Zionist idea

Question 1

1st option Emancipation

Answer 1

Provides an opportunity to assimilation because to enter government or university, a Christian oath was necessary. Assimilation was the easy way out. Many Jews did this. HAMARA V HITBOLELUT

Question 2

2nd option

Answer 2

For the Jews who didn’t want to assimilate and convert to Christianity. This lead to the beginnings of 3 major trends, orthodoxy (begin in Germany and Hungary), conservative (Breslau, Germany), reform (Germany). Bottom line is that all of them were looking for solution to remain a Jew in the changing world. Later on in Europe, they saw they couldn’t do what they wanted to do in Europe so they immigrated to North America and South America

Question 3

3th option

Answer 3

Jews claim atheism, but do not give up heritage. Yiddish and Hebrew become the languages. They want to remain in Europe but are not ready to give up Jewish heritage or culture. This can be considered an Enlightenment period amongst the Jews. It means they have a common culture and heritage and they don’t want to give it up. Many of these Jews, they join the revolution in Russia.

Question 4

4th option

Answer 4

Jews arrive to the conclusion that it is too dangerous to stay, let’s get out. First group to say Europe is not the solution. They don’t look to Eretz Israel but to N. America, and Latin America.

Question 5

5th option Zionist movement

Answer 5

we deserve to get our own language, territory, history, and heritage. All of this comes together in Israel. They were a minority.

Question 6

German scholar Zumberg (non-Jew)

Answer 6

said the entire Jewish religion symbolizes a religion of merchants and capitalism. Judaism is a bank religion.

Question 7

Dostoyevsky

Answer 7

Says we cannot explain Jewish survival of persecution only. The biggest and strongest civilizations perished a long time ago. In the Jewish case, it is not only the will to survive but something much deeper. Something humanity has not said yet.

Question 8

Anti-Semitism has existed since

Answer 8

Since the 4th century and is rooted in Christianity.

18th century - Immigration trends into the west. We see group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
Beginning of Sephardic Jews. These Jews setup an economic network and immediately interact with the traders of various regions. Creates the Ladino Jews.
Jews who went to Italy and Turkish Empire remained as Jews, they were accepted.

Question 9

Mercantilism theory

Answer 9

evaluates an individual if it is useful or not to the modern state. Determined according to social or economic contribution and usefulness. Jews were not useful because they were not allowed to own land.

Question 10

Herder (philosopher of modern state)

Answer 10

says the Jews are parasites who want to suck the blood out of European society.

Question 11

British school of philosophy (the Dais)

Answer 11

wanted to undermine Christianity and to do so, had to attack the source which was Judaism. They wanted to separate state from church and they weren’t anti Semitic.

Question 12

Dohn – 1781

Answer 12

writes a book about the correction of the Jews, how to integrate them.

Question 13

Where modern anti semitism began ?

Answer 13

In France, not Germany

Question 14

What’s happend in Poand

Answer 14

Poland was divided 3 times which was disastrous for the Jews. 3.5 Million Jews in Poland were brought into Russian Empire. 1st modern terrorist organization came from Russia in 1798

Question 15

Nicolai I

Answer 15

Short-tempered dictator, didn’t like Jews. Kidnap young Jewish kids (9-11) sent to 25 year military term in Russian army.

Question 16

1825 Young russian officer

Answer 16

In Paris, saw debates in French parliament and was shocked. Arrived to conclusion that if the French can do it, Russians can to. He was executed after trying to revolt.

Question 17

1878 – “People’s Will, People’s Freedom”

Answer 17

1st modern terrorist organization. Russian activists started killings of dignitaries (people from state). Advocated revolution from top to bottom. Believed this would start a chain reaction and bring salvation to society BUT Intellectuals were against use of terrorism and the group failed. 1st to use women as professional assassins.

Question 18

Alexander II was killed

Answer 18

by a woman with a bomb, while he was travelling in his carriage. She hugged him and blew him up. She was 1st woman to be executed in Russia.

Question 19

Alexander III

Answer 19

was looking for a scapegoat, and the ideal scapegoat were the Jews. He was assisted by aristocrats called the Holy League. They were the ones who planned the 1st pogroms against the Jews in the 1880’s.

Question 20

1881-1924

Answer 20

3.5 Million Jews went from Russia to US. Assassination of Alexander II started this. Beginning of modern Jewish history in Americas.

Question 21

The dreyfus tryal

Answer 21

In 1894, when Herzl was 34, an earth-shattering event in France transformed his life forever. He was sent there to cover the trial of Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a French Jewish Army captain accused of treason, for selling military secrets to Germany. It soon became obvious to Herzl that the charges against Dreyfus were erroneous and that he was innocent. As a Jew, Dreyfus had become the scapegoat for the frustrations of the people of France, which had just suffered defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The Dreyfus trial had unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism in France

Question 22

Herzl and Dreyfus

Answer 22

Saw in the Dreyfus affair a harsh reminder of the poisonous persistence of anti-Semitism. He concluded that Jews could never be integrated fully into their adopted countries. They would always be considered outsiders. They could never feel safe from persecution except in a land that they could claim as their own.

Hundreds of other Jews also saw the Dreyfus affair as evidence of incurable, widespread anti-Semitism. Yet, few, like Herzl, believed that we needed a special Jewish homeland.

Question 23

The First Zionist Congress: In 1897

Answer 23

Herzel organized the first Zionist Congress, which was held in Basel, Switzerland. Delegates came from all over the Jewish world. In the course of this gathering, the World Zionist Organization was founded. A resolution was passed that became known as the Basel Program; it outlined the goal of Zionism. This goal was described as the establishment in Palestine of a “home for the Jewish people secured by law”.

Question 24

3 trends of mainstream Zionism

Answer 24

Social Zionism
Revisionism– Jabontinsky / Beitar
Religious Zionism

Question 25

Herzl/nordau

Answer 25

founders of general Zionism. Their core idea was that Jews needed to escape from Europe to a national homeland.

Question 26

Marxism claims

Answer 26

Jews are not a nation and therefore there is no such thing for them as national identity.
Socialist Zionism had to confront this contradiction.

Question 27

Opposition to Zionism THE BUND

Answer 27

The Bund (a secular socialist Jewish party in the Russian Empire) criticized the Zionist idea It’s going to fail since it only represents the upper middle class and the religious elements. According to the Bund emigration toPalestinewas a form ofescapism. The Bund did not advocate separatism. Instead, it focused on culture, rather than a state or a place, as the glue ofJewish “nationalism.”

Question 28

Nah Sirkin

Answer 28

was the father of socialist Zionism. Began political career as a socialist. Become a Zionist activist in Berlin. Immigrated to US and joined group "Poalei Zion" (Russian Zionist Jewish workers union).
Explains anti-Semitism as part of a socio-economic principle: the Jews are caught in the middle between the lower worker class and the upper classes. Believed Marxism would not solve anti – Semitism and it would always remain.

Question 29

Ber Borochov

Answer 29

Left the Social Democratic party in Ukraine as a result of anti- Semitism.
He believed that anti-Semitism was the outcome of psychological problems of the Russian people and of the role of the Jews in the capitalist world. Palestine was the only answer as the emancipation had failed in Europe.

Question 30

Aharon Gordon

Answer 30

Gordon believed that only by physical labor and by returning to the land could the Jewish people achieve national salvation in Palestine.
Made Aliya when he was 47 in the 2nd Aliya.
Gordon (much older than other olim of the era – 2nd aliya) – saw Jewish problem as both psychological and physiological. Believed in 2 ways of existence:
דרך החיים- Way of life = Stopping the Diaspora situation as the only way where one can return to their motherland and have a direct connection with the land is by physical work and cultivation.
דרך התחייה - Revival – the only way of reviving themselves is a return to the motherland and having a direct contact with the land.
This would benefit and transform the physical and mental aspects.
Return to Palestine would cure all evils of Europe.

All these early believers understood that Europe was on the verge of destruction and there was no place for the Jews in Europe.

Question 31

1st Aliya

Answer 31

Older olim who established first Jewish settlements and saved by Baron de Rothschild.
Nearly failed, as the Olim didn’t have any knowledge of agriculture.
Rothschild was not initially Zionistic – merely entrepreneurial and saw the re-education process (school of Mikve Yisrael) as a way of making money.

Question 32

2nd Aliya

Answer 32

younger olim who were disappointed with the failing of the Russian revolution in 1905 and the anti-Semitism.
They successfully set up moshavim and kibbutzim. Their impact was the greatest.
2/3s of the olim went back to Europe as they couldn’t survive.
3rd Aliya 1914-1921  most formative wave along with 2nd wave
Disillusion after the Bolshevik Revolution.

4th Aliya 1924-1929  “Kiosk Wave”. Polish Jews who opened up shops and didn’t have any interest in working the land. Built up Tel Aviv.

5th Wave – 1933 - 1936: German Jews who were allowed to leave Germany with 50 % of their property.
Brought industry / academia / built up Haifa.

Question 33

Revisionist Zionism

Jabotinsky

Answer 33

Born in Odessa, Russia. Delved into academia: translated British/American literature into Hebrew. Helped creating the Jewish battalions in WWI – with Trumpeldor “The Mule Battalion” (Gallipoli). Organized 1st Jewish self-defense.

The biggest difference: Labour believed that we have to work the ground and then create a state. Revisionists said that 1st we must create a state and then worry about the logistics of a state.
Biggest split and question – when was the optimum time to create the state?
Begin led Beitar into the Etzel  Jabotinsky left Palestine and died heartbroken in Ney York (1940).

Question 34

Religious Zionism

Answer 34

Religious Zionism, or the Religious Zionist Movement (a branch of which is also called Mizrachi) is an ideology that combines Zionism and religious Judaism, basing Zionism on the principles of Torah, Talmud et al.

Question 35

Rav Yaakov Reines (1839/1915)

Answer 35

founder of the Mizrahi religious Zionist movement in 1902, to promote Jewish religious education within the framework of Zionist nationalism.
Opposition: the Zionists were secular Jews who wanted to give Judaism a new face and image.
Rabbinical interpretation is that Jews can only return to Israel when God allows you to; otherwise it provokes the Lord. This is the justification of religious anti-Zionists.

Question 36

Rav Kook

Answer 36

Interpreted history with a twist. According to him, WWI was a turning point. As a religious person, he needed to give global changes a religious explanation.
Harav Kook advocated cooperation with the revisionist and social Zionism.