Non-Zionism

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

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

Non-position

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

Generally, those groups of

Sephardi

Haredi Jews may refer to themselves as Zionist.

Simon Dubnow's Non-Zionism

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

^ 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

Gideon Shimoni, From
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

Bennett Muraskin, Anti-Zionism and Non-Zionism in Jewish Life—Past and Present,

[polish-1] 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.

[Feldman-2] Egal Feldman, Catholics and Jews in Twentieth-Century America, University of Illinois Press, 2001, p.40.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

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