“CONCerNING Our ARAb QuESTIOn”? • 113Gate. . . . It is fitting for the members of our nation (beneiʿameinu)
to give rahamim Bibas a round of applause.^78here ha- Or describes the actor, rahamim Bibas, as both an arab and
a Karaite Jew.^79 Several days later, ha- Or felt compelled to issue a cor-
rection. In fact, “the Arab actor” is not a Karaite but “a Jew like all
others, who takes pride in his Jewishness and follows his religion.”
By referring to “the excellent actor” as a Karaite, ha- Or emphasizes,
it meant no offense. “For us,” the author explains, “the Karaites are
also an important part of the greater Jewish race [ha-gezaʿha-yehudi
ha-gadol], and we hope that the day will yet come . . . when the Kara-
ites will join us in all of our hopes and deeds.” after all, the article
concludes rhetorically, “are we not one nation?”^80 In these early years
of Zionist national formation and consolidation in palestine, Middle
Eastern native- Arabic- speaking Karaites presented Zionists with the
quandary of whether they belonged to the Jewish nation. While Jew-
ishness defined by a shared religion— or the perception of such— might
exclude the Karaites from the Jewish nation, the Karaites, despite any
religious deviance, nonetheless retained their place within the “greater
Jewish race,” at least for this author. especially for those Zionists who,
perhaps like the ha- Or author, viewed their own Jewishness in nonre-
ligious terms, expanding the bounds of Jewishness to groups whose re-
ligious practice diverged from what was understood to be “normative”
Judaism was not an insuperable challenge. In fact, as we shall discover
below, some prominent Zionists claimed for their “greater Jewish race”
far more unlikely groups than the Karaites.^81
But even certain Rabbinate (i.e., non- Karaite) Jews had the potential
to test the boundaries of Jewishness, at least in the minds of european
Zionists in palestine. Karaites were not the only ones who had lived for
generations in the Middle east, shared customs associated with arabs,
(^78) ha- Or 2:55:230 (December 22, 1910), 3.
(^79) On the Bibas visit, see Snir, “arabness, egyptianness, Zionism, and Cosmopolitan-
ism,” 139; Yehoshua and Yehoshua, Yerushalayimha-yeshanahba-ʿayinu-va-lev, 220– 21.
(^80) ha- Or 2:58:233 (December 26, 1910), 3. Interestingly, the advertisement that this
acting troupe subsequently placed in ha- Or does not mention Bibas’s ethnic or religious
identity, nor, for that matter, the language of the play. the title of the play is listed as The
VisionofJosephtheRighteous, and the ad offers only these details: “In the light of day on
Thursday, the 28th of Kislev, the Egyptian organization headed by the famous actor Ra-
hamim Bibas will perform the interesting story of Joseph the Righteous in five acts.” The
ad further indicates that the proceeds will benefit the Society of Love and Brotherhood,
a Hebrew nationalist organization primarily of Jerusalemite Sephardim (though there
were some Ashkenazim as well) that, at its peak, counted about two hundred members.
The organization existed from 1910 to 1913. See Bezalel, Noladetemẓiyonim, 217– 18.
(^81) See below on Yitzhak Ben- Zvi and David Ben- Gurion’s World War I–era writings
on palestine.