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Home , Cultural Zionism, History of Zionism, Leon Pinsker, Zion

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF : Vision and Reality — Reality and Vision

ALVIN I, SCHIFF, PH.D. Irving Stone Distinguished Professor of Education, Yeshiva University and Chairman, American Advisory Council, Joint Authority for Jewish Zionist Education

As the national liberation feature of Zionism comes to a close, it is time to turn to the historical. Judaic vision of Zionism. Each component—the , the Jewish religious tradition, and the land ofIsraeli-must become operative principles of Jewish life. Then Zionism can become a unifying factor, creating a sense of Jewish peoplehood with a common heritage and a common destiny.

wo guiding principles serve as the frame exiled to Babylonia. And, since that Tofreference for this article: (1) the vision time, Jews, young and old, would recite be­ and the reality of Zionism must be viewed as fore grace after their weekday meals: "By the an historic continuum, and (2) there always waters of , there we sat and cried has been and continues to be a mutual intrin­ when we remembered " ( 137:1). sic relationship between Jews in the and Jews in Eretz Yisrael concerning the THE VISION OF ZIONISM vision of Zionism and its fulfdlment. AND MESSIANISM The term "Zionism" was first used in 1892 The vision of Zionism, expressed as the by Nathan Birnbaum at a meeting in Vienna coming of the Messiah, suffuses the entire (Laquer, 1972). Yet, the concept of Zionism Judaic tradition. It was this fervent belief that is another matter. The idea of Zionism is lightened the yoke of exile for generations. thirty-eight dmes older than the anniversary So strong was the messianicbelief that no less of the in , Swit­ a rabbinic luminary than the Hatam Sofer at zerland. It is as old as the Jewish people, and even older. According to the first Rashi the beginning of the nineteenth century re­ commentary on the Pentateuch, the Zionist quired his students to study the legal portions vision was fashioned by the Almiglity at the of theTalmud applicable only inEretz Yisrael, time of the creation of the world when He such as the halakhot relating to yovel and declared that the land to be conquered by the shmitah and the regulations concerning rightfully belongs to them because korbanot that would become operative with the Creator of all the lands bequeathed Eretz the rebuilding of the Temple once the Mes­ to the children of Israel (Genesis 1:1). siah arrived. While Jews lived physically in the Diaspora Jews throughout the ages prayed for the for two thousand years, emotionally and spiri­ day they would occupy this land as a nation. tually they resided in Eretz Yisrael. Twelfth- The hope of returning to their ancestral home­ century Judaii Halevi's poetic outcry captures land was first expressed 2,500 years ago by the profound vision of the Zionist tradition of two millennia when he proclaimed: "My •Presented at a Yom lyun on One Hundred Years of heart is in the East; but I am in the far end of Zionism: Vision and Reality, sponsored by the Council the West." And, as a good Zionist, Halevi of Jewish Education, the Board of Jewish Education of made to the . Greater New York, The Departments of Education and and Education of the Joint Authority of To be sure, messianic fervor and biblical Jewish Zionist Education, JESNA and the Department belief in the a Zionist do not of Education of the , February, make. What is needed is the combination of 1997.

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personal desire and actual involvement to historic homeland" (quotedin Shimon, 1996). make Shivat Zion a reality. The many exilic That unbroken connection is the historic Zi­ examples of belief coupled with willingness onist link. and personal participation in the redemption A dramatic story about Shmuel Yosef process "prove that [modern] Zionism had an Agnon expressed the power of the Zionist impressive genealogy in and vision. During the ceremony when he was that it was but the awakening of an ever awardedthe Nobel Prize for literature, Agnon imminent national spirit acknowledged by was asked where he was born. His response Jews and Gentiles alike" (Sokolow, 1969). startled his listeners. "My parents gave birth According to a recent study of Zionist to me in P'chach, Galicia" he said, "but like , the common denominator of mod­ all Jews, I was born in ." After the ern Zionist visions comprises four major King of Sweden, who asked him the question, propositions (Shimon, 1996). expressed his amazement at his answer, Agnon explained: "Physically I was born in 1. Jews are a distinctive entity possessing Galicia, but my spiritual birth was in Israel. attributes associated with the modern con­ Were it not for the spirit of Jerusalem cept of nation, as well as attributes asso­ (Yirushalayim shel ma'alah) that pervaded ciated with religion. my home, I never would have studied Judaica, 2. The situation of the Jewish entity under I never would have mastered Hebrew, I never conditions of dispersion is critically de­ would have become a Hebrew writer, I never fective. would have made aliyah; and I would not be here to receive the Nobel Prize." Agnon's 3. The solution ranges from the ingathering response was the epitome of the fulfillment of and settlement of Jews in Eretz Yisrael a Zionist dream. under conditions of religious and cultural autonomy to the more radical aspiration The dual aspiration of Zionism is ex­ for a sovereign and the gath­ pressed poignantly in the daily , by ering therein of a major part of the Jewish (1) the prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusa­ people. lem and the speedy renewal of "the kingdom 4. The fulfillment of the visions involve of ," a clear reference to the Davidic Jewish self-help; the renewal of national Messiah, and (2) by the prayer for freedom self-respect, morale, and culture; settle­ from exilic oppression and persecution. For ment in Eretz Yisrael; and diplomatic the Jewish masses throughout the ages, the activity to facilitate such settlement. national purpose of the Jewish religion was reinforced by the reality of Jew-hatred and If we examine these criteria for defining persecution. modern Zionism we must conclude that Zion­ ist activity did take place over the centuries. MODERN ZIONIST PROPHECY Althougli the main strands of modern Zion­ AND REALITY ism are essentially secular, its historical ante­ After being elected as the first President of cedents were religiously rooted and the World Zionist Organization, at the first messianically motivated. Zionist Congress, Theodore Herzl, the mod­ Whether moved by religious fervor, con­ ern prophet of Zionism, wrote in his diary: "If cerned primarily with the alleviation of dis­ I were to sum up the Congress in a word, it tress, or driven by feelings of national pride, would be this: At Basel, I founded the Jewish the efforts to settie in Eretz Yisrael or to make State. If I said this aloud today, I would be it a homeland for Jews are Zionist activities. greeted by universal laughter. In five years, In Ben Gurion's words, the Jewish right to perhaps, and certainly in fifty, everyone will Eretz Yisrael "emanates from the unbroken see it" (quoted in Parzen, 1962). connection of the Hebrew nation with its Fifty-one years later, the prophecy is a

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reality. But the father of the modern Jewish From Assimilation to Zionism state did not guarantee its welfare or its For Hess, the Marxist Socialist Jewish character. The establishment of a ideologue who advocated assimilation and modern Jewish state by no means suggested later realized that "even conversion itself the fulfillment of all Zionist aspirations. The does not relieve the Jew from the enormous fledgling state had to be safeguarded against pressure of German Jew-hatred," increasing Arab terrorism and warfare. It had to be anti-Semitism resulted in a turn to a Zionist supported economically. It had to be made a soludon for the Jewish problem (Shimon, viable homeland for hundreds of thousands of 1996). Jewish immigrants. It had to develop a Another example of an assimilationist- distinct Jewish character and continue the turned-Zionist was , a devout Jewish people's national, cultural and He­ leader of a failed movement to russify Rus­ braic renaissance. Finally, it had to develop sian Jews. In his biting pamphlet. Auto the ability to disseminate and Emancipation, which appeared in 1882, he Jewish consciousness and reinforce the idea emphasized that Jews must emancipate them­ of Jewish peoplehood. selves from galut by becoming a nation like Preceding Herzl in the nineteenth century other nations, and by attaining a territory— were the ideological precursors of modern not necessarily Eretz Yisrael—to achieve Zionism. Their visions varied significantly, nationhood. but their solutions to the problems of Jewish Herzl was an assimilationist who literally exilic existence had one element in common: was shocked into becoming a Zionist. Were a physical space over which Jews ruled. Chief it not for his assignment to cover the Dreyfus among the precursors were two rabbis—a trial, who knows whether there would be a Balkan Sephardic Jew, Yehudah Alkalai, and Jewish state today. It could very well be that an East European talmudic scholar, Zvi the Jewish people would have had to continue Hirsch Kali scher, each of whom developed to exist in the post-Holocaust era as a nation plans and advocated for the physical, cul­ in exile. tural, and linguistic restoration of the Jewish people to its homeland. Zionism and Haslialali The Jewish national vision was not ac- ceptedby all Jews at the time modern Zionism The vision of modern Zionism embraced was being fashioned. Reform in the the thinking of the maskilim, the intelligen­ nineteenth century rejected the vision of Jew­ tsia who revolted against the ghetto and, at ish as antithetical to its belief the same time rejected Jewish religion and system, which held that Jews were members abandonedthesynagogue. Themaskilimlaid of the Mosaic faith whose allegiance centered the foundation for secular Zionism and were only around the synagogue (Shimon, 1996). responsible for the rebirth of the Hebrew The extreme ultra-Orthodox Jews, while language. The flowering of Hebrew literature strong in their belief in the Jews' eventual and Hebraic journalism in Eastern Europe return to Eretz Yisrael, repudiated modern during the last two decades of the nineteenth Zionism since they felt it involved the viola­ century went hand-in-hand with the renais­ tion of sacred Judaic principles and practices. sance of Jewish nationalism. And then there were the assimilationists who retained a superficial identification with the MODERN THEORIES: Jews but rejected the practices of Judaism. POLITICAL, PRACTICAL, Their vision of individual and group emanci­ AND pation, unlike that of the Zionists, was total It is no accident that, since both Pinsker integration into their respective European and Herzl became Zionists out of existential societies.

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necessity, their goals, their visions, were po­ During the first two decades of modern litical and social. Early in Herzl's efforts, he Zionism, the political purposes clearly over­ was ready to settle for Argentina and later for shadowed the vision of the cultural and reli­ . Both times he was persuaded by gious Zionists and even the goals of the Zionists motivated by historical and cultural practical Zionists. The Zionist vision of the purposes to consider only as the practicalists, who challenged Herzl and con­ land of the Jewish people. Under his leader­ fronted him with an ultimatum to abandon ship, the vision of political Zionism domi­ his designs regarding Uganda, was to reclaim nated the first Zionist Congress when the Eretz Yisrael by settlement and practical World Zionist Organization was established. work. The official program of Zionism simply read: Over time, the vision of the practicalists 'The aim of Zionism is to create a publicly triumphed in the securing and building a recognized and legally secured home for the homeland for the Jewish people. In large Jewish people in Palestine." The operative part, this was insured by the Second Aliyah clauses to obtain this objective were essen­ brought about by the failure of the October tially political, economic, and social. They Revolution in Russia in 1905 and the result­ included the promotion of the settlement of ant . The Second Aliyah olim were Palestine by Jewish farmers, laborers, and dedicated to implementing ToratHa 'avodah, artisans; the organization of world Jewry into the work vision of Aharon David Gordon. local and general bodies in with The natural outcome of a labor philosophy the laws of their respective countries; the was the founding of the , whose strengthening of Jewish sentiment and na­ dominant leader was David Ben Gurion. tional consciousness; and the initiation of They included the promotion of the settle­ steps to attain such government assistance as ment of Palestine by Jewish farmers, laborers may be necessary for achieving the aims of and artisans; the organization of world Jewry Zionism (Parzen, 1962). into local and general bodies in conformity One of the stalwart Zionists who joined with the laws of their respective countries; the hands with Pinsker in the formation of small strengthening of Jewish sentiment and na­ Zionist groups was Ahad Ha'am, whose vi­ tional consciousness; and the initiation of sion of Zionism differed radically from Herzl. steps to attain such government assistance as Ahad Ha'am viewed assimilation and not may be necessary for achieving the aims of persecution as the greatest threat facing mod­ Zionism. ern Jewry. To him, the Zionist vision was The Zionist vision of the practicalists, who needed to regenerate the spiritual life of the challenged Herzl and confronted him with an Jews and help them face the challenges that ultimatum to abandon his designs regarding modern societies posed to Jewish survival. In Uganda, was to reclaim Eretz Yisrael by his pointed essay, Lo zeh Haderekh, which he settlement and practical work. Among oth­ wrote after visiting the new colonies, he bit­ ers, the Jewish National Fund was the vehicle terly criticized the lack of cultural purpose in through which practical Zionists, led by the colonization effort of the new immigrants Menahem Ushishkin, chose to operate for the in Palestine. Colonization, he posited, re­ restoration of the land through colonization quires a spiritual-cultural dimension and a and Jewish labor. Hebraic linguistic emphasis. Consequently, he promoted the idea of Jewish national edu­ ZIONISM AND OUR cation as a prerequisite for aliyah. Other­ HEBREW LANGUAGE wise, he felt that the Jewish people could not To Ben-Gurion and his colleagues, the build in Palestine the Jewish national cultural revival of the Hebrew language was an inte­ center it needed to survive as a nation on its gral part of the Zionist vision. The battle for own land. Hebrew as the language of instruction at the

SUMMER 1998 One Hundred Years of Zionism / 191 newly founded Technion, in which vision of the ingathering of exiles—with the Eliezer Ben Yehuda and his associates en­ last inmiigration from the fomier gaged between 1912 and 194, is an aggressive and —will have been fiilly realized expression of this aspect of the Zionist vision. (Carmen, 1992). And as the nadonal libera­ It involved Jewish leadership the world over, tion feature of Zionism comes to a close, we including Ainerican Zionists headed by Rabbi must turn to the historic. Judaic vision of Stephen Wise and Professor Richard Gottheil Zionism. The restoration of Eretz Yisrael to who avidly promoted the study and use of the a prominent place in Jewish life does not ease Hebrew language in every area of life in the search and struggle for Jewish identity, Palestine. To them, Hebrew was basic to the either in Israel or in the Diaspora. Zionist vision. Historically, Zionism is based upon three In hist study, Haiashon Ha'Ivritbe Yisrael Judaic components: language, religion, and U-Va-Amin, Dr. Simon Federbush (1967) territory. Heinrich Graetz, the prolific nine­ writes eloquently of the fiilfillment of this teenth-century historian, emphasizes that vision: 'The Torah, the nation of Israel and the Holy Land stand...in a mystical relationship to The revival of our Hebrew language, which each other; they are inseparably united by a accompanied the beginning of our national mystical bond" (quoted in Shimon, 1996). redemption, is one of the world's miraculous And according to historian Katz (1986, phenomena. The amazement of the nations of p. 90), Jewish nationalism "is the transform­ the earth regarding this happening, for which ing of ethnic facts into uUimate values." This there is no parallel in any country or language, transformation posits a major challenge to was expressed by one of the world's righteous Israel and to Zionism as both the State and the people: If the survival of the Jewish nation is operative concept that brought it about stmggle a miracle, then the revival of the Hebrew for ultimate meaning. To achieve the ulti­ language is the miracle of miracles. mate values of Zionism in the post-Zionist period, each of the components—language, American Role in Modern Zionism religion, and territory—must become opera­ tive principles of Jewish life. The contribution of American Zionists is underscored by the fact that no less than 78 Hebrew Language settlements in Israel bearthe names of Ameri­ can Jews. American Zionism is actually a The Hebrew language must become, once success story. When it began, it did not again, a functional unifying factor of world generate much popular support and enthusi­ Jewry, an ever-ready presence of Jewish asm. Indeed, it had its share of opponents and peoplehood. What a challenge this poses to detractors. According to Jewish Theological Jewish Zionist leadership and to Jewish edu­ Seminary Professor Jack Wertheimer, the cators! Sadly, the Israel Ministry of problem now is that "since the triumph of Education's 1994 Shenhar Report, which Zionism seems so all-encompassing (there addressed the "ongoing decline of the status are virtually no anti-Zionist or even non- of Jewish Studies at all levels of the educa­ Zionist organizations in America), it no longer tional system," noted "a paradoxical change represents a fighting cause that inspires in the status of the Hebrew language: the American Jews." more it has become the dominant language and culture, the more it has become distant A THREE-PART PROGRAM FOR from the language of the Bible and religious ISRAEL AND THE DIASPORA writings. Once the key to general and Jewish education, it has now become a separate In contemplating the future of Zionism in subject, isolated from other (Judaic) disci­ America and Israel we begin with the fact plines" (Shenhar Report, 1994). Israeli writer that, most likely, during the next decade the

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and thinker, Yosef Dan (1994), in a lengthy ist challenge as not so much a response to the article in Ha'Aretz, bemoans the absolute "problem of the Jews" as it is an answer to the secularization of the Hebrew language, which "problem of Judaism." The search for a is contrary to the Jewish continuity needs of resolution to this problem must be at the heart the Jewish people. "So much literary creativ­ of Zionist endeavor in the post-Zionist era. ity in Israel," he underscores, "does not draw Secularism has exacerbated the dilemma of an iota from the Bible, Mishnah, Gemara, whether Israel can be both democratic and Jewish philosophy. , Hasidut or even Jewish at the same time. This dilemma has from the classical literary works of modern given rise to the statement of the new presi­ Hebrewliterature." This condition requires a dent of Israel's Supreme Court to the effect Zionist response. It challenges the Israeli that "if he had to choose between an Israel education system to develop a comprehen­ that is Jewish but not democratic and an Israel sive, integrative approach to the Hebrew lan­ that is democratic but not Jewish, he would guage, restoring to it its traditional cultural prefer an Israel that is democratic and not sources. Jewish." In this case, Jacob Chinitz(1996, p. It is precisely because Hebrew is so crucial 3) notes, "We have an open acknowledgement to Jewish continuity and so basic to meaning­ by a major leader of Israeli society, that the ful Jewish existence and to Jewish unity that Jewishness of Israel is secondary, not pri­ the American Advisory Council of the Joint mary, and can no longer serve as the raison Authority for Jewish Zionist Education, with d'etre ofthe State." the Department of Education and Culture in Zionism today must embrace Judaism and the Diaspora, has established a National He­ Jewishness, as well as Jewish nationalism, as brew Language Center. The level of the its goal for the Jewish fiiture in the Diaspora Center's effectiveness will be a measure of and in Israel. In this sense, we are not truly the success of both American Zionist and in an era of post-Zionism. If Zionism is Jewish educational leadership and activity. rooted in the Jewish past and continues to be The challenge of Hebrew language in all its invigorated by Jewish tradition, it becomes formats—biblical, liturgical, rabbinic, liter­ an eternal philosophy guiding the destiny of ary, and conversational—is what motivated the Jewish state and the future of the Jewish me to write my book The Mystique of Hebrew people. As Hebrew University Professor (Schiff, 1996). Michael Rosenak (1992, p. 17) notes, 'The significance of Eretz Yisrael was intrinsi­ Jewish Religious Tradition cally bound up with the significance of bibli­ cal and talmudic Judaism." And, so it must The second component of Zionism is the be now, even as we differ in our interpretation Judaic religious tradition, which can be and application of biblical and talmudic Ju­ broadly interpreted to include the ideas and daism to our modern times. experiences associated with spirituality, ritual The poet Bialik expressed this intrinsic observance, human values, and cultural and link poignantly in his memorable poem, Im national involvement. The concept of Judaic yesh et naf-shekha la-da 'at, describing the religious tradition being at the heart of Zion­ study of Judaic sources as the fountain from ism may be anathema to many secular Zion­ which the Jewish people drew strength and ists today as it was to many maskilim in courage in their bitter exile. Indeed, Torah Europe. Yet, the current challenge of reli­ study, broadly defined, is a cardinal principle gion to post-Zionism and to Israel is to en­ of the Jewish faith, the importance of which hance the Jewish character of the Jewish must be incorporated in the Zionist vision communities in the Diaspora and in Israel. and reality of the Jewish future in the Diaspora Ahad Ha'am, the secularist, shared with and in Israel. the definition of the Zion­

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Centrality of Israel the core of the Zioni st vision today and tomor­ row. Territory, the third leg of the Zionist idea, means much more than a physical space to REFERENCES house the Jewish people. It means that Eretz Yisrael, the homeland, is the home of Juda­ Ahad Ha'Am. (1949). Lo zeh Haderelch. In Kol ism in which its Jewish inhabitants feel at Kitvei Ahad Ha'Am. : Dvir. home with Jewishness. It means, that after its Camien, Arye Z. (1992). The pohtical center. In founding, Israel becomes a major cultural Israeli and American Jews: Understanding center, a major cultural force for Jewish life and misunderstanding. New York: everywhere. "From Zion shall go forth the Hadassah. Torah" can be a realistic vision for the Jewish Chinitz, Jacob. (1996, May). The original sin of future. Ben-Gurion. Midsheam, p. 3. The vast majority of Israelis believe in the Eisen, Arnold. (1992). The spiritual center. In exclusive centrality of Israel. For most Israeli Israeli and American Jews: Understanding Zionists, aliyah is the necessary condition of and misunderstanding. New York: Zionism. In contrast, most American Jews Hadassah. tend to view the Jewish world as having at Federbush, Simon. (1967). Ha-Lashon Ha-Ivrit least two centers, Israel and America. For be Yisrael U-va-Amin. Jerusalem: Mosad most Diaspora Jews, even for religious Jews, Huravikosh. galut does not exist as they live in a variety of Katz, Jacob. (1986). The Jewish national move­ free, blessed settings. ment: A sociological perspective. In Jewish This divergence of views poses a chal­ emancipation and self-emancipation. Phila­ lenge to Zionism of the future to help both delphia: Jewish Pubhcation Society. communities better understand each other. Laqueur, Walter. (1972). A . The center and the periphery have much to New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wmston. teach each other, if only, as Professor Arnold Parzen, Herbert. (1962). A shori history of Eisen (1992, p. 82) notes, "they would learn Zionism. New York: Herzl Press. to speak in a way which the other is prepared Rosenak, Michael. (1992). The : Its to hear." In responding appropriately, Zion­ contemporary meaning. In Steven T. Katz ism can become a unifying factor in creating (Ed.), The frontiers of Jewish thought. Wash­ a sense of Jewish peoplehood with a common ington, DC: B'nai B'rith Books. heritage and a common destiny, which is, Schiir, Alvin L (1996). The mystique of Hebrew. after all, the concept of Am Yisrael true to the New York: Shengold Pubhsher. covenantal idea of Jewish life. Shenhar Report. (1994). Jerusalem: Mitustry of Jewish togetherness is expressed in the Education and Culture. very first act of modern Jewish nationhood. Shimon, Gideon. (1996). The Zionist ideology. The Declaration of Israel's Independence Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press. underscores that the Jews of Palestine and the Sokolow, Nahum. (1969). History of Zionism Jews of the Diaspora "met together in solemn 1600-1918. New York: Ktav. assembly to declare the establishment of the Yosef, Dan. (1994, March 25). Al Post-tzionut, Jewish State." That togetherness must be at Al Ivrit Shel Ozen, Val Meshiehiot shel Shav. Ha'areiz.

SUMMER 1998