 Oliphant had, by this point, become something of a celebrity among the Jews of Eastern Europe.He was spoken of as "another Cyrus" and a "saviour," his settlement plans were published by the early Zionist newspaper Hamagid, written up by Peretz Smolenskin in Ha-Shachar, and Moses Lilienblum expressed the hope that Oliphant would be ‘the Messiah for Israel’.According to historian Nathan Michael Gelber, "you could find in the houses of poor Jews a picture of Oliphant.