Zionism 1) Jewish Messianic aspiration 2) National movements – esp. Poland and Austro-Hungarian Emp. (1848) Antisemitism – racist theories in France & Germany Pogroms in Russia 1881/2 and the Kishniev killings 1903 Dreyfus affair

Jewish National Theories, 1850-70´s Heinrich Graetz 11 volumes History of Jews from the Oldest Times to Nowadays Jews as a NATION possesing a historical continuity Nation based on the LAW Needs a LAND

Jewish National Theories, 1850-70´s Yehuda Alkalai Zwi Kalischer DEMYSTIFICATION OF THE PROCESS OF REDEMPTION Everyone should be taught spoken HEBREW BUYING LAND IN PALESTINE, REVIVING HEBREW = PREPARATION FOR REDEMPTION Redemption will not come suddenly but only as result of the Jew´s own efforts – real merit is to live in Palestine before the days of the Messiah For establishing a fund for land purchase Est. an agricultural school on the outskirts of Jaffa

Moses Hess Rome and Jerusalem, 1862 Herzl: „Everything we tried is already there in his book.“ „But even an act of conversion cannot relieve the Jew of the enormous pressure of German antisemitism. The Germans hate the religion of the Jews less than they hate their race – they hate the peculiar faith of the Jews less than their peculiar noses. Reform, conversion, education and emancipation – non of these open the gates of society to the German Jew; hence his desire to deny his racial origin.“ „We shall always remain strangers among the nations.“

Eastern Europe Russia, end of the 19th c.: more than 5 milion Jews (about 10 x as many as in Germany) Only about 200 000 permitted to live in towns outside of the Pale Biggest European communities in Warszaw and Odessa Leading center of haskala in Russia Relatively open and liberal new city Peretz Smolenskin, Odessa Vienna – journal ha Shahar (Dawn) 1) Jews= Am ha ruah 1881 2) collective emigration Passionate advocate of HEBREW language and litterature Eliezer ben Yehuda 1st modern dictionary of HEBREW

Hibbat (Hovevei) Zion Moshe Lev Lilienblum Odessa: integration does not lead anywhere The 1st organisation for Jewish settlement in Palestine „The opponents of nationalism see us as uncompromising nationalismts, with a nationalist God and a nationalist Torah; the nationalists see us as cosmopolitans, whose homeland is wherever we happen to be well off. Religious Gentiles say that we are devoid of any faith, and the freethinkers among them say that we are Orthodox and believe in all kind of nonsense; the liberal say we are conservative and the conservatives call us liberals. Some bureaucrats and writers see us as the root of anarchy, insurection and revolt; and the anarchists say we are capitalists ...“

Hovevei Zion Leo Pinsker Physician Autoemancipation, 1882, Germany Odessa „Help yourselves and G-d will help you.“ Judeophobia : disease – incurable, at least as long as its cause is not removed Sick nation: don´t feel the need for and independent national existence in the same way as a man affected by disease does not feel the desire for food and drink. „For the living, the Jew is a dead man; for the natives an alien and a vagrant; for property holders a beggar; for the poor an exploiter and a millionaire; for patriots a man without a country; for all classes, a hated rival.“

Hovevei Zion: Leo Pinsker Setting a National Directorate to buy land : expects mass emigration to Palestine 1882-1903 25 thousand settle in Palestine = FIRST ALIYA (ASCENT) PINSKER – president of Hibbat Zion LILIENBLUM – secretary of Hibbat Zion As secularists were opposed by the RABBIS Hibbat Zion: since 1884 main office in Odessa – main Zionist body in Russia untill WWI

BILU

Theodor Herzl the 1st one to impose Zionism in Jewish and world opinion Nation in Eretz Israel will not be created only through silent labour Budapest – Vienna – Paris, 1891, correspondent of his Viennese journal (Dreyfus affaire) The Jewish State, 1896 only one possible solution: a political one Modern anti-Semitism is the result of Emancipation Alteneuland, 1902 – Jews in the middle of social and economic crossfires: „The persecutions were social and economic. Jewish merchants were boycotted, Jewish workingmen starved out, Jewish professional men proscribed [...]. The blood libel was revived; and at the same time the Jews were accused of poisoning the press, as in the Middle Ages they had been accused of poisoning the wells. As workingmen the Jews were hated by their Christian fellows for undercutting the wage standards. As businessmen they were dubbed profiteers. Whether Jews were rich or poor or middle-class, they were hated just the same.“

Zionist Congresses 1st: Basel, 1897 Est. WZO – effective political institution Practical Zionism + political Zionism The Jewish problem can be solved only by large-scale migration and settlement of Palestine – can only be attained through political assistance and consent of the community of nations Herzl: 1st Zionist Bank Jewish National Fund – purchasing land Kishniev  UK proposes Uganda – rejected by Chaim Weizman