Shaping a Nation: The Cultural Origins of Zionism 1882-1948

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2006

Examining recent developments in the study of Zionism, and focussing on the notion of Jewishstatehood, this article argues that the alleged uninterrupted continuity of Zionism in the 20 th cen-tury (as an ideology, movement, and political project) masks deep ruptures and transitions. The‘Jewish State’ is often presented as the unchanging core principle of Zionism. And yet the consti-tutional framework of Israel differs considerably from Zionist visions of statehood of the 1920s and1930s.

excerpt: "The aim of this collection of essays is to open a space for reflection that would allow us to “think the unthinkable.” Can historians contribute to the effort? We believe they can. But our approach should be distinguished from that of the high-profile intellectual and the public moralist. It is one thing is to demand from Israelis that they be more imaginative when thinking about their future; it is another thing to remind them of their own past, help them look at it with a fresh, unprejudiced eye, and to uncover the wide range of historical possibilities and alternatives it conceals. The aim of this essay – that should be read literally as an essai, an attempt at an imprecise experiment – is to direct our thoughts toward this unhindered thinking. We chose to shed light, to paraphrase Robert Frost’s oft-quoted poem, on the roads not taken, or at least the ones less traveled by, the mainstream Zionist movement. We do so by shedding light on few key debates in the history of Zionism and on the ideas of Zionist thinkers and activists who scrutinized and challenged the very parameters of the Zionist project from its inception."

2004

2004 By Abraham Weizfeld B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D. cand. l’Université du Québec a Montréal, Faculté de science politique et de droit 20 / 08 / 2003 RE : Grand Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introduction: The Jewish political cultural is as varied as it is of long duration. The task of this study is foremost to reveal the various dimensions under which one differentiates between the State of Israel and the Jewish People including its religious tradition, Judaism. In reference to the State of Israel one refers inclusively to the Zionist movement and its ideology. The differentiation of the Jewish political culture serves to demonstrate the fundamental antagonism that exists between the particular political tendency of Zionism and the Jewish national identity per se and in particular Judaism.

Nations and Nationalism, 2010

This article analyses the ethnic and civic components of the early Zionist movement. The debate over whether Zionism was an Eastern-ethnic nationalist movement or a Western-civic movement began with the birth of Zionism. The article also investigates the conflict that broke out in 1902 surrounding the publication of Herzl's utopian vision, Altneuland. Ahad Ha'am, a leader of Hibbat Zion and 'Eastern' cultural Zionism, sharply attacked Herzl's 'Western' political Zionism, which he considered to be disconnected from the cultural foundations of historical Judaism. Instead, Ahad Ha'am supported the Eastern Zionist utopia of Elchanan Leib Lewinsky. Hans Kohn, a leading researcher of nationalism, distinguished between 'Eastern' and 'Western' nationalist movements. He argued that Herzl's political heritage led the Zionist movement to become an Eastern-ethnic nationalist movement. The debate over the character of Jewish nationalism – ethnic or civic – continues to engage researchers and remains a topic of public debate in Israel even today. As this article demonstrates, the debate between 'Eastern' and 'Western' Zionism has its foundations in the origins of the Zionist movement. A close look at the vision held by both groups challenges Kohn's dichotomy as well as his understanding of the Zionist movement.

The Zionist movement initiated a cultural revolution in the history of the Jewish people. As a modern national movement that developed in the late nineteenth century, it signified a deep rift from the traditional Jewish ethno-community. It rebelled against the traditional Jewish world in the Diaspora; It changed the relationship to the sacred Jewish texts, as it preferred the Bible to the Talmud. In addition, the Zionist movement aspired to create a "New Jew," much different in character from the traditional Jew. All these granted the Zionist movement revolutionary character in Jewish life. Yet as I will argue in this lecture, despite the revolutionary manner of the Zionist movement, we identify a clearly ethnic continuity. The demand to "change the values" by Zionist intellectuals, such as Bardichevsky, Brenner, Tchernichovsky and others was made as an ethnic revolutionary process, and not out of the aspiration to invent a new nation. In this lecture, I will try to demonstrate the dialectic relationship of change and continuity in several areas: the concept of "Diaspora negation" in Zionism, creation of the "New Jew," and the relationship with the Jewish past. I view Zionism as a nationalist, ethnic-cultural movement that developed within the Jewish people and saw itself as its authentic representative and not merely a modernist type of inventing a nation.

Ego, 2011

This article traces the history of European-shaped Zionism during and after the First World War until the founding of Israel in 1948. Its primary aim is to show how the emerging project of the Jewish settlement of Palestine could withstand external and internal difficulties both under the British mandate and in the shadow of Nazism.

Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 2002