangerous level. It does
not have to be so; in fact, more
often than not there is all the
reason to be pleased—and some-

times even to be amused—with
the stories related to conversion.
And this applies to everyone, no
matter what his convictions are
about the proper process of con-
version. The following anecdote,
from an Israeli paper, is an ex-
ample.
A Swedish girl (slender, blond
and beautiful, if you wish), who
volunteered to work on a kibutz,
and one of the kibutz's boys (tall,
dark and handsome sabra, of
course), fell in love with one an-
other; goal—matrimony. The girl,
if you did not guess it yet, was
a gentile, and the kibutz is a
leftist-oriented one, basically anti-
religious; yet the bay's parents,
founders of the kibutz, offered Ors::
blessings only on condition that the
girl convert. The condition, which
came almost as a shock to the
boy, was only obvious to the girl
as well as to her gentile parents.
The girl went through the proper
training and was duly converted.
After the conversion, in a con-
versation with a conversion-court
rabbi, the girl showed not only
more than expected knowledge in
Judaism, but also understanding,
seriousness and enthusiasm for her
new religion.
Mused the rabbi: I can't under-
stand it! Such a nice Jewish girl
and she wants to marry this "goy"
from the kibutz!

A man's life of any worth is a
continual allegory, and very few
eyes can see the mystery of his
life.—John Keats.

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