Moses Hess, German-Jewish philosopher, was born in French occupied Rhineland and raised in a traditional Jewish family.
After earlier study of Jewish religious education in the Bible and Talmud under the guidance of his extremely Orthodox grandfather, he broke away to pursue a journey as a pioneer of socialism and political philosophy, later becoming a forerunner of the Zionism Movement.
In 1826, following his mother’s death, Moses Hess joined his father in the family business in Cologne.
After rejecting a rabbinic career, he also rebelled against the commercial world and after quarreling with his father he left home and traveled to Holland and France with little money in his pocket.
It led him to pursue his socialist philosophy and its benefits to society at large.
Moses Hess developed a close collaboration with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who were both impressed with his socialist theory, but in his later life Hess focused towards Jewish nationalism.
In his first book The Holy History of Mankind published in 1837, he proposed a socialist society founded on a synthesis of Jewish and Christian ethics.
It presented a messianic vision of social redemption based on the abolition of private property and inheritance, which he identified as the root of all social evils.
He argued that private property had led to social polarization, creating an ‘aristocracy of wealth’ with a growing class of the impoverished.
His theory fell on deaf ears, but events in Europe, spurred by the growing influence of communism in Russia, motivated Hess to campaign for Jewish independence in a socialist state of their own.
The Revolutions
What added greater impulse for this project was the start of the German Revolutions in 1848.
They were loosely co-ordinated protests and rebellions by the working classes in the 39 independent states of the German Confederation, which had been formed after the end of the earlier Napoleonic wars.
The Confederation with its largely autocratic political structure supported the liberal citizens at the expense of the working classes who now demanded better working and living conditions together with general elections for each state.
After the failure of the Revolutions, Hess grew disillusioned with the prospects of Jewish integration in Europe.
With the rise of German nationalism and modern antisemitism he believed the Jewish people were a distinct nation, not just a religious community, and their aims and ambitions could only be solved through a national revival in their ancient homeland.
He advocated the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine.
In his book Rome and Jerusalem published in 1862, he argued that a return of Jews to Palestine was necessary for the normalisation of the Jewish people and building a socialist agricultural society.
Initially the book had little impact, but later it became of source of inspiration for Theodor Herzl who developed the progressive ideas of Moses Hess in writing his book The Jewish State.
Moses Hess is considered a foundational figure who brought a modern, nationalist dimension to Jewish thought.
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