"Thou hast given us home and freedom, Mother England.
Thou hast let us live again
Free and fearless 'midst thy free and fearless children,
Sparing with them, as one people, grief and gladness,
Joy and pain.
"Now we Jews, we English Jews, O Mother England,
Ask another boon of thee!
Let us share with them the danger and the glory;
Where thy best and bravest lead, there let us follow
O'er the sea!
"For the Jew has heart and hand, our Mother England,
And they both are thine to-day--
Thine for life, and thine for death, yea, thine for ever!
Wilt thou take them as we give them, freely, gladly?
England, say!"
[Footnote *: Mrs. Henry Lucas (reprinted in her _Talmudic Legends,
Hymns and Paraphrases_. Chatto and Windus, 1908).]
I am well aware that in what I have written, though I have been
careful to reinforce myself with Jewish authority, I may be running
counter to that interesting movement which is called "Zionism."
It is not for a Gentile to take part in the dissensions of the
Jewish community; but I may be permitted to express my sympathy
with a noble idea, and to do so in words written by a brilliant
Israelite, Lord Beaconsfield: "I do not bow to the necessity of a
visible head in a defined locality; but, were I to seek for such,
it would not be at Rome.
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