1913: Seems like just yesterday (Tribute to Dr. Jacob Mozak, a”h)

This week’s essay is dedicated to the memory of my dear neighbor, Dr. Jacob Mozak who would have been 100 years old this week.

1913, one hundred years ago, is the subject of a very interesting book entitled, “1913: In Search of the World Before The Great War,” by Charles Emmerson [Public Affairs, 2013]. Designed as a city-by-city survey of events prominent to each that year, the author gives us a unique historical panorama of a world on the brink of a military and political disaster.

My focus will be on the author’s take on a city beloved to all my dear readers, Jerusalem.

“Jerusalem in 1913 was not a city on any great trade routes. It was not of any great military significance. Though no one knew the number of its Ottoman and foreign inhabitants with any certainty, it was certainly not a large city by any means, numbering no more than 100,000 at most, of whom perhaps half were Jewish [many of whom were not Ottoman citizens], a little over one-quarter Christian [mostly Arab] and a little less that a quarter Muslim…”

Such were the demographics of that era.

As for the political factors, the author goes into some detail in describing an era that today is almost unknown to most of us. Consider the following factors:

“Jews and Arabs, meanwhile, rubbed shoulders on the streets of Jerusalem in 1913 as they always had. Granted, there was more suspicion now than in the past. After all, the Yishuv – the community of Jews in Palestine – had grown considerably over the last decades, not only through the inward migration of religiously motivated Jews but through the migration of those inspired by a new secular philosophy, Zionism, the political ambitions and implications of which were yet unclear. Palestine had a modern Jewish Zionist city, Tel Aviv. There were scattered settlements of Zionists across the land. Fresh Jewish acquisition of land, controversial for decades, was actively discussed, debated and [mostly] criticized in Arab newspapers — though this did not prevent willing Arab sellers and organized Jewish purchasers from finding ways to circumvent Ottoman regulations, and the steady process of Jewish colonization continuing as a result.”

Further on, the author makes the following observation:

“What Jewish immigration might ultimately mean for the political destiny of Palestine and for the existing Arab population of the sancak of Jerusalem was unclear in 1913. The Zionist idea of a Jewish homeland was still a dream taking form. … Zionism as a political movement was essentially a pressure group within the Jewish world rather than the unambiguous representative of all Jews everywhere.”

The on-the-ground Zionism of land settlement was still a slow going, slow growing process whose future was yet to be witnessed and defined. Nevertheless, as 1913 unfolded, many things were happening that were to foreshadow events that were to define the fate of the Jews of the Holy Land in ways that were completely unforeseen by them in that fateful year.

Emmerson writes:

“Thus while some Zionists saw Jerusalem as the inevitable centre of Eretz Israel — the home of the holiest Jewish site, after all, and a Jewish-majority city — and many more accepted the symbolic power of Jerusalem as a means of raising money for the Zionist project, the city was hardly the sole or even central preoccupation of practical Zionists.”

This was to eventually evolve into a contrary policy that three decades later saw Jerusalem as the capital of the new state. But first there was to be experienced a disappointing British occupation, two world wars, a Holocaust and only then, political independence.

1913 was a year of peace; never was such an atmosphere to be experienced again in that part of the world. In 1913, events failed to foreshadow even a hint of the Great War that was just a year ahead.

“The Ottomans’ key objectives were to maintain order, to prevent events in Jerusalem from offering a pretext for further foreign intervention, and to keep Arab nationalism in check. Preventing Jewish immigration was hardly an existential question at this point, as long as immigration did not lead to a movement for Jewish political independence.”

Much of what was to unfold for the next century was to prove to be unprecedented in both the history of Jerusalem, and for Jewish history itself.

Tensions between the two communities in the holy land lie just beneath the surface, ready to ignite at the slightest instigation. Some of these are briefly detailed by the author. However, 1913 itself was not to be defined by them.

In 1913, over 100,000 Jews were to settle in New York City, a staggering statistic when we consider the comparative few who were to immigrate from Eastern Europe to the holy land. Yet, by 2013, the number of Jews in Israel, edging now toward the seven million mark, was to eclipse the size of the American Jewish community.

1913 was the year that witnessed the completion of the Woolworth Building, destined to be the world’s tallest till the completion of the Empire State Building less than two decades later.

1913 was to be the year that witnessed the birth of Dr. Jacob Mozak who was to live his life of close to, but not quite, the full century mark, as a faithful servant to his G-d, to his faith, to his people, and to his country. He was fully cognizant of the place that 1913, the year of his blessed birth, had in history. Both his life and his knowledge of history is what inspired my writing this week’s essay. May his legacy and sacred memory serve as a blessing for all whose lives were touched by his goodness