Much is uncertain in the history of Zionism, though its origin is not in doubt.
The concept of a Jewish national homeland launched by Theodor Herzl in 1896, up to the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, was not such an easy project to launch.
The Zionist organisation was a totally disunited body, quarrelsome and ineffective, and which never represented more than a tiny fraction of world Jewry.
Even following the acceptance of the Balfour Declaration from a reluctant British government, world Jewry failed to provide more than a trickle of support.
Yet, the irony of their rejection of support became the grassroots for large-scale Zionist organisation in the Diaspora.
There were two reasons why Zionism had little appeal for Jews living in the Pale of Settlement.
To religious Jews living in these harsh conditions, almost like living in a prison camp, the political Zionism ideology being espoused by Herzl was regarded as blatant heresy.
To them, Herzl was translating a Messianic concept of the return to Zion into a crude political programme.
‘He was downgrading the chosen people by crudely applying the European theory of nationalism and national self-determination.’
The second reason was the emergence of Marxist socialism as the doctrine of the Russian Revolution, where young Jewish intellectuals were being offered a movement whereby they would be accepted as equals by the Russian intelligentsia.
To the workers they offered a trade unionism in which racial prejudice would be a crime.
Jews of the West
The chances of creating a mass movement among Jews of the West were equally slim.
In Germany, France and Britain, the long-established large Jewish communities were equally unenthusiastic.
German Zionists were particularly disadvantaged as their country was allied with Turkey during WW1 at the time when ‘Palestine’ was occupied by the Ottoman Empire.
There was little prospect of persuading the imperial German government to adopt the creation of a Jewish national home at the expense of their ally and claiming it was a German war aim.
Prospects in France were equally dim.
The great majority of native-born French Jews were equally hostile to the Zionist programme fearing their acceptance in France as emancipated Jews would be placed in jeopardy.
Moreover, it was certain the Zionist interests conflicted with French national interests in the Middle East.
In Britain, more hostility by British Jewry to the Zionist initiative, but for entirely different reasons.
British Jews fitted comfortably in a country where religious freedom was freely practiced, so they were not persecuted in like vein to the Jews in Europe, but the thought of a Jewish state could weaken their position in British society.
In addition, the Anglican church believed that Britain should occupy Palestine as a pre-condition of Christ’s second coming.
And in America
Despite the ultimate support of the Balfour Declaration by the government of the United States after bitter rejection by the State department, it was not altogether welcomed by American Jewry, many of whom had sought refuge in America after fleeing Europe to start a new life free from antisemitism.
Rev.Shulman from the New York Temple Beth-El in addressing his community on Rosh Hashanah 1918 commented as follows:
“I’m aware that the Jews in America are divided on this question of Zionism, but allow me to give you my personal opinion.”
“Our destiny is not to become a little Oriental people in Palestine.
It is rather to persist in the world as Israel, Priest of God.
To witness as God’s congregation in the whole world
and therefore to be a part of every nation,
abdicating political nationality as a thing too little.”
Considering the growth of antisemitism from the time of the Russian pogroms late in 19th century, reaching a peak during WW2 and rising once again today throughout Jewish communities worldwide, the short-sightedness of the Jews in the major centres during the Balfour Declaration period has been brought to bear.
If not for Israel, where around 50% of world Jewry live, around 7.5 million, despite constantly being attacked by hostile neighbours and where internal differences of opinion about the nature and conduct of the Jewish state have yet to be fully resolved, the Jewish world would be left in a sorry state.
Some of our Jewish sages have written that Judaism in the Diaspora kept the Jewish way-of-life intact for some 2000 years.
Despite this opinion, which certainly has some merit, today the Diaspora communities are faced with as many existential threats as the state of Israel.
It remains to be seen how well they stem the tide.
Without Israel there would be nowhere to go should antisemitism continue to spread its ugly wings.
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