The Beginnings of Political Zionism ••• 273The European Enlightenment and the rise of liberal democracy freed
many Western Jews from discrimination and isolation. Some reacted
against the idea of Jewish solidarity, which they associated with ghetto
poverty, and against identifying with a land of Israel that most would never
see. A Jewish enlightenment (Hebrew: Haskala) grew up in the late eigh¬
teenth century, leading in Germany and the US to what is called Reform
Judaism and to greater Jewish assimilation into Western society. This as¬
similation caused some people to deny their Jewishness and convert to
Christianity (for example, Heinrich Heine and the parents of such famous
men as Karl Marx, Felix Mendelssohn, and Benjamin Disraeli). If the
Haskala had been stronger and more pervasive, would all Western Jews
have assimilated? Then we might never have heard of Zionism. But most
Western Jews did not live in the US, England, or even Germany; the major¬
ity could be found in czarist Russia (especially Poland) and in various parts
of the declining multinational empires of the Habsburgs and the Otto¬
mans. When the peoples of Eastern Europe began to embrace nationalist
ideas, they had to fight against desperate autocrats to gain their freedom.
The local Jews got caught in the middle. Law-abiding and usually loyal to
their rulers, they often were viewed by the nationalists as enemies in their
midst. Some rulers also tried to deflect nationalist anger from themselves
by using the Jews as scapegoats, stirring up pogroms (organized attacks)
against Jewish ghettos and villages.
How did East European Jews react to this new persecution from govern¬
ments they had long obeyed? Some withdrew into piety and mysticism.
Some fled to Western Europe or North America. A few converted in order
to blend into the majority culture. Others tried to revive Hebrew as a liter¬
ary language (just as Arab nationalism had begun as a literary revival). A
few Jews—and more than a few Christians—said that the only way for the
Jews to escape persecution was to move to Palestine and rebuild their state
in the land of Israel. The idea that Jews constitute a nation (Zionism by
our definition) is nothing new, but saying that the Jewish nation should
revive its ancient state in Palestine (the idea we call political Zionism) was
indeed revolutionary for the nineteenth century.
THE BEGINNINGS OF POLITICAL ZIONISMLike most revolutionary doctrines, political Zionism started with very few
supporters. Most rabbis said that the Jews could not be restored to the
land of Israel until after God had sent the Messiah. Jews must be careful.