History of Zionism

TERMS:

Emancipation- everyone is equal under the law. In the French revolution 1789, jews were equal. It was
important because France changed the course of Jewish history when it declared everyone living in the
country is equal under the law and has same rights and obligation. Before this everyone was different,
between famers, merchants, jews. Jews couldn’t live wherever they want, work where they want, extra
taxes etc. and it spread across the border. Jews started the think the bad days of anti-semitism was
over. Emancipate means to free. Ex- 1863, the blacks were free in the US. As a result of emancipation,
people thought they’d have to change and adapt to the local country, act and dress differently, change
their names (Moshe to Morrise). Assimilation began. New movements such as reform and conservative
movements began, to modernize the religion- prayers in local language, men and women sit together,
wording in prayers should change (delete returning to Israel). Some Jews started to intermarry because
before people could only marry in their own faith. In regards to Zionism- this emancipation led to a
counter movement. Jews were taking up all the good jobs, and led to antisemitism and that Jews should
get out. The Jews are different- why should a Jew teach French literature even if he got an education, I
was living in france for 1000 years. Its in their DNA, Jews always try to change things. Antisemitism
therefore led to Zionism. Socially, we are not equal; maybe anti-Semites have a point and that we are
different. Since we came from Israel, we should go back.

Zionism- religious Zionism- it is our homeland and we should wait for Mashiach. Secular- we should go
back and build up land.

The Jewish State- Herzl was a secular European Jew who wanted to be a playwrite. Because of
antisemitism, he knew jews should get out to the Jewish State.
1- He wrote a booklit in german. Antisemitism is here to stay. (Many people thought otherwise). No
matter what we do. And it is going to get worse. Why wait until it gets worse? Lets get out while we can.
2- where should we go? The appeal can only be to the place we came from. Even though bad climate,
and ottoman empire, we still need to go back.
3- how? We create a political organization to spread message that we need to go back, financial
organization- ask rich Jews to put moneny in a foundation. The first jews to go are the poor Jews, helped
by the rich jews. The poor jews will lay the foundation for the rest of the Jews.
People asked- why won’t you take the lead, instead of just being a journalist. In the booklet he called the
Jewish society and the Jewish foundation. However call the political organization “the Zionist
Movement” which is iconic and attraction.

Basle platform- in 1897, the first Zionist congress met in Basle, Switzerland. Took over a casino for a
week. The purpose of the Zionist movement is to create a Jewish national home recognized by
international law. Why not a Jewish state? As to not offend the Turks. A home sounds better, to ensure
the Turks we aren’t taking anything away, rather residing in the Turkish empire but in Palestine.

Conquest of Labour/ kibush haavoda- a term made by people in the second Aliyah 1905, and young
people who believed that jews should come back to Israel. And jews had to till the land themselves and
not used hired cheap/ arab labour. Not enough that we are the taskmasters. When you go to Israel, you
have to become a different person, cultivation of land is to be done by Jews. For 2 reasons.
1- those who till the land will eventually own the land. If we want to own the land, and especially if we
are the minority, then we should till it.
2- when you till the land, you became psychologically and spiritually attached to the land, and won’t
want to leave it.
These were people like david bengurion.

Nili- the acronym netzach yisrael lo yishaker- the guardian of Israel will not lie to us. It was during WW1,
british and turks were fighting against each other. The british were in Egypt and the turks were in
Palestine. Jews wanted the british to win because they published the balfour declaration. Nili was secret
spy organization in Palestine, they spied for british to tell them Turkish military secrets to help them win
the war. The leader was Aaron Aronson and sister Sarah.

Pogroms- Russian word for violent outbreak against Jews with consent of the authorities. People could
attack jews or their stores and the police would not stop it. The pogrom started in Russia where the
government encouraged people to attack jews for 2-3 days. Then the government would send in soldiers
or police to stop it. For 3 days jews were robbed, killed, vandalized, raped, and were utterly defenseless.
Why did the czar encourage it? Because people were upset because they had no freedom, no rights.
Most were farmers and poor and needed to let off steam, the government decided to let off steam by
attacking Jews. Tactic used by dictator to distract people from real issues. The importance of pogroms is
that government was encouraging violence against jews, and jews felt that they had to leave. The
Russians wanted jews to leave because there were too many. 100ks of Jews left the Russian empire.
Jews went to America, the land of gold, the land of opportunity in 1880-1900s. America was opening up
and expanding to the west. People went to Canada, Europe. Freedom and make a living. And a few went
to Palestine because Palestine was poor, corrupt (as part of Turkish empire). There were no roads or
hospitals. Only incentive was if you were Zionist. This was first Aliyah in 1882, called biluyim -beit Yaakov
lecho venelcha. In 20 years, 2m came to America, and only a few thousand to Israel. But big deal
because before- old people who wanted to be buried there; and people wanted to lived in Jerusalem,
tveria (Mishna), tzvat (kabbalists), chevron. The biluyim went there to cultivate the land!! According to
tradition, the land of Israel is to remain fallow until Mashiach comes. The rabbinical authorities were
pissed. Jews were not farmers because they had been forbidden to own land. And now the biluyim are
coming to make ground cultivable.

Chalukah- system of jews who wanted to live out their lives in Israel. Chalukah financially supported.
Depending on where you came from, there were different financial institutions to support you.

Uganda Project- when Herzl wanted the jews to have a country, he was impatient. Cant wait to have a
new country. Whats the hurry? We need to populate country first. Herzl said we need the country first.
Turkish sultan told herzl no. herzl offered to pay for Palestine and claimed to have financial backing (not
true). The sultan didn’t want jews going to Palestine. Then he tried to convince German emperor to have
Palestine, he liked the idea because he wanted jews out. He spoke to Italians and Russians to try to help,
but there was no breakthrough. The basal platform said Jewish national home guaranteed by
international law and wasn’t working out. Then herzl went to british, but they couldn’t because it wasn’t
there. The minister of colonies offered him Uganda. Herzl wanted Palestine but british couldn’t give it.
He first said no, but when he heard about big Russian pogrom in kiev, he tried to ask the Zionist
congress to accept Uganda as a passage or stop on way to Palestine. However, the congress said no.
Israel or nothing, we will wait until the Turkish empire will collapse.
Hashomer- the second Aliyah, people commited to tilling the land yourself (conquest of labour), and
they were guardian. Those who guarded the land had to be jews. Because in Israel, security was only in
the cities. If you lived on a farm, no electricity or anything, there were lots of robbers and farms were
like invitations to steal horses or cows or stealing tools for cultivation. There were no police. Therefore,
someone had to do guard duty. Custom was to hire Arabs who offered, but the second Aliyah people
said no. everything has to be done by Jews, so we will create HaShomer, we will offer ourselves to guard
any Jewish settlement that needs, and we will guard better than non-Jews. Some arabs were in cahoots
with the robbers.

Balfour Declaration- WW1his magesty’s government views with favour a Jewish national home in
Palestine in Nov 2 1917. The british empire was most powerful country- controlled so many countries.
Therefore this was big news. Betrayal of the Arabs by the British.

Sykes-Picot Agreement- WW1 british and French made a secret agreement while fighting the germans
who would get what when dividing the ottoman empire. The lines were already drawn. Sykes were on
british side, picot was French. Syria and Lebanon was for france, Iraq and and Palestine was for british.

McMahon-Hussein letters- WW1 The british governer of Egypt made an agreement with Arabs, that if
arabs help british win the war, the british promise caliphate, arab kingdom, doesn’t include Palestine.

Three Oaths- the rabbis said that in shir hashirim, a sentence appears three times. “I swear to you,
daughters of jerusalem, by the deer of the fields, not to arouse my love to you before it’s proper time”.
Why does it say three times?
1- jews shouldn’t return to Israel in great numbers before proper time (before Mashiach).
2- jews should not force their way back to Israel/ to conquer it before proper time.
3- directed to non-Jews. Jews are in exile, you can suppress them a little bit but not too much. Do not go
beyond the line.
Based on this, the rabbis said stay away from Israel, not in great numbers, don’t force you way or fight
your way. To this day, one rabbinic group, Satmar chassidim, still hold this way. The response to the
satmar- we didn’t go back in huge numbers all at once, we had balfour declaration, UN, and we didn’t
fight the whole world, just the arabs. And the non-Jews violated their oath, the holocaust was too far.
Most rabbis before the holocaust didn’t agree.

Churchill 1922 White Paper- he was secretary of colonies. It happened after Transjordan was detached
from Palestine. Document- not true what weizmann said that Palestine will become as Jewish as engalnd
is English but jews should take pride that Palestine is national home, they should come because they
have the right to come there.

Passfield 1930 White paper- after riots of kotel. Was a shock. No room in Palestine for more than 100k
people. 50k arab, 50k Jews. Jewish people can no longer buy land because it will cause the eviction of
arabs. He was colonial secretary.

Kibbuts/Moshav- kibbutz- to establish egalitarian society, 100% equal. What the kibbutz has, belongs to
everyone. Principle was that “everyone according to his capacity, everyone according to his needs”.
Variations from one kibbutz to another, no one owns anything. Kibbutz is the true family, not individual
husband wife children. Moshav- people have their own homes and own portion of land. There is a lot of
co-op like buy and sell together, but more private family life and more privacy.
PERSONS, ACTIVISTS, LEADERS

Sharif Hussein & Feissal- Sharif is head of Mecca, and Feissal is son. made promise to Feisal that if they
help defeat the Turks, the british will make a new Arab kingdom. The borders were not clearly defined.
Palestine was not to be included in arab kingdom; line coming down from Damascus, not clear. Arabs
say that Palestine was included. Arab kingdom was never actually established.

Edmond Rothschild- wealthy Jew in france. When told that biluyim had difficulty in farming, he said he
will help them and send them professional French farmers. They will be paid by me, and the 15-20
Jewish settlements will be helped by the French. They will be told how to do it. He saved the Zionist
enterprise, because the biluyim would have given up. “hanadiv hayadua”.

Wilhelm II- emperor of Germany. When herzl approached him and said he wants the jews out of
Germany, we have something in common. Pressure the turks to let the jews have Palestine, it will get
Jews out of Germany. He tried to help Herzl, but the Turks were so adamantly against it, he didn’t want
to ruin relationship with turkey.

Abdul Hamid- Sultan of Turkey. Religious and political.

Edward Montagu- A Jew in England but was assimilated. He became a minister in british government.
When heard about balfour declaration, he panicked, England is his national home! I don’t want to leave
England. Put pressure to modify the wording.

Amin el Husseini (Mufti)- mufti is religious leader who decide on questions. He was a mufti of
Jerusalem. He realized that if the arabs don’t do something about Palestine and more jews keep coming
in, even at slow rate, eventually the country will be controlled by Jews. The only way to stop this influx is
violence because state of violence will stop jews from coming into Israel. Became leader of arab national
movement for many years- violence of 1920,26,47. He begged hitler to conquer Palestine. Hitler said
they need to crush the Russians first.

Chaim Weizmann- main leader of Zionist movement after Herzl. Engalnd. Chemist. Believed that
Palestine needs to be built up gradually. Should not encourage every Jew to go to Palestine. Encourage
young people to go to help build up the country. We can only do it under authorization of England.
England controls Palestine. Better to have Palestine under the English than anyone else; I know how to
manage the English. Once we build up Palestine and have lots of Jewish people, then we can make
political demands. “one more cow, one more shed, one more field”. Gradualist approach.

David Lloyd-george- british prime minster in favour of balfour declaration. Had high admiration of Jews,
was raised under the bible and believe that Israel belongs to the Jews. Under the british, if the jews
move in quick, Palestine will become Jewish under the british empire. He opposed to weizmann, wanted
to bring in million of jews because situation may change.

Thomas Lawrence- british military officer sent to sharif to help the arabs train them to help them fight
the Turks because they didn’t have any military experience. Movie- Lawrence of arabia. He helped
feissal to get in military mood.

THINKERS
Yehuda Alkalay/Zvi Kalischer- one was sefardi rabbi in Serbia (alkalay), kalisher was ashkenaz rabbi
living in Poland. Both came to conclusion that we are all praying for Mashiach. Traditional approach was
to sit until Mashiach comes, do nothing about Israel. These rabbis said,
1- who said we cant go back before Mashiach comes and build it up?
2- maybe reason Mashiach isn’t coming, maybe gd feels that you aren’t serious about going back
because you aren’t even making an attempt to get back. Lets go back and start building up country to
show that we are serious.
They didn’t have much of an impact. It was not practical for Jews to go back to Israel, not to make a
living. Other countries were open to Jews. But kalischer went to Jewish federation of france and pleaded
to make an agricultural training school, Mikvah Yisroel (hope of Israel) outside of Jaffa. If jews come back
to Israel, they will need to learn how to farm. Non religious people responded, first was moses hess.

Moses Hess- was involved in socialism and communism but was disappointed because of the rise of
antisemitism. In his book he said that Jews should go back to Israel and establish a socialist society. If we
start from scratch in Palestine, we can establish a good egalitarian society and whole world will learn
from us just like the world learned bible from us. People listened to him but he didn’t make an impact.

Leon Pinsker- secular Jew living in Russia. Thought that antisemitism because we are different, we need
to assimilate. But when pogroms happened, that was a wake up call. Wrote a pamphlet, auto-
emancipation. He wrote, that antisemitism will not go away with education, it is psychological. People
do not like the idea of a people without a country; they are everywhere but do not have a country of
their own; we are a ghost nation trying to take over the world. he was a medical doctor. Once we have a
country of our own, maybe antisemitism will disappear.

Aharon D Gordon- a Russian secular/traditional Jew. He believed in romanticism- we should be in touch

with mother nature to be a healthy people. If we don’t get the material, we do bad things. Men should
go out in the fields, you will be a better person. For a Jewish person to be healthy, he should be in touch
with his land in Palestine. You have to till the land and you will see a transformation and be at peace
with yourself. Many were influenced by him, people who started kibbutzim.

Avraham Y Kook- frum mystic rabbi. Gordon and kook were at same time. He said a true religious life of
a Jew is only possible in eretz yisrael. Something about the air makes you truly religious, not just lip
service, but the air truly transforms you. If you want to be truly religious, you need to come to Israel.
You can be frum in Poland but not same feeling as being frum in Israel. He also said that the people
building the land are not even religious but are better than the frum jews living outside of Israel. Why
would these people want to leave and go to Israel and work the land? Because they have the spark.
Other rabbis said if you don’t practice religion, its bad. Kook- what about people who built the temple?
Who built the kodesh hakodashim where the Kohen gadol only went in once, after these people finished
building, the place became holy. So to with the people building the land, first step and then will be holy.

Ahad Ha’Am- pen name for Asher Ginsberg from russia. He was Zionist. He wrote pamplets saying that
people wont go back to Israel because Jews aren’t farmers and don’t want to go back to farm. We need
to create a spiritual center in Israel. It needs to have universities, schools, yeshivas. We need a center for
all Jews.

Theodor Herzl- came from assimilated background. Like pinkser he believed that antisemitism was here
to stay. Scientific innovations will continue but antisemitism is here to stay and is getting worse and will
exploded. The smoke is rising up like a volcano. We better get out in time whether we like it or not.
Build up Palestine as fast as possible, time is against us. [[he was write, then came hitler 30 years after
he died. Youngest daughter died in concentration camp]]. People told him to do something. He created
the Zionist movement as an organization, not good enough to write a book or make speeches.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda- Russian Jew. Not enough to return to Israel. We need to start speaking Hebrew. He
started medical school in france. Why are the French so French, because of the French language.
Language is very important. Jews speak so many languages, if we go back to Israel we need to speak the
language that was once ours that we stopped speaking (except in religious tracts). People thought that
jews will never again speak Hebrew, that it was dead. There isn’t enough Hebrew for modern words. Ex-
rechev (chariot) to rakevet (train). Will build new words from old words. You should speak Hebrew with
your children. I will help you build up your words. Modern Hebrew is because of him.

ALIYOT

First Aliyah (bilu)- an Aliyah by people biluyim, former merchants and shop keepers to go to Israel and
become farmers. To cultivate the land and create settlements. Middle class people from Russia.

Second Aliyah/Third Aliyah- from Russia and Poland. Ideological Aliyah. You need to cultivate the land
with your own hands, no third party workers. Need to act as your own guard. Kibush haavoda. If this
land will ever belong to us, it is because we work the land. We want to create socialist society. (third
Aliyah expanded the idea of the kibutz, after WW1. Second Aliyah was like ben Gurion- he wanted to till
the land himself. Biluyim wanted arabs because not socialist- they’d want 8 hours a day, vacation etc.)

Fourth Aliyah- middle class Aliyah from Poland and Russia because of persecution. Take out money and
bring it to Israel. Expand the cities and start the businesses.

EVENTS

Basle Congress- first Zionist congress met in basle Switzerland. Delegates come from all over the world
to discuss Zionism. Who is herzl?? He never wrote about Jewish issues. Before he believed to hide the
Judaism. The platform- the aim of the Zionist congress is to create a Jewish national home legally by the
nations of the world. Didn’t say state as to not offend the Turks.

Kishinev pogrom in 1903 in Kishinev, one of worst pogroms. Made herzl desperate, he wanted to accept
Uganda. He came before Zionist congress, but they rejected. Im ishkachech yerushalaim. He thought it
would be a stopping place to get out of pogroms.

1920 Nebi Musa riots- first organized anti Jewish riots organized by the Mufti. Was a holiday about
mohammed, but they started a riot.

1929 Kotel Riots- Mufti- why do they want to bring in tables to kotel? Because they want to take over
the mosque. This is stepping stone.

Dreyfus trial- he was in the French general staff. The others decided to frame him because they didn’t
want a Jew as important member. That he was spying for Germany. They found him guilty and exiled
him on an island. Herzl was shocked! The country that emancipated the Jews! If it could happen in
france, it can happen anywhere.
Weizmann-Feisal agreement- In 1919, weizmann head of Zionist movement. And feissal was head of
arabs. They met in London and signed a document that feissal said that the arabs welcome the jews
back to Palestine. Welcome back cousins! Help us develop the new arab nation. No arab can really be
opposed to Jews coming back to Israel. This was a year before the riots. But feissal added that if the
arabs get the arab nation, this document is holy, if we don’t get the nation, this document is void.