The A To Z Of Zionism

The Jewish attachment to Zion is many centuries old. While the modern Zionist movement was organized a little more than a century ago, the roots of the Zionist idea reach back close to 4,000 years ago, to the day that the biblical patriarch Abraham left his home in Ur of the Chaldees to settle in the Promised Land, where the Jewish state subsequently arose. From that day to the establishing of the state of Israel in 1948, the Jewish people have been in a constant struggle to either regain or maintain their homeland. Although 60 years have now passed since the establishment of Israel, many of the political and religious factions that made up the Zionist movement in the pre-state era remain active. The A to Z of Zionism_through its chronology, maps, introductory essay, bibliography, and over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries on crucial persons, organizations, and events_is a valuable contribution to the appreciation for both the diversity and consensus that characterize the Zionist experience.

Take your child (6+) on the soul-stirring journey of the Jewish people through history up to the Zionist dream becoming a reality. Introduce your child to the Jewish people's return to the promised land, and the important role Israel plays in securing a Jewish future. Among other things, this book is a response to the popular children's book P is for Palestine, which promotes violence against Israel. Gone are the days when our children can grow up innocent. They are now inundated with anti-American/anti-Israel propaganda online, at school and in the media. This book is a small measure to push back against the misinformation children may be exposed to. For some, Zionism has become a bad word that can't be uttered in public. This is nonsense. We need to teach our children to be proud Zionists. Age appropriate lessons included in this book: Introduction to Judaism; History of Israel; Israel as a force for good in the world; Importance of Israel for Jewish self defense; Discussion of anti-semitism; Palestinian Arab rejection of Israel. About the author, Ze'ev Zion: I work professionally countering the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people. In the past I worked for influential Jewish and pro-Israel organizations. Unfortunately, too many fellow Jews, who mean well, don't believe in proudly defending our identity and homeland. As a result, young Jews are growing up and embracing values antithetical to Judaism. I was compelled to write this book in order to provide a way for our children to understand the facts about Israel, in an age appropriate manner, before they are exposed to the many anti-semitic lies that pervade our society online, at school and in the media. Passages from the book: Thousands of years ago, the ruler of the universe, God, made a covenant with Abraham, the very first Jew. A covenant is like an agreement. God promised to give the land of Israel to the Jewish people. Later on, God gave his commandments, which are like rules, to the Jews in the Torah. It is these three things--God, Torah and Israel--that form the foundation of Judaism... ...Some didn't like that the Jews introduced God and moral demands into the world. Others told lies about Jews and blamed them for problems they didn't create. While others didn't like that the Jews were different than them. This poor treatment of Jews is called anti-semitism... ...For thousands of years, the land of Israel was conquered and ruled by many different groups, including the Romans, Muslims, Greeks and Turks. But none of them had the same historical, legal or God-given right to the land as the Jews. Also, they didn't have the same level of emotional attachment to the land as the Jews... ...After the Holocaust Jews swore that they would Never Again allow something like that to happen. It became even more clear why Zionism was so important. The Jewish people needed to return to Israel, not only because it belonged to them, but also so they could join together with one another and defend themselves... ...Israel tried to make peace over and over again with the Palestinian Arabs. Israel offered to share the land with them and even agreed to give up part of Israel to create a Palestinian state. But the Palestinian Arabs were not interested... ...Israel does an excellent job defending itself. Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world. Israel is strong, smart, confident, successful and gives Jews all around the world pride. Israel is thriving... ...Israel is a free country that treats all of its citizens fairly, even the ones that aren't Jewish. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that truly lets its citizens choose who leads them. This is called democracy... ...Israel and the United States have a special relationship...

The most comprehensive Zionist collection ever published, The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland--Then, Now, Tomorrow sheds light on the surprisingly diverse and shared visions for realizing Israel as a democratic Jewish state. Building on Arthur Hertzberg's classic, The Zionist Idea, Gil Troy explores the backstories, dreams, and legacies of more than 170 passionate Jewish visionaries--quadruple Hertzberg's original number, and now including women, mizrachim, and others--from the 1800s to today. Troy divides the thinkers into six Zionist schools of thought--Political, Revisionist, Labor, Religious, Cultural, and Diaspora Zionism--and reveals the breadth of the debate and surprising syntheses. He also presents the visionaries within three major stages of Zionist development, demonstrating the length and evolution of the conversation. Part 1 (pre-1948) introduces the pioneers who founded the Jewish state, such as Herzl, Gordon, Jabotinsky, Kook, Ha'am, and Szold. Part 2 (1948 to 2000) features builders who actualized and modernized the Zionist blueprints, such as Ben-Gurion, Berlin, Meir, Begin, Soloveitchik, Uris, and Kaplan. Part 3 showcases today's torchbearers, including Barak, Grossman, Shaked, Lau, Yehoshua, and Sacks. This mosaic of voices will engage equally diverse readers in reinvigorating the Zionist conversation--weighing and developing the moral, social, and political character of the Jewish state of today and tomorrow.

A classic text on Zionism for the 21st Century. Since its initial publication in 1997, 'Ahad Ha-am: The Zionism of the Future' has become the definitive and standard study of one of Zionism's most towering and influential figures. The republication of this classic text as an e-book is a cause for celebration for students of history, academics and the general public. No one knows Ahad Ha-am better or is better suited to deal with the life and thoughts of the icon of Hebraic cultural nationalism, and with the multivalent debates and conversations his ideas provoked. The book fills a vital gap in the study of early Zionism and of its greatest purveyor of serious ideas. - Dr Dvir Abramovich, The University of Melbourne

A collection of essays by the classic Zionist thinkers and statesman of all political and spiritual persuations. This book contains a lengthy introduction on Zionist thought and its history. the book offers an anthology of selection from the writings of leading zionist figures from the early 19th century until the establishment of the state of israel. among the important thinkers whose works are presented here are: Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha-am, Martin Buber, Louis Brandeis, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Judah Magnes, Max Nordau, Ludwig Lewinsohn, Solomon Schechter, Mordecai Kaplan, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Chaim Weitzmann, and David ben Gurion.

An expanded edition of a classic intellectual history of Zionism, now covering the rise of religious Zionism since the 1970s For eighteen centuries pious Jews had prayed for the return to Jerusalem, but only in the revolutionary atmosphere of nineteenth-century Europe was this yearning transformed into an active political movement: Zionism. In The Making of Modern Zionism, the distinguished political scientist Shlomo Avineri rejects the common view that Zionism was solely a reaction to anti-Semitism and persecution. Rather, he sees it as part of the universal quest for self-determination. In sharply-etched intellectual profiles of Zionism's major thinkers from Moses Hess to Theodore Herzl and from Vladimir Jabotinsky to David Ben Gurion, Avineri traces the evolution of this quest from its intellectual origins in the early nineteenth century to the establishment of the State of Israel. In an expansive new epilogue, he tracks the changes in Israeli society and politics since 1967 which have strengthened the more radical nationalist and religious trends in Zionism at the expense of its more liberal strains. The result is a book that enables us to understand, as perhaps never before, one of the truly revolutionary ideas of our time.

He then describes the various streams of Zionist thought and how they were transmogrified by events and individuals, and concludes by examining both Zionism's connection with a secular Jewish identity and the nature of the Jewish claim to Eretz Israel.

Throughout the history of European imperialism the grand narratives of the Bible have been used to justify settler-colonialism. "The Zionist Bible" explores the ways in which modern political Zionism and Israeli militarism have used the Bible - notably the Book of Joshua and its description of the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land - as an agent of oppression and to support settler-colonialism in Palestine. The rise of messianic Zionism in the late 1960s saw the beginnings of a Jewish theology of zealotocracy, based on the militant land traditions of the Bible and justifying the destruction of the previous inhabitants. "The Zionist Bible" examines how the birth and growth of the State of Israel has been shaped by this Zionist reading of the Bible, how it has refashioned Israeli-Jewish collective memory, erased and renamed Palestinian topography, and how critical responses to this reading have challenged both Jewish and Palestinian nationalism.