THE VARIETIES OF ZIONISM

(1) The “hidden language of the Jew”

(2) Jews speak European languages only as foreigners.

(3) They are not members of a l inguistic community (Volk).

(4) Hence, lacking an immediate relation to language, the Jew cannot express himself naturally and idiomatically.

(5) The true language of the Jews is Hebrew, though it only survives as a dead language.

(6) The Jews thus cannot be creative; they can only mimic the authentic l inguistic creation of others.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

19TH CENTURY NATIONALISM: A REVIEW

(1) Am Yisrael(2) The

Covenant (3) Galut(4) The

Messianic Idea

FROM THEOLOGY TO POLITICAL IDEOLOGY: ZIONISM AS

NATIONALISM

“Rather than a tragic yet divinely ordained dispensation, or as a source of religious pride, as it was for Liberal Jews, Zionists viewed the exile as an abnormal and perilous condition that needed to be ‘negated,’ overturned by their own agency in order to normalize the Jewish nation and to be able to determine its destiny. Zionism thus represented a breach in Jewish existence and a revolutionary break with Jewish history . Yet, modern and anti-religious though it was, Zionism was never entirely free of the religious heritage of Judaism. Many Zionist thinkers and activists were infl uenced and nourished by religious sources: by the ideals, myths, symbols, and hopes of traditional Judaism, and especially its messianic hope for the ingathering of the exiles, the restoration of a Jewish polity, and the establishment of an ideal society.”

ZIONISM: A CONTRADICTION?

(1)Anti-Semitism is a psychological disorder.

(2) Jews were viewed as a “ghost people.”

(3) Judeophobia is a curable disease.

Leon Pinsker (1821-1891)

SOLUTIONS TO THE JEWISH PROBLEM

(1) “If I could be whatever I l iked, I should be a Prussian nobleman of ancient l ineage.”

(2) “…the Jews would bring an element of German culture into the Orient.”

(3) Zionism “will enable the Jews to once more love Germany, to which our heart belongs despite everything.”

(4) “Crossing the western races with the so-called Oriental ones on the basis of a shared state religion – that is the great desirable solution.”

THEODOR HERZL (1860-1904)

“The Jewish Question still exists. It would be foolish to deny it. It exists wherever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not yet exist, it will be brought by Jews in the course of their migrations… we are one people – our enemies have made us one in our despite, as repeatedly happens in history. Distress binds us together, and thus united, we suddenly discover our strength.”

DER JUDENSTAAT

“We who l i ve abroad are accustomed to be l ieve that a lmost a l l E re tz Yi s rae l i s now un inhab i ted deser t and whoever w ishes can buy land there as he p leases . But th i s i s not t rue . I t i s very d iffi cul t to fi nd in the land [ha 'are tz ] cu l t i vated fi e lds that are not used for p lant ing . On ly those sand fi e lds or s tone mounta ins that wou ld requ i re the investment o f hard labor and great expense to make them good for p lant ing remain uncu l t i vated and that 's because the Arabs do not l i ke work ing too much in the present for a d i s tant fu ture . There fore , i t i s ve ry d iffi cu l t to fi nd good land fo r cat t le . And not on ly peasants , but a l so r i ch landowners , are not se l l i ng good land so eas i l y. . .We who l i ve abroad are accustomed to be l iev ing that the Arabs are a l l w i ld deser t peop le who, l i ke donkeys , ne i ther see nor unders tand what i s happen ing around them. But th i s i s a grave mis take . The Arab, l i ke a l l the Semi tes , i s sharp minded and shrewd. A l l the townsh ips o f Syr ia and Ere tz Yi s rae l are fu l l o f Arab merchants who know how to exp lo i t the masses and keep t rack o f everyone w i th whom they dea l – the same as in Europe . The Arabs , espec ia l l y the urban e l i te , see and unders tand what we are do ing and what we wish to do on the land, but they keep qu ie t and pre tend not to not i ce anyth ing. For now, they do not cons ider our ac t ions as present ing a fu ture danger to them. … But , i f the t ime comes that our people 's l i fe in Ere tz Yi s rae l w i l l deve lop to a po int where we are tak ing the i r p lace , e i ther s l ight ly o r s ign ifi cant ly , the nat ives are not go ing to jus t s tep as ide so eas i l y.”

AHAD HA’AM (1856-1927)

For Herzl, Zionism = solution to the “problem of the Jews”

For Ha’Am, Zionism = solution to the “problem of Judaism”

Herzl confused Zionism with the “need of the Jews” rather than the “need of Judaism.”

The debate featured around the concepts of the East-European v. West European (die Luftmenschen, or the Malboiyshim against the Amcha)

 

THE HA’AM/ HERZL DEBATE

The First Zionist Congress (Basle, 1897)

“A powerful tension thus lay at the heart of Zionism: Was the rebirth of the Jewish nation, its stepping onto the stage of history, going to take the form of modern, secular politics? Or, would it amount to the releasing of ancient spiritual forces, the activation of deep religious hopes? Would the Jewish state be a state like all the states, assimilating, so to speak, into the family of modern nations, or would it be a light unto the peoples endowed with a universal mission? Even in militantly secular Zionist ideologies, religious imagery was often deployed and the mission of the Jews ‘as a light unto the gentiles’ proclaimed.”

WHAT IS A JEWISH STATE?