similar negotiations at the same time between Schiff and western railroad
magnate James J. Hill. Failure in both cases, however, did not shake Schiff’s
conviction that immigrant distribution could defuse restrictionism.^42
Longer-lived and far more intriguing to Schiff’s circle was the thought of
settling Russian Jews in Mesopotamia under Ottoman rule. The idea
began with an 1892 pamphlet by a Semitics scholar at Johns Hopkins: Paul
Haupt envisioned an international venture that would involve scientific
and military personnel from the United States and other countries. Haupt
carefully analyzed the resources of the area and its economic and defense
needs, and he painted a rosy future for the ancient land of Babylonia. The
professor was not Jewish, but he numbered Judge Mayer Sulzberger and
several other prominent Jews among his friends. Sulzberger, Oscar Straus,
and Haupt’s student, Cyrus Adler, were particularly impressed by Haupt’s
views. Adler twice brought the pamphlet to the attention of Theodor
Herzl; Straus sent a copy to the baron. Since Hirsch was then involved in
Argentina and at odds with the Ottoman government, he turned it down.
When Straus was minister to Constantinople, he broached the idea to Sec-
retary Hay, and he raised it again during a private meeting with Herzl.
Sulzberger later recalled that Herzl discussed the plan with the sultan, who
was receptive, but that the Zionist leader was overridden by his Palestine-
centered followers.^43
Why Mesopotamia appeared more attractive than other sites that could
equally have relieved the pressure on Jewish stewards in America suggests
several explanations. Obviously, practical considerations loomed large.
Turkey, the “weak man” of Europe, seemed amenable; the absorptive ca-
pacity of the area held great promise and it was cheaper to transport east-
ern Europeans to Asia Minor than to the Western Hemisphere. The ste-
wards may also have been encouraged by the successful pioneering work
of their French counterpart, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, in neighbor-
ing Palestine. But more was involved. Men like Straus and Adler opposed
the Zionist movement, soon to be launched by Herzl, but they were
pulled emotionally to the original land of the patriarch Abraham. In
Straus’s words, Mesopotamia was “the biblical Ur of the Chaldees,” “the
original habitation of the Hebrews, Abraham and his progenitors.” Adler
similarly spoke of a land that “has more than once been the home of the
children of Israel” and was thus validated by both “religious sentiment and
Biblical precedent.”^44 If Mesopotamia filled their sentimental needs, it was
on all scores a superior alternative to the Zionist answer. Since a Jewish
state in Palestine disturbed the stewards for many reasons, they probably
thought that a successful settlement in Mesopotamia might undercut the
appeal of the potentially harmful Zionists. What sort of political status a
In Search of a Refuge 171