Returning, the Land of Israel as a Focus in Jewish History
By Benjamin J. Segal
SECTION IV ZIONISM
Overview and Chronology
SECTION FOUR – OVERVIEW AND CHRONOLOGY
Zionism
Across the centuries of their dispersion, the Jews had much to unite them,
from law to literary language, from holy texts to messianic longings. The
community in its isolation was itself a binding factor. Whether imposed
by law and custom or voluntarily adopted, the ghetto existed as a semi-autonomous
grouping, providing an ever-so-imperfect surrogate for independence and
state. So effective was the ghetto in isolating Jews from the outside world
and inculcating a Jewish life style that most Jews had more in common with
their co-religionists across borders and seas than they did with their non-Jewish
neighbors a kilometer away.
In the nineteenth century, a fourfold crisis converged on Jewry, bringing
massive spiritual and communal dislocation. Emancipation, officially granting
equal rights and full participation in the society, provided by far the
greatest shock. Arriving as a harbinger of equality and freedom, Emancipation
was a mixed blessing at best, for it signaled the end of Jewish separation,
and with it, the collapse of the structure which had helped maintain both
local community and international unity.
The second contributory factor to the nineteenth century crisis was the
new nationalism. Divesting itself of its previous amalgamation with religion,
the new movement declared a need for independence and national identification.
The now emancipated Jew found himself rushing into a world which demanded
new, national loyalties. Religion could be a private affair for the home
and place of worship, but in all else the Jew was to be Frenchman, German,
Czech, etc.
Complicating the process was another problem, which was much affected by
the new combination of Emancipation and nationalism. Anti-Semitism, the
third element of crisis, with a long history of its own, was gradually shifting
from a religious to a national-and-social ground, laying the basis for the
slaughter of one-third of all Jews in the middle of the following century.
Particularly in Eastern Europe, outbursts of anti-Semitism abounded, spurring
on the Jewish search for answers to this new problem.
The fourth problem arose in the world of study, and if not a crisis, it
was certainly a challenge of substantial dimensions. History, since the
Enlightenment, had become a matter of objective study, not just a source
of guidance and inspiration. Such study showed that change, though among
Jews it often had been effected innocently in the name of “interpretation”
of God’s will, had been the rule of history. With such an understanding
of the past, this generation, desperate for new solutions to new problems,
could not accomplish change naively. They could not pursue new paths, allowing
themselves to assume they were only continuing in old ways, interpreting
texts of the past. If change were to take place, it demanded deliberation,
decision, and action.
Thus was born an age of new definitions and realignments. Secularists challenged
religious assumptions, at times substituting new beliefs, such as socialism,
for the old value system. In the religious sphere, three movements emerged
as a bridge from past to future. Orthodoxy insisted that the existing forms
and formats be maintained, invested as they were with divine sanction. Interpretation
could take place, but not change. On the other end of the religious spectrum,
Reform Judaism demanded open reconsideration and radical alteration, for
the ghetto had not allowed healthy development, and now Judaism had to be
“re-formed.” Between them, the Conservative movement insisted
on maintaining the tension between tradition and development, and an on-going
dialectic between the two.
The political arena as well gave birth to several reactions. Various groups
of Jews sought different degrees and types of accommodation. Some openly
espoused assimilation. No less radically, another small group held that
the only solution to the new problems facing Jews and Judaism was the re-creation
of a Jewish homeland. Thus was Zionism born.
In this age of internal spiritual upheaval, Israel, then called Palestine,
returned to the forefront of Jewish concern and concentration. Jews might
accept or reject one of the new visions of the people’s return to
Israel, but they had little choice but to react to the Zionist challenge.
The study of the relationship of the Jews to Israel in the age of Zionism
is not an examination of continuity, but one of emerging problems and their
proposed solutions. While drawn within the framework of an historic attachment
to the Land, both the crises and the responses were new, a break with the
past. The history of Zionism is a tale of a new movement wavering between
evolution and revolution, encountering myriad reactions as it raised before
the Jewish people and the world the renewed vision of a Jewish homeland.
Zionism—A Chronology
|
1791 |
National Assembly, France, grants Jews full civil rights. |
1840 |
Damascus Libel, Jews accused of murder to gain blood for ritual use. |
1862 |
Publication of Moses Hess’ Rome and Jerusalem, first modern
Zionist book. |
1863 |
Founding of assimilationist “Society for the Promotion of Culture
among the Jews of Russia.” |
1870 |
Mikveh Israel, first Israeli agricultural community and school, founded. |
1870s |
Growth of the Hibbat Zion (Love of Zion) movement, principally in
Russia. |
1881 |
Pogroms in Russia following assassination of Czar Alexander II. Beginning
of mass emigration from Russia. |
1882 |
Leo Pinsker publishes “Auto-Emancipation.” |
1894 |
Dreyfus trial in France. Theodor Herzl begins Zionist activity in
response to mob’s anti-Semitic outbursts. |
1896 |
Publication of Herzl’s The Jewish State |
1897 |
First Zionist Congress, Basle. Founding of Zionist Organization. |
1903 -1906 |
Pogroms in Russia |
1903 |
Uganda Proposal, suggesting African territory as temporary haven for
the Jews. |
1904 |
Beginning of major wave of immigration to Israel from Russia. Herzl
dies. |
1909 |
Tel Aviv founded. Degania, first kibbutz, founded. |
1911 |
Zionist Congress opts for involvement in cultural and educational
programs. |
1917 |
Balfour Declaration, stating that England favors the creation of a
Jewish national home in Palestine. |
1920 |
British Mandate over Palestine begins (confirmed by League of Nations,
1923). |
Returning: The Land of Israel as a Focus in Jewish
History / Benjamin J. Segal.
Jerusalem, Israel : Dept. of Education and Culture of the World Zionist
Organization, 1987. xiii, 320 p.; 22 cm.