Hello everyone!
I'm a history enthousiast from Europe and I'm happy to be a member on these great forums.
A long time ago I wrote an alternate history scenario, but ended up having unsufficient time to continue it. I’ve long wanted to revive / rewrite it and to perhaps even continue it. So now, that's what I'll be doing in this thread. The TL explores the creation of a Jewish homeland in the northern Sinai peninsula as desired by Theodor Herzl and the British Empire IOTL. The POD is very simple: when Egypt declares the plan impractical due to the high expenses, famous Zionist supporter Edmond James de Rothschild offers to cover all expenses to create a safe refuge for the persecuted Russian Jews.
Part I will mostly explore the OTL background story - the POD will be in Part II. Here it goes!
Part I: The Quest for Jewish National Emancipation
For nearly 2 millennia, the Israelite people had lived scattered throughout the world, although the great majority could be found in the shtetls of Eastern Europe. Never in these 2 millennia was Jewish life characterized by transquility. Wherever they went, anti-Semitic Blood Libels followed them. The crusaders drove them out of the Rhineland, the inquisitors drove them out of Iberia, and now the majority of the Jews were trapped under Russia’s anti-Semitic Czarist regime. In 1882 Russian authorities prohibit the establishment of new Jewish communities, while the existing ones are ravaged by a massive government-sponsored wave of 259 pogroms in 1881-1884.
On a brighter note, in Western Europe and the United States, the liberal and humanist values of the Renaissance brought an end to segregation between Jews and Gentiles. In many cases, however, this meant neglecting the Yiddish and Hebrew language in favor of the local languages, and an increasing liberalization of the Jewish religion. For Jewish nationalists like Nathan Birnbaum, this was a frightful development that could lead to the assimilation of Jews into Christian society and thus the disappearance of this unique 3 millennia old culture. To prevent this, he suggested the establishment of a national home in their ancient homeland (Palestine) and the promotion of Hasidic Judaism and Yiddish as Jewry’s national religion and language respectively.
However, organized “Zionism” – as this belief in a return to Palestine became known – emerged with the Austrian Jew Theodor Herzl. His increasing worries about the plight of Russian Jewry were assuaged by the optimistic situation in his homeland and continent – he was himself indeed an assimilated, liberal, German-speaking Austrian. In Herzl’s mind, Russia might one day liberalize too, or the Jews will inevitably move to the liberal West and assimilate there. This bubble bursted on the 15th of October 1894. On that day, Alfred Dreyfus, Jewish officer in the French army, was arrested for alleged espionage for Germany. In the literary newspaper
l’Aurore, author Émile Zola publishes the truth on the event: Dreyfus was found innocent, but the French authorities cover it up. Herzl couldn’t believe it. Anti-Semitism was alive not just in Russia, but even in France. France, the land of the liberal revolution, the land of Jewish emancipation.
[Theodor Herzl]
Herzl quickly started working out his idea for a Jewish entity in his
book “Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage” (English:
The Jewish State: Attempt at a modern solution of the Jewish Question), in which he declared that anti-Semitism to be uncurable and the only solution being Jewish national emancipation. A Jewish state or province in Palestine, or possibly elsewhere, could provide many of the millions of poor Russian-Jewish souls not only a refuge, but even a home. Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Prague in 1897, hosting Jewish activists and leaders from all over the world. The Basel Declaration is issued, and the newly established “World Zionist Organization” (WZO) pledges to promote Jewish national conciousness and land purchase in Palestine. Furthermore, a Jewish national flag (Degel Zion) and anthem (Hatikvah) are decided upon.
Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, was considered the ideal location for a Jewish homeland. However, the land was controlled by the Ottoman Sultan, who was unwilling to grant a charter for the land. A German nationalist, Herzl approached Kaiser Wilhelm II during the latter’s tour of Palestine with the idea of a German-speaking Jewish protectorate of the German Empire. While the Kaiser was enthousiastic about this proposal, he seemed to have forgotten about it quickly – or maybe he was unwilling to put the good relations with the Sultan at stake.
Part II: A Suitable Land
The next candidate for negotiations was Great Britain, a world power hoping to expand its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Since the British did not have control over Palestine, Herzl proposed Cyprus and El-Arish – both on the Mediterranean – during a meeting with Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain in October 1902. While rejecting the proposal of Cyprus, since the Greek and Turkish inhabitants of the island would likely object, Chamberlain was very supportive of a Jewish buffer state against the Ottoman Empire on the Sinai peninsula. The town of El-Arish, located on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, was only sparsely settled by Bedouins and thus deemed ideal for colonization by Jews. However, Chamberlain required Herzl to achieve the support of Foreign Secretary Lord Landsdowne and of Lord Cromer, the British Consul General in Egypt. Landsdowne quickly gave the green light during another meeting, but Cromer required Herzl to send an investigating committee to the town, promising his favour if the investigation turns out positively.
Herzl wasted no time and immediately organized a “Zionist Commission to the Sinai Peninsula”, composed of various men, including Jewish British colonel Albert Goldsmid to report on the land; Dr. Zelig Soskin to report on agricultural possibilities; architect Oskar Adolf Marmorek to report on housing possibilities; and physician Dr. Hillel Yaffe to report on climate and hygiene. According to the eventual report, the land was unsuitable for European colonists, although it could support a considerable population in case sufficient irrigation were introduced. Herzl wasn’t too satisfied with the report, but surely, it was better than nothing and it could most certainly have been worse. Sadly, the Egyptian government announced that the water that was to be diverted from the Nile was five times more than the commission had calculated and that building the irrigation works would also be way too expensive. When the whole plan was about to collapse, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, a staunch Jewish Zionist from France and an ardent supporter of the plan, stepped in and promised to cover all the necessary expenses.
[Edmond de Rothschild]
At the Sixth Zionist Conference in Basel (August 23rd to 28th of 1903), Herzl introduces the plan for a Jewish homeland in northern Sinai. During a long presentation providing the details of the commission’s report, many religious Jews exit the room crying, calling Herzl a hypocrite and a betrayer for “abandoning Zion and Eretz Yisroel”. Upon their return, Herzl tries to calm them down with the following words:
"Gentlemen, I assure you, Sinai is the road to Palestine. Remember when, following our ancestors’ escape from the Pharaoh, they had encamped at 42 stations throughout Sinai before finally reaching the Promised Land? Consider this our 43rd station. The next stop is Eretz Yisroel.” The delegates agree by 385 in favour, 64 against and 122 abstentions. As a result, a 99-year charter for concession of northern Sinai to the Zionists is attained from the Egyptian government, against a large sum of money, most of which is provided by de Rothschild.
With a new, even worse wave of pogroms breaking out in Russia, Herzl immediately headed to Saint Petersburg to meet with Count von Plehve, the anti-Semitic Minister of the Interior, to inform him about the “El-Arish Scheme” and requesting financial aid for the settlement of Russian Jews in the newly attained land. More than happy to get rid of the Jews, which were unwilling to assimilate, von Plehve accepted Herzl’s request, saying:
“I congratulate the Zionist movement on attaining this charter, which will favor the interests of the Russian government. We will be more than happy to assist you morally and materially in your efforts to establish a Jewish center in Egypt, so as to diminish our Jewish population and strengthen our national unity.”
Count Witte, the finance minister, also an outspoken anti-Semite, quickly set up a fund with the money raised from Jewish taxes to invest in transports, lodgings and irrigation efforts by the WZO.
Part III: Jewish Autonomous Governorate
On January 3rd of 1904 it finally happened. In a region which Herzl calls “Egyptian Palestine” (i.e. the Sinai peninsula minus the territory along the Red Sea and the territory belonging to the Canal Zone), the “Jewish Autonomous Governorate” (German:
jüdisches autonomes Gouvernement, Yiddish:
גובערניע אווטאָנאָמע יִדישע yidishe avtonome gubernye) is established as an autonomous province of Egypt and a protectorate of the British Empire. The town of El-Arish becomes the capital and is renamed “Succoth” (German:
Sukkot, Yiddish:
סוכּות sukes) The Degel Zion (Zionist flag) is raised atop the Castle Arish, which is designated the governor’s residence.
Since both Yiddish as well as Hebrew lacked much of the necessary vocabulary for administration, German is voted by the WZO to become the official language of the province. All major towns are given quickly improvised German names, such as “Herzlija” (Bir Lahfan), “Apfelberg” (Bir el Abd), “Eiledorf”(Abu Ageila), “Ausheimen” (Ayn al Ousaymah), “Hammbach auf Sinai” (Bir Hammah), “Römerburg” (Bir ar Rummanah), “Künzig auf Sinai” (Al Kuntillah), “Nachau” (an Nakhl), “Hasenberg” (Bir Hasanah), “Tamadau auf Sinai” (Bir ath Thamada), and “Jifjaffel” (Bir al Jifjafah).
[borders of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate]
Yiddish and Hebrew become recognized minority languages alongside Arabic. Furthermore, an institution called the Yiddish Language Agency (Jüdische Sprachagentur / Jüsag) is established to standardize and modernize Yiddish - so that it can replace German as the national language in the near future. Within the Jüsag, different factions emerge – with some linguists wishing to adopt modern terminology directly from German, while others prefer creating neologisms from Hebrew. This quickly leads to the academic “Language War” (1904-1906) which eventually ends in favor of germanizing the Yiddish language.
The establishment of a new province in Egypt means that the governor of Sinai, Admiral Mohammad Aslam Bey, loses a lot of power. Throughout the remainder of his governorate he spreads anti-Semitic propaganda, but it gains little support among the Bedouin tribes that dwell throughout the Sinai - who are known for their hospitality and are fine with Jewish colonization for as long as they lose no land themselves during the process. When the Jewish Autonomous Governorate complains about the hostile attitude of the admiral, the Egyptians (under British pressure) remove him and merge the governorate of Sinai with the Red Sea governorate on the mainland.
Unlike normal governorates in Egypt, in which the governors are appointed by the Khedive of Egypt, the governor of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate is appointed by the Zionist Congress. The office of governership is rejected by Herzl, who is exhausted and wishes to live his last days quietly in his new home in the centre of Sukkoth. Instead, at Herzl’s request, David Wolffsohn, a Lithuanian Jewish businessman and Zionist, is appointed governor of the young Jewish governorate, which at that point hosts a 100% Bedouin Arabic population.