Editing Zionism (section)

==== Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl and the birth of modern political Zionism ====
In the wake of the 1881 [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire|Russian pogroms]], [[Leo Pinsker]], who was previously an assimilationist, came to the conclusion that the root of the Jewish problem was that Jews formed a distinctive element that could not be assimilated.{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}} For Pinsker, emancipation could not resolve the problems of the Jewish people.{{sfn|Sela|2002}} In Pinsker's analysis, Judeophobia was the cause of antisemitism and was primiarily driven by Jews' lack of a homeland. The solution Pinsker proposed in his pamphlet ''[[Autoemancipation]]'' (1882) was for Jews to become a "normal" nation and acquire a homeland over which Jews would have sovereignty.{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}{{sfn|Sela|2002|loc=Zionism}} Pinsker primarily viewed Jewish emigration a solution for dealing with the "surplus of Jews, the inassimilable residue" from Eastern Europe who had arrived in Germany in response to the pogroms.{{sfn|Shafir|1996}}{{efn|Pinsker wrote: "The fact that, as it seems, we can mix with the nations only in the smallest proportions, presents a further obstacle to the establishment of amicable relations. Therefore, we must see to it that the surplus of Jews, the inassimilable residue, is removed and provided for elsewhere. This duty can be incumbent upon no one but ourselves," Leo Pinsker, "Auto-Emancipation," in Hertzberg, 1959, p. 193. And Nordau wrote, in a otherwise sympathetic presentation of the ''[[Ostjuden]]'', that: "'the contempt created by the impudent, crawling beggar in dirty caftan... falls back on all of us,'" quoted in Aschheim, 1982, p. 88.{{sfn|Shafir|1996|p=243-244}}}}

The pogroms motivated a small number of Jews to establish various groups in the [[Pale of Settlement]] (a region in western Russia) and in [[Poland]], aimed at supporting Jewish emigration to Palestine. The publication of ''Autoemancipation'' provided these groups with an ideological charter around which they would be confederated into [[Lovers of Zion|Hibbat Zion]] ("Lovers of Zion") in 1887 where Pinsker would take a leading role.{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Palestine on the Eve}} The settlements established by Hibbat Zion lacked sufficient funds and were ultimately not very successful but are seen as the first of several aliyahs, or waves of settlement, that led to the eventual establishment of the state of Israel.{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=The Overt Question, 1882–1917}} The conditions in Eastern Europe would eventually provide Zionism with a base of Jews seeking to overcome the challenges of external ostracism, from the Tsarist regime, and internal changes within the Jewish communities there.{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|p=50}} The groups that formed Hibbat Zion included the [[Bilu (movement)|Bilu]] group, which began its settlements in 1882. [[Anita Shapira]] describes the Bilu as serving the role of a prototype for the settlement groups that followed.{{sfn|Shapira|2014|p=32-33}} At the end of the 19th century, Jews remained a small minority in Palestine.{{sfn|Morris|2001|p=47}}

At this point, Zionism remained a scattered movement. In the 1890s, Theodor Herzl (the father of political Zionism) infused Zionism with a practical urgency and worked to unify the various strands of the movement.{{sfn|Masalha|2018}} The title of Herzl's 1896 manifesto providing the ideological basis for Zionism, {{lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, is typically translated as The Jewish State.{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003}}{{page needed|date=November 2024}} Herzl sought to establish a state where Jews would be the majority and as a result, politically dominant. [[Ahad Ha'am]], the founder of cultural Zionism, criticized the lack of Jewish cultural activity and creativity in Herzl's envisioned state, which Ahad Ha'am referred to as "the state of the Jews." Specifically, he points to the envisioned European and German culture of the state where Jews were simply the transmitters of imperialist culture rather than producers or creators of culture.{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}} Like Pinsker, Herzl saw antisemitism as a reality that could only be addressed by the territorial concentration of Jews in a Jewish state.{{sfn|Masalha|2014|loc=Introduction}}

Herzl's project was purely secular; the selection of Palestine, after considering other locations, was motivated by the credibility the name would give to the movement.{{sfn|Masalha|2014|loc=Introduction}} From early on, Herzl recognized that Zionism could not succeed without the support of a Great Power.<ref>{{harvnb|Cleveland|2010|loc=Chapter 13}}: "Notwithstanding the growing participation of East European Jewry in Zionist activities, Herzl recognized that the movement would not succeed until it secured the diplomatic support of a Great Power and the financial assistance of members of the Western Jewish community."</ref> His view was that this {{lang|de|Judenstaat}} would serve the interests of the Great Powers, and would "form part of a defensive wall for Europe in Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism."{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=23}}

Herzl's efforts would lead to the [[First Zionist Congress]] at [[Basel]] in 1897, which created the [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]] (ZO), renamed in 1960 as [[World Zionist Organization]] (WZO),{{sfn|Sethi|2007}} and adopted the [[Basel Program]], which served as the formal platform of the movement until the 1950s, including the official objective of establishing a legally recognized home for the Jewish people in Palestine.{{sfn|Masalha|2018}} The Zionist Organization was to be the main administrative body of the movement and would go on to establish the [[Jewish Colonial Trust]], whose objectives were to encourage European Jewish emigration to Palestine and to assist with the economic development of the colonies.