The root of anti-Jewish antagonism is “the determination of the Jews throughout the centuries not to lose their identity as a separate and distinct people in any land where they dwell,” according to David Lloyd George, British wartime Prime Minister.
In the March 6 issue of Liberty, a weekly, he pays tribute to the contributions of the Jews in religion and other fields and declares that, given an opportunity, they show loyalty and give great service to the nations in which they live. He writes on “Why the Jew is Persecuted.”
Replying to critics who accuse Jews of Communism, Mr. Lloyd George asserts: “No country is entitled to claim loyalty unto death from a people to whom it denies the elementary rights of humanity. A Jew fairly treated is a loyal citizen in all lands.” He calls the Jews “the most remarkable race that ever dwelt on this earth.”
He lauds the idea of “a national home for the Jews in the country which they made holy ground,” declaring that “it will enable the Jews once more to make a contribution to the work of civilization as a separate community.” He calls Dr. Chaim Weizmann “the greatest statesman raised by Judah in modern times.”
Anti-Jewish hatred he terms a “malarial insect whose poison infects healthy creatures.” He gives religious bigotry as one of its causes, but stresses the isolationism of the Jews, partly imposed on them. Mr. Lloyd George says that “a Jew remains a Jew throughout the ages. He is just as much a Hebrew today in his sentiment, in his pride, and in his racial loyalties as he was when he was driven from Palestine.”
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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.
