Zionism, Essay Example

The term “Zionism” is attributed to Nathan Birnbaum and was first used in 1890. The Zionist movement itself was founded in 1897, by Theodor Herzl (Jewish Virtual Library). Many definitions of Zionism exist, offered up by both Zionist groups and non-Zionists alike. Some of the definitions are controversial; others seek to provide a purely historical account. Zionism-Israel.com provides a definition meant to be historical as, “Zionism is the national revival movement of the Jewish people. It holds that the Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.” (Zionism-Israel). In his paper, “Zionism as a Permanent Revolution”, Shlomo Avineri calls it, “the Zionist revolution for Jewish identification” (Avineri). The two defining statements seem similar, both expressing the purpose of Zionism to be recognized identity. However there is a major difference between the two definitions; one uses the term “revival” and the other “revolution”. A revival can be defined as a “rebirth” and is another word for renaissance. Revolution can be defined as a total or radical change. In the first definition, the purpose of Zionism is presented as being a return to or a resurgence of, the Jewish identity and geography by flaming cultural ideas, laws, and rituals. With the use of the world revolution, the second definition suggests a complete change to Jewish society in order to bring Jewish identity to recognition. Both definitions express the same purpose, but suggest different starting points and describe different requirements for achieving the purpose. So, was the Zionist project a revolution or a renaissance? The answer may be found by evaluating the goals and visions of various Zionist thinkers.

In 1897, Theodore Herzl founded the Zionist movement. Herzl was born in 1860, in Budapest to a Jewish family. In 1884, Herzl earned a law degree from the University of Vienna. He went on to work as a playwright, a writer, and a journalist (Jewish Virtual Library). Encounters at the University of Vienna and later during his career brought Herzl face to face with anti-Semitism. First regarding the problem as social in nature, Herzl wrote a play titled, “The Ghetto”, that he hoped would lead to debate, discussion, and tolerance. Later on, Herzl came to the conclusion that anti-Semitism was fixed in society and the only solution was for the Jews to inhabit their own country. To this end, the World Zionist Organization was formed and the Basle Program, named after the meeting place of the first congress, Basle, Switzerland, was adopted with the declaration that, “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law” (Jewish Virtual Library). The closest Herzl came to securing a sovereign state for the Jewish people was an offer from the British for an autonomous region in Uganda, in east Africa.  Theodore Herzl handled his Zionist vision in a very political manner. He was proactive in seeking out world leaders, such as British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and the Ottoman Sultan. His view of the Jewish state depicted a “social utopia” (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs). In his 1902 novel, Altneuland, Hertz penned details concerning the future state’s political structure, immigration, fund-raising, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion and the state. He declared that the future state would be a “light unto the nations.” (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Because Hertz sought to gather the Jewish people and move them into a newly created political state and because he designed a structure for the running of political and social programs that would have been different from what the Jewish people had experienced for themselves in other countries, Herzl seemed to have a revolutionist approach to Zionism.

Theodore Herzl was not the only one to dream of a sovereign state for the Jewish people. There were great writers and thinkers before him that had held the same vision, but not acted politically. One of these great thinkers was Moses Hess. Moses Hess was born in Bonn in 1812 (Jewish Virtual Library). During his lifetime, Hess studied philosophy at the University of Bonn, served as the Paris correspondent for a socialist newspaper, and contributed to Marx’s Communist Manifesto written in 1848. The well-known phrase appearing in Marx’s Communist Manifesto, “religion as the opium of the masses,” is attributed to Hess (Jewish Virtual Library). Though initially a utopian socialist, Hess’ thinking moved toward a more scientific determinist understanding after meeting Marx. The Jewish state envisioned by Hess was to be socialist in nature, as was Herzl’s detailed Jewish state years later. Hess’ work was revived in the 1880s and assigned importance with the creation of the Zionist project. Hess struggled with his Jewish nationality early in life, going back and forth between recommending assimilation and espousing Jewish identity. His brush with other religions caused him to consider the laws of Judaism. In his last work, a book titled Rome and Jerusalem, Hess recommended that Jews preserve their identity by keeping to and practicing an orthodox religion, until they had achieved attainment of a Jewish state in Palestine. After the attainment of the sovereign Jewish state, Hess recommended reviewing the laws and making changes to better meet the needs that would arise in the new society (Zionism-Israel). Since Moses Hess ultimately recommended a change in Jewish religious law, his Zionism vision can be classified as one of revolution.

Another Zionist thinker that pre-dated Theodore Herzl was Leon Pinsker. Leon Pinsker was born in 1821. He lived in Russia and witnessed the violent pogroms that took place against the Jewish communities in that country. At a time when assimilationists pushed for integration with Russian society as the future of the Jews, Pinsker suggested the idea of a separate Jewish state. Pinsker first tried unsuccessfully to organize a national movement for a Jewish state in Europe, before returning to Russia. His famous essay, Selbstemanzipation (Auto-Emancipation), caught attention in Russia and he became the leader of circle of Zion study groups (Zionism-Israel). Leon Pinsker’s motivation to form a sovereign Jewish state was to protect the Jewish people from violence and anti-Semitism. He attributed the cultural inequality Jews suffered to a political inequality and saw the creation of a Jewish state as a way to preserve Jewish religion and way of life. The pursuance of a new political organization of the Jews would be classified as revolutionary. However, Pinsker suggested the political route as a way to be able to preserve and freely celebrate the Jewish religion. So his ideas are not cut and dry along the lines of revolution or revival.

Many of the Zionist leaders that came after Herzl considered the ideas of Hess and Pinsker in formulating their own vision of a sovereign Jewish state. Ber Borochov and Ahad Ha’am were two influential leaders in the Zionist project.

Ber Borochov was born in the Ukraine in 1881 (Zionism-Israel). His father was a Hebrew teacher and their house often visited by Jewish intellectuals and writers. Borochov grew up in Poltava, an out of the way town that had become a haven for exiled revolutionaries and dissidents. As a student Borochov studied economics, philosophy, social sciences, history, and Marxist literature. He joined the Social Democratic party while he was still a student and refused university study because of the prevalent anti-Semitism present on universities (Zionism-Israel). In 1901, Borochov was expelled from the Social Democratic party because of differing agendas and organized a labor group with socialist leanings. Throughout his life, Borochov tried unsuccessfully to merge Jewish socialist and Jewish labor parties. He retained his socialist democratic views and eventually his ideology became a cornerstone for the creation of the Poalei Tziyon movement and later the United Workers Party of Israel (Zionism-Israel). Ber Borochov dealt heavily with political methods and most of his writings center around political ideas, strategy and methods. Borochov could be classified as a Zionist revolutionary activist.

Ahad Ha’am, in contrast to Borochov’s almost exclusive political agenda, is credited as the founder of Cultural Zionism (Zionism-Israel). Born Asher Ginzberg in 1856, he was an ardent writer concerning Zionism and fervent supporter of Leon Pinsker’s ideas. Working with the Hovevei Tzion (lovers of Zion) movement, Ginzberg helped to achieve a first wave of immigration settlement to Palestine (Zionism-Israel). Lacking in practical means and without support, a large portion of these first settlements failed. Ginzberg differed from Pinsker and other Zionist leaders in that he did not believe it wise to seek a sovereign state in Palestine before the Jewish people were ready. Ginzberg believed the Jews were not ready for a national revolution because they were not possessed of a unified “organic Jewish culture” (Zionism-Israel). His unique emphasis on reviving Hebrew and Jewish culture was only widely recognized belatedly, finally becoming a formal part of the Zionist project after 1898 (Zionism-Israel).

Ahad Ha’am is the only Zionist leader presented here that can be purely classified espousing Zionism as a renaissance movement. For this reason, I would say that the Zionist movement began as and has largely remained a revolution. Leon Pinsker perhaps blended the political Zionist movement and cultural revival best with his own vision of the establishment of a sovereign state that would protect the Jewish people and allow the Jewish culture to flourish.

Works Cited

Avineri, Shlomo. “Zionism as a Permanent Revolution.” Unknown.

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 20 July 2004. 11 December 2009 <http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2004/7/Herzl+and+Zionism.htm>.

Jewish Virtual Library. A Definition of Zionism. 2009. 10 December 2009 <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/zionism.html>.

—. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 2009. 11 December 2009 <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hess.html>.

Zionism-Israel. Zionism and Israel. N.D. 10 December 2009 <http://www.zionism-israel.com >.