IMAGInInG ThE “ISrAElITES” • 155rothschild banking family.^76 this article, “the house of rothschild:
the Most renowned Financial house in europe,” was part of a se-
ries on “the Most Famous events and Most Important people.” after
a general introduction on the subject of wealth, the author turns to
the topic of “the Jews and Wealth,” implying from the start not only
that the rothschilds were a Jewish family, but that their Jewishness
was relevant to their financial position. At the opening of this section,
the author identifies Jews in positive terms: “The Jews are among the
oldest and most intelligent peoples [shuʿūb].” The author next offers
a barebones narrative of Jewish history, revealing those aspects he
deems to be most important. the Jews, he explains, “had a state in
antiquity, and some of them were distinguished as judges, kings, and
prophets.” eventually the Jews’ “sovereignty was wrested from them”
and “their city (Jerusalem) was destroyed.” the result was that “they
were exiled throughout God’s lands, leaving them without a country
or a government.” Until this point, the narrative reads very much like
a Jewish nationalist appraisal of Jewish history: a glorious period of
Jewish sovereignty that came to a cataclysmic end and was followed
by a period defined by the absence of a country and of sovereignty.
For this al-Hilāl author, though, Jewish history in the Diaspora was
principally characterized by the pursuit of wealth. In his assessment of
the Jewish people’s perseverance to cohere even in exile, the author
considers the Jews’ “intelligence, ambition, and courage” to be traits
that kept them from reaching the same fate as “many ancient nations
that grew old and then assimilated among living, youthful nations and
thereby perished and disappeared.” to survive as a people in exile,
the Jews transformed themselves into “a religious community [jamāʿat
ad-dīn],” the unity of which was only enhanced by “oppression [at the
hands] of other nations.” having “despaired of achieving sovereignty,”
Jews in the Diaspora “directed their intelligence and interests toward
the accumulation of wealth.” the Jews’ single- minded focus on money
is thus linked directly to their loss of sovereignty. Deeming unrealistic
any hope of the restoration of Jewish sovereignty, Jews sought power
through a means that did not require a state. Over many generations,
they developed the “skills” of wealth acquisition that ultimately made
them, in this author’s estimation, “the nation most capable of gain-
ing wealth.”^77 this phenomenon was discernible, the author contends,
(^76) This was not the first time al-Hilāl published an article on “the house of roth-
schild.” See, e.g., the brief report on “the origin of the house of rothschild,” focusing on
the six purported elements of amschel rothschild’s will to his children, al-Hilāl (1904–
1905), 492.
(^77) al-Hilāl (October 1906), 5– 6.