Zionism and its Jewish Critics: Introduction

Abstract

Zionism and its Jewish CriticsIntroduction Shaul Magid (bio) What is zionism? why is it so important? and why is it so vexing? on its most basic level, Zionism is a Jewish national movement of self-determination. While some scholars argue that the concept has biblical origins, most acknowledge that it is a modern Jewish iteration of western European nationalism that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as part of a response to the failure of emancipation to solve the "Jewish Question" in a newly nationalized Europe. The "Jewish Question" arguably served as the very impetus of Zionism, illustrated in Theodore Herzl's famous 1897 essay of the same name in which he first articulates Zionism (a term coined by his friend Nathan Birnbaum) as a solution to Europe's inability to fully integrate its Jewish population. The antecedents to this idea may have existed earlier, including calls for Jews to resettle Palestine, but its political and cultural manifestation was born from the experience of the Jews' complex engagement with modernity in all its myriad forms. While today Zionism has largely come to mean support of, and advocacy for, a Jewish state (Israel), it has a long and sordid history full of contradictions, debates, opposition, and internal challenges. One can readily consult the various Zionist Congresses to witness how these contentious fellow Zionists viewed their contemporaries. Politics, culture, religion, aesthetics, language, and territory became enormous issues vociferously debated among those who identified as Zionists. Breakdowns and deep divisions were common. For example, the great cultural Zionist Ahad Ha-Am (1856–1927) penned a critique of the Jewish settlement project in 1889 entitled "This is Not the Way." Territorialism also presented a robust alternative to Zionism (also endorsed by some Zionists), that focused on offering a safe haven to the Jews of Europe without a commitment to the land of Israel. Moreover, in 1923, Zev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, resigned from the World Zionism Organization [End Page 3] to establish his own New World Zionist Organization. Additionally, Zionism's Eurocentric context did not offer Jews who resided in Arab lands full inclusion and participation, and its orientalist perspective has been the subject of much criticism. In short, Zionism has been at war with itself since its inception. Zionism is, of course, a multifaceted political, cultural, linguistic, and artistic project that encompasses a sweeping recalibration of Jewish existence in modernity outside of the formal boundaries of traditional religion. Today, however, most Jews and non-Jews in the Diaspora who identify as Zionists do not really care much about that complex history. The sweeping recalibration of Jewish existence may be historically or academically interesting to some, but Zionism today for many Diaspora Jews, at least, has largely become flattened to political advocacy of the state of Israel. While this is unfortunate, it is in some ways understandable. And yet, for scholars it is also lamentable, if only because Zionism is such a fascinating and complex subject of study and because many of its fissures still haunt today's challenges. The challenges of continued inquiry into its complexity are fueled in part by the political fault lines that have developed, threatening those who dare to cross them in their analysis. Both the passion for Zionism, and the toxicity opposing it, make Zionism a precarious, but still important, subject of analysis. While many of the earlier Zionist debates have been resolved with the establishment of the state, others remain very much alive. These include the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora, questions of Orthodoxy and politics, theological challenges to Zionism, messianism, the anti-Zionist left, questions of justice, and of course the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict and its implications. The contributors to this issue believe that this is an inflection point in the history of Zionism, a step beyond its reflexive adaptation as the center of Jewish identity. In the Israeli conversation, especially in the late 1980s, 1990s, and the early 2000s, Israel's "new historians" offered post-Zionism as a new lens through which to view Zionism and its relationship to the state. While both productive and constructive, the authors in this volume remain committed to a deep excavation of Zionism...