A gold-and-silver statuette presented to Lord Balfour in 1923 by American Zionists as a token of appreciation for his efforts in securing Jewish rights to settlement in Palestine has been purchased from Lord Balfour’s estate by a group of local Jewish leaders.
The statuette, which was sculpted by Louis Rosenthal of Baltimore, was presented to Lord Balfour by Dr. Weismann at impressive ceremonies in London in November, 1923, with representatives of the Palestine Jewish community and of the American Zionists present. Accepting the figure at that time, Lord Balfour expressed the feeling that “he had hardly done enough to deserve this.”
A memorial shaft surmounted by a two and one-half inch figure of Lord Balfour and forty tiny figures at its bass compose the statuette which is eleven inches high. On the shaft are two tablets. On one, in English, is written: “To Arthur James Balfour from the Jews of the United States.” On the other, in Hebrew, is written the biblical quotation: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
