Weizmann Handstbalfour American Zionists’ Memorial

The Earl of Balfour is the recipient today of a miniature statue, sculptured by Louis Rosenthal of Baltimore, at the direction of the Zionists of America, serving as a memorial for Lord Balfour’s authorship of the British Government’s declaration undertaking to help establish the Jewish national home in Palestine.

Presentation of the tiny statue was made by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, Dr. M. D. Eder, Joseph Cowen, and Paul Goodman, leading English Zionists. The delegation included also Abraham Shapiro representing the Jewish colonists of Palestine.

Dr. Weizmann expressed the veneration and gratitude of the Zionistsof America for the author of the declaration which he said was a beacon of light amidst the Jewish sufferings during the war. The object of the declaration is being realized despite all obstacles, Dr. Weizmann said, and the progress made in Palestine is not only material. The Zionist leader instanced the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as one of the spiritual purposes underlying the Zionist work. Dr. Weizmann in conclusion expressed the hope that Lord Balfour would open the University next June.

Visibly touched by Dr. Weizmann’s utterances, Lord Balfour expressed his appreciation to the American Zionists. He said he felt he had hardly done enough to deserve all that was said of him. He had not done a tenth of what the cause deserves. He said “I am glad of the progress that is being made in Palestine and particularly of the spiritual impulse animating it. I am disappointed with the opposition that the Jewish aspirations have encountered, considering how much the Jews have given and are giving to the world and what they have received in return. Despitethe opposition. Zionism is a cause worthy of all true idealists.”

Mr. Rosenthal’s statuette, made entirely of gold and silver, stands 11 inches in height in the form of a memorial shaft resting on its base and surmounted by a tiny statue of Lord Balfour. Besides the shaft itself, there are nine separate pieces of sculpture comprising the memorial, there being in all some 40 figures, included in the work of Mr. Rosenthal. The statue of Lord Balfour itself is 2½ inches in height, the tallest of all the figures, none of the others being over an inch high. Figures representing Massacres and the Return of Peace from part of the base of the memorial which inclues also Industry, Science, Luxury. Youth. Old age and Poverty. On the shaft are two tablets, one bearing in English the inscription “Tp Arthur James Balfour From the Jews of the United States of America”, the other tablet in Hebrew is the biblical quotation “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”