Zionism: And the Question of Jewish Identity by Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez

Author:Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Yaron Publisher
Published: 2018-08-19T22:00:00+00:00

Anti-Semitism

The resurgence of Anti-Semitism in the modern period also served to redefine traditional Jewish perspectives and subsequently influence the rise of a “Zionist” oriented identity centering on land, language and people connection. From the perspective of many European philosophers and intellectuals, the purpose of emancipating Jews was to have been the completed absorption of Jewish distinctiveness into the identity of the greater society. Even as Jews often found themselves increasingly detached from the religion of Judaism, specific undying characteristics, still pervaded the Jewish mind and body. Many Europeans began to argue that the reason that emancipation had not been successful at least in their eyes because Jewish identity was not dependent upon religious affiliation.

Jews were forever linked to each other as a racial-ethnic group. As racial theory began to grow, and the myth of Arian/Nordic/Teutonic racial purity and superiority became popularized, Jews were increasingly distinguished by their supposed racial and ethnic differences to the majority population. In the Middle Ages, the church had exercised tremendous control over the state. The church’s theological position on the question of Jews was indeed complicated. The goal of Christianity was to convert the Jew to the “true Israel.” If the Jews refused, they must nevertheless be “allowed” to exist for the expressed purpose of an ultimate eschatological conversion. The Middle Ages saw Jews linked by religion. The modern era saw Jews linked by something they could not change even if they had so desired racial-national identity. With nationalism on the rise and a racial distinctiveness imposed on Jews, many Zionistically oriented Jews sought to use this further delineation between themselves and the rest of society as a means of spawning hope and momentum for their movement.

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