[3] Much distressed over the fate of the Russian Jews after the persecutions of 1882–1890, he resolved to found a Jewish state in the Arabian peninsula.
[4] Towards this end, he consulted with Sir Evelyn Baring (later Lord Cromer, the British representative in Egypt) and purchased land in the Midian region for a Jewish colony.
Twenty-four of these, under the leadership of Friedmann, Baron von Seebach and Lieutenant Thiele, with a doctor, a chemist and a builder, left Cairo in the middle of November 1891.
[6] A landing was made at Sharm al-Moza on the east side of the Gulf of Aqaba, but the new colony did not last for more than two months.
The Russian consul in Cairo also opened an investigation, and violent denunciatory articles appeared in the Egyptian press, especially in connection with the death of one of the settlers who had been forced to leave the encampment because of insubordination.