Zionism Forerunners

Zionism 1) Jewish Messianic aspiration 2) Consequences of the pogroms of the late 19th c. 3) National movements – esp. Poland and Austro-Hungarian Emp. (1848)

Political Zionism In Eastern Europe was preceded by REVIVAL OF HEBREW Leo Pinsker Theodor Herzl Max Nordau

Birth of Zionism 1880´s Hibbat Zion 1897 Basel Congress

Jewish National Theories, ´s Nachman Krochmal 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, ´s Yehuda Alkalai DEMYSTIFICATION OF THE PROCESS OF REDEMPTION Everyone should be taught spoken HEBREW BUYING LAND IN PALESTINE, REVIVING HEBREW = PREPARATION FOR REDEMPTION Messiah, Son of Joseph = a process Zwi Kalischer Drishat Zion (Seeking Zion), 1862 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 Founder of Zionist socialism „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.“

Moses Hess Rome and Jerusalem, 1862 – Herzl: „Everything we tried is already there in his book.“

Eastern Europe Russia, end of the 19th c.: more than 5 milion Jews (about 10 x as many as in Germany) – Only about 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

Forerunners Peretz Smolenskin, Odessa – Vienna – journal ha Shahar (Dawn) – 1) Jews= Am ha ruah – 1881 – 2) collective emigration – Passionate advocate of HEBREW language and litterature

Forerunners 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 yourself 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.

Hovevei Zion: Leo Pinsker „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 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