Encyclopaedia Judaica
Racist Zionism 02: Naive forerunners and naive Zionist messianism
Toland - Napoleon - Hebrew - Alkalai - Zevi Hirsch Kalischer - Moses Hess - Jewish commonwealth idea - Mose's Ararat idea
from: Zionism; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 16
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
[Naive Zionist forerunners of the racist "Christian Reformation"]
[Toland's proposal of Jewish settlements with merchantilism - in Turkey and in Poland the Jews have more rights - but are also more discriminated by the Muslims and "Christs" - proposal of a "Mosaic Republic"]
from: Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): History, vol. 8
<He [[John *Toland]] adduces [[states about emancipation of rich Jews in London]]:
those whole streets of magnificent buildings, that the Jews have erected at Amstardam and Teh Hague: but there are other Jews enow in the World to adorn London or Bristol with the like, the fifth part of the People in Poland (to name no other country) being of this Nation ... (ibid., 17). (col. 706)
as an argument for encouraging Jewish settlement, in which mercantilist considerations are combined with a novel appreciation of the masses of the Jewish population, not only a few of them.
New, and presaging a different attitude toward Jewish culture and the Jewish fate, are his words:
Tis true, that in Turky they enjoy immoveable property, and exercise mechanic arts: they have likewise numerous Academies in Poland, where they study in the Civil and Canon Laws of their nation, being privileg'd to determine even certain criminal Causes among themselves: yet they are treated little better than Dogs in the first place, and often expos'd in the last to unspeakable Calamities (ibid., 43).
This acceptance of Jewish learning and a Jewish autonomous judiciary as positive factos still had long to wait before they were appreciated even among friends of the Jews in the 19th century. Toland was representative in this connection of the positive religious attitudes held by small Christian sects in western Europe toward Jews and Judaism which is often overlooked in the general picture of the change of attitude to Jews. Typical of this approach and its innovatory, almost prophetic, view of Jewish potentialities are his words in a letter to a friend in 1709:
Now if you'll suppose with me this pre-eminence and immortality of the MOSAIC REPUBLIC in its original purity, it will follow; that, as the Jews known at this day, and who are dispers'd over Europe, Asia, and Africa, with some few in America, are found by good calculation to be more numerous than either the Spaniards (for example) or the French: So if they ever happen to be resettl'd in Palestine upon their original foundation, which is not at all impossible; they will then, by reason of their excellent constitution, be much more populous, rich, and powerful than any other nation now in the world. I wou'd have you consider, whether it be not both the interest and duty of Christians to assist them in regaining their country... (Appendix 1, to his Nazarenus (1718), 8).> (col. 711)
[[The racist "Christian" reformers never asked the Arabs...]]
Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): History, vol. 8, col. 705-706
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): History, vol. 8, col. 711-712
[Naive Zionist forerunner Napoleon]
from: Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. 12
[[Zionist madness with the naive idea to settle all Jews in Palestine came also from Napoleon. The Arabs were not asked if the idea of a settlement of all Jews in Palestine would be good or not. See here:
<In May 1799, during Napoleon's campaign in Palestine (see below), the government newspaper Moniteur published the information that Napoleon had issued a manifesto in Palestine which promised the Jews their return to their country. Many European newspapers reproduced this information, although today it is questioned whether Napoleon really issued such a declaration.
The news concerning the manifesto and Napoleon's Palestine campaign made little impression on the Jews in Europe. On the other hand, the campaign gave rise to millenarian hopes among certain nonconformist circles in England; for the first time, their expectation of the return of Israel to Palestine and hence to the Church was linked with realistic political projects.> (col. 824)
Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Napoleon, vol. 12, col. 824
[Jewish "national movement" of racist Zionism as a fantasy]
[[Addition: Nationalism creating the racist and naive madness of "Zionism"
With emancipation of many social groups in Europe during the 19th century also the Jews got more emancipation, and then with nationalism since appr. 1830 some Jews were driven into the madness that the Jews needed their own state. By this was born the racist and naive madness of "Zionism", and the Jews were considered as enemies in foreign countries. Land was purchased from the Turks and from the rich Arabs, and all other Arab population was not asked, but should be driven away and be enslaved, Herzl said in his booklet "The Jewish State" of 1896 (correctly translated: "The Jew State"). And this racist Herzl booklet is the ideology of the racist State of Israel and is legal to have until now...]]
<On the threshold of modern times, as far as ethnic and historical consciousness is concerned, the Jews were better prepared for a national movement than any other ethnic group in Europe. Before this consciousness could become an ingredient of modern nationalism, it first had to undergo certain transformations. By the same token, however, all peoples had to undergo important changes in their attitudes before they could be caught up by a national movement; they had to elevate the attributes of their ethnic group to ultimate values. Jewish society achieved its nationalist transformation with the appearance of a modern idea, later called Zionism, which purged, so to speak, Jewish messianic belief of its miraculous eschatological elements and retained only its political, social, and some of its spiritual objectives. Even in this phase of development, however, [[racist]] Zionism leaned heavily on the old messianism and derived from it much of its ideological and even more of its emotional appeal (see *Messianic Movements). Yet all this was accomplished only at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, in spite of the fact that the Jews preceded other nations in possessing the potentialities of nationalism, the development of the Jewish national movement in its [[racist]] Zionist form lagged behind that of most of the European nations.
[[In Europe there were the big Empires of Poland-Lithuania, then Austria-Hungary, then the national movements of France, Russia, England and Germany]].
[Zionist elements: Hebrew language - productivization - political activity]
[[Addition: racist Herzl booklet "The Jewish State"
Racist Zionism has it's base in the Herzl booklet "The Jewish State" (correctly translated: "The Jew State") stating that all Arabs could be driven away as the natives in the "USA" had been driven away, and all Arabs could be enslaved by the Jews, and the "Jewish State" would be a Jewish Empire and would be a blockage against the spread of Muslim belief in Europe, read Herzl: "The Jewish State". Racist Zionism is an absolute racist philosophy of ethnic cleansing like the existence of the criminal and racist "USA" where the natives were mostly exterminated and the survivors have no seats in the government in the "White House" until now and Human Rights are not signed by the criminal "USA" (2008). Of course Zionist racism is not mentioned in Encyclopaedia Judaica. Arab states compare racist Zionism with Nazism, see *UN, and the government in Jerusalem has not given up the racist Herzl philosophy until now and has not signed Human Rights until now (2008). The article tries to present racist Zionism as a "national movement" of "emancipation", but to be Jewish is a religion and not a "nation". This main fault is not presented either in Encyclopaedia Judaica. See the article]]:
The shattering of the traditional existence of European Jewry, as separate religious-ethnic entities somehow connected with the surrounding estate-structured, prenationalistic society, was followed by a transitional period that partly preceded and partly coincided with that of the forerunners of [[racist]] Zionism. This period was basically rationalistic, aiming principally at the integration of the Jews in the new, rapidly changing European society, but it simultaneously evolved certain features (particularly pronounced in the *Haskalah period), which were later absorbed into the stream of [[racist]] Zionist ideology.
One of them was the revitalization and modernization of the Hebrew language, which eventually culminated in the historical achievement of Eliezer *Ben-Yehuda; another, the striving for economic "productivization". An additional trait of this period was the emergence of the politically minded Jewish leader who appraised the (col. 1033)
world around him realistically, in the light of a defined political activity.
One cannot, however, properly speak of "forerunners" of [[racist]] Zionism such as Rabbi Judah *Alkalai, Rabbi Zevi (Ẓevi) Hirsch *Kalischer, Chaim *Lorje, Rabbi Elijah *Guttmacher, Moses *Hess, and others, before the end of the 1850s or the beginning of the 1860s. Only then could they succeed in uniting the widely scattered adherents of their idea through mutual contact. The factor common to all, their faith that the future existence of the Jewish nation is conditioned by its return to the historical homeland, became a basis of social unity.
The difference between the earlier period and the 1860s is not difficult to explain. The 1860s saw the completion of emancipation in most West European countries, and where it was not yet wholly accomplished, it was thought to be just round the corner. As long as the struggle for political equality of the Jews was going on, the idea of Jewish nationalism could not be tolerated, for the argument that the Jews are a separate national entity was one of the main weapons of the gentile enemies of emancipation. From the 1860s on, when the emancipation seemed all but completed, the idea of Jewish nationalism could be propagated as the next phase. Kalischer even suggested that Jewish nationalism was the natural continuation of the emancipation itself.
[Messianic Zionism: Alkalai from Belgrade and his error that Jews would be a "national unity"]
The old messianic idea, however, did not disappear completely under the impact of rationalism; it remained alive in the Jewish masses. As late as 1840, there was a widespread rumor in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe that the messianic year, which was destined to bring about the great turning point in Jewish history, had arrived. Many held this belief genuinely and were waiting in a state of mental agitation. For one of these believers, Rabbi Judah Alkalai (1798-1878), his messianic expectation became a point of departure for the transition from the traditional, miraculous messianism to a realistic one. This change of conception was caused by the coincidence of the messianic expectation with the rescue of the Jewish community in Damascus, which had been charged with ritual murder, by the two leading figures of French and English Jewry, Adolphe *Crémieux and Sir Moses *Montefiore. As the miraculous events of the redemption failed to appear, Alkalai inferred that the rescue of this one community was a model for the messianic procedure. The future stages of redemption were to be achieved through similar activities of outstanding Jews.
Alkalai was an undistinguished preacher of a little Sephardi community in Semlin, near Belgrade. Until the year of his newly found conviction, he was hardly known outside his limited circle, nor did he wish to be known. However, after he became convinced that the era of the Messiah had arrived and that the redemption would have to be achieved by human action, he felt compelled to convey this message to his fellow Jews. In the remaining 37 years of his life, not only did Alkalai publish numerous pamphlets and articles to spread his ideas, but he traveled on two occasions to Western Europe and later settled in Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel) [[Land of Israel]] in order to convince Jews and non-Jews of the truth of his mission. He tried to induce people to join an organized resettlement of Jewry, or some part thereof, in their homeland and to equip themselves with the attributes of a modern nation. Although Alkalai began as a preacher imbued with the traditional, and especially kabbalistic, sources, he gradually acquired the elements of a modern national conception. He propagated the idea of Jewish national unity through an overall organization of world Jewry, with modernized Hebrew as its common language. Religion would also play its part in the new national life, but as the controversy between Orthodoxy and Reform grew, Alkalai sought a remedy to this in the idea of national unity. (col. 1034)
[[To be Jewish is a religion and not a "national unity". It seems this principle fault of Alkalai was not corrected]].
[Messianic Zionism: Zevi Hirsch Kalischer with "nationalism" - Palestine as the Jewish "homeland" - Jewish industrialists should purchase Palestine]
Zevi (Ẓevi) Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874) developed his ideas on similar lines. A German rabbinic scholar of Polish origin, he refused to accept any position in communal life. The great experience of his youth was the emancipation of the Jews in France and in the German countries at the time of Napoleon. He explained these events in terms derived from Jewish tradition. The emancipation, and even more the ascendance of Jewish individuals (e.g., the *Rothschilds) to unheard-of economic and political influence, appeared to him to be the fulfillment of the old prophecy of liberation which, according to Jewish tradition, was to terminate the exile. It is true that the prophecy was not yet realized, for it entailed the ingathering of the Jews to their homeland. Therefore, as early as 1836, Kalischer appealed to Meyer Anschel Rothschild to buy from Muhammad Ali the whole of Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel) [[Land of Israel]], or at least Jerusalem or the Temple area, so as to initiate the miraculous redemption "from below", and later he addressed the same request to Moses Montefiore. By interpreting the events of emancipation in terms of messianism, Kalischer simultaneously transformed these very terms. From the first stage of deliverance, which was brought about by human activity, he inferred the nature of the next stages, which were also to be achieved by human agency. Thus his interpretation of the emancipation led to the demand for the ingathering of at least some part of Jewry in Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel) [[Land of Israel]].
In order to place these theories in the correct perspective, one must bear in mind the underlying motives of their promoters. These theories of redemption were derived from a reinterpretation of the messianic tradition in the light of recent historic experiences. In view of later developments, it is important to note that modern anti-Semitism was not among these experiences. The activities of Alkalai and Kalischer took place during the flourishing period of Middle European liberalism, e.g., between 1840 and 1875, when optimism about the possible integration of Jews into the life of European nations was almost universal.
[[But the "Christian" churches were damning always the Jews having murdered a certain "Jesus". This "Christian" madness was not stopped, and the Bible was not corrected]].
Certain obstacles to achieving full civil rights, as well as some signs of reservation in social rapprochement, were interpreted as residues of waning prejudices. Alkalai and Kalischer were among the optimists. Until the 1870s they never advanced the argument that Jews needed a country to secure their physical existence, which was later to become one of the main planks of [[racist]] Zionism.
[Messianic Zionism: Moses Hess with "national spirit" - unification of Italy as a model for the Jews]
The same can be stated about the motives of the socialist Moses Hess. Hess was not an Orthodox Jew but a social revolutionary and philosopher with a Hegelian tinge. His conversion to Jewish nationalism in the 1860s can be understood as the result of the unmaterialized social revolution. Hess based his Zionist ideas on the concept of a national spirit which permeated th life of the Jewish people. Since the dispersion, the "spirit" was embodied in the Jewish religious institutions, but as these institutions were rapidly disintegrating, the gradual disappearance of the Jewish spirit was the most probable - and the most lamentable - prospect. In order to rescue this spirit, the only solution was the reconstruction of national life in the ancient homeland. Hess's argument is phrased in terms of social philosophy, while the emotional climate was provided by resentment against the non-Jewish society which had frustrated the Jews' expectation of being treated as equals. In any event, any diagnosis excluding emancipation as a possible solution to the "Jewish problem" is absent from the theory of Hess, as it is absent from those of Alkalai and Kalischer.
More obvious than in the theories of Alkalai and Kalischer is Hess's dependence on the general trend of nationalism in Europe. The use of such terms as "nationality", "national renaissance", and "creative genius of the nation" indicate the source of influence, i.e., romanticism, (col. 1035)
which provided all the national movements with their respective ideological tools. Hess's Rome and Jerusalem, as its title indicates, was written under the impact of events which had led to the unification of Italy in 1859. Hess expressly refers to this fact, calling the Jewish cause "The last national problem", after Italy had solved its own.
[[It seems that Hess was very blind calling the Jewish cause "the last national problem", because there were many more "national problems" in Europe as long as Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Russia were holding foreign territories - and peoples in Africa and Asia suffering of racist European colonialism do not seem to be considered at all. Add to this to be Jewish is a religion and not a nation. So, Hess is a combined error]].
However, impulses from non-Jewish sources can also be traced in the cases of Alkalai and Kalischer, as both use one characteristic argument in their appeal: Jews, who are the descendants of a holy and ancient nation, should not lag behind the newly created nations of the Balkans.
The real difference between Alkalai and Kalischer on the one hand and Hess on the other, is the spiritual background from which their respective drives stemmed. While the first two were originally steeped in the sources of Jewish tradition, including the Bible, Talmud, and Kabbalah, the last had only a faint idea of these sources from his childhood. He was influenced in his knowledge of Jewish history and its evaluation by the contemporary historian Heinrich *Graetz. However, the fabric of Hess's outlook was woven out of strands which were of modern European, primarily Hegelian, origin. He was far from being a religious Jew, in any traditional sense, and, judging by his earlier activities and writings, he must be counted as one of those Jews who were absorbed by European movements and systems of thought.
[[It seems all three, Alkalai, Kalischer, and Hess, were very blind, because to be Jewish is a religion and never a "nation". As religion it cannot be attacked, as a nation it can be attacked. And the main enemy, racist "Christianity" - with it's sermons and prayers against the Jews - is never mentioned...]]
Hess was the first figure in [[racist]] Zionist history who did not grow out of Jewish tradition. His Jewishness returned to him after a period of estrangement. Thus, Hess and his two contemporaries, Alkalai and Kalischer, prefigure the two main types of [[racist]] Zionism: one had to overcome the miraculous elements of traditional messianism; and the other, after having forsaken the tradition altogether, had to recover its cultural and political implications.
[[And the Arabs living in Palestine are never mentioned and never asked. Later Herzl will give the answer what should happen with the Arabs: to be driven away and to be enslaved...]]
[England as a host of racist Zionism - Jewish commonwealth idea - Noah's Ararat idea in the Niagara river]
Attributing the emergence of the [[racist]] Zionist idea to the revitalization and modernization of the messianic utopia does not mean that the mere suggestion of regathering the Jews in their homeland was sufficient for initiating the movement. The historical connection between the Jews and their ancient homeland was indeed a conspicuous feature in Jewish, as well as Christian, tradition. The idea of the restoration of the Jews gained currency, especially in England, where the awakened interest in the [[racist]] Old Testament in the wake of the Puritan revolution strongly stimulated interest in the history of the Jewish nation (see Christian Zionism, below).
Imaginative Jewish writers and social projectors also readvanced the idea of establishing a Jewish commonwealth, either in Palestine or elsewhere, with a view to solving the "Jewish problem". A case in point was the efforts of Mordecai M. *Noah, one-time consul of the United States in Tunis, who in 1825 issued an appeal to European Jewry to establish a Jewish state named "Ararat" on the Grand Island of the Niagara River. Noah later fostered the idea of the restoration of Palestine.
[[All these fantasies of a "Jewish State" seem to be very foolish because to be Jewish is a religion and never can be a "nation", and the main enemy, racist "Christianity" with Vatican as it's racist center, is never mentioned...]]
[Collaboration of the "great three": Alkalai, Hirsch, and Hess]
At first the general Jewish public either took almost no cognizance of these ideas and their promoters or reacted to them with mockery and derision. Alkalai, who had begun his activities 20 years earlier, succeeded in finding any substantial and lasting support only in the 1860s. From this time on, a connection can be perceived in the activities of the various early [[racist]] Zionists. The three great figures described here not only knew of each other, but also supported each other. They succeeded in founding a more-or-less interconnected society among themselves, together with other, less conspicuous personalities who were influenced by them or who had reached the same conclusions independently.
[[It can be admitted that there were more persons and not only these "great three"]].
[Further development 1860-1880]
Moreover, from the 1860s onward there is an uninterrupted development, and one may speak of historical causation as the ideas and activities of these early [[racist]] Zionists led the way (col. 1036)
to the full-fledged Hibbat (Ḥibbat) Zion movement, founded in the 1880s under the impact of the Russian pogroms [[after the murder of the czar in 1880]] and the rise of modern anti-Semitism in Germany [[after the big economic crisis of 1929-1932]].
By and large, it cannot be said that the forerunners had succeeded in realizing something of their aim, i.e., the ingathering of Jews in their homeland.
[[The expression "homeland" is wrong: To be Jewish is a religion and not a nation, and Palestine is not a "homeland" for the Jews but the religious center]].
Until the 1870s, when anti-Jewish troubles began in Rumania, there had been no Jewish exodus from any country in Europe [[There were some racist "Christian" monasteries and a handful of Jews in Palestine]]. Instead of producing an idea in order to satisfy a need, the early Zionists were searching for a need which would correspond to their ideas. Kalischer seized any rumor of Jews wishing to emigrate as a God-sent opportunity to prove that people who were ready to go to Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel) [[Land of Israel]] could be found. Thus he tried to refute the argument that his theory had no hold on reality, but he never tried to prove the social necessity or inevitability of his idea. The first real objectives of Zionism were realized only in the 1880s, when persecutions and defamation in Rumania and bloody pogroms and civil disqualifications in Russia set many European Jews into motion. (col. 1037)
[[The racist "Christian" church was the main promoter of anti-Semitism, in Russia above all the Orthodox church. It seems the church was never mentioned by the Zionists, and is not mentioned by Encyclopaedia Judaica either...]]
Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Zionism, vol. 16, col. 1033-1034
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Zionism, vol. 16, col. 1035-1036
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Zionism, vol. 16, col. 1037-1038
