[²] The Jewish Cervantes.
The historical and philosophical bases of modern Jewish nationalism were laid in the earlier half of the nineteenth century by a number of Jewish scholars who wrote in Hebrew, and of whom the most noteworthy are Nachman Cohen Krochmal (1785–1840), Samuel David ben Hezekiah Luzzatto (1800–1865) and Solomon Judah Löb Rapaport (1790–1867). Krochmal in his Modern Guide for the Perplexed (a title which alludes, of course, to the great work of Maimonides), strove to effect a synthesis [♦]between traditional Judaism and Hegelianism. The national idea is a postulate of his method, and he presents it in a rational and constructive manner, entirely free from sentimentality. Luzzatto, who studied deeply and wrote much in the fields of history, religious ideas and exegesis, was more of a mystic in temperament, but not less fundamentally nationalist in outlook. Rapaport, an encyclopædic scholar and one of the pioneers of the so-called “Jewish Science” (scientific study of Judaism and Jewish history), was perhaps less directly and consciously concerned with the national idea, but his hostile attitude to the extravagances of the “Reform” movement sufficiently indicates his leaning. Another profound scholar who has received too scant attention is Jacob Reifmann (1818–1895), whose Hebrew pamphlet The Mission of Israel—one of a hundred treatises and articles—is an eloquent exposition of the national idea and a thoroughgoing condemnation of radical “Reform,” not from a theological, but from a purely nationalist and historical point of view. We may remark in passing that some of the later representatives of “Jewish Science,” though they wrote mostly in other languages than Hebrew (principally German), were essentially nationalist in feeling: especially Heinrich Hirsch Graetz (1817–1891), the historian, who was influenced by Moses (Moritz) Hess (1812–1875), and really—though perhaps unconsciously—laid the foundations of Jewish nationalism in Western Europe, and David Kaufmann (1852–1899), whose learning and instinct combined made him welcome Zionism and defend its leaders on occasion. Important, however, as was the work of these scholars in giving Jewish nationalism the necessary philosophical foundation, the spread of the national idea among the people is more directly due to the popular Hebrew writers of Russia, who, growing up during the Haskalah period, abandoned the vague, universalistic idea of “enlightenment” for the conception of a modernized and progressive Jewish people.
[♦] “beween” replaced with “between”
Of these David ben Dob Baer Gordon (1826–1886) was one of the earliest. In 1856 he became assistant editor of the first Hebrew weekly paper, Ha’magid. He also assisted in the formation and conduct of the Society Mekize Nirdamim (1864), established for the purpose of publishing old and valuable Hebrew works. In 1884 he went to London as the representative of the Chovevé Zion to congratulate Sir Moses Montefiore on the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
Peter (Perez) ben Moses Smolenskin (1842–1885), the most popular Hebrew writer of his time, was an ardent nationalist and Zionist during the second period of his literary activity. He rejected the theory associated with the name of Mendelssohn, which makes Judaism nothing more than a religious confession; and against this theory he wrote a series of articles and essays. About 1880 he began to be interested in the colonization of Palestine. He joined Laurence Oliphant, through whom he hoped to secure the intervention of European Powers in favour of the Jews. His realistic Hebrew novels, as well as his monthly Ha’shachar (The Dawn), exercised a wide influence.
Moses Löb Lilienblum (1843–1910) was a progressive “radical” during the first half of his literary career. But the anti-Jewish riots of 1880 and 1881 aroused him to a consciousness of the unsafe position of the Jews in exile, and he started writing articles in Hebrew and in Russian, in which he pointed to the re-establishment of the Jews in Palestine as the only solution of the Jewish question. He wrote several pamphlets, and as Secretary of the Chovevé Zion took a most earnest and energetic part in their activity.
Alexander Ossypovitch Zederbaum of St. Petersburg (1816–1892) indefatigably advocated the colonization of Palestine by Jews in his Hebrew paper Ha’melitz. He did not confine his labours in the cause of Jewish nationalism to such editorial efforts. He took an active part in obtaining the permission of the Russian Government for the formation of an Association of Chovevé Zion in Russia, with its centre in Odessa, and afterwards in organizing the Association.
Samuel Joseph Fuenn (1819–1891) of Wilna was an admirable scholar and a Hebrew writer of wide outlook. For many years he was editor of the Hebrew weekly Ha’carmel. His Kiria Neemana (the History of the Jews in Wilna) is a standard work. He was also author of Ha’otzar (Hebrew dictionary), of a biographical lexicon, and of many other books of reference. During the last years of his life he was engaged in the Chovevé Zion movement.
Jechiel Mendelssohn (1817–1892) of Lublin, was a distinguished Hebraist. The diversity as well as the extent of his reading was remarkable. He knew the whole of Hebrew literature as well as the classical writers of antiquity, and had a wide knowledge of Jewish history. His Hebrew style was of great exactitude and beauty. He contributed to Hàboker Or, Ha’melitz and Ha’assif, and preached with artistic skill and historical discrimination the national idea of the Chovevé Zion.
Asher Ginzberg—“Achad Ha’am”—deserves a special chapter in the history of Zionism. He was the most prominent literary figure in the Chovevé Zion movement, and he is the most respected and influential representative of modern Hebrew literature. Born in Russia, and educated in the traditional religious way, he went through a carefully arranged course of studies in “Jewish Science” and in philosophy and literature. He first attracted notice by his articles in Ha’melitz about the condition of the colonies in Palestine. He had the clearness of mind to see things as they were, and the courage to publish what he believed to be the truth. The absence of exaggeration, the earnestness, and the steadfast truth-seeking which are the characteristic features of all his writings, and give them peculiar weight, were already clearly developed and evident in his first essays. He founded the Hebrew monthly Ha’shiloach, which became a creative force in the modern Hebrew revival. He grouped around himself young men of talent, and discovered, stimulated and guided many young writers and students, who looked upon him as their spiritual father. Ha’shiloach soon became the leading literary Hebrew review, principally owing to his philosophical and publicistic articles. A deep and clear thinker, he expounded with convincing logic, and in calm, noble and dignified language the ideology of Jewish nationalism. His principal ideal is Jewish national distinctiveness in the Diaspora, based upon Hebrew culture, and making Palestine a spiritual centre or “nidus.” Some of his essays can be read in an English version by Leon Simon of London, published by the Jewish Publication Society of America. We should, however, form a very inadequate estimate of the services which this distinguished writer has rendered to Zionism, and of the influence which he has exerted on his readers, were we to confine our attention solely to his writings. It is the combination of a writer and a personality that gives him his unique position. He was successfully active in the Chovevé Zion movement, he has visited Palestine several times, and he founded in 1889 the Order “B’nai Moshé,” a group of intellectual Jewish Nationalists. This Order, which existed for eight years, gave rise to the foundation of the Hebrew Publication Society “Achiasaf” in Warsaw, of the first modern Hebrew school in Jaffa, and of the Palestinian colony Rechoboth. Out of these grew many other institutions for colonization, Hebrew literature and education.