Ever since it was created, Judaism has been
persecuted for centuries.
This brought the great powers to think about
proposing a Jewish homeland, especially in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
Today, I will cover some of the more interesting
locations proposed for becoming the Jewish
state.
The first proposed location was actually established.
Founded in 1825, the Grand Island in New York
State would have become a Jewish Refuge due
in part to politician and playwright Mordecai
Noah.
This 27-square-mile land held what was to
be the city of Ararat.
Mordecai’s grand idea eventually failed
because no Jews actually came to settle.
The next proposal is even more wild.
Proposed by British Colonial Secretary Joseph
Chamberlain in 1903, a 5,000 square mile portion
of the Kenyan Great Rift Valley would be made
into a Jewish homeland.
This was sparked by the recent pogroms in
Russia which killed more than 3,000 Jews.
The Russian Delegation greatly opposed this
proposal, but nonetheless Britain sent inspectors
to the Plateau.
The inspectors saw it had the perfect climate,
but the lands were filled with Masaai natives
who weren’t so keen on having European settlers
visit.
So the plan was scrapped and Zionists took
the matters into their own hands once again.
The next location was proposed quite early
from the Zionist Movement.
In 1799, Napoleon’s army had reached the
city of Acre all the way from Alexandria.
To complete his “Empire of the East,”
he was to control the whole of the Ottoman
Empire.
To reach his imperial goals, he made a deal
to the Syrian Jews that if they assisted the
French army, Napoleon would rebuild Solomon’s
Temple and give the Jewish people a homeland
in Jerusalem.
These were only intentions though, and Napoleon’s
army was eventually defeated by the joint
Ottoman-British army.
The very last location I’ll be explaining
is the Madagascar Plan.
First proposed in 1878 by French scholars,
the Madagascar Plan was supposed to relocate
all European Jews to Madagascar to keep them
“safe” but really the plan was promoted
by anti-semites who didn’t want Jewish peoples
in Europe.
After the failure of the Kenyan plan, the
Madagascar plan became the most popular plan
for European scholars regarding Zionism.
Poland took an interest in the plan, estimating
that 500 families or fewer could settle the
island.
Later in 1940, Not-See (YouTube demonitizes the word) Germany took an interest
in using the island for removing the Jewish
population from Europe.
The Not-Sees planned on deporting the Jews and
putting them onto German-Occupied Madagascar.
Then a police state would be constructed with
the SS being the administrative force.
And no, this settlement would not be a fun
playground; it was meant to purposely torture
the Jewish people by putting them in an inhospitable
land.
This plan was thankfully ended when the British
fleet regained its superiority and launched
a liberation of Madagascar in 1942.
There’s a really great video about that
up here if you want to learn more.
The Not-See government then switched their plan
from deportation of the Jews to extermination.
Thank you for watching, have a great day.
For more about Jewish History, I’d suggest
you watch this video.
