Great Jewish Zionists

Six Great Jewish Zionists

"We have an important task before us. We have met here to lay the foundation-stone of the house that will some day shelter the Jewish people. . . We have to aim at securing legal, international guarantees for our work."

- Theodor Herzl

"This matter is not an issue between the Jewish people and the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, but between the Jewish people and the Arab people. The latter, numbering 35 million, has [territory equal to] half of Europe, while the Jewish people, numbering ten million and wandering the earth, hasn't got a stone. . . Will the Arab people stand opposed? Will it resist? [Will it insist] that . . . they. . . shall have it [all] for ever and ever, while he who has nothing shall share forever have nothing."

- Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Abraham Isaac Kook

(b. 1865, Greiva, Latvia; d. 1935, Jerusalem, Palestine)

Talmudic scholar, kabbalist and religious nationalist. He settled in Palestine in 1904 and sought to engage with the secular Zionists hostile to orthodoxy and religion. In 1914 he left for Europe to promote his Religious Zionism among the Orthodox and was involved in the activities which led to the Balfour Declaration. On his return to Palestine he became in 1919 the Rabbi of Jerusalem and in 1922 the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi and also founded a yeshiva.

More on Aharon David Gordon

Books:

A. D. Gordon, Aharon David Gordon: Selected Writings. With an introduction by Eliezer Schweid (In Hebrew) (Hassifriya Haziyonit, Jerusalem, Israel, 1982)

Shenuel Lulav (ed.) Aharon David Gordon: A Bibliography 1904-1972 On the Anniversary of His Death (In Hebrew) (Yahdav and Bet Gordon, Degania A., Israel, 1979)

Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky

(b. 1880, Odessa, Russia; d. 1940, New York, NY, USA)

A talented, versatile man and original thinker, he was born into a liberal Jewish family in Russia and became a leading figure in revisionist Zionism. He worked as a respected journalist in Switzerland and Italy for the Russian press before the infamous 1903 pogrom in Kishinev spurred him to become an active Zionist. He joined the Executive of the Zionist Movement but in 1923 resigned to establish the Union of Zionists-Revisionists. He later headed The New Zionist Organization (NZO), the Betar youth movement and the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (IZL). In World War l he founded the first Jewish Legion to fight as part of the British Army and himself served as a lieutenant fighting against the Turks in 1918, receiving a decoration for bravery.

The Iron Wall - We and the Arabs

Books:

Shmuel Katz, Lone Wolf: A Biography of Vladimir (Ze'Ev) Jabotinsky (Barricade Books, 1996)

Vladimir Jabotinsky, Mordechai Sarig, and Shimshon Feder, The Political and Social Philosophy of Ze'Ev Jabotinsky: Selected Writings (Mitchell Vallentine & Company, 1998)

Joseph B. Schechtman and Menachem Begin, The Life & Times of Vladimir Jabotinsky: Rebel & Statesman: The Early Years (Bnai Brith Intl Continuing; Aronoff Foundation special edition, 1986)

Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl (Herzl Tivadar)

(b. 1860, Pest, Austria-Hungary; d. 1904, Edlach, Austria)

Journalist and playwright who convened the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in 1897. He bought together disparate Zionist groups of the day to establish the World Zionist Organisation and with prescience wrote in his diary that "At Basle I founded the Jewish State." His endeavours to achieve his goal through "Grand dipomacy" failed, and ultimately it was only through the activities of more practical Zionists that a Jewish homeland in Palestine was created.

Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl: Father of Zionism

Books:

Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (Dover Publications, 1989)

Jacques Kornberg, Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism (Jewish Literature and Culture) (Indiana University Press, 1993)

Bernard Zissman, Herzl's Journey: Conversations With a Zionist Legend (Devora, 2008)

Martin Lowenthal, The Diaries of Theodor Herzl (The Universal Library, New York, 1962)

Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin

(b. 1863, nr Mogilev, Russia; d. 1941, Palestine)

Practical Zionist famous for his strong beliefs and obstinacy. His Zionist career began at the time of the 1881 Russian pogroms and, after unsuccessfully trying to join a group of pioneers bound for Palestine, he first became a leader of an early Russian Zionist group and then the World Zionist Organisation. He came into conflict with Theodor Hertzl (see above), particularly in regard to Herzl's suggestion of the possibility of a Jewish national home in a land other than Palestine. In 1919 he moved to Palestine and in 1923 was chosen to head the Jewish National Fund, a position he held for almost 20 years. Apart from his work as a Zionist, he was also a powerful advocate for the revival of the Hebrew language.

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