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History

Baron Rothschild Goes to Haifa

David Langness | Jan 22, 2017

PART 2 IN SERIES Money and the Spirit

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith.

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David Langness | Jan 22, 2017

PART 2 IN SERIES Money and the Spirit

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith.

You’ve probably heard the old saying “Rich as a Rothschild”—but do you know where it comes from?

Here’s a little history: the Rothschild banking dynasty got its start in the 1760s in Frankfurt, Germany. Known as “court Jews”—because religious prohibitions against usury applied to Christians at the time, but not to followers of the Jewish faith—the Rothschild bankers managed the finances for and lent money to European nobility and even to the Catholic Church. Relying on family connections, Jewish bankers like the Rothschilds could not only make loans, but could also provide armaments and food to various kingdoms. Barred from most other occupations, court Jews even gained status as nobles in some cases—and a few managed, through their reputation for honesty, confidentiality and trustworthiness, to amass large fortunes.

Baron-Rothschild

Baron Rothschild

Great wealth accrued to the Rothschild family. In fact, by the 19th century, the Rothschilds had built the largest private fortune in the history of the modern world. They did it by going international—establishing an interconnected system of banks in the capitals of several different European countries, where their movable assets were protected from purely local or national wars, disputes and power struggles. In fact, historians say that the Rothschilds formed the first true multinational corporation.

You may have heard some wildly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds—they’ve been blamed for everything from world wars to “secret cabals” to financial collapses, and they’ve been accused of “secretly running the entire world.” But one place where they did actually have a truly significant influence was the formation of Israel. Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, a British nobleman and scion of the Rothschild family, was an active Zionist who lobbied his government to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. The Baron, in fact, was the recipient of a famous 1917 letter from the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, now known as The Balfour Declaration, which first declared the British government’s support of “a national home for the Jewish people,” setting the stage for the creation of Israel.

Accordingly, Baron Rothschild traveled to Palestine on several occasions, usually to visit and inspect the Jewish colonies he helped fund and establish there. One of the Baron’s trips to Palestine—where Baha’u’llah had been exiled by the Ottoman Empire, and where the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa now exists—generated this fascinating commentary on the burdens and the responsibility of wealth from Abdu’l-Baha:

Today Baron Rothschild came to Haifa. He is one of the wealthiest men of Europe. He is much interested in the Jewish colonization of Palestine and is devoting much of his time and attention to this problem. Now he has gone to Tiberias. He is busy all the time. He could not stay longer than one hour.

All the people are toiling and labouring to attain to the station of a rich man. Life to many rich men is nothing but a heavy burden. They are “wood carriers”. Instead of a blessing wealth becomes a great calamity to them. The supervision of their colossal fortunes and their proper financial administration becomes the sole object of their lives. Day and night, asleep and awake, they think and work to make their piles larger and that of others smaller till finally they become mere money machines devoid of any other feeling or of higher emotions, wild-eyed, always hungering for more. Greed and selfishness become the dominant influences of their lives. Grab, grab, grab; right and left they grab at everything. In the mad rush and struggle for more lucre, for more worldly goods they walk over the bodies of the toilers and the children. They become the embodiment of heartlessness and cruelty. Pride and haughtiness lord it over them and they become mere tools in the hands of sordid, fiendish passion.

Wealth has a tempting and drawing quality. It bewilders the sight of its charmed victims with showy appearances and draws them on and on to the edge of yawning chasms. It makes a person self-centred, self-occupied, forgetful of God and of holy things. – Abdu’l-Baha, from the Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, 24 February 1914, Star of the West, Volume 5, pp. 19-20.

Abdu’l-Baha’s commentary wasn’t directed at Baron Rothschild personally—instead, it extended to all of the world’s super-rich and ultra-wealthy. But interestingly, it did not condemn all such wealth:

Wealth becomes the cause of heedlessness to many souls with the exception of those who are believers in God and read the verses of God. For this reason his holiness Christ hath said: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” But blessed is the rich man whose wealth and opulence do not prevent him from turning his face toward God and whose heart is not attached to his possessions. Such a rich man is the light of the world…

On the other hand there are souls who are the essence of existence; in their estimation wealth offers no attractions. If the doors of the heavenly blessings are opened before their faces, if they become the possessors of the riches of all the world, if the mountains of the earth turn into diamonds, if the oceans of the globe change into gold … their spiritual independence will undergo no change or alteration, their faith in God will increase, their mindfulness will augment, the heat of the fire of their love for true democracy and the education of mankind will burn away all barriers of ostentation and pride. Their intense passion for God will wax greater day by day. Such rich men are in reality the light-bearing stars of the heaven of mankind, because they have been tried and tested and have come out of the crucible as pure gold … unalloyed and unadulterated. With all the wealth of the world at their feet they are yet mindful of God and humanity, they spend their acquired riches for the dispelling of the darkness of ignorance and employ their treasures for the alleviation of the misery of the children of God. The light of such rich men will never grow dim and the tree of their generosity will grow in size and stature, producing fruits in all seasons. Their every deed will be as an example for succeeding generations. – Ibid.

You can see, from the stark contrast in the way Abdu’l-Baha describes the uses of wealth, that the Baha’i principles have strong points of view on the subject. In the next essay in this series, we’ll look at those points of view and principles, and try to understand the massive responsibility great wealth puts on the human soul.

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Comments

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  • May 22, 2019
    -
    Your quote from Sohrab's Diary: "Today Baron Rothschild came to Haifa. He is one of the wealthiest men of Europe. ..." seems to be Sohrab's words about what he had observed that day. Have you any reason for thinking it is actually a report of what Sohrab remembered Abdu'l-Baha saying ?
  • Linda Smith
    Dec 31, 2017
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    Thank you, thank you, thank you for this thoughtful article. I am learning that I can always find relief from all my greatest fears in the beautiful, inspiring and comforting words of The Bab, Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, Shoghi Effendi, and The Universal House of Justice. They always confirm and advocate the highest principles of love and justice. Thank you very much for this!
  • Billy Simpson
    Feb 13, 2017
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    One can believe in world unity WITHOUT being a globalist. The EU has been a disaster, Bosnia was a war, corrupt officials, Agenda 21 test patch, social engineering, and paedophilic cabals and drug mafias controlling many aspects along with leftist, biased hate-filled media intent on dividing and labelling people with their ignorance and fear.
    Rothschilds, Soros and their funding banker and politico satanic elites, are not the globalism we want.
    I find all these articles very sinister, they are pushing partisan political beliefs whist couched in a Bahai cloak. People are NOT backward who want strong, safe, solvent countries not ...indebited to the IMF or collapsed by Soros, or lied to by Mainstream media and their globalist controllers.
    Read more...
    • Linda Smith
      Dec 31, 2017
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      I'm a Baha'i and I agree with you completely! A world government under the circumstances you mention would undoubtedly be oppressive and disastrous for all of us, including any elites trying to bring it about. We can only have a genuine global community and administration when all of us have reached a much greater level of unity and spiritual maturity, along with a heartfelt consensus on the spiritual and social principals by which we should collectively abide. Of course, those must be based on justice, knowledge, selflessness, kindness, and love -- love of God and each other. ... If you study the Baha'i writings, I believe you'll find that the World Order of Baha'u'llah is quite different from the New World Order described by others.
      Read more...
  • Shahram Moosavi
    Jan 23, 2017
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    Thanks!
  • Leonard R Williams
    Jan 23, 2017
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    Wealth and it's Unpredictable Tendencies.
  • Jan 22, 2017
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    Bill Gates. He has donated millions of dollars to various charities. The most well known charities are for disease and epidemics control, providing vaccines for aid victims, polio etc. In addition these he also donates millions annually to developing countries for agricultural development, water sanitation and hygiene, financial services for poor to name a few. Donations have been made to victims of various earthquakes as well. He shares his wealth and is one of the greatest living philanthropists.
    • Linda Smith
      Jun 17, 2023
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      It's 2023, post-Covid. I'm wondering what people think of Bill Gates now. We must, of course, look for the best in everyone, as 'Abdu'l-Baha instructs us, however, we must be careful about making definitive judgments, good or bad. And we must, unfortunately, always be mindful to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
  • Jan 22, 2017
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    Interesting approach to understanding the two sides of wealth. Very helpful David.
  • Neil Chase
    Jan 22, 2017
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    The Baron used his wealth for the eventual creation of a model for human rights in the world. Bravo!
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