Baron Edmond de Rothschild

Baron Edmond de Rothschild

(August 19, 1845 - November 2, 1934)

Being Jewish doesn’t automatically make you a Zionist.
Not surprisingly, some members of the extended Jewish
Rothschild banking family were opposed to the
establishment of the State of Israel arguing that
establishing a Jewish homeland might compromise the
advantage of worldwide Jewish dispersion.

The Rothschild’s basically financed the establishment of
Israel beginning with Baron Edmond de Rothschild who

is now established in Jewish history as “Hanadiv” (The
Known Benefactor).

Baron Edmond de Rothschild was French born in 1845.
In 1881 he was fully aware of the plight of Russian Jews
who were suffering the effects of the pogroms and
determined that there should be a safe haven established
for them in the “Land of Israel.”

He went about
purchasing large plots of land throughout Palestine and
established Jewish colonies (kibbutz’s) on them. He set
up a system managed by experts who provided capital for
the creation of agricultural based enterprises such as
vineyards for wine production, olive oil processing
facilities, and a perfume industry based on agricultural products.

After the British Mandate (British occupation of
Palestine) began in 1923 following the conclusion of
World War I, Rothschild founded the Palestine Jewish
Colonization Association (PJCA), and doubled his
Zionist endeavors.

The Hanadiv died in 1934 and his and
his wife’s remains were transferred to Israel from France
twenty years later and re-interred at Ramat Hanadiv.

Some of the colonies the Baron had founded were named
after Rothschild family members such as Zichron
Yaakov, Mazkareet Batya, Bat Shlomo, Binyamina,
Givat Ada and others.

The Baron had purchased nearly
125,000 acres of land and had established at least 40
villages. Upon the establishment of Israel, the Rothschild
family donated all of their land holdings to the new
nation as a gift.

The Rothschild Caesarea Foundation was established in
1962 by the grandson of the Known Benefactor (Baron
Edmond de Rothschild). While his grandfather will be
remembered for his acquiring land and settling it; Baron
Edmond the younger will be remembered for his
contribution to the industrialization of Israel and for his
contributions to educational and cultural institutions. Not
to mention the financing of Haganah, Irgun and other covert terrorist and
overt military bodies from 1920 to 1948.

When Zionists were pushing for Jews scattered world-
wide to gather and populate Palestine and what was to
become Israel, they discovered that most Jews did not
want anything to do with a Jewish homeland. Iraqi Jews
were no exception.

Iraqi Jews had been living in Iraq for
a thousand years and got along just fine with the Arab
population enjoying the same rights and privileges and
did not consider themselves a distinctly separate part of
the nation.

Zionist Jews commenced covert attacks, such as bombing
synagogues, upon the non-Zionist Jews to trick them into
fleeing the “Arab-Iraqi persecution.” The appearance of
leaflets coincided with the attacks urging Jews to flee to
Israel. Most of the world believed the reports of the Arab
terrorism that motivated the exodus to Israel and
appreciated the Zionist “rescuers.”

An honest account of this Jew-on-Jew terrorism can be
found in Naeim Giladi’s book titled, "The Jews of Iraq."
Giladi being an Iraqi Jew who later lived in Israel and
America who exposed the program from the inside is quoted as saying,

“I write about what the first prime
minister of Israel called ‘cruel Zionism.’ I write about it
because I was part of it.”

Giladi asserts that “Jews from Islamic lands did not
immigrate willingly to Israel.” And further asserts that
“In order to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews.”

He even admits that in an effort to “buy time to confiscate
even more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions
rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors.”

Ask a Jewish American why they don’t relocate to the
Jewish State to live. Then ask a Jewish American if
Israelis resent Jewish Americans for not coming home to
the homeland. I have asked the questions and the answers to the first
question vary.

Some Jewish Americans have been to
Israel and found it not to their liking for reasons such as
Israel is rather depressing because mean spirited Zionists
control everything. Or the Orthodox and Hassidic Jews
are too strict and judgmental. Or the place is tiny and
causes one to feel suffocated; not to mention the constant
threat of violence and war.

Some Jewish Americans flatly state that they can best
support Israel by being in the U.S. to assist in exploiting
America and sending support to Israel in the form of cash.

A couple of Jews I queried offered that they don’t care a
whit about Israel, or about even being Jewish.

The answer to the second question: do Israelis resent
American Jews for not immigrating to Israel?, is always "no.”

Israelis fully realize what an easily manipulated
cash cow and malleable weapons system America is, and
appreciate their people in America providing support.

The characters referred to as “Master-Blaster” in the Mel
Gibson movie, "Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome," is a
good representative image of the Israeli-American
relationship. The little guy with all the brains riding on
the back of the huge guy is Master Israel, and the huge
guy with pronounced Down Syndrome enforcing the
Master’s policy is Blaster America.

Israel is a hyper-racist, religious, nuclear armed rogue
state with designs to dominate the entire world by
dividing it into three economic super states as described
in the doctrines of the Tri-Lateral Commission.

If you doubt that Israel is bristling with nuclear
weapons... See the trials and tribulations of Israeli
Mordechai Vanunu at http://www.vanunu.org.

Vanunu has
been persecuted and prosecuted in Israel for revealing the
existence of the vast Israeli nuclear arsenal ...as if it
needed revealing.

Again, the U.S.A. sends untold billions
to nuclear armed Israel annually ...as if they need it.

The inventors of nuclear weaponry were Jews such as the
so called “father of the atomic bomb,” Robert
Oppenheimer.

Jewish American spies, such as Ethel
Greenglass Rosenberg, Julius Rosenberg, Harry Gold,
and Morton Sobell not only sold nuclear secrets to
Russia, but surely to Israel as well.

BTW: Ethel Rosenberg’s brother, David Greenglass, had
supplied his sister and brother-in-law with the detailed
atomic weapon manufacturing documents from Los
Alamos, New Mexico (the site of the atomic bomb

manufacturing effort called the Manhattan Project).

He confessed to being a spy when prosecuted and escaped
execution by ratting out his sister and brother-in-law. He
received a 15 year sentence, but was released after 10.

I will regard Israel as a belligerent enemy if it refuses to
assist in the prosecution of the war criminals who
perpetrated attacks upon my country, namely the Levon Affair, the USS
LIBERTY massacre and 9/11.

I admire the honesty of any American Jew that flatly
states that they are Zionists. And I believe that American
Jewish Zionists should walk the walk and absolutely not
assimilate into American Christian based culture. And
American Zionist Jews should move to Israel ...whether
they are comfortable there or not.

Baron Edmond de Rothschild played an unparalleled role in the history of the State of Israel

and the destiny of the Jewish people. The third child of James and Betty Rothschild, the

founders of the family's Parisian branch, he received both a traditional Jewish and a

general secular education. As an art aficionado he assembled an important collection of

drawings and engravings, eventually bequeathing it to the Louvre. Edmond joined the family

banking establishment in 1868 and at the age of 32 married his cousin Adelheid.

Like his parents, he was involved in numerous philanthropic activities within the Jewish

community and in the Land of Israel.

Following the pogroms (anti-Jewish riots) in Russia in 1881-1882, Edmond worked with

the French Committee helping Russian Jews immigrate to Palestine. He joined a group

of leaders who firmly believed in the right of the Jewish people to live in the Land of Israel.

His contributions to the Yishuv began in the early 1880s when the first moshavot (farming villages)

established by Hovevei Zion, a European Zionist organisation, suffered grave financial difficulties.

Community members and Yishuv representatives requested urgent help for the pioneers

who had settled there, and the Baron agreed to underwrite all the expenses of the moshavot

Rishon LeZion, Zikhron Ya'akov, Rosh Pina, and Ekron, in addition to providing assistance for the others.

This, in essence, is where the life's work of the Baron and his wife began, and it spanned

most of their remaining years. During a visit to Zikhron Ya'akov in 1893, the Baron

explained his dedication to the farmers gathered there. 'I did not support you and take

you under my wing due to your poverty', he declared, 'but due to your passion to work

and live in the Holy Land, and to live in accordance with the spirit of the Torah'.

Through the years, Baron Edmond de Rothschild acquired considerable holdings in the

Land of Israel. As 'the godfather' of the moshavot, he sent European agronomists to advise

and guide them. He and his descendants supported 44 settlements, from Metulla in the

north to Mazkeret Batya (Ekron) in the south – agricultural villages of various sorts (moshavot,

moshavim, kibbutzim) as well as towns. Today some of these bear the names of the Rothschilds,

among them Zikhron Ya'akov, named after the Baron's father James (Ya'akov); Mazkeret

Batya, after his mother Betty (Batya); and Givat Ada, in tribute to his wife Adelheid (Ada).

The Baron's interest, however, was by no means confined to agricultural settlement.

Convinced that the growing Jewish community in the Land of Israel would ultimately

become independent, he invested financial resources and tireless energy to the Yishuv's

industrial development. With his assistance and that of his descendants', the Yishuv's

first industries and basic infrastructure were established: wineries, factories for agricultural

products, even the first power stations. Two of the wineries founded by the Baron, one

in Rishon LeZion and the other in Zikhron Ya'akov, were among the world's largest at the time.

The Baron also directed his concern toward the health of the pioneer farmers. The Yishuv

was plagued with mosquito-ridden swamps and poor hygienic conditions; malaria was rife.

The Baron set out to eradicate the cause of malaria by financing the long-term project of

draining of the swamps; at the same time, he created special clinics to care for the many

malaria patients.

The Baron had an abiding commitment to the Hebrew language and religion. He established

synagogues and schools, encouraging the use of the Hebrew language. 'I have heard

many French poems in France', he announced on one occasion. 'Here [in the Land of Israel],

I will be delighted to hear Hebrew poetry'. He encouraged the pioneers to retain their

connections to Judaism in their own way: 'The sense of religion is a principle among Jews',

he told them. 'Only a sense of religion can unite all parts of the world...You were the first

to show the way of agriculture to those who will follow you. You are also obliged to show

them the way of the Hebrew heart.’

Baron Edmond de Rothschild's involvement with the Zionist movement began during

World War I. In 1924 he founded the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA),

which managed the acquisition of land in Israel, and appointed his son James as president.

In recognition of his work, the Baron was made Honorary Chairman of the Jewish Agency

for Israel in 1929.

He died in 1934 at the age of 89. The Baron's death plunged the Yishuv into mourning

along with the entire Jewish world. His wife, Baroness Adelheid de Rothschild, had been

his full, active partner, and accompanied him on each of his five visits to the Land of Israel.

She herself led a variety of philanthropic projects in the Yishuv and founded the Institute for

Jewish Youth in Paris. She died in 1935, not long after her husband, and was laid to rest beside him.

Some twenty years after their deaths, the remains of Baron and Baroness de Rothschild

were brought to Israel aboard a naval vessel of the young State of Israel. They were reinterred

in a state ceremony at Ramat Hanadiv, between two settlements named for

the Baron and his father respectively – Binyamina and Zikhron Ya'akov.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, eulogized the Baron as follows: 'I doubt that,

in the entire history of the Jewish people in the Diaspora, a period of 2,000 years, one could

ever find a man comparable in stature to the incredible character that was the Baron

Edmond de Rothschild – the builder of the Jewish Yishuv in our renewed homeland.’

The Founding Myths of Modern Israel by Roger Garaudy.