'Britain Has Been All She Could Be To Jews', 1914

Published by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee in December 1914, this recruiting poster features the Union Flag and the Star of David (Magen David). This direct appeal to British Jews repurposes an earlier quote from the 'Jewish Chronicle' (August 1914) reminding the Jewish community that Britain had provided a safe-haven for around 140,000 Jewish migrants escaping persecution in continental Europe during the 19th century.

The militant message was echoed in synagogues where Rabbis encouraged enlistment in their sermons, and Jewish public notables drew parallels between the British war effort and the Jewish cause, to which British Jews responded enthusiastically. Many saw the war as a means to prove their loyalty and counter anti-Semitic charges of selfishness and cowardliness.

Over 50,000 British Jews responded to the call, and in 1917 an all-Jewish unit called the Jewish Legion was formed. Britain had also recruited the Zion Mule Corps from Jews living in the Middle East that had served in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. After British Empire forces conquered the Ottoman territory of Palestine in 1917, Zionists in Britain used the loyal service of Jews as the basis for a call to establish a Jewish homeland within Palestine under the terms of the Balfour Declaration.