Poet of Zion: Constructing Rabbi Shalom Shabazi as a Forerunner to Zionism

ABSTRACT: This article considers the place of Zionist tropes in the 17th century poems of Rabbi Shalom Shabazi in comparison with those found in medieval Sephardi poetry. Centuries after Shabazi's death, Yisrael Yeshayahu and several other Yemeni Zionists, located Shabazi's messianic poems in the literary and historical canon of Zionism. By correlating Shabazi with Yehudah Halevi and other Sephardi poets as heralds of Zionism before the establishment of the State of Israel, Yeshayahu and his fellow activists sought to determine a leading role for Yemeni Jews alongside what Sami Shalom Chetrit has called "Ashkenazi-Zionist 'history makers.'" In Shabazi, Yemeni Jewish leaders found an exemplar of time-honored Yemeni Judaism in a way that resonated with Zionist ideals. The article posits the existence of a continuum between Hayim Nahman Bialik's use of medieval Sephardi poetry and Yeshayahu's use of Shabazi's work; it explains why Yemeni Zionists chose Shabazi in particular as the linchpin of their argument for a proto-Zionist Yemeni cultural heritage; and also indicates the methods used by Yemeni Zionists, and Yeshayahu in particular, to successfully establish Shabazi as a forerunner to Zionism.