Lucien Wolf

Lucien Wolf (20 January 1857 in London – 23 August 1930) was an English Jewish journalist, diplomat, historian, and advocate of rights for Jews and other minorities. While Wolf was devoted to minority rights, he opposed Jewish nationalism as expressed in Zionism, which he regarded as an incentive to anti-Semitism. In 1917, he co-founded the anti-Zionist League of British Jews.

Early life

He was the son of Edward Wolf, a London pipe manufacturer, and his wife Céline (née Redlich). Wolf's father was a Bohemian Jew who came to England as a political refugee after the 1848 revolution, and his mother was Viennese.

Career in journalism

Wolf began his career in journalism as early as 1874, at the age of seventeen, becoming a writer for the Jewish World and remaining at this position until 1894; from 1905 to 1908, he would serve as its editor. He specialized in foreign affairs and diplomacy and became a highly respected expert on the subject.

In 1877, he became assistant director of the Public Leader. From 1890 to 1909, he was foreign editor of The Daily Graphic, writing under the pseudonym Diplomaticus. From 1895 to 1905, he wrote under the same pseudonym for the Fortnightly Review. As indicated by his pseudonym, Wolf's writings dealt primarily foreign affairs and diplomacy and he became a respected expert in these fields.

The outbreak of the anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia in 1881 sparked his interest in Jewish affairs. He became a sharp critic of the Tsarist autocracy and attempted to draw attention to the plight of Russian Jews. In 1912, Wolf founded and wrote a supplement named Darkest Russia to the Jewish Chronicle. With the outbreak of the First World War, Wolf's preference for the more liberal German government to the Russian practically ended his career in journalism, as the British were allied with Russia against Germany.