Monday, July 17, 2023

32. Jews found British Israelist Pyramidology to be "bizarre" - Noahide Pyramidology: Newton/Freemason/Mormon/Christian Science/Adventist/Jehovah's Witness

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So we know the Freemasons were British Israelist Pyramidologist, but did the Jews work with them, since even though the British Israelists believed the Jews would convert to Christianity once returned to Israel, they still believed in returning the Jews to Israel under the protection of the king, so Jews may have seen an in for themselves working with the British, get to Israel, and worry about their belief in conversion later.  From the article below in the Jewish Encyclopedia on Anglo-Israelism, it would seem that Jews did not quite play along with this idea.  It would seem that the British Israelists believed that they were the lost ten tribes of Israel and would receive all the blessings of the bible while the Jews were to receive all the curses (even though they were to be returned to Israel).  However, the article does mention British Israelist Pyramidologist Charles Smyth and his book Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid.  The article calls the book "bizarre".  From this I think we can see most Jews had little interest in working with the British Israelist Pyramidologist... and I would think also the British Israelists in general, though I am not 100% sure. 

https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1524-anglo-israelism

ANGLO-ISRAELISM:

A theory which identifies the Anglo-Saxon race with the Lost Ten Tribes. Its adherents, who claim that the promises given to Israel will be fulfilled with regard to England and America, are said to number 2,000,000 in England and the United States; and at one time they included in their ranks a member of the English House of Lords and a colonial bishop of the Church of England. They have issued several weeklies in defense of their views; and there is one publisher in London whose publications are devoted entirely to the cause. Strictly speaking, the believers in Anglo-Israelism do not form a sect, as most of its members retain communion with the Church of England, and they only hold their views as a supplementary pious opinion.

History of Movement.

The first person who seems to have broached these views was the eccentric Richard Brothers (1757-1824), who styled himself "Nephew of the Almighty," and, in his "Revealed Knowledge" (1794), claimed to be descended from David and prophesied that he would be revealed as prince of the Hebrews on Nov. 19, 1795. In 1822 Brothers published his "Correct Account of the Invasion of England by the Saxons, Showing the English Nation to be Descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes," which may be regarded as the foundation of the movement. He was followed by J. Wilson ("Our Israelitish Origin," 1845), who placed the theory upon its present basis; by W. Carpenter ("Israelites Found"), and by F. R. A. Glover ("England the Remnant of Judah"); and the movement obtained a somewhat distinguished adherent in C. Piazzi Smith, astronomer royal for Scotland, who in his bizarre work, "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," attempted to prop up the cause by showing the identity of British weights and measures with those of the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews. The chief representative, however, in England was Edward Hine, of whose "Identification of the British Nation with Lost Israel," London, 1871, a quarter million copies are said to have been sold. He also published for several years a weekly journal, "The Nation's Leader," and a monthly magazine, "Life from the Dead." In America the chief leaders of the movement appear to have been G. W. Greenwood, who published a monthly journal, "Heir of the World," New York, 1880, and Rev. W. H. Poole, of Detroit, Mich. The theory has even extended to Germany, though it does not appear to have attracted much notice there. A work by S. Backhaus, "Die Germanen ein Semitischer Volksstamm," appeared in Berlin in 1878.

Chief Arguments.

The theory of Anglo-Israelism is based upon an extremely literal interpretation of the Old Testament, as represented by King James's version and by an application of texts brought together from the prophecies about Israel; and its advocates attempt to bring their readers into the dilemma that England and its colonies must be the Israel to whom the promises were made in the Bible, or that these promises have been unfulfilled. At the start, distinction is made between the ultimate fates of Israel and Judah. For the former all the blessings of the Bible are reserved; whereas the latter, represented in modern times by the Jews, are to experience all the curses threatened to the backsliding people in the prophecies.

Biblical Texts.

It is pointed out that while in the prophecies Israel will change his name (Hosea, i. 9), be numberless (ibid. ii. 1), dwell in islands (Isa. xxiv. 15) with colonies and be the chief of the nations (Micah, v. 8), Judah will be a byword (Jer. xv. 4). The "isles" (Isa. xli. 1, xlii. 4), to which Israel was banished, were to be north (Jer. iii. 12) and west (Isa. xxiv. 15) of Palestine, and to be in a cold climate, since it is said: "Heat nor sun will smite them" (Isa. xlix. 10). It was further prophesied that the isles would become too small for Israel (Isa. xlix. 19) and that Israel should be a nation and company of nations (Gen. xxxv. 11). It would, therefore, have colonies (Isa. xlix. 20, liv. 3), so that it might surround the nations (Deut. xxxii. 7-9) and be above them all (Deut. vii. 6, xiv. 2, xxviii. 1). The children of Israel will always know and recognize the Lord (Isa. lix. 21, xlix. 3), which of course is interpreted to mean, "will be members of the true Church of England." The Anglo-Israelites triumphantly ask, "What nation save England corresponds to all these prophetic signs?" In further confirmation it is pointed out that one of the tribes of Manasseh was to become an independent nation (Gen. xlviii. 19): the United States obviously represents Manasseh. Both Ephraim and Manasseh shall exterminate the aborigines ("push the people together") in the countries into which they spread (Deut. xxxiii. 17). The lion and the unicorn are referred to in Num. xxiv. 8, 9; while the American eagle is intended in the prophecy in Ezek. xvii. 3. The promise that Israel "shall possess the gates of his enemies" (Gen. xxii. 17, xxiv. 60) is taken to be fulfilled in the possession by England of Gibraltar, Malta, Heligoland, Aden, and Singapore. Finally, it was prophesied that Israel should bear another name (Isa. lxv. 15) and speak another tongue (Isa. xxviii. 11). All these characteristics of Israel, as distinguished from Judah, are fulfilled, it is contended, in England, its colonies, and the United States.

Historic Connection.

The historical connection of the ancestors of the English with the Lost Ten Tribes is deduced as follows: The Ten Tribes were transferred to Babylon about 720 B.C.; and simultaneously, according to Herodotus, the Scythians, including the tribe of the Saccæ, appeared in the same district; the progenitors of the Saxons afterward passed over into Denmark—the "mark" or country of the tribe of Dan—and thence to England. Another branch of the tribe of Dan which remained "in ships" (Judges, v. 17) made its appearance in Ireland under the title of "Tuatha-da-Danan." Tephi, a descendant of the royal house of David, arrived in Ireland, according to the native annals, in 580 B.C. From her was descended Feargus More, king of Argyll, an ancestor of Queen Victoria, who thus fulfilled the prophecy that "the line of David shall rule for ever and ever" (II Chron. xiii. 5, xxi. 7). The Irish branch of the Danites brought with them Jacob's stone, which has always been used as the coronation -stone of the kings of Scotland andEngland, and is now preserved in Westminster Abbey. Somewhat inconsistently, the prophecy that the Canaanites should trouble Israel (Num. xxxiii. 55, Josh. xxiii. 13) is applied to the Irish. The land of Arzareth, to which the Israelites were transplanted (II Esd. xiii. 45), is identified with Ireland by dividing the former name into two parts, the former of which is ereẓ, or "land"; the latter, Ar, or "Ire."

Philological Arguments.

Philology, of a somewhat primitive kind, is also brought in to support the theory: the many Biblical and quasi-Jewish names borne by Englishmen are held to prove their Israelitish origin (H. E. Nicholls, "Surnames of the English People"). An attempt has been made to derive the English language itself from Hebrew (R. Govell, "English Derived from Hebrew"). Thus, "bairn" is derived from bar ("son"), "berry" from peri ("fruit"), "garden" from gedar, "kid" from gedi, "scale" from shekel, and "kitten" from quiton (ḳaton ="little"). The termination "ish" is identified with the Hebrew ish ("man"); "Spanish" means "Spain-man"; while "British" is identified with Berit-ish ("man of the covenant"). Perhaps the most curious of these philological identifications is that of "jig" with chag (ḥag ="festival").

Altogether, by the application of wild guesswork about historical origins and philological analogies, and by a slavishly literal interpretation of selected phrases of prophecy, a case was made out for the identification of the British race with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel sufficient to satisfy uncritical persons desirous of finding their pride of race confirmed by Holy Scripture. The whole theory rests upon an identification of the word "isles" in the English version of the Bible unjustified by modern philology, which identifies the original word with "coasts" or "distant lands" without any implication of their being surrounded by the sea. Modern ethnography does not confirm in any way the identification of the Irish with a Semitic people; while the English can be traced back to the Scandinavians, of whom there is no trace in Mesopotamia at any period of history. English is a branch of the Aryan stock of languages, and has no connection with Hebrew. The whole movement is chiefly interesting as a reductio ad absurdum of too literal an interpretation of the prophecies.

The Anglo-Israelite theory has of recent years been connected with the persecutions of the Jews, in which the Anglo-Israelites see further confirmation of their position by the carrying out of the threats prophesied against Judah. This side of the subject has been dealt with by T. R. Howlett in "An Anglo-Israel Jewish Problem," Philadelphia, 1892; supplement, 1894.

Bibliography:
  • Besides the works mentioned above, the chief sources from which this article has been drawn are E. Hine, The British Nation Identified with Lost Israel, London, 1871, and W. H. Poole, Anglo-Israel, or the Saxon Race Proved to be the Lost Tribes of Israel, Detroit, 1889. See also P. Cassel, Ueber die Abstammung der Englischen Nation, Berlin, 1880, and S. Beruatto, Britannia-Israel ossia gli Ebrei nella Questione d'Oriente, Rome, 1880. Much information is also contained in the journals Anglo-Israel and Banner of Israel, both published in London, and Heir of the World, published in New York. The Anglo-Israelite theory has also been criticized in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, xxxv. 65 et seq., and the Church Quarterly Review, xvii. 34 et seq.

31. Focusing in on Charles Taze Russell's interaction with Zionist Jewry - Noahide Pyramidology: Newton/Freemason/Mormon/Christian Science/Adventist/Jehovah's Witness

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What have we learned so far about Charles Taze Russell and Freemason Pyramidology?  Russell was a Zionist Noahide Pyramidologist, but he was influenced by non-Freemason British Israelist Pyramidologosts like Charles Smyth, so he could also have been influenced by Freemason British Israelist Pyramidologists, however, we know he did not get his pure Zionist interpretations from them.  Russell stood alone as a pure Zionist, and in regards to Pyramidology, there seems to be no one he copied from... not the Freemasons, not the non-Freemasons, not the Adventists, and not the Christian Zionists. I've been focusing directly on Pyramidology, but perhaps Russell's Zionism did not come by way of Pyramidology.  The link to the book below by Jew David Horowitz, Pastor Charles Taze Russell: An early American Christian Zionist, will show you just how heavily Russell was involved with Zionist Jewry. His belief that Jews would return to Israel and remain Jews and become the center of the Messianic Age spoke loudly to Jews, he made speeches before thousands of Jews around England and America, published Yiddish newspapers exclusively for Jews, and was heavily funded by Zionist Jews. But what made Russell Zionist?  Was he Zionist first and then the Jews supported him, or did the Jews help him with his Zionist interpretations?  This book was written because Russell was so unique in his Zionism, no other Christian was talking about Zionism at this time, unless they were Christian Zionists (Jews eventually become Christians in Israel) or a British Israelist (who also believed the Jews would convert to Christianity after migrating to Israel).  Did the Jews view Russell's Pyramidology with interest, or did they find it an oddity?  Jews have their own primitive Noahide Pyramidology believing Noah's Ark was a Pyramid, did they teach him any of this?  There is also the question if Charles Taze Russell learned the Talmud... he called the Messianic Age "The World to Come", which is what it is called in the Talmud.  There is also the fact that Charles Taze Russell was nontrinitarian... where did he get this from... is it possible the Jews spoke to Russell about the Noahide Laws and how to make his vision fully Noahide-compliant (even though eventually any "religion" would be banned under Noahide)?  What did the Jews teach Russell about the Talmud, if any of it?  We've been focusing in on Russell's Freemason connections, but maybe the answer's lie with his Jewish connections... 

Pastor Charles Taze Russell: An early American Christian Zionist by David Horowitz 

PDF Available Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zc11qSm9q7hQeQxkHkIaXI7gJJXhS_ji/view?usp=sharing 

https://www.amazon.com/Pastor-Charles-Taze-Russell-Christian/dp/0802225039

This is a fascinating account of a neglected man and a neglected chapter in the history of Zionism.... David Horowitz' well-written book makes extremely interesting reading. I definitely recommend it....--Jeane Kirkpatrick Mr. Horowitz has performed an admirable service in restoring to public knowledge the story of this important Christian Zionist....--Benjamin Netanyahu

Sunday, July 16, 2023

30. New directions of this journal on Noahide Pyramidology - Noahide Pyramidology: Newton/Freemason/Mormon/Christian Science/Adventist/Jehovah's Witness

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This blog was started to answer a question.  Pyramidology was very popular among many different kinds of people in the 1860s-1920s.  There seemed to be three different kinds of Pyramidology: Christian Zionist Pyramidology where the Jews would return to Israel but eventually convert to Christianity, British Israelist Pyramidology where the British people were considered the lost ten tribes of Israel but the Jews returned to Israel would eventually once again become Christians, and then there was Charle Taze Russell's Zionist Noahide Pyramidology where the Jews would return to Israel yet remain Jews and become the center of The World to Come (Talmudic name for the Messianic age which Russell used) with the rest of the world remaining nontrinitarian (thus Noahide compliant) Christians. At the start of this blog I knew that Freemason Pyramidology existed, but I did not know what type of Pyramidologists they were.  I was wondering if since Masons are Noahides if they chose Zionist Pyramidology and if this is where Russell got his ideas from. It turns out the Freemasons were British Israelist Pyramidologists and so Russell remains a lone case of Zionist Noahide Pyramidology. The question is what made Russell different?  The answer to the original question has only bred more questions. Russell was definitely closely involved with Zionist Jewry, but it is uncertain whether or not they influenced his Pyramidology, there is primitive Jewish pyramidology, but was this any influence on Russell?  Did the Jews help him with his formulations? Or was Russell simply a unique interpreter of the pyramids and came to his Zionist Noahide conclusions by himself? However, other questions came forward.  It seems that all the Freemason-linked cults got involved in Pyramidology. I am still trying to see if there was pre-modern Pyramidology in Joseph Smith's time, but by the 1890s, the Mormons were preaching British Israelist Pyramidology, just like the Freemasons, and so was Eddy's Christian Science. Adventists who came from ex-Freemason William Miller were Christian Zionist Pyramidologists. If the Freemasons did not influence Russell, did they influence the Mormons and Christian Scientists? Was it their official separation from Freemasonry which led the Adventists to reject British Israelism and adopt Christian Zionist Pyramidology? It seems from the four Freemason-inspired cults of Mormonism, Christian Science, Adventism, and Jehovah's Witnesses that Russell was the least involved with Freemasonry and the most involved with Zionist Jewry. We know Zionist Jewry approved of Russell's Zionist Pyramidology, but what did they think of Freemason British Israelist Pyramidology? British Israelism would have gotten the Jews back to Israel... the only difference was that they were waiting for a supernatural event where the Jews would eventually convert to Christianity.  I've been wondering... if Freemasons are Noahides... is it possible British Israelism was simply a ploy to get the Jews to Israel and the idea that they would convert to Christianity was simply something the Freemasons did not believe would happen, it was just a stunt to get Zionism up and running?  Were there any Jews working with the Freemason British Israelist Pyramidologist or with any British Israelist at all?  Was Russell really the only preacher of the time that the Jews were supporting? Could any Jews see the merit in supporting British Israelism since it would send the Jews to Israel, regardless of the fact that it was believed they would eventually convert to Christianity, which would anyway depend on supernatural events?  Well if they did not support British Israelism, did the Jews oppose it, or did they remain silent to see how the Gentiles would deal with their affairs?  Then there is the question of pre-modern Pyramidology, before the publication of John Taylor's The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built, & Who Built It?  Isaac Newton was a Zionist Noahide Pyramidologist, and Newton was studied by early Freemasons... was there any Newtonian or early pre-modern Pyramidology Freemason influence on Russell?  The research criteria of this journal is going to be expanding.  I am going to be looking deeper into Jewish associations with not only Russell, but Pyramidologist Freemasons, Mormons, Christian Scientists, and Adventists, as well as look for any ties with Newton and pre-modern Pyramidology Freemasonry. Did the Jews see potential in all forms of Pyramidology, or only Russell's pure Zionist Noahide Pyramidology? Then there is the topic of Russell's Bible Student groups who broke away from the main Jehovah's Witness organization which stopped preaching Russell's Zionist Pyramidology in 1928; today there are still student groups of Russell's who are Zionist Noahide Pyramidologists and who have close relationships with Zionist Jewry. There are now many avenues to explore in the neverending saga of how Judaism, Freemasonry, and the four Judeo-Freemason-based cults intersected on Pyramidology.

Monday, July 10, 2023

29. Freemason British Israelist Pyramidologists believed the Jews would convert to Christianity - Noahide Pyramidology: Is Watchtower Pyramidology Masonic? Noahide?

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So it seems that the majority if not all of the Freemasons who were Pyramidologists were British Israelist Pyramidologists, and now we know they were also Christain Zionists because they believed the Jews would become Christian once they were restored to Israel.  So I think the mystery is solved. Charles Taze Russell's pyramidology was not only Zionist, but it was Noahide Zionist because he believed that the Jews would be restored to Israel but that they would remain Jews and not convert to Christianity, Russell also preached nontrinitarianism which would be in line with Noahide demands.  So Russell did not get his Zionist Noahide Pyramidology from the Freemasons. However, he still could have been influenced by Freemasons, just like he was influenced by British Israelist Charles Smyth. Now the only thing to do is read everyone's work and see if Russell found unique Freemason Pyramidology which he did not get from non-Freemason Pyramidologists. However, we must keep open the idea that Russell was influenced by pre-modern Pyramidology, if the Zionist Noahide Pyramidologist Isaac Newton could have influenced any early Freemason Pyramidology or Russell could have read Isaac Newton himself.  Or maybe Charles Russell was not influenced by anyone in his Zionist Noahide Pyramidology, maybe he was simply just unique, he seems to stand out.  This is why the Zionist Jews backed Russell so much.  Were there any Jewish occultists who may have been into Jewish Pyramidology who Russell was in contact with?  Kabbalists?  What about the Noahide Laws?  Russell was so close to the Jews, did they help him craft his nontrinitarianism? 


Racist Apocalypse: Millennialism on the Far Right Michael Barkun

  
PDF Available Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oNdUfXU2qE7Ko_nisR45YW60Acygb7Eo/view?usp=sharing

journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/download/2905/2864/3235


Friday, July 7, 2023

28. John Chapman was a Freemason British Israelist Zionist Pyramidologist - Noahide Pyramidology: Is Watchtower Pyramidology Masonic? Noahide?

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So this whole blog started when I found my first info on Freemason Pyramidology and questioned whether or not Freemason Pyramidology influenced Russell's Zionist Noahide Pyramidology.  It was when I found Freemason John Chapman's book The Great Pyramid on Freemason Pyramidology that I decided to start this journal to collect all the evidence I had gathered about the question. The book has finally arrived and I opened it just to the right page, Chapman was a British Israelist Zionist and believed Britain (the lost ten tribes) would kinda rise with the Jews who would be protected in Israel by the king/queen.  I don't know if the Jews would eventually convert to Christianity or not, I'll have to read the book.  I am running out of Freemason Pyramidologists, they all seem to be British Israelists. But Charles Taze Russell was influenced by British Israelist Charles Smyth and by Christian Zionist (Jews become Christian after returning to Israel) Joseph Seiss.  Just because the Freemasons were British Israelists does not mean that Russell did not study them and take on their ideas.  I must research British Israelism and its interaction with Freemason Pyramidology. The only other groups/people who would have influenced Russell in Zionist Noahide Pyramidology would have been his friends the Zionist Jews or he studied Newton which may have appeared in early Freemasonry 


Thursday, July 6, 2023

27. Was Freemason Pyramidologist James Ralson Skinner neutral on Zionism? - Noahide Pyramidology: Is Watchtower Pyramidology Masonic? Noahide?

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I've already introduced you to Freemason Pyramidologist James Skinner.  Below is a link to his book on Freemason Pyramidology, Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the source of measures originating the British inch and the ancient cubit.  Now, Skinner was unique in Pyramidology as while most Pyramidologists used the Pyramid inch which was 1/1000 of an inch off from the British inch, James Skinner believed the British Inch proper was the inch used to build the pyramids.  This sounds like something a British Israliest would say.  But when I checked his book I found no hint of British Israelism, but I also can't seem to find any Zionism either. Skinner published in what seems to be 1876, which now means modern Freemason Pyramidology was around as early as the mid-1870s. So if Skinner was Zionist neutral, that means this at least is not where Charles Taze Russell picked up his Zionist Noahide Pyramidology.  I only have a few more Freemason Pyramidologists to check out, let's see if any of them have the same Pyramidology as Charles Taze Russell.  If there are no Freemason Noahide Zionist Pyramidologists then I would say that it was Russell's Jewish friends who might have influenced him in this direction.  Time will tell. 

Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian mystery in the source of measures originating the British inch and the ancient cubit

PDF Available Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N9Q0nxRDXY-J_Pd3n9wPfci98w6rtYZp/view?usp=sharing

 https://archive.org/details/keytohebrewegypt00skin

26. Wait, British Israelite Pyramidologists were still Zionists! - Noahide Pyramidology: Is Watchtower Pyramidology Masonic? Noahide?

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So I want to clarify something, I've been treating the Freemason British Israelite Pyramidologists like they were not Zionists, but British Israelists did support the restoration of the Jews to Israel under the British Crown and were connected to Victorian Christian Zionism.  So now I have to dig deeper into British Israelism because British Israelites believe the British People are the lost 10 tribes of Israel, so would they also be restored to Israel too?  And would the Jews who were restored to Israel, would they remain Jews or become Christians?  What were their ideas about the trinity? I am having a hard time finding info on British Israelite Zionism, but will continue. Even if all Freemason Pyramidologists were British Israelite Pyramidologists they could have still influenced Charles Taze Russell, just like other British Irsraelist Pyramidologists like Charles Smyth. I am not done investigating all avenues of Freemason Pyramidology, there are still Freemason Pyramidologists who could have been Zionist Noahide Pyramidologists and who could have influenced Russell or who may have even been influenced by him, which is something they would have done if they wanted to stay Noahide compliant as a true Masons. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3205158/

Victorian origins of William Osler's philosemitism?

Featherstone Osler, an Anglican missionary to the new world of British Canada, gave the name William to his new son. He held up the new baby to the marching Protestant crowd celebrating William of Orange and his Protestant victory over Catholics at the Battle of the Boyne on July 12, 1849. Catholics in Ireland to this day still see the Orange Order marches as provocative attempts to “show who is boss,” while Protestants see any attempt to deny them the right to walk through traditional routes as a move to restrict their freedom to celebrate their Protestant identity. The question raised many times is how William Osler, given his provincial, strictly parochial Protestant background, become so ecumenical, so liberal and universal in his broadminded vision and tolerance of other religions.

We know that Osler read and reread Religio Medici, written by his hero and spiritual mentor, Sir Thomas Browne, and the book was placed in his coffin. Despite prejudiced remarks against Catholics, Jews, Muslims, blacks, and women in this work, Osler seemed unaffected by this aspect of Browne. Osler had the highest regard for Browne's open-mindedness relative to his era, stating that Browne had “become denationalized so far as his human sympathies were concerned.”

Browne emphasized that he had “no prejudices in religion.” He subscribed himself “a loyal son of the Church of England” and commented:

Where the Scripture is silent the Church is my text; where that speaks it is but my comment. When there is a joint silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my-religion from Rome or Geneva, but from the dictates of my own reason.

During his lifetime, Osler made similar remarks.

In his writings and actions, Sir William Osler betrayed no evidence of antisemitism—unusual for a man of his era. Among his friends and colleagues, this tolerant trait was unique. Osler's attitude could be contrasted with that of Harvey Cushing, his friend and biographer, who in his own memoirs referred to Osler's Jewish Historical Society speech against antisemitism as “Osler's charitable comments on the Semitic Invasion of Britain.”

Faith Wallis, PhD, viewed Osler's philosemitism as a function of the strong representation of Jews in his chosen profession. Wallis stated:

Medicine was the centre of Osler's world; that so many Jews shared his devotion raised them in his esteem. While Browne met few Jews and said things about them that in our secular age might seem unsympathetic, Osler met many Jews and said things about them that in a modern idiom seem enlightened. Yet Osler named Browne as his mentor in tolerance—perhaps rightly so, for they shared a common liberal religious outlook. No justice is done to either Browne or Osler by weighing their words on the present-day scale of political correctness. Both were men of wisdom, but both were men of their age. … By presuming moral superiority over the dead and discounting their experience, presentism becomes itself a kind of prejudice.

Presentism or not presentism, it is easily apparent in at least two of Osler's articles, “Letter from Berlin” and “Israel and Medicine,” that Osler had a marked distaste for antisemitism and strongly positive attitudes towards Jews. In both articles he spoke out vigorously against antisemitism. In 1884 Osler was on sabbatical in Germany. In a letter about this to the Canadian Medical and Surgical Journal, he discussed the antisemitism he saw in Germany.

The modern “hep, hep, hep” shrieked in Berlin for some years has by no means died out, and to judge from the tone of several of the papers devoted to the Jewish question there are not wanting some who would gladly revert to the plan adopted on the Nile some thousands of years ago for solving the Malthusian problem of Semitic increase. Doubtless there were then, as now, noisy agitators—prototypes of the Parson Stocker—who clamoured for the hard laws which ultimately prevailed, and for the taskmasters whose example so many Gentile generations have willingly followed, of demanding where they safely could, bricks without straw of their Israelitish brethren.

Presciently, Osler may have detected the coming catastrophe that would befall the Jews of Europe half a century later. Referring to German antisemitism, Osler said:

There is not a profession which would not suffer the serious loss of many of its most brilliant ornaments and in none more so than our own. I hope to be able to get the data with reference to the exact number of professors and docents of Hebrew extraction in the German Medical Faculties. The number is very great, and of those I know their positions have been won by hard and honorable work; but I fear that, as I hear has already been the case, the present agitation will help to make the attainment of university professorships additionally difficult. One cannot but notice here, in any assembly of doctors, the strong Semitic element, at the local societies and at the German Congress of Physicians it was particularly noticeable, and the same holds good in any collection of students. All honour to them!

Osler had many friendships with Jewish colleagues. Jewish mothers sought his advice about their medical student sons. They felt comfortable with him. He had a special relationship with all his students, including those who were Jewish. Interviews with the children, grandchildren, and other relatives of Osler's Jewish medical students all without exception praise his heartfelt tolerance, which was related in Baltimore family gatherings as so unusual for a Gentile. Jews placed great trust in this Gentile, not only as a mentor, but as a good friend.

Osler seemed to be speaking about his own philosophy when he compared the competing influences of “Athens and Jerusalem.” Osler pointed out:

Modern civilization is the outcome of these two great movements of the mind of man, who today is ruled in heart and head by Israel and by Greece. From the one [Israel] he has learned responsibility to a Supreme Being, and the love of his neighbour, in which are embraced both the Law and the Prophets.

Osler grew to maturity in a land and an era when Jews were either not tolerated or openly persecuted. It was during this era that Osler worked with and trained several Jewish physicians. How much he socialized with them is unknown; however, what is documented is the great regard in which Osler held Jewish refugee pediatrician Dr. Abraham Jacobi, whom he hosted several times in his Franklin Street Baltimore home.

William Osler had a justly deserved reputation for humanitarianism, liberalism, and religious tolerance. What makes these qualities so remarkable is that he lived in a time when they were not representative of the Western world—in fact, when the entire milieu immediately around him was the opposite. How he came to hold this view while many of his colleagues and protégés were clearly bigots is one of the unknowns about Osler. In fact, Drs. David B. Hogan and A. Mark Clarfield argued that Sir William Osler was not merely immune to the endemic antisemitism of his age but was positively philosemitic.

SOURCES OF OSLERAPOS;S PHILOSEMITISM

While many articles discuss Osler's speeches, papers, and discussions with his peers, few discuss the intellectual ferment around him as he matured. An exploration of the literature and sociology of Osler's Victorian era may also be helpful in answering this question. As noted, historian Barbara Tuchman pointed out that in 19th-century England, and in Anglo-Saxon society in general, a strong sense of philo-Judaism coexisted with more prevalent antisemitic attitudes.

Disraeli and Arnold

Cultural kinship between Britons and Hebrews was postulated perhaps most famously during the middle of the 19th century by two great literary figures, Benjamin Disraeli and Matthew Arnold. In their works, Michael Ragussis argued, “the Hebraic is moved to the center of definitions of English national identity.”

To touch on these men's ideas only briefly here, in his trilogy of novels (Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred), Disraeli elaborated on a very clear cultural, and at times racial, bond between the Anglo-Saxons and the Hebrews. “Vast as the obligations of the whole human family are to the Hebrew race,” he wrote in Tancred, “there is no portion of the modern populations so much indebted to them as the British people.” The racial dynamic in Disraeli's three novels sought as its ultimate end the recognition of an interconnectedness between the Semite and the Briton.

Even more famously and clearly than Disraeli, Matthew Arnold formulated the idea that modern English national life was built upon a Hebraic foundation both in his Celtic Literature (1866) and, more directly, in the pages of Culture and Anarchy (1869). In these works, he offered an account of Hebraism and its relation to Hellenism, the two forces between which moved the modern nations. He thought that the Hebrew basis of much of the English moral and national character was undeniable. While he noted that the idea of a close racial connection between the two peoples was being increasingly eroded by the findings of the nascent science of ethnology, he still believed that affinity between peoples of different races showed an ultimate unity of man. No affinity of this kind was more prominent, he determined, “than that which linked the English nation, in its history and its moral rectitude, to that of the Hebrews.”

British-Israelism

The most explicit expression of British and Hebrew affinity was the set of beliefs known as British-Israelism. Those who held to British-Israel ideas believed that the British (including all the inhabitants of Great Britain and their colonial descendants) were the direct descendants of one or more of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. This meant that the “Anglo-Saxon peoples” were racially Hebrew and brothers by the flesh of the tribe of Judah and the Jews. British-Israelites, therefore, drew the closest connection between Englishmen and Jews, finding an affinity of race not in the prehistoric cradle of human beginnings (whether in Eden or in the Caucasus mountains) but in the relatively recent historic period from the 8th century bc.

Founded in the 1830s by John Wilson of Cheltenham, who was himself an accomplished student of Hebrew and a pioneer in phrenology at a time when phrenology was still taken seriously as a scientific field of study, British-Israelism relied most heavily on the prophetic passages of the Bible which British-Israelites interpreted as predicting great success and prosperity for the lost tribes in the latter days. Many British-Israel writers also seized eagerly upon findings in historical and archaeological research and the racial sciences to prove that the British were a Semitic people, racially allied to the Jews. Even outside British-Israel circles, a common theme in much imperial discourse was that Britain comprised a “new Israel” now in possession of Israel's mission to be a blessing and a light to all nations.

Though rejected, often derisively, the theory was not ignored. One prominent Victorian anthropologist, A. L. Lewis, thought it important enough to take the thesis apart on at least two occasions in the 1870s before prominent bodies of his colleagues, the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Anthropological Society of London. At least two antisemitic French authors suggested that if the British-Israel thesis proved true it would explain the visceral and almost instinctive antagonism which the French people felt for both the Jews and the British!

There was also a loose connection between Victorian Christian Zionism and British-Israelism. Most British-Israelites believed in the ultimate restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land under the protection of Britain. It was during this time that Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made baronet, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. The first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, Sir David Salomons, was elected in 1855, followed by the 1858 emancipation of the Jews. On July 26, 1858, Lionel de Rothschild was finally allowed to sit in the British House of Commons when the law restricting the oath of office to Christians was changed; Benjamin Disraeli, a baptized Christian of Jewish parentage, was already a member of Parliament. In 1868, Disraeli became prime minister, having earlier been chancellor of the exchequer. In 1884, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, became the first Jewish member of the British House of Lords.

George Eliot

Another Victorian also felt a bond to Jews—and Jewish nationalism. George Eliot's novels were well known to Osler. Although there is no record of Osler meeting with her, Osler had Oxford friends who had dined with her. He considered her novel Middlemarch, describing a physician who did not rise to his potential, a manual of lessons for what doctors should not do.

George Eliot's final novel, Daniel Deronda, was also her most controversial. What earned Eliot such admiration from Jews was her treatment of Daniel, which broke the longstanding tradition of English literary antisemitism that stretched from Shylock to Fagin. Few had a problem, upon its publication in 1876, with its portrayal of yearning and repression in the English upper class. But as Eliot's lover, George Henry Lewes, had predicted, “The Jewish element seems to me likely to satisfy nobody.” Deronda was the first of Eliot's novels to be set in her own period, the late 19th century, and in it she took on what was a highly unusual contemporary theme: the position of Jews in British and European society and their likely prospects. The eponymous hero is an idealistic young aristocrat who comes to the rescue of a young Jewish woman and in his attempts to help her find her family is drawn steadily deeper into the Jewish community and the ferment of early Zionist politics.

Despite the strong current of British-Israelism passing through British literary and upper classes, Jews were still unpopular, not least in the lower classes, even during the premiership of the Jewish-born Benjamin Disraeli. Eliot was keen to show what she considered a view of Jews from the upper classes (who superciliously referred to Mirah, the Jewish heroine, as a “little Jewess”). The British middle classes (Mrs. Meyrick) instantly presumed that Mirah might have “evil thoughts.” The working class (the man in the pub) asked, “[If] they're clever enough to beat half the world—why haven't they done it?”

Eliot was an upper-class woman who had been converted to the cause of Jewish national rebirth, which was the British-Israelism passion. It was two decades before Theodor Herzl would give a name Zionism and an organization to that cause. The word “Zionism” nowhere appears in Daniel Deronda. Yet in his manifesto, The Jewish State, Herzl credited Eliot with inspiring his mission. In fact, Eliezer ben Yehuda, the restorer of Hebrew as a modern spoken language, was prompted to move to Palestine after reading Daniel Deronda in a Russian translation. By the time the Jewish state was established, Israel's three largest cities, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, had streets named after George Eliot.

The Balfour Declaration

This Victorian stream of British-Israelism became a strong current with the November 2, 1917, Balfour Declaration, a formal statement of policy from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community. The letter reflected the position of the cabinet, as a sign of “sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations”: “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.”

The Balfour Declaration received support for “sentimental” reasons related to British-Israelism beginning in the 19th century with the Eliot novel and with a number of leading figures in Britain who had become interested in the idea of restoring the Jews to Palestine. In other words, the policy was backed because of the traditional support of many Britons for Jewish restoration, a support echoed by several US presidents as well. Very probably, there were pragmatic reasons as well, including those of Lloyd George and Balfour, who intended the declaration as an intention to create a Jewish state or British-protected Jewish entity in all or part of Palestine, one that could also be used to give Britain a claim on Palestine to use against France. The British used the promise of a Jewish national home to extract from the League of Nations a large territory for their mandate, creating a new territorial entity for itself called “Palestine,” that had no status except in Christian holy books before 1917. The League of Nations mandate for Palestine incorporated the provisions of the Balfour Declaration. It now was an explicit commitment, not just a promise.

William Osler, who I believe had a strong streak of 19th-century Victorian British-Israelism, would have approved.

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