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back to their ancient homeland in the Middle East and reestablished Israel as the central
location for Jewish identity. While some critics call Zionism an aggressive and discriminatory
ideology, the Zionist movement has successfully established a Jewish homeland in the nation of
Israel.
WHAT IS ZIONISM?
Zionism is a movement to recreate a Jewish presence in Israel. The name comes from the word
“Zion,” which is a Hebrew term that refers to Jerusalem.
Throughout history, Jews have considered certain areas in Israel sacred—as do Christians and
Muslims. The Torah, the Jewish religious text, depicts stories of ancient prophets who were
instructed by their God to return to this homeland.
While the fundamental philosophies of the Zionist movement have existed for hundreds of
years, modern Zionism formally took root in the late 19th century. Around that time, Jews
throughout the world faced growing anti-Semitism
Some historians believe that an increasingly tense atmosphere between Jews and Europeans
may have triggered the Zionism movement. In one 1894 incident, a Jewish officer in the French
army named Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused and convicted of treason. This event, which
became known as the “Dreyfus Affair,” sparked outrage among Jewish people and many others.
Persecuted Jews who were struggling to salvage their identity began promoting the idea of
returning to their homeland and restoring a Jewish culture there.
THEODOR HERZL
Modern Zionism was officially established as a political organization by Theodor Herzl in 1897. A
Jewish journalist and political activist from Austria, Herzl believed that the Jewish population
couldn’t survive if it didn’t have a nation of its own.
After the Dreyfus Affair, Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), a pamphlet that called
for political recognition of a Jewish homeland in the area then known as Palestine.
In 1897, Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress, which met in Basel, Switzerland. He also
formed and became the first president of the World Zionist Organization.
Although Herzl died in 1904—years before Israel was officially declared a state—he’s often
considered the father of modern Zionism.
THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote a letter to Baron Rothschild, a
wealthy and prominent leader in the British Jewish community.
In the brief correspondence, Balfour expressed the British government’s support for the
establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. This letter was published in the press one week
later and eventually became known as the “Balfour Declaration.”
The text was included in the Mandate for Palestine—a document issued by the League of
Nations in 1923 that gave Great Britain the responsibility of establishing a Jewish national
homeland in British-controlled Palestine.
Two well-known Zionists, Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow, played important roles in
obtaining the Balfour Declaration.
One of the most important aspects of modern Jewish life in Europe since the mid-nineteenth
century was the development of a variety of Jewish national movements such as Zionists,
Bundists and Autonomists that offered competing ideologies and solutions to the issues of
Jewish nationhood and individual nationality as well as to problems posed by modernity.