When Great Britain abandoned the Palestine Mandate in 1948, she left behind a great part of the records of the mandatory government at Jerusalem. All of those documents, including the records of the British Consulate at Jerusalem 1838-1914, became the property of the State of Israel in 1948. As part of that collection, Arnold Blumberg found a diary kept from 1849 to 1858 belonging to James and Elizabeth Finn, and transcribed the unlined pages found within the book. Thereafter, I began reading his transcribed version and began focusing my research on Jerusalem political history. This researched paper relies on evidence from James and Elizabeth Finn's diary entries of 1849 to 1858 describing Jerusalem's social, religious, and political issues during the mid-nineteenth century of the British Consulate in Jerusalem.

For centuries, the Sephardic Jews had dominated Palestinian Jewry. Although many of the Sephardim were indeed descended from Jews who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal centuries before, a great part of the alleged Sephardim were descended from Near Eastern Jewish communities whose ancestors had never seen Spain or Portugal. "What they held in common was a similar pronunciation of Hebrew, a common mode of prayer, and a vernacular composed of Ladino, Arabic, Turkish, or combinations thereof." Most of them were native subjects of the Turkish sultan. Their chief rabbi was treated as a "public dignitary who had the right to an armed Moslem guard and who gloried in the title the 'First in Zion'."

The arrival of the Russian Jews meant a major dislocation in the life of Palestinian Jewry. These Russian Jews were strangers in the land and Holy City of their fathers. They were refugees from intensified and brutal persecution imposed on Russian Jewry by Czar Nicholas I. The Russian Jewish subjects who began to crowd into Palestine in the 1840s rarely came as family groups. They were for the most part elderly people who expected to live out their lives in the four holy cities of Palestine (Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias), devoting their remaining years to prayer and religious study. Few of them brought their complete families with them, and even those who had practiced a skilled craft in Russia rarely attempted to pursue it in Palestine. Instead, they devoted full time to their pious exercises, living on subventions sent to them by their families in Europe or on public charity.

The Finns were awed by the phenomena of the greater part of the adult, male community of the Jewish quarter devoted to constant study and prayer. They observed that it was the largest theological seminary in the world. The great dilemma of the Russian Jew was that he had left his inhospitable homeland with a passport good only for a year long pilgrimage to the Holy Land. As the majority had no intention of returning to Russia, they became effectively stateless persons at the end of twelve months. They then had the choice of either begging for an extension from the Russian consul or submitting themselves to Turkish law without gaining any of the assurances that the Turkish Jews enjoyed as members of the community. In effect they would have to become adoptive Sephardim if they lost European consular protection. Because the government was happy to see the permanent departure for many Jews to Palestine, Russian consular practice typically granted extensions, but forced the exiled Russian Jews to live under the imminent fear of the loss of all legal rights.

The question of the British protection of the Jews became and remained for many years the principal concern of the British Consulate in Jerusalem after the Crimean war, as we now call the Russian war of 1853 to 1863. In fact, for a long period, Jewish interests in one form or other almost monopolized the time and attention of the Consul and his staff. From the very beginning, the question of the Holy Places in Palestine has been inextricably mixed up with the politics of this Russian question. Mr. Finn had ample opportunities for observing the conditions of Jerusalem and Palestine before as well as during the Crimean War. Conversant with political affairs, and having a personal knowledge of European countries, he makes references to meetings with foreign authorities and the subject of Russian Jews' protection throughout his diary.

As mentioned before, when James Finn came to Jerusalem, the British consulate begun to offer protection certificates indiscriminately to both Austrian and Russian Jews who forfeited the protection to their consulates. The relationship between the British Consular authorities and foreign Jews, especially Russia, had become indefinite by this time. Colonel Rose, the British Consul General at Beyrout, described the relationship between the Russian and Austrian consuls and their Jewish nationals who had remained in Palestine without the permission of their governments. "Russian and Austrian Jews comprised practically the whole of the foreign Jewish colony in Palestine". He reported that the Russian Government would readily agree to the transfer of British protection to the Russian Jews in Palestine. From this report began the long story of the negotiations and unpredictable changes of the British protection of foreign Jews to which a large part of the correspondence printed in Stirring Times written by James Finn relates. Palmerston, who was Foreign Secretary again, was disinclined to approach the Russian Government formally in the matter, but he instructed Rose, and through him all the British consular officers in Syria and Palestine, that "…whenever an Austrian, Russian, French or other Jew shall be suffering under persecution or injustice and shall be repudiated and refused protection by his own Consul, the British Consul in the District, upon ascertaining the fact, might without impropriety ask the repudiating Consul whether he has any objection to the British Consul interposing his good offices in behalf of such Jew, in compliance with the general instructions under which he is authorized to interfere in favor of Jews generally; and unless the repudiating Consul should assign some strong and sufficient reason for objecting it, the British Consul should thereupon take steps in accordance with those instructions."

At the same time the Russian Consul General should be informed that any Jews whom he might choose to transfer to British protection would be readily received. The offer was put before the Czar, who accepted it. There was a hope if not an expectation in Russian government circles that with the prospect of British protection, the whole Jewish population of Russia would immigrate to Palestine and relieve the Czar and his Government of one of their difficulties. Steps were taken to transfer the Russian Jews of Palestine to their new protection.

However, a section of the Jews of Jerusalem appealed to the Russian Consul General to retain them under Russian protection, and thereupon he decided to give each individual an opportunity of deciding whether he desired the protection of the British or any other power. This idea was supported by the Austrian Vice-Consul in Jerusalem, but denied emphatically by Finn. Palmerston accepted Finn's judgment. He stigmatized the intrigue as "partly religious and partly political" and instructed Moore, the acting Consul General at Beirut, to authorize the arrangement originally contemplated. In this he was not successful. Moore reported that the Russian Consul General apparently regretted that any arrangement had ever been made and the modified one stood. Nevertheless the greater number of the Russian Jews applied for and obtained British protection.

For two and a half years the arrangement appears to have worked without hitch, but early in 1852 a difference with the Russian authorities arose over a charge brought against a Russian or ex-Russian Jew, Jonah Goldtesweig, of having murdered his grandfather, a British subject. Finn considered the case fully within his jurisdiction, but the Russian Consul General disagreed on the ground that the accused had never received an attestat, a formal letter of dismissal from the Russian Consul, and was thereafter still subject to Russian jurisdiction. Malmesbury, who had succeeded Palmerston when he left the Foreign Office, was more exact in his administration and perhaps less sympathetically inclined. Protection was not to be afforded to a Russian Jew unless he could produce an attestat from the Russian Consul.

Finn of course accepted the ruling, but continued to protest for Russian Jew protection. He asked Malmesbury three important questions. According to No. 137 in the British Consulate Correspondence, Earl of Malmesbury answers these three points asked by James Finn: How were Russo-Jewish converts to Christianity to be regarded? What was to be the attitude towards converts from Christianity to Judaism, of which two cases had already come under notice? Were British certificates of registration in effect passports for travel abroad? The reply was definite. "It is not a question of creed or conversion but one of simple protection…and this protection is extended to them merely as an act of charity to persons who would otherwise be unprotected…Certificates of protection are not in any sense intended as passports. They are merely documents of local protection." Carried away by his zeal on behalf of the Jews of Palestine, Finn issued to the Rabbis instructions as to the course to be followed by Russian Jews to secure British protection.

An attempt was made by the Russians to avoid giving unnecessary offense to the Turks. With British collusion, the pretense was maintained that the mass transfer of Russian Jews to British protection was purely temporary and was rendered desirable by the fact that no Russian consul resided in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, or Tiberias. Thus, Great Britain suddenly found herself with a vast new register of proteges in Palestine, where formerly she had had only a small community of bona fide British subjects. Finn was so unsubtle about his efforts to make converts among his utterly dependent new proteges that he found himself under severe attack by those same rabbis who had only lately begged his aid. Some of them actually begged the Russians to restore their protection, so recently transferred to the British.

A reprimand followed immediately and Finn was told that he was "not to exceed the passive duty of waiting to receive applications for protection and of considering them when made". According to Albert M. Hyamson, the following letter was sent to James Finn regarding his instructions to the Rabbis from Lord Palmerston:

"Her majesty's Government would much prefer that such Jews should not seek British protection, but Her Majesty's Government will not withhold it from them if they apply for it in a proper manner. The only point in respect of which you are to satisfy yourself is, that a Russian Jew applying to you for protection has been discarded by his own Consulate; and as a proof of his being dismissal from the Russian Consulate. If he cannot produce such a letter you will decline to have anything to do with him. The descendants of Russian Jews who have thus been received under British Protection may properly be allowed thereafter to enjoy the same privilege without producing letters of dismissal from the Russian Consulate, provided that at the time when their parents were received under British protection, they were under age and residing with their parents. But if at any time the Russian Consulate should notify to the British Consulate its desire to renew its protection to a Russian Jew whom it may have previously cast off, or may claim to extend its protection to the descendants of such person, even though it may have continued to withhold it from their parent, British Consulate must without demur withdraw its protection, and leave the parties to the protection of their own national authority."

The inevitable trouble with the Turkish authorities threatened in December 1853 when on the report that France had renounced the protection of a number of Algerian Jews in Northern Palestine, they at once applied for British protection. As soon as the Turkish authorities knew this, the Algerian Jews were claimed as Ottoman subjects. Later it was known that they had not been formally divested of French protection, and the British Consul under his instructions had to retire from the discussion. For the following nine years the subject of British protection of foreign Jews was fortunate in having no history.

By the year 1862 many of the original recipients of certificates of protection had died and their certificates were stolen and used by men who were not entitled to them, and were being used to secure British protection. The abuse had become so serious that Finn felt himself compelled to recommend the introduction of restrictions in the validity of these certificates. Finn, however, received no reply to his suggestion. His trial and sentence to imprisonment of two Jews, one Dutch and the other Russian, aroused a rage which culminated in a formal protest to the Foreign Office by the London Committee of Deputies of British Jews. Finn was ordered immediately to release the men over whom he was told he had no jurisdiction in this letter from Lord John Russell:

"Generally I have to desire you to treat the Jews with kindness and consideration. You have nothing to do with their religious tenets, or with the internal regulations of their community. So far as they are British subjects they are necessarily under your protection and subject to your jurisdiction; but you are not entitled to extend your protection or jurisdiction; but you are not entitled to extend your protection or jurisdiction over Jews who are not British subjects, or to interfere directly or indirectly in their concerns, except and in so far as they voluntarily seek your protection and submit to your jurisdiction, in which case you may proceed according to the general principle of the instructions which have been issued to you in regard to such matters."

This incident led to the transfer of Finn to another post. But his health got poor and he never proceeded to it. Finn was in no sense an ordinary member of the British Consular corps. His deep interest in Jews and his intense sympathy for them alone induced him to accept the appointment at Jerusalem, the only one that he held. These were also among the principal reasons why he remained in the country for seventeen years without taking a single day's leave abroad.

James Finn: James Finn was born in 1806 in London, where his early education was based on the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He also learned some German, French, and Spanish before he went to Jerusalem in 1846. There has not been too much research or evidence written about James Finn before he was the British Consul of Jerusalem. According to the introduction to Stirring Times, "James Finn was a man of singular physical courage who traveled through dangerous and bandit-ridden territory with only one or two armed guards." Throughout his life he wrote prolifically and published works dealing with Jewish and Palestine history. Before setting foot in Palestine, James Finn had been instrumental in writing works on Jewish life in the interior of China. Some of those works include The Jews in China: Their Synagogue, Their Scriptures, Their History and The Orphan Colony of Jews in China Containing a Letter Received from Themselves with the Latest Information Concerning Them. He also had an obsession with record keeping and kept a current description of every householder who claimed British protection within the jurisdiction of his consulate in Jerusalem . A short list of Finn's literary works includes Stirring Times, The Jews in China, Byeways in Palestine, and Sephardim. Referred to as "his memoirs" later, these works included a complete record of their life in Jerusalem as well as James Finn's relationship with the Jews. James Finn served as the British Consul for seventeen years, from 1846 to 1863. During that time he bought land in Taghoor, Talibiyeh, Artas, and Palestine . He also enjoyed long camping trips in all parts of the country with his family. In July 1863, the Finn's found themselves in debt, losing those properties mentioned before. James Finn also lost his health later that year and left for England. In 1872, at the age of 66, James Finn was buried in the churchyard at Wimbledon.

Elizabeth Finn: As a child, stationed at her father's posts in Poland and Germany, Elizabeth McCaul learned Hebrew, Yiddish, and German. She frequently utilizes this knowledge throughout the diary in her entries and comments. As an adult woman in Jerusalem, she also learned Ladino to speak to Sephardic Jews. In 1846, Elizabeth married James and traveled to Jerusalem with him where she stayed during his career as Consul. She regarded the consulate as "a divinely ordained tool for the conversion of the Jews of Palestine". She was very involved in the work of the London Jews Society and the couple's missionary work. While in Jerusalem she raised three children, as well as suffering the loss of infants. Elizabeth also became a writer of many literary Palestine history accounts including A Third Year in Jerusalem, Home in the Holy Land, Sunrise Over Jerusalem with other Pen and Pencil Sketches, and The Duty of Christians Towards the Children of Israel. After the death of her husband, she continued writing books as well as editing the remaining notes written by James. While superintending the education of her two sons and a daughter, she kept in contact with the Society through the United States Consul at Jerusalem, sending funds for the Relief of Distressed Jews during World War I. Elizabeth Anne Finn lived forty-eight more years after the death of James, and was also buried in Wimbledon in January 1921.

In 1838, the British were successful in obtaining permission to open a vice-consulate at Jerusalem. The entry of a British Consulate at Jerusalem was merely "the thin edge of a wedge" as France, Russia, Austria, Spain, Greece, Sardinia, and the United States established consular offices at Jerusalem, Jaffa, or Beirut. James and Elizabeth Finn arrived at Jerusalem in 1846, after the death of the first Anglican bishop of Jerusalem. James Finn and his strong-willed wife Elizabeth were perfectly fitted for the demands imposed on them by the Jerusalem consulate. Long after the government and Lord Palmerston had abandoned interest in encouraging Jewish residence in Palestine under British protection, the Finns continued to regard this as their chief mission in Jerusalem. Mr. Finn's long tenure of the Jerusalem Consulate between 1846 and 1863 was aimed to improve the Jewish community, by converting Jews to Christianity and by offering British protection to Foreign Jews in Palestine.

Blumberg, Arnold.  A View from Jerusalem, 1849-1858: The Consular Diary of James and
     Elizabeth Finn.  New Jersey:  Associated University Presses, Inc,  1980.

This primary source focuses on the notes and diary of James and Elizabeth Finn. Transcribed from the original version written by the Finns, Arnold Blumberg adds a collection of related works, an introduction, and numerous sections related to the British Consulate of 1846-1863. This book also includes notes for each diary and an introduction with reference to Palestine history and government.

Finn, James, Stirring Times or Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 to 1856,
     edited by Elizabeth Finn.  London:  C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878.

A primary account of James Finn's records during his term as British Consulate in Jerusalem also known as records from Jerusalem consular chronicles written in 1853. Edited and compiled by his wife after he passes away, this book focuses on acts done during the Russian war of 1853 to 1856. As well as describing the Turkish relations with their own subjects and with officials of foreign countries residing in Palestine, this account also narrates any events that occurred within the prescribed limits of time.

Jewish Historical Society of Jerusalem.  The British Consulate in Jerusalem in Relation to the
     Jews of Palestine 1838-1914, with an introduction by Albert M. Hyamson.  Great Britain:
     Edward Goldston Ltd, 1939.

This book focuses on the beginning and end of the British Consulate in Jerusalem as well as a listing of the secretaries of state. An informative index of documents throughout the consulate is also displayed within the book, which references the correspondence articles for the years 1838 to 1914 listed later in the volume.

Bishop, Donald G.  The Administration of British Foreign Relations.  New York: Syracuse
     University Press, 1961.

A soundly documented book, which examines the methods by which foreign policy is formulated and administered in Great Britain. It also analyzes the structure and operations of various agencies of the British government dealing with the implementation of foreign policy, studying in particular detail the operations of the Foreign Office and Foreign Service.

Bovis, H. Eugene.  The Jerusalem Question 1917-1968.  Hoover Institution Studies.
     Stanford: Hoover Institution
     Press, 1971.

This evaluative book confronts the thorny religious and political problems of Jerusalem yesterday and today. The study traces their evolution from 1914 to the present and shows how certain critical demands of both Arabs and Israelis must be met before peace can be achieved in the area.

Brooks, Peter.  "Jerusalem." In  Encyclopaedia Judaica.  Israel:  Keter Publishing House Ltd.,
     1973.

This brief pocket book description of Jerusalem focuses on her history, geography, Judaism, other religions, and the arts. Used as a secondary reference to Jerusalem's history and geography, this book is primarily a summary of encyclopedia articles accumulated into one reference book.

Coleman, Simon, and John Elsner.  Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions.
     Massachusetts: Harvard
     University Press, 1995.

A fascinating guide through the vast and varied cultural territory of pilgrimages across the ages, this book focuses on the history, religion, sociology, anthropology, and art history of journeys and religious encounters. Concentrating on folktales and pilgrimage accounts, the author releases religious, spiritual, and holy travel accounts throughout a narrative description of numerous pilgrimages.

Finn, Elizabeth Anne. A Third Year in Jerusalem.  London: J. Nisbet, 1866.

Another concise record of the Consulate by Elizabeth Finn explains the descriptions and duties of a Consul's wife. With great detail of the London Society, Elizabeth makes reference to her religious beliefs as well as her mission over promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.

Guedalla, Phillip.  Palmerston 1784-1865.  New York:  G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1927.

Describing the life of British Foreign Secretary Palmerston during the early Nineteenth century, this book is a detailed biography of his career and his life in the foreign office.

Hamilton, G.  Sermon preached at the parish church of St. Paul, Covent Garden,
     on Thursday Evening, May 5, 1825: before the London Society for Promoting Christianity
     amongst Jews, 1825.

This article discusses the London Jews Society's struggle to promote Christianity amongst Jews. The Rev. G. Hamilton presents it as a sermon preached at the parish church of St. Paul on May 5, 1825.

Hurewitz, J.C.  The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record, 2d ed.
     London: Yale University Press, 1975.  

The first edition of this work, which appeared in two volumes under the title Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East, encompasses non-Soviet southwest Asia to the eastern frontiers of Iran plus Egypt and Sudan in adjacent northeast Africa. The present edition adds the rest of North Africa and Afghanistan and will consist of three volumes, taking into account the international and regional realities that preceded and followed the pervasive Western European imperial presence.

"Jews in the Russian Empire: a Jewish Problem." [http://www.menos-partners.org/partners/
     beyond-the-date/engnsn/29.html] 14 March 1999.

This online two-page article gives a Jewish point of view on the principality of Moscow and the Russian Empire with the presence of Jews not being tolerated in the Middle Ages.

Margolis, Max L., and Marx Alexander.  A History of the Jewish People.  Philadelphia: Jewish
     Publication Society, 1927.

This historical reference book relies on the primary accounts of Jewish pilgrims and Zionists explaining the cultural changes occurring in Egypt and Palestine in the late nineteenth century.

Tibawi, A.L.  American Interests in Syria 1800-1901: A Study of Educational, Literary and
     Religious work. London: Oxford University Press,  1966.

Dr. Tibawi studies the cultural and religious fields in Palestine in this contributional account about the framework of the Ottoman rule within what are now Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Based on the Arab society and the Protestant community, Dr. Tibawi focuses his research on Christian ecclesiastical organizations and rivalry with other foreign Missions.

University of Durham.  "The controversy over the Restoration of the Jews: From 1754 until the
     London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews."  The Durham University Journal,
     vol. 82 (1990): 29-44. 

This Durham University Journal focuses on the London Society's promotion of Christianity amongst Jews and the Society's purpose and goals. The article centers on the controversy over the restoration of Jews in the Eighteenth century.

Although the Finn's diary is called the Official Journal, it is not, and it was not actually stored at the consular offices during his appointment. Both James and Elizabeth Finn wrote in the diary, frequently entering comments over the other's entry. The transcribed version was published by Associated University Presses Incorporated in 1980 in New Jersey. The original text was not only written in sloppy penmanship, but also contained many spelling errors. Because the Finns made free use of Turkish, Arabic, and Hebrew words, their transliterations of odd words do not always agree. Blumberg tries to keep as much of the original in his transcriptions as possible, keeping the spelling and inconsistent names. Thus, what had begun as an official diary, degenerated into a personal notebook, which eventually found its way into the official files of the government after all. The diary slumbered away its century in the archives of the British Consulate, the Palestinian Mandatory government, and the State of Israel.

The British Consulate in Jerusalem was opened in March 1839 and closed on the 16th of November 1914, on the outbreak of war with Turkey, and the archives were transferred for safe keeping to the representative of the United States of America in Jerusalem. During this period of seventy-six years, there were seven representatives of the British Government in Jerusalem. There were William Tanner Young (appointed September 19, 1838), James Finn (appointed November 25, 1845), Noel Moore (appointed October 31, 1862), John Dickson (appointed September 10, 1890), Edward Charles Blech (appointed November 7, 1906), Harold Satow (appointed November 3, 1909), and Peter James McGregor (appointed January 26, 1912). In 1838, when Mehmet Ali already controlled Palestine but had not yet arrived at a complete breach with the sultan, the British were successful in obtaining permission to open a vice-consulate at Jerusalem. Outside of Jerusalem, the Opium War was emerging between Great Britain and China in 1839, and until that war the Russians maintained no permanent consular office at Jerusalem. In addition, Muhammad Ali expanded his rule to Palestine between 1839 and 1840. His policies modified the feudal order, increased agriculture, and improved education. Eight years later in 1847, during James Finn's term as British Consul, the first press was opened in the Holy Land named the "Press of (Latin) Custodianship". The Valero family opened the first "bank" in 1848 in Jerusalem one year later, introducing currency and money exchange to the Holy Land.

Although James