Dr. Hirschell and Mr. Hyde: Restorationism, Nationalism, and Orson Hyde's Shifting Jewish Identity

Where was Father Thomas? On February 5, 1840, the Catholic monk and his servant vanished in Damascus and were never seen again. Fellow Franciscans were convinced it was a Jewish ritual murder, complete with dismemberment and the draining of Father Thomas’ blood. Tensions ran high, and the authorities scrambled to direct the anger. Within days, they rounded up some local Jews and tortured them into offering gruesome and fabricated confessions. The conspiracy theories, the violence, and the persecution all compounded into an international scandal—now known as the Damascus Affair—whose aftershocks rippled across the globe. The ensuing “crisis in the Orient” produced “an explosion of polemics, speculation, fantastic theories, and strange projects,” that reverberated far beyond Syria.1One month later—and half a world away—Latter-day Saint apostle Orson Hyde lay in bed in Nauvoo, Illinois, when a vision, “like clouds of light burst into his view.” In his vision, Hyde saw London, Amsterdam, Constantinople, and Jerusalem in succession and heard a voice, “Here are many of the children of Abraham whom I will gather to the land that I gave to their fathers; and here also is the field of your labors.”2 Fellow apostle John E. Page also later reported having had a vision, wherein he was shown “the present state of the world respecting the Jews, Jerusalem, the remnant of Israel, and also the Gentile world.”3At the church conference in April 1840, Hyde shared his vision with those present and Page quickly endorsed the idea of investigating the gathering of the Jews. Hyde and Page were both appointed to serve a unique mission abroad, to speak with Jewish communities concerning their potential restoration to the Holy Land and to publish their findings, unbiased and for the whole nation to see.4 Like many anxious observers of world events in 1840, Hyde and Page were excited about the apocalyptic and millennial prospect of “Restorationism,” or the belief that the Jewish people would return to Palestine.5 The Latter-day Saint apostles saw potential for the fulfillment of such biblical prophecy portended in the tumultuous political landscape.Many believed the time had come for the Lord to turn again to his chosen people and restore them to their promised land. Christian-Jewish interaction flourished: members of both faiths visited each other's places of worship, traveled, and engaged in dialogue to bridge centuries of division.6 For Hyde, the impulse to explore the prophesied “restoration of the Jews” was intertwined with a sense of filial duty. Remarkably, Hyde appears to have initially harbored a vague sense of Jewish identity. Though this oblique claim would later be tempered and ultimately denied, Hyde began his mission describing himself as a “son of Judah,” an identification which set off a longstanding and false tradition in Mormon belief and historiography that Hyde was Jewish. Recognizing the metamorphosis in Hyde's position in relation to Jewish identity also helps to elucidate how nationalism and orientalism came to shape his thinking abroad. As I will argue, close reading of Hyde's letters, situated within European discourse concerning Jewish restoration, illuminates the personal and broader Latter-day Saint theological transformations his mission to Palestine set in motion. What began as an outward investigation of Jewish restoration evolved into an inward process of self-definition and destiny.Hyde's mission was not an isolated act of religious zeal but part of a larger network of British and American attempts to make the Jewish restoration real—through paper, policy, and prophecy. At the April 6, 1840, church conference in Nauvoo, leaders resolved to act on Hyde's vision and respond to the world events, or “signs of the times,” that were polarizing attitudes toward Jews worldwide.7 Hyde and his designated traveling companion, John E. Page, were instructed to obtain as much information as possible about Jewish communities and prospects for their return to the Holy Land. Page never made it past the eastern United States, but Hyde went on to travel through all the cities he had seen in vision before he finally returned to Nauvoo in December 1842, nearly three years later. The climax of his travels came on October 24, 1841, when Hyde stood alone on the Mount of Olives and offered a prayer to dedicate the Holy Land for the restoration of the Jews.8 Yet the initial assignment from the conference in Nauvoo was squarely focused on acquiring information concerning the current state of the Jews internationally. The Saints were not alone in this endeavor. As Hyde noted, there existed “an increasing anxiety in Europe for the restoration of that people,” which reflected a far-reaching interest shared by other groups seeking to realize the potential for an ultimate Jewish return.9Already in 1821 the first American Board missionaries to Palestine, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, arrived in the area hoping to Christianize the local communities.10 Their arrival inaugurated a growing stream of Western visitors, whose numbers increased throughout the 1830s, when Mehemet Ali's political maneuvering and temporary control of the Holy Land made travel in the region more accessible for Americans and Europeans. In 1839, the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Alexander Keith, and Alexander Black on a groundbreaking and well-publicized mission to visit several countries including Palestine to “inquire after the scattered Jews” and report on “the condition of the Jews in all the most important places,” in hopes of hastening their restoration.11The interest in the Jewish restoration was especially pronounced in Britain, where many of the new developments were closely tracked in the pages of the London Times. In March of 1840—just one month before Hyde and Page were appointed to their mission—the Times reported that a memorandum had been circulated among European leaders, informing them of “the signs of the times” and insisting that the Holy Land should belong to the Jews as dictated by ancient covenant and prophecy. The article urged governments to consider their role in restoring the Jews to their land.12 By August 1840, the Times reported that the British government was deliberating over the Jewish restoration and had even sent an emissary to gauge Jewish opinion on the matter. Another article encouraged British citizens to purchase land in Palestine that could later be transferred to Jewish settlers.13 The pages of the Times highlighted how the issue of Jewish restoration was shifting from theological speculation to international politics. Its pages detailed how an Englishman had recently been sent to Palestine to make inquiries, such as: “What did the Jews think of the proposed restoration? . . . Would they consent to live under the Turkish government?”14Travel writing and parliamentary interest reinforced these discourses. In 1837, Alexander Lindsay, the twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford, journeyed to the Middle East and later published Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land (1838), in which he frequently linked his observations to “the literal accomplishment of prophecy.”15 Lindsay's reflections contributed to a growing Anglo-American fascination with the Holy Land and a “fearless avowal of the hope” that prophecy might soon be fulfilled.16 Within British politics, Henry John Temple (Lord Palmerston), the head of foreign policy, helped establish an English consulate in Jerusalem in 1838, while his associate Anthony Ashley Cooper advocated for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, particularly those in Europe and Russia. A week after the Treaty of London for the Pacification of the Levant, on July 24, 1840, Cooper wrote in his diary, “Anxious about the hopes and prospects of the Jewish people. Everything seems ripe for their return to Palestine.” On August 29, he noted, “The newspapers teem with documents about the Jews. Many assail, and many defend them.”17Others brought their private thoughts to the public sphere. Edward Bickersteth's book, The Restoration of the Jews to their Own Land (1841), further systematized scriptural arguments for Christian responsibility in facilitating the return of Jews to Palestine.18 These writings reflected the expanding network of religious and political actors who saw the restoration not as symbolic but as imminent, literal fulfillment of millenarian prophecy—a proto-Zionist sensibility shared by many who sought to visit or intervene in Palestine's future.19The English fascination with Jewish destiny took a unique turn with John Wilson's 1840 tract, Our Israelitish Wilson's of that were the literal of the of theological that identity as In an of Christian and the of was but it that the British were not of but the chosen people. had from the children of through a process of and were their literal By this the Christian had come into the of ancient Israel, but are the of Abraham to the of the of of the and and was even in Hyde's sense of identification as a “son of and his for the Jewish the of British of his Hyde saw himself as an in about and he had a personal on his In some he was a of who was to return to the land of his vague to Hyde's initial and was even the for his Hyde's with the Christian interest in the Jewish return to the Holy Land and the of the Damascus In this it is not strange that Hyde to for a that he might be of Jewish most he the of a he had from several years that Hyde would to Jerusalem, the land of his to the dictated by to Hyde Hyde with the land to land in the of the in their members of the church with the of was not A of in the years were in that they were of the of by after Hyde had one the more in his that who are of there was an interest in the of most members were with and the of Hyde a personal sense of responsibility toward the Jewish people. In a to the of Times and he his to in their restoration to their Hyde that Jerusalem to by the he and Page to and by the for are but the have brought Hyde's claim on a but of in the of Where the biblical is to among all the whom brought but these are come the of Mormon it to are come In a turn that and a of Mormon of the and Page not as missionaries to Jerusalem but as children to their In himself a of brought up among the the and soon from Hyde's later and that he was Jewish by or his of the Latter-day Saint and the Hyde it appears was a of the of The as of Hyde's unique wrote in his of in that Hyde was to this by the who to be of the of further the but it Mormon apostle in Orson Hyde was of the of was that as one of the apostles of the Lord in this should be sent to the land of the gathering of the in wrote that Orson Hyde, a of . . . on a mission to A Jewish to the wrote in it to that a Mormon having Jewish in his was through the of or through to dedicate and Palestine for the return of the of and his Mormon with Jewish in his was Orson The tradition seems to have from of Hyde's from but was in Hyde's from Hyde's public writings he himself into in the or was by such as an the Hyde in in the of for a mission to some of the most a even an identification with Jews, as a would his time abroad, as the before with Jews that was in Europe throughout the Hyde his Like in the of Hyde and the he “the Hyde's himself a “son of Judah,” his with the brought that into with even by his American Hyde's of was even a in Hyde into the of several developments the Jewish including the of the Jewish as as to Christianize Jews. of the Damascus and the sense that the in the Middle East could to an the interest in Jewish was a a that in to and public of and such as those with the Damascus reinforced the for and could on from with the to the had unique local among English it was a much broader European the to Jewish and initially with religious but gave to increased or even At the time Hyde Jews in were from and on their and who were to began in in it was in April 1840 that members of a in they were from to in their new the London As they they would be but Jewish as identity came to on or more also for some Christian leaders, that even to would not Jewish of Jewish to the of Jews on both and sought to Jewish identity as in to as a a even or could not have arrived a more time for Jews in In but of the Jews from the 1840 is the to The was to with the of developments in Jewish and throughout Europe that this Hyde and that his A in Hyde's metamorphosis came in 1841, after he his for the Jewish to the of Britain, had been as the of the in London for nearly By the time Hyde arrived and sought an was much the of from many of whom to their to the prospect of Jews to Hyde, Jewish restoration to the Holy Land. was the in but he also himself and as an for the Jewish communities in role that Hyde's were a who was that his and beyond head of the Jewish had recently been to of Jewish identity and in advocated a to in and to as English Jews, in these that and would Jewish identity stood with the had been a of the growing in Europe and his position as and public of English his In 1842, he even the of the his to lay a that increased public might come with of the reflected a larger anxiety of the that the of in would with would have been one of the most and for Hyde, the was to in he had recently and his was Within a also his and soon In and his as a For and were under his all In light of the Hyde to which he also sent to and which was published in the Times and wrote a to his position and assignment while his of Jewish In Hyde a but from Hyde both into his by a stream of the of his network of an important into Hyde's thoughts on his to had been writing and with church members in the eastern United States, but after his time in London with and up new in Hyde's Hyde's writings a from with Jews, to with to ultimately himself and their sense of is and helps the later in Mormon historiography about Hyde's Jewish is to as from Jewish when he to possible in For Hyde to that he could not or . . . himself with but that he was a and in At this Hyde did not to a Christian not a as he would a later. he that he could not his to that might to one of Jewish Hyde on that with years the his and pronounced these to Jerusalem, the land of and be a the of and by the a which the and the gathering of that even to to his claim of he to that the not of not by or to himself with your those who not would his to he into In this Hyde himself from a literal “son of into a the first in his from Jewish Hyde's did not to with Hyde in The were by and English and was in to a foreign to Hyde's might have been the never to across this was a time for Jews to public or foreign not but also the of and Jerusalem from with As the wrote of the and political all to the of while and circulated the world that Jews were of Christian when to the and his was published in the London for some his highlighted the Jews and their by there might and in was such that more and Jews sought to their and public the toward European those by the an of their Jews sought and they their eastern to be to such The eastern Jews were as of and as to the public of he his in the in and even was not in and the to and Christian he a by into the world in was Hyde's in Though Hyde's a fascination with that soon after his with In a sense of American and in his was by his with other and from and the of church Hyde's produced for his and his identification with Jews through or As Andrew noted, such this of a of Christian and identity through with Jewish as Robert never been about the Jews, or or even Christian of it been in about how some have and their Hyde's to Jewish identity is but a broader zeal and sense of gave to and ultimately an of into a he to his time in London, Hyde to the where he an of Europe and this his to and the have been made with in by to a is for a of a to the the as is made by an of the is the reading of and the countries of The and of through foreign places and in the made Hyde a in strange travels and many Christian who would have Jews with and Jews were a within in the of they a a to return to that would them the of a nation including and even a of his personal sense of from as a particularly Jewish of or a temporary Hyde in the other and for the of Europe and the Hyde's with the Jews into nationalism and his first through to Jerusalem in the of 1841, Hyde reflected on a he had recently in how an American with the and made of how American he Hyde I saw the on with the and under which were on to and into a of burst from and before could a gave to these an the of in a strange and strange which those who I that I an the and of the American lay in in but the of foreign have it into a how his burst from his and he the an these of to the of Americans were and in the of and a of the of foreign also Hyde's shifting pages of his the to foreign his sense of and his abroad, especially he had been with his on a personal he and Page in Hyde resolved to and publish church and in the On his to the Holy a in for an this he to his several more and the time with reading he and a local English in for was the whose took Hyde in for nearly his and to whom he would return for on his while his from the the first foreign of first vision and to and through with the of local Hyde to on his and on the international of the Church of of Latter-day as offered the of through Hyde's travels and of nationalism also reflected the among Americans to their identity while traveling in was by John of in Egypt, and the Holy Land as John noted, to the United States, that the nationalism of his of the American The and soon the was from and as a identity was a when his an and in the Middle Hyde's nationalism by and from he to the of in a land where is not by the of the and the and the of the are an in the of the with his signs of local even some time in the Middle Hyde to to a where I more or The of the he was By 1842, he to return to a land of and those to the writings of missionaries in the Middle some of whom as one of the of the Their and might have even Hyde's he had before the his sense of by had into and was a that in the American newspapers to and to and would and Though as an in American to through Hyde saw as In his of identification was as he to in and or children of but and a most was with Christian missionaries in Jerusalem, he the of the local his of “the and which in the of the people here to Hyde, to and as and in whom he to as were the of his with such Hyde “an Englishman seems a his be it In the of his sense of identity and relation to and even before were the of in Hyde's writing even on In one of his of he are many Jews who for Jerusalem, and have for is all the they Hyde and a European that Jews with Hyde did that are many of the more and among his how discourse had into his about the as the ultimate of the Jews in the European and would in in writings three years from a sense of Jewish identity evolved as he was with an foreign one that did not with his went beyond Jewish in the reflected the broader of where he most of his The of Hyde's was and by the he initially by his with Hyde's and soon took on a by a that and Hyde seems to have himself with the of Jews to from the Jews of the In Hyde in a growing European that encouraged the off of of in of again in in on his return Hyde be that I where I the from Hyde's in and the Holy Land. on his return to after having the Middle Hyde it to in this for a or to the of after I had been through the and of the for Hyde, was not Hyde that made in a to is of the of and in of he in his for his in the and the Middle Hyde was about his identity. In his he to his not a I the of a this the as his of nationalism in These were of identity through foreign is that Hyde's from Jews seems to have his several in with and to in his In that over Jewish and had recently in the had through including the where Hyde The was by over the first Jewish a The that saw with an of and further over the reflected a anxiety about the growing and of Jews across to with the of Jewish such as encouraged while of identity. By the and the and the of Many Jews saw as to the of that had from In was both for as as throughout The of in 1842, with from Christian the of the how much of this discourse Hyde is but the and the with whom he an the with of the the to his to a he to and his which in his not a Hyde himself from by and sent to the of his to far more In his English A of the and he the but the about “the land of his that he was sent as a the of The was As I have this was the mission Hyde's sense of even for the it the he to Jerusalem and whose as more Jewish more and the of those from the and political shifting to of and the of Jews in For both and Hyde in the of Jewish of restoration, and a return to the Holy Land. As with many and the aftershocks of the Damascus reverberated such could Hyde's and his sense of Jewish the of and Hyde metamorphosis and even a larger in Mormon about Jewish and Hyde the Jews first to Jerusalem and in the the Jews would to to before gathering to In this theological restoration as the of also to Jewish and made the to covenant identity and in the events to the of in Hyde as he the his writings in his Jewish and in Latter-day Saint have as a sense of by the time Hyde had been on the in Europe and the Middle he had come to himself as not Jewish. writings the of this while also on Jewish restoration, American and Latter-day Saint In the Hyde's for identity and to role in the gathering of Israel, even as members sought to and belief in the of As is the the to gather more about gathering