Felix Warburg and the Impact of non-Zionists on the Hebrew University: 1923-1933

This dissertation addresses the impact on the founding of the Hebrew University of the group of individuals known as non-Zionists. Using the personage of Felix Warburg as an entrée into the origins of this cohort, it argues that the Hebrew University, like the Yishuv itself, was based on a wide spectrum of adherence to orthodox Zionism. Rather, there were many contributors who felt less strongly inclined towards Zionism than did Chaim Weizmann, and these individuals played a substantive role in shaping the course of the Jewish settlement in Palestine Felix Warburg, a naturalized American citizen born into a wealthy Hamburg banking family, is a perfect example of how support for the Hebrew University, the Jewish Agency, and the Yishuv did not require one to advocate for the future creation of a Jewish nation-state. Prior to his significant involvement with issues in Palestine, the main focus of Warburg’s philanthropy was in alleviating the abhorrent conditions of Jews in the Soviet Union and of those Jews who had recently emigrated to the United States and badly needed assistance in assimilating into New York City society. He was initially brought into the fold of the Hebrew University by Weizmann himself, who at the time was seeking American donors more than collaborators. However, Warburg found an administrative skill that he had previously never displayed, and became a staunch advocate for any supporters of the Hebrew University who did not consider themselves to be Zionists. In this way, the ongoing battles among the administrative factions of the Hebrew University will be seen a microcosm of the ideological battles raging over how the Yishuv should function. Since there was considerable overlap between the Hebrew University Board and the Jewish Agency, this is not an arbitrary analogy: the same arguments appear in the minutes of both august organizations. This dissertation concludes that the contribution of the non-Zionists has been thoroughly overlooked in the previous historiography and that the robust debate Warburg’s cohort and the Zionists, led by Chaim Weizmann, directly influenced the future of the Hebrew University and of the Yishuv itself.