Dueling Zionisms: The Best Lost, the Worst Won; or, Jabotinsky vs Einstein

“Zionism uproots religious Judaism in a stronger way than Reform or assimilation, by creating new standards of ‘Judaism’ which will constitute a new ideology that can be elevated to the status of a religion.” — Nachman Syrkin, founder of Labor Zionism, 1898

“The unique durability of the Jewish community is to a large degree based on our geographical dispersion, and the fact that we consequently do not possess instruments of power that will allow us to commit great stupidities out of national fanaticism.” — Albert Einstein, 1936

We often talk about Zionism as though there’s only one kind because one kind won in Israel, but there are many Zionisms. The first, Christian Zionism, began as a Protestant belief that Jesus would not return until the Jews gathered in Israel. For centuries, most Jews ignored Christian Zionists. Religious Jews thought the Messiah must come before a new Israel, and secular Jews wanted social equality where they lived. Jews with the wealth to leave Europe overwhelmingly chose the United States over Palestine.

Jewish Zionism began when European antisemitism made some Germanic (Ashkenazi) Jews long for their own state. In 1882, the Lovers of Zion funded the first Zionist colony in Palestine. Unlike earlier Jewish immigrants, Zionists did not come…