what’s written on this cylinder. It’s been called the world’s first charter of universal human rights. There exists one other document known by such words, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Do you know who a key champion of that declaration was? Harry Truman.
“The document specifically proclaims the right of everyone to ‘return to his country.’ 2 Thus in all of world history there are two leaders associated with a declaration of universal human rights and specifically the right to return to one’s homeland: King Cyrus and President Truman. The date of the ancient declaration was 539 BC, the same year that Cyrus gave his sanction for the return and restoration of Israel. The date of the modern declaration was 1948, the same year that Truman gave his sanction for the return and restoration of Israel.
“Cyrus issued his decree to allow the rebuilding of Israel at the end of a critical seventy-year period of Jewish history. Is it possible that President Truman was also connected to a critical seventy-year period of Jewish history connected to Israel’s rebirth? The restoration of the modern nation of Israel began in the late 1870s with the establishment of the first Jewish settlements in the land. It marked the beginning of the land’s revival and the return of its people. What happens if you add seventy years to the late 1870s?”
“It takes you to the late 1940s.”
“Which is the time of Truman’s presidency.”
“Do we know the exact year those first settlements were established?”
“Yes. It all began in the year 1878. Now add the seventy years . . . ”
“1948!” I replied. “The year of Israel’s rebirth. So Cyrus issued his decree sanctioning Israel’s return at the end of seventy years, and Truman issued his decree sanctioning Israel’s return at the end of seventy years.”
“And yet,” said the Oracle, “the mystery goes even deeper. Cyrus not only recognized and supported the rebirth of the Jewish nation; he specifically issued a decree to release the Jewish exiles from captivity and allow them to come home. And that all took place in his first year of world power. So is it possible that Truman followed the mystery of Cyrus in this as well? Could there be a parallel to Cyrus’ word to release the Jewish exiles, and could it have taken place in the first year of Truman’s presidency?
“Less than thirty days after Truman became president, the Second World War ended in Europe. The continent was now filled with those displaced by the war. Foremost among them were Jewish refugees, many of them held in camps behind barbed wire and armed guards. The British refused to let them return to their homeland.
“In the summer of 1945 the US State Department commissioned Earl Harrison to investigate the conditions of the camps and issue a report. The result, the Harrison Report, was a scathing document that likened the treatment of the Jewish refugees in the detainment camps to the treatment given them by the Nazis. 3 The report was sent to Truman in late August. One week later Truman wrote to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee citing the findings of the report with the urgent request to release one hundred thousand Jewish refugees and allow them to return to their homeland. 4
“Attlee responded with resistance and warning. Truman in turn responded by releasing the results of the report publicly. Soon after that he authorized the release of the letter he had sent to the British prime minister. The resulting pressure forced the British Empire to begin the release of Jewish exiles to return to the land. Thousands of Jewish exiles, survivors of the Holocaust, would return to the shores of their ancient homeland. In all of history only two world leaders have issued such a word to bring about the mass return of Jewish exiles to the land: King Cyrus and President Truman. And both Cyrus and Truman would issue that word in their first year of world power.
“Truman’s letter would have another consequence. The pressure of the return of the Jewish exiles to the land would ultimately lead the British Empire to end its occupation of the land, which would in turn lead to the nation’s rebirth. Cyrus had brought about the end of a seventy-year exile; Truman would ultimately bring about the end of a two-thousand-year-old exile. It was that letter that set it all in motion.”
“When did he send it?” I asked.
“He sent it on August 31, 1945. It was a Friday.”
“When the Sabbath begins. So there