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The Invention of Jewish Nationalism

Zionism, Precursors, and Alternatives

Jewish solidarity
Antisemitism Jewish continuity and Jewish nationalism

National homeland vs. Holy Land

Antisemitism in nineteenth century France

1840:

Damascus

affair
Intervention

of Moses Montefiore of England and Adolphe Crmieux of France 1860: Establishment of the Alliance Isralite Universelle

Appeal to All Israelites (1860)

Solidarity

If you do not deny your religion if you believe that creed, inherited from his ancestors, is for every one a sacred patrimony If you hold that unity is strength: that, although we are members of various nations, we may still be one nationality in sentiments, hopes and expectations.

Fighting antisemitism

If you abhor the prejudices still entertained against us

Emancipation

If you agree, that a large number of your co-religionists, still under the yoke of the sufferings, proscriptions and insults of twenty centuries, could regain their dignity as men, their rights as citizens

Regeneration

If you believe, that those who are blind, ought to be enlightened

The French civilizing mission

If you hold, that the influence, which the principles of 1789 exercise all over the world, is paramount

The Jewish Press

Jewish solidarity and a Jewish public sphere

Germany

Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (1837)

France

Archives Isralites (1840)

England

Jewish Chronicle (1841)

Jewish internationalism

Archives Isralites: even if we have become the sons of different homelands, we have not repudiated the religious fraternity that has been bequeathed to us by thirty centuries of glory and of suffering.

Antisemitism in nineteenth century France

1840:

Damascus
Drumont
France

affair
Edouard
Jewish

(1886)
1890s:

Dreyfus

affair

Antisemitism and violence in the nineteenth century

1819: Hep-Hep Riots in Germany

1881-1884: Two-year wave of pogroms throughout Russian Empire after assassination of Czar Alexander II

I am glad in my heart when they beat the Jews, but it cannot be permitted. (Alexander III)

A New Beginning

Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem (1862)

despite enlightenment and emancipation, the Jew in exile who denies his nationality will never earn the respect of the nations among whom he dwells.

Perez Smolenskin (1868)

They exhort us: Let us be like all the other nations. I answer: Let us, like other nations, pursue knowledge and reject evil, let us, like other nations, take pride in our origins and acknowledge our language and national honor. Our language is our national fortress.

Leon Pinsker, Autoemancipation (1882)

The Jews are not a living nation; they are everywhere aliens; therefore they are despised. The civil and political emancipation of the Jews is not sufficient to raise them in the estimation of the peoples. The proper and the only remedy would be the creation of a Jewish nationality, of a people living upon its own soil, the autoemancipation of the Jews; their emancipation as a nation among nations by the acquisition of a home of their own. We should not persuade ourselves that humanity and enlightenment will ever be radical remedies for the malady of our people.

Jewish Nationalism as a Political Project

Theodor Herzl (18601904)

1896: The Jewish State

1897: First Zionist Congress in Basel (Switzerland)

Theodor Herzls Jewish State

The Jewish Question still exists. We naturally move to those places where we are not persecuted, and there our presence soon produces persecution. This will remain true even in those most highly civilizedFrance itself is no exceptiontill the Jewish Question finds a solution on a political basis.

Theodor Herzls Jewish State

It is remarkable that we Jews should have dreamt this kingly dream all through the long night of our history. Now day is dawning. We need only rub the sleep out of our eyes, stretch our limbs, and convert the dream into a reality.

Theodor Herzls Jewish State

antisemitism prevails, it does so as a result of the emancipation of the Jews.

We are one peopleour enemies have made us one in our despite

Theodor Herzls Jewish State

Let sovereignty be granted us over a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the requirements of the nation Shall we choose Argentine or Palestine? We will take what is given to us.
we do not mean to found a theocracy, but a tolerant modern civil state. What language shall we speak? Switzerland offers us an example of the possibility of a federation of tongues.

First Zionist Congress

Basel 1897

Between 200 to 250 delegates from 24 states and territories

Dominated by delegates from Eastern Europe

Russia Pale of Settlement Austrian Poland (Galicia) Romania Half of delegates from Central and Western Europe Russian-Jewish immigrants to the West

National Home vs. Holy Land

National Home vs. Holy Land

Territorialism
1903:

Uganda proposal of the British government brought before the Zionist Congress and rejected

National Home vs. Holy Land

Orthodox Responses
1902:

Foundation of Mizrahi, organization of the religious Zionists, in Vilna

The

Land of Israel for the people of Israel according to the Torah of Israel.

Orthodox
Zionism

opposition

as violation of the three oaths (Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 111a):

Not to try to force Gods hand Not go up to the Land of Israel en masse Not to rebel against the nations of the world

+ Zionism and a new Jewish society

The fifth Zionist congress in Basel, 1901 May our eyes behold your return to Zion in compassion. (from the Amida prayer)