The British Zionism of Goyim

1839

Lord Shaftesbury takes out a full-page advert in The Times addressed to the Protestant monarchs of Europe and entitled "The State and the rebirth of the Jews", which included the suggestion for the Jews to return to Palestine to seize the lands of Galilee and Judea, as well as the phrase "Earth without people – people without land".

1840

Lord Shaftesbury presents a paper to British Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston calling for the 'recall of the Jews to their ancient land'.

1840 (August 11)

Lord Palmerston writes to Lord Ponsonby, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire:

"There exists at the present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine... 

It would be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage the Jews to return and settle in Palestine because the wealth which they would bring with them would increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions; and the Jewish people, if returning under the sanction and protection, and at the invitation of the Sultan, would be a check upon any future evil designs of Mehemet Ali (of Egypt) or his successor... 

I have to instruct Your Excellency strongly to re-commend (to the Turkish Government) to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine."

1841

George Gawler, previously the governor of South Australia, starts to encourage Jewish settlements in the land of Israel.

1842

Nadir Baxter, of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, died in 1842 and donated £1,000 in his will, stating that it be paid "towards the political restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem and to their own land; and as I conscientiously believe also that the institution by the Anglican Church of the bishopric of Jerusalem is the actual commencement of the great and merciful work of Jehovah towards Zion". 

The gift was declared void in 1851 in the case of Habershon v Vardon by Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce, Chancellor of the High Court, who stated "If it can be understood to mean any thing, it is to create a revolution in the dominions of an ally of her Majesty".

1841–42

Correspondence between Moses Montefiore, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Charles Henry Churchill, the British consul in Damascus, is seen as the first recorded plan proposed for political Zionism.

1844

Mordecai Noah publishes Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews.






1844

According to one source, the Old Yishuv Jews constitute the largest of several ethno-religious groups in Jerusalem – however estimates approximately 20 years before and 20 years after this date suggest otherwise. See Demographics of Jerusalem.

1844

Rev. Samuel Bradshaw, in his Tract for the Times, Being a Plea for the Jews calls for Parliament to allot 4 million pounds for the Restoration of Israel, with another 1 million to be collected by the Church.

1844

Pastor T. Tully Crybace convenes a committee in London for the purpose of founding a 'British and Foreign Society for Promoting the Restoration of the Jewish Nation to Palestine.' He urges that England secure from Turkey Palestine: 

'from the Euphrates to the Nile, and from the Mediterranean to the Desert'.