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Turks in 1453. In this lament on the fall of Constantinople, he
associated the fate of the Jews with that of the defeated Greek-
Orthodox. Balbo took issue with scholars on various topics;
in his polemic against Moses Ashkenazi (who was known by
the curious name of Esrim ve-Arba – “Twenty-Four”) he vigorously
attacked Ashkenazi for his rejection of the doctrine
of metempsychosis. Balbo also wrote on behalf of the Candia
community on such topical subjects as the ransoming of captives
and agunot. These writings are valuable material for the
history of his time. In a colophon at the end of a manuscript
of the Sefer Mitzvot Katan, which he copied, he refers to the
deaths of his son Isaiah and of Isaiah’s son Michael in 1484.
Bibliography: Freimann in: Zion, 1 (1936), 185–207; E.S.
Artom and M.D. Cassuto (eds.), Takkanot Kandyah, 1 (1943), index;
Urbach, in: KS, 34 (1958/59), 101; Malachi, in: KS, 41 (1965/66), 392f.
Add. Bibliography: N. Stavroulakis, The Jews of Greece, An Essay
(1990) 32; Z. Malachi, “The Balbo Family – Scholars of Hebrew
Literature in Candia (15th Century),” in: Michael, 7:255–70.
[Yehoshua Horowitz]
BALCON, SIR MICHAEL (1896–1977), British film producer.
Born in Birmingham, he began filmmaking in 1920
and during the next 40 years was responsible for many outstanding
British films which opened new avenues in realism
and humor. Among them were The Captive Heart, It Always
Rains on Sunday, Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets,
The Lavender Hill Mob, Whisky Galore, The Cruel Sea,
Dunkirk, and The Long and the Short and the Tall. His book
Michael Balcon Presents … A Lifetime of Films was published in
1969. He was knighted for his services to the industry in 1948.
Balcon was born and educated in Birmingham. He founded
Gainsborough Pictures Ltd. in 1928, was director of production
for Gaumont-British, director and producer at Ealing
Studios, and chairman of British Lion Films.
Add. Bibliography: ODNB online; DBB, I, 110–15.
°BALFOUR, ARTHUR JAMES, EARL OF (1848–1930),
British statesman, signatory of the *Balfour Declaration. In
1902, he became prime minister, but was defeated in the general
election of 1905. He returned to Asquith’s coalition as first
lord of the admiralty in 1915 and served as foreign secretary
in Lloyd George’s coalition government, formed in December
1916. Balfour began to take an interest in the Jewish question
in 1902–03, when *Herzl conducted negotiations with Joseph
*Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, and with Lord
Lansdowne, the foreign secretary, regarding Jewish settlement
in areas adjoining Palestine, such as the Sinai Peninsula. In
1906 he met Chaim *Weizmann in Manchester and was impressed
by his personality. Balfour’s interest in Zionism revived
and grew more intense during World War I, when he
became foreign secretary, in which capacity he signed the Balfour
Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917. He was enthusiastically welcomed
by the Jewish population when he visited Palestine in
1925 to attend the dedication ceremony of the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, at which he delivered the opening address.
balfour declaration
His anthology, Speeches on Zionism (1928), was translated
into Hebrew. The motivation behind Balfour’s attraction to
Zionism has been the subject of conjecture. Being a rationalist
it is doubtful whether religious tradition was a factor although
his biographer Blanche *Dugdale introduces his Scottish ancestry
with its Old Testament tradition. A more likely theory
is that of Leonard Stein, who points out that Balfour had spoken
out against the persecution of the Jews saying “The treatment
of the race has been a disgrace to Christendom” and he
saw the establishment of a Jewish state as an historic act of
amends. Streets were named after him in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv,
and Haifa. There is also a Balfour Forest at Ginnegar, and a
moshav, *Balfouriyyah, founded in 1922 in the Jezreel Valley.
The Balfour family continued the tradition of interest in the
Zionist movement. Robert Arthur Lytton 3rd Earl of Balfour
(1902–1969), his nephew, supported *Youth Aliyah. In 1939 he
offered the family estate and home, Whittingham, to a Jewish
committee as a training school for refugee boys and girls from
Germany. Balfour’s niece and biographer Blanche Dugdale
worked in the political department of the Jewish Agency in
London as a close collaborator of Chaim Weizmann.
Bibliography: B. Dugdale, A.J. Balfour, 2 vols. (1939); K.
Young, A.J. Balfour (1963); L. Stein, Balfour Declaration (1961).
[Encyclopaedia Hebraica]
BALFOUR DECLARATION, official statement which Arthur
James *Balfour, the British foreign secretary, addressed to
Lionel Walter Rothschild (2nd Baron Rothschild) on November,
2, 1917. It conveyed a declaration of sympathy with Jewish
Zionist aspirations. The British government viewed with
“favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people.”
The Declaration was a deliberate act of the British cabinet
and part of its general foreign policy. It was a national policy
in the sense that it represented the views of the three British
political parties. It had acquired international status since the
principal Allies – Russia, France, Italy, and the United States
– had given it their prior approval. It was subsequently endorsed
by the League of Nations and incorporated into the
*Mandate.
The Balfour Declaration recognized the collective right
of world Jewry to Palestine and the “Jewish People” became
an entity in the context of international law. Recognition of
Zionism was in line with the principle of self-determination
and with the struggle of small nationalities for freedom and
independence.
There were many hands, both Jewish and non-Jewish,
which shaped the policy which led to the Declaration, but
it was Chaim *Weizmann who emerged as the central figure
in the struggle. His scientific achievements early in the war
enabled him to render important services to the British government
which brought him to the notice of David *Lloyd
George, minister of munitions. The latter’s personal admiration
for Weizmann proved invaluable to the cause of Zionism
when Lloyd George was serving as prime minister. Weizmann
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