Lucien Wolf (1857 in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
– 1930) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
, historian, and advocate of Jewish rights.
Lucien Wolf was his real name. He was the son of Edward Wolf, a London pipe manufacturer, and his wife Céline (born Redlich). Wolf's father was a
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
n Jew who came to England as a political refugee after the 1848 revolution, and his mother was Viennese.
Wolf began his career in journalism as early as 1874, at the age of 17, becoming a writer for the Jewish World and remaining at this position until 1894; from 1905 to 1908, he would later serve as its editor.
Lucien Wolf (1857 in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
– 1930) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
, historian, and advocate of Jewish rights.
Lucien Wolf was his real name. He was the son of Edward Wolf, a London pipe manufacturer, and his wife Céline (born Redlich). Wolf's father was a
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
n Jew who came to England as a political refugee after the 1848 revolution, and his mother was Viennese.
Wolf began his career in journalism as early as 1874, at the age of 17, becoming a writer for the Jewish World and remaining at this position until 1894; from 1905 to 1908, he would later serve as its editor. In 1877, he became assistant director of the Public Leader. From 1890 to 1909, he was foreign editor of the
Daily GraphicThe Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper was the first American newspaper with daily illustrations. It was founded by in New York in 1873 by a firm of Canadian engravers and began publication in March of that year...
, writing under the pseudonym
Diplomaticus. From 1895 to 1905 he wrote under the same pseudonym for the
Fortnightly Review. As indicated by his pseudonym, Wolf's writings dealt primarily
foreign affairsForeign Affairs is an American magazine on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
and
diplomacyDiplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war,...
and he became a respected expert in these fields.
The outbreak of the anti-Jewish
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
s in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1881 sparked his interest Jewish affairs. He became a sharp critic of the Czarist regime and attempted to draw attention to the plight of Russian Jews. In 1912, Wolf wrote a supplement named
Darkest Russia to the
Jewish Chronicle. With the outbreak of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, Wolf's preference for the more liberal
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
government to the Russian practically ended his career in journalism, as the British were allied with Russia against Germany.
In 1893, Wolf was one of the founders and the first president of the
Jewish Historical Society of EnglandThe Jewish Historical Society of England was founded in 1893 by several Anglo-Jewish scholars, including Lucien Wolf, who became the society's first president. Early president of the JHSE included Hermann Adler, Joseph Jacobs, F. D. Mocatta, and Isidore Spielmann...
.
From 1903 Wolf served on the Conjoint Committee of the
Board of Deputies of British JewsThe Board of Deputies of British Jews is the main representative body of British Jews. Founded in 1760 as a joint committee of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities in London it has since become a widely recognised forum for the views of the different sectors of the UK Jewish...
and the
Anglo-Jewish AssociationThe Anglo-Jewish Association was a British organisation formed in 1871 for the 'promotion of social, moral, and intellectual progress among the Jews; and the obtaining of protection for those who may suffer in consequence of being Jews'. Many Anglo-Jewish businessmen, such as Jacob Behrens, were...
. He served for over 20 years, effectively as "Foreign Secretary" representing Anglo-Jewry. The "Conjoint Committee" had been formed in 1878. Author
Sharman KadishSharman Kadish is a contemporary scholar, author, and historian with particular expertise in Jewish British history and with several publications under her name. Of particular note is her monograph, Bolsheviks and British Jews...
, citing
Chimen AbramskyChimen Abramsky is emeritus Professor at University College London. His first name is pronounced Shimon.Abramsky was born in Minsk, the son of Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky. He has a BA degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA from the University of Oxford...
, says that he was regarded as "Public enemy number one of the Tsarist Government" in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Wolf was opposed to political Zionism, although he was one of the first people to formally propose the British government incorporated an aspiration for a Jewish home in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
into its war aims during the First World War. He later came to favour a model of national cultural autonomy, similar to that proposed by the Jewish Bund, for Jewish communities in Eastern and Central Europe.
Wolf was part of the Anglo-Jewish delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He helped draft the minority treaties, which guaranteed rights for the ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority populations. The Jewish delegations to the conference were split along different ideological lines.
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an delegates were generally
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
nationalistsNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
,
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
delegates
ZionistsZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
, and the
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
ans mostly opposed both Zionism and diaspora nationalism, wanting Jews to be integrated into the societies they live in.
Works by Lucien Wolf
- The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs, by Lucien Wolf, 1920
- This is an edited compilation of articles - published previously in various periodicals - denying the authenticity
Authenticity refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.Authenticity or Authentic may refer to:*Authentication, having passed the tests thereof...
of "The Protocols."
- Jews in the Canary Islands, Being a calendar of Jewish cases extracted from the records of the Canariote Inquisition in the collection of the Marquess of Bute
- Report on the "Marranos" or Crypto-Jews of Portugal (London: Anglo-Jewish Association, 1926)