When the British Government decided after WWII that the dusty piece of desert they’d been sitting on should be made the Jewish homeland, Lord Arthur James Balfour penned a letter to the world that has become known as the 1917 Balfour Declaration. But Lord Arty didn’t compose it all by himself; two drafts by early English Zionist leaders (one handwritten on hotel stationery, no less) will be on the auction block at Sotheby’s next month as part of the estate of Leon Simon. The documents are part of lot of 175 papers and bidding is expected to start at half million dollars.
We hope these end up in a Jewish museum rather than molding away in the files of someone’s private collection. Since the subject deals with a homeland for all Jews, don’t they belong in a home where all Jews can appreciate them?