60 • cHAPTeR 2
The Power of “Mendelssohn’s Theory”For our purposes, though, it is al- Khalidi’s understanding of Mendels-
sohn’s theory, not Moses Mendelssohn’s actual philosophy, that is most
important. What is it that endows naẓariyyatMāndilsūn with such con-
siderable power? The answer, I propose, lies in what al- Khalidi under-
stands to have been broad rabbinic consensus on Mendelssohn’s prin-
ciples. Again, beginning on the first page of his manuscript, al- Khalidi
explains that the Torah, the Talmud, and Jewish medieval literature all
foresee a Jewish return to Palestine, though the Jews were “not suffi-
ciently powerful to realize” this aspiration. This ambition nonetheless
remained until “the last centuries,” writes al- Khalidi, when with the
advent of freedom, Mendelssohn “created a modern theory whose cor-
rectness was certified by the community^75 of rabbis, ‘asqāmah.’ ” At this
early stage in al- Khalidi’s manuscript, we encounter a somewhat vague
idea of rabbinic certification of Mendelssohn’s theory, an asqāmah, a
term al- Khalidi initially leaves undefined.^76 Later in his manuscript, al-
Khalidi mentions the word again, in explaining why some rabbis reli-
giously forbid Zionism. He notes that these rabbis rejected Zionism be-
cause of its violation of “Mendelssohn’s theory” and its “infringement
of the rules of the religious assembly, ‘asqāmah.’ ” The text proceeds to
cite the 1908 proclamations of opposition to Zionism issued by vari-
ous Ottoman Jewish religious and communal leaders, published in the
Ottoman Turkish press. “We, your Mosaic citizens,” asserts one such
Jews to share in the progress of the age. It aroused their interest in the study of Hebrew
grammar, which they had so long despised, made them eager for German nationality
and culture, and inaugurated a new era in the education of the young and in the Jewish
school system.” Similarly, fin- de- siècle Zionists also associated Moses Mendelssohn with
anti- Zionism (via the Jewish Reform movement, of which Zionists considered Mendels-
sohn to be the founder). See, e.g., Nordau, Zionism. In this pamphlet Nordau insists
that Jews’ prayers to return to Palestine were always meant literally until “towards the
middle of the eighteenth century the so- called ‘movement of enlightenment,’ of which
the popular philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, is recognized as the first herald, began to
penetrate Judaism.” The followers of this movement, according to Nordau, saw “the
dispersion of the Jewish people” as “an immutable fact of destiny,” and they “emptied
the concept of the Messiah and Zion of all concrete import.” The “Mendelssohnian en-
lightenment consistently developed during the first half of the nineteenth century into
‘Reform’ Judaism, which definitely broke with Zionism.”
(^75) Al- Khalidi uses the term jumhūr. This might also be translated as “the majority of
rabbis” or even “all the rabbis.”
(^76) This term and its relationship to the Hebrew haskamahwill be dealt with at length
later in this chapter.