Returning, the Land of Israel as a Focus in Jewish History
By Benjamin J. Segal
TOWARD STATEHOOD AND BEYOND
Overview and Chronology
SECTION FIVE– OVERVIEW AND CHRONOLOGY
Toward Statehood, and Beyond
If the nineteenth century was a Jewish age of change, the twentieth century
was an age of cataclysm. The world seemed to move ever faster as new problems
arose daily, while former difficulties grew steadily to massive, overwhelming
dimensions. People scarcely had time for ideological confrontation as history
forced them to turn their attention to more immediate and pressing affairs.
Concerning the Land of Israel, numerical growth, new social problems, and
international political developments abounded. In less than a century of
Zionist settlement, the Jewish population in Israel grew one hundred fold,
from 23 thousand in 1880 to over two million three hundred thousand by 1970.
The kinds of settlement varied, from urban Tel Aviv to the new cooperative
agricultural settlements, the kibbutzim. The growth, however, was not smooth,
for it involved waves of immigration from various lands and various backgrounds,
creating adjustment problems of huge proportions.
To a large degree, at the beginning of the century, hope for Israel was
still centered abroad. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, wherein Great Britain
declared that it viewed with favor, “the establishment in Palestine
of a national home for the Jewish people,” convinced many that the
British Mandate, which was replacing Turkish control, would lead to the
creation of a Jewish state. However, growing tensions with the Arabs, as
witnessed by the riots of the late twenties and thirties, and the unmistakable
later inclination of England to support Arab resistance to Jewish statehood,
gave clear notice that the path would not be easy in any respect.
As so often occurred in Israel’s history, developments far from the
Jewish scene eventually proved more important than anything happening within
the Jewish world. In the early part of the century, the unrest in Russia,
the revolution, and World War I all brought about massive Jewish movement,
primarily from Eastern Europe toward the West, to America. In Germany, in
the wake of World War I, Nazism began its slow rise to power on its way
to the depths of depravity, World War II became the Jewish Holocaust, bringing
physical and cultural decimation on the Jewish people. Six million Jews—one
of every three—were slaughtered. Even the questions raised were beyond
comprehension, some perhaps not even articulated to this day. Among them,
however, was one question that was immediate and clear: Had the devil succeeded
in his task? Was the Holocaust the End?
On May 14, 1948, the day the British departed from Palestine, the Jews proclaimed
the independence of the State of Israel. Major achievements abounded, each
to be followed by new and difficult problems. From the earlier United Nations
approval of the Partition Plan, Israel turned to the War for Independence.
Massive waves of immigration led to subsequent struggles for cultural adjustment
and adaptation. Realized independence was followed by the realization that
much was dependent on what happened abroad. Paradise had problems hidden
behind every tree: poverty, relations between Arabs and Jews, competing
economic and political systems, the relation between religion and state,
etc. Worst of all, the wars continued, seemingly forever. Throughout all
these developments, the focus of world Jewry was drawn more and more to
Zion as a center—if not of culture, then certainly of concern.
In the shadow of these challenges, the love of Zion in general—and
Zionism in particular—had to confront itself. The picture in the mirror
“was not always reassuring, as the march of time relentlessly demanded
review, reevaluation, and change, for several reasons. First, while developments
reinforced certain Zionist beliefs, they also belied some contentions and
raised serious doubts about basic convictions. Second, a growing crisis
of identity demanded a review of older, more traditional attachments to
Israel. Echoes of older relationships surfaced from the depths of centuries,
simultaneously challenging and enriching Zionist thought. Finally, the overwhelming
events of the Holocaust and statehood forced confrontation once again with
the connection to the Land: first in the darkness of pain, and then in the
cowing light of fulfilled promise.
Lest the observer fall victim to his proximity to events, he must view even
this, the twentieth century, from a standpoint of distance. This stance
not only grants a degree of objectivity, but it also avoids the trap of
too strict a chronological sequence, which would only be misleading in a
history of ideas and ideals. Viewed from afar, the twentieth century appears
as an age of synthesis, wherein the processes of returning, reevaluation,
renewal and regeneration intertwined.
Toward Statehood, and Beyond —A Chronology
|
1920 |
Haganah, first broad-based Jewish self defense force,
founded. |
1925 |
Hebrew University in Jerusalem opened. |
1929 |
Arab riots in Jerusalem. Massacres of Jews in Hebron and Safed. |
1933-1939 |
Wave of immigration from Germany. |
1933 |
Germany—Hitler chancellor. First concentration camps. |
1936 |
Arab riots in Jerusalem. |
1939 |
British White Paper, severely restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine. |
1939 -1947 |
Continuing attempts at organized illegal immigration to Palestine. |
1941 |
First death camp established in Poland. |
1942 -1943 |
Death camps in Poland and Russia functioning at full capacity. |
1943 |
Jewish uprising in Warsaw ghetto. Most ghettos annihilated. |
1945 |
Germany surrenders. |
1947 |
United Nations’ General Assembly adopts Partition Plan for Palestine.
Fighting begins. |
1948 |
Proclamation of Independence of State of Israel. Seven Arab states
attack. |
1949 |
Cease fire agreements with neighboring Arab states. |
1948 -1951 |
Immigration of nearly 700,000 Jews from European and Arab countries. |
1950 |
Law of Return declares that every Jew has the right to come to Israel
as a citizen. |
1951 |
Zionist Congress adopts new central goals: consolidation of the State
of Israel, ingathering of exiles, and fostering the unity of the Jewish
people. |
1956 |
Sinai Campaign, war with Egypt. |
1961 |
Trial in Israel of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann. |
1967 |
Six Day War. Jerusalem reunited. |
1973 |
Yom Kippur War. |
1978 |
Peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt. |
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.