Schama to star in Balfour 100 celebrations
LEADING HISTORIAN Simon Schama will provide one of the key moments in the community’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration next year.
Professor Schama will give a lecture on the historical importance of the document, which expressed British government support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
His talk will take place on 1st November 2017, almost 100 years to the day since the Declaration was made by then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour.
Plans unveiled this week reveal a range of centenary events taking place up and down the country under the banner “Balfour 100”.
The first official celebration will take place in Manchester on October 31, details of which have yet to be confirmed.
The following Shabbat, November 4, has been designated “Balfour Shabbat”, with synagogues of all denominations hosting their own celebrations.
Other events are being organised, with most activities expected to take place from next autumn.
A steering group of 23 communal organisations have been working for almost a year on the preparations. Chaired by Lord Kestenbaum on behalf of the Rothschild Foundation Europe, the group includes the Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Zionist Federation.
Simon Johnson, chief executive of the JLC, said: “The Balfour Declaration was instrumental in the creation of the state of Israel. As British Jews we are very proud of the role our government playedandcontinuestoplayinsupporting the country.”
The Balfour 100 campaign was the focal point for all the community to come together to celebrate the anniversary, he said.
Prof Schama’s lecture will take place in central London in front of an audience 400 people — tickets will go on sale nearer the time. It will be livestreamed on the Balfour 100 website, which was also launched this week.
“This is intended to be the definitive digital resource about the centenary”, said Mr Johnson
As well as showing the various versions of the Declaration itself, the site contains comprehensive timelines, biographies of the major figures involved and a complete history of the events that led up to the founding of Israel. It also will feature uploaded details of Balfour 100 events as they are organised.
Noting that anti-Israel activists have launchedacampaigncallingontheBritish government to “apologise” for the Declaration, Mr Johnson said: “People seeking an apology — they believe the state of Israel shouldn’t exist, therefore they are taking an antisemitic position.”
ApollforBicom,theIsraelandMiddle East think-tank, has found that 43 per cent of British people back the aims of the Declaration today. “APOLOGY” CAMPAIGN LAUNCH, P18 LEADER, P80
THE Balfour Declaration was sent by Arthur Balfour, then British Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, on November 2, 1917.
Zionist leaders, including Chaim Weizmann, the president of the World Zionist Organisation, had lobbied the UK
We are proud of the role our government played’
government to show its support for the creation of a Jewish state.
There were at least four drafts. The final copy declared: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing nonJewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”