Jews supporting Jewish settlement in Palestine but not willing to immigrate
Non-Zionism
is the political stance of
Jews
who are "willing to help support Jewish settlement in
Palestine
... but will not come on
aliyah
."
[1]
The trend began in the
United States
in the first few decades of the 20th century when "an increasingly large section of Americanized Jewish opinion began to shift away from
anti-Zionism
... either to
pro-Zionism
or non-Zionism.
... The non-Zionists were willing to offer the diaspora Jews a Jewish homeland fiscal and diplomatic counsel, not for their own benefit or spiritual comfort but for those Jews who chose to reside there."
[2]
Difference from anti-Zionists
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Yoram Dinstein
gave this distinction: "There is a marked difference between non-Zionism and
anti-Zionism
. A non-Zionist may challenge the theoretical underpinning of the concept of an 'ingathering of the exiles' in an independent
Jewish State
. If Jewish, he or she will not choose to live in
Israel
, nor will he approve or reject the notion of other Jews living there in the Jewish State of Israel
... but anti-Zionists do not find it sufficient to be dissatisfied with a decision made and implemented a long time ago. They are not content with a critical assessment of the situation confined to an historical (and, accordingly, a theoretical) framework. Not merely do they have an adverse opinion about the establishment of Israel in the past, but they contest the legitimacy of Israel as a State in the present time and the future."
[3]
Contemporary definitions
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Non-position
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Non-Zionism has also been defined in terms of a non-position on Zionism. Anthony Frosh has defined a non-Zionist Jew as a Jew "who does not have any particular political relationship (positive or negative) with the State of Israel, or at least little more of a relationship than they would have with some other 3rd party state."
[4]
Haredi non-Zionism
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Generally, those groups of
Ashkenazi
(Western)
Haredi
Jews who participate in the Israeli government but do not believe in
religious Zionism
are known as "non-Zionists". The most prominent non-Zionist Haredi group is
Agudath Israel
. This is in contrast to the religious Zionist
Mizrachi
party (which believed the State of Israel to be the beginning of the redemption); and also in contrast to the anti-Zionist Haredi groups, such as
Satmar
,
Neturei Karta
, and
Edah HaChareidis
, that openly oppose Zionism and have little to no interaction with the State of Israel and no representation in its government. Unlike the older definition, many live in the State of Israel. They tend to be extremely pro-Israel politically, as can be seen in such publications as
Mishpacha
and
Hamodia
.
Sephardi
Haredi Jews may refer to themselves as Zionist.
Simon Dubnow's Non-Zionism
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]
Simon Dubnow
was a
Russian
-
Jewish
philosopher
and
historian
of
Jewish history
, especially
Russian
and
Polish
Jewish history. Dubnow himself was somewhat ambivalent towards
Zionism
as a
political ideology
, calling it "a beautiful,
messianic
dream" and seeing the creation of a
Jewish state
in
Palestine
as improbable. Nonetheless, Dubnow was adamantly opposed to
assimilation
. In his book,
Weltgeschichte des judischen volkes
, Dubnow differentiates between a political and spiritual nation, arguing that
Jewish nationalism
was not inherently violent, and promoting the ideal of a universal Jewish
humanism
, or the "Jewish world-nation," as the core of his ideal. In seeking this ideal, the
Jewish diaspora
would aspire for a
non-territorial autonomous
status. This philosophy became known as "
Jewish Autonomism
," and was eventually adopted by the
Folkspartei
, which Dubnow himself helped found, and the
Bund
, a
socialist
Jewish labor movement. For him, any
Jewish national movement
should not to have a flag or a military. Nonetheless, he did gradually warm up to some aspects of
Ahad Ha'am's
vision of
Cultural Zionism
later in his life and viewed a
return to Zion
as fitting for some Jews, albeit not for all. Dubnow would never see the birth of the
State of Israel
, as he was murdered on December 8, 1941 during the march to the
Rumbula forest
,
where the Nazi Wehrmacht and collaborators would kill 25,000 Jews
. Nonetheless, Dubnow's histories and promotion of
Jewish culture
and Jewish political autonomy still earn him praise to this day within many intellectual circles.
References
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]
- ^
David Polish,
Prospects for Post-Holocaust Zionism
, in Moshe David (editor),
Zionism in Transition
, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Arno Press, 1980, p.315.
- ^
Egal Feldman,
Catholics and Jews in Twentieth-Century America
, University of Illinois Press, 2001, p.40.
- ^
Yoram Dinstein
,
Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism and the United Nations
in
Israel's Yearbook of Human Rights
, Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University, vol.17, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987, p.16.
- ^
Frosh, Anthony (August 30, 2009).
"Non-Zionism: an Under-Recognised Non-Position"
. Galus Australis. Archived from
the original
on 8 October 2011
. Retrieved
22 April
2020
.
Bibliography
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]
- Gideon Shimoni,
From
Anti-Zionism
to Non-Zionism in
Anglo Jewry
, 1917?1937
, Jewish Journal of Sociology, 28 (1986), pp.19?48
- Gideon Shimoni,
The Non-Zionists in Anglo Jewry, 1937?1948
.
- Stuart E. Knee, “Jewish Non-Zionism in America and Palestine Commitment 1917-1941,”
Jewish Social Studies
39, no. 3 (1977): 209?26.
External links
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