On April 15, 1897, Rt. Honorable Herbert Bentwich leads a group of twenty-one Zionists aboard a small steamer headed for Jaffa: the gentleman is no other than Ari Shavit's great-grandfather. The Oxus delegation is mainly composed by upper-middle-class educated British Jews, expected to report their impressions about the ancient land of Israel to Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism.
Herzl and his supporters believe the Jewish civilization in the Diaspora is now condemned either to disappear or to be assimilated, and that an urgent solution is required. In the years previous to 1897, Jewish identity survived unscathed thanks to its unshakable religious beliefs and to Jewry isolation from competing narratives, kept at bay by the thick walls of the ghetto. But now it's being menaced by secularization and emancipation. More alarmingly, a new wave of anti-Semitism is rising in eastern Europe and driving hundreds to migrate so as to escape discrimination. Herzl Zionists can`t possibly see what impending horrors await in the first half of the twentieth century but they are certain the only way to save Jewish civilization from extinction is for it to settle again in its ancient homeland, now Palestine.
Bentwich shares the Zionists' concerns but his longing for the Holy Land is mostly romantic. He was born in 1856, in London, son of a Russian-Jewish immigrant who worked as a traveling salesman. Despite his humble origins, he studied in fine grammar schools and worked hard to prove himself, becoming a successful solicitor, a well respected community member and a fortunate husband and father of eleven children. Bentwich is also a Victorian determined gentleman and an admirer of imperial Britain's fine values and traditions, altho...
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...an and get funds to finance the creation of the nation-state that would solve the Jewish problem.
As the trains follows its route, the excited passengers consult their travel guides and imagine ancient times based on the book descriptions and the landscapes perceived. Most of them are prosperous emancipated Jews, naively searching for a solution to the Jewish question. Of them, only Israel Zangwill is not naive. He is a well-known, incisive writer who sees Palestine as it is, a territory already occupied by villagers and farmers. Seven years later, when giving a speech in New York, he scandalizes his audience by stating that Palestine is populated and that the sons of Israel should be prepared to take the country by force. As a result he is driven out of the Zionist movement, only to return in the second decade of the twentieth century with more radical postures.
The author believes that the struggle of Jews vs anti-Semites is really just another form of the “rich vs poor struggle” which is existent through many societies in our modern era. The anti-Semites will take out their aggression against the Jews because Jews are an easy target. It is easier for an anti-Semite to accept that he works a hard job for little pay just to make a factory boss rich. However, the question is raised of what good would that do? The anti-Semite needs the job, so he can't quit, and causing an uproar towards his boss would only make him even more unhappy so instead, he channels his hatred in manageable ways, such as toward Jews.
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
Wiesel recounts the cramped living conditions, the Jewish life and the design and purpose of the Sighet ghettos from its conception to its liquidation. His recount demonstrates the hardships and the dehumanization experienced by the Jewish people starting with their isolation and containment within the
Elie Wiesel’s hope, as well as the rest of the hundreds of Jews’, diminishes tremendously. They originally suppress their
"Jewish Resistance". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
Chaim Potok’s use of silence helps to exemplify the utter sorrow and angst of the Anti-Zionist Hasidic League (led by Reb Saunders) when the bloody fighting is occurring in Palestine. The League, which was previously contesting Zionism and the development of Israel without the coming of the Messiah via papers, flyers, and rallies, grew oddly silent with the comings of more violence in Palestine. “…as Arab forces began to attack the Jewish communities of Palestine, as an Arab mob surged through Princess Mary Avenue in Jerusalem…as the toll of Jewish dead increased daily, Reb Saunders’ league grew strangely silent.” (pg.240). The silence of the Hasids showed just how depressed and grief-stricken they were with the acts of violence against their people. They were so passionately opposed to Zionism that it would have had to take a very powerful series of events to get them to turn their energies away from crushing Zionism to another subject—which is what the events in Palestine did. It was like it was worse for them to witness such events than it was for the Zionists to make headway, which really is saying something. “Their pain over this new outbreak of violence against the Jews of Palestine outweighed their hatred of Zionism. They did not become Zionists; they merely became silent.” (pg.240). That silence also helps to magnify the anguish that all th...
A fifteen-year old boy, Elie Wiesel, and his family are overwhelmed by the thought of uncertainty when they are forced out of their home; as a result, the family would be forced into a cattle car and shipped to Auschwitz. At first, the Jews have a very optimistic outlook while in
Pages 451, 452 -. Schuman, Michael A. Elie Wiesel: Voices From the Holocaust. Hillside - Enslow -. Publishers, Inc., 1994. http://www.
Hitler's vision of unifying and annexing Austria and Nazi Germany into a greater 'German Reich' was represented finally through the implementation of the Anschluss in March 1938. The Anschluss would assuredly achieve Hitler's dream of exerting power and control over the Jewish population, by marginalising Jews from society in using forms of power such as propaganda to promote them as outcasts to German citizens, an objective Hitler had tried to achieve many years previously since being granted the Chancellor of Germany in 1932. The dev...
Benjamin Harshav’s “Language in Time of Revolution” teaches the reader that social factors, historical factors, willpower, and accidents of history brought back and revived the Hebrew and Yiddish language. This was important because it created the base for a new, secular Jewish society and culture to emerge again with their own language and a new social identity. This new social identity meant that there was a nationalistic movement toward having a common language, literature, and cultural heritage. However, the reason why the Hebrew and Yiddish language lagged in the first place was due to Nazism and Stalinism. These two totalitarian empires wiped out the Yiddish culture since the Jews were not the majority population in places such as Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. Since only one language of government and education was imposed on various ethnic groups, it is not a surprise that the Yiddish language became irrelevant. Stalinists argued that Jews can’t be a nation because they do not have a territory and a common language; the Zionists, however, tried to help by enforcing the Hebrew language on immigrants from all countries and languages because they believed in “national power and sovereignty rather than mere cultural autonomy.”
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted for a partition resolution that led to the establishment of the nation of Israel in May, 1948. This was great news for Jews in Palestine and the diaspora as it meant the fulfillment of the quest for the rebirth of their nation in their previous homeland after many years of wandering (Pappe, 2006, p. 12). However, their Palestinian Arab counterparts opposed to the establishment from the start felt cheated by the international community and remained categorical that the final answer to the Jewish problem would only be solved in blood and fire (Karsh, 2002, p. 8).
But, as Sandy Tolan 's book, The Lemon Tree, seeks to explain, through Dalia’s longing for zion and Bashir’s belief in the arab right of return, that the main catalyst of the Arab-Israeli conflict is
The transition of Jews through history is one, which is complex and took place over a long period. There are many factors, which contributed to the change of the status of Jews within their world and changes in their status as well; these changes affected the religious and cultural values of European Jews, which lead to an alteration in their own perception, as well as the surrounding populace. There are several opinions as to how non- Jews perceive the issues that led to Emancipation of Jewish people. Prior to the period of Emancipation there were three main characteristics which defined the traditional Jewish communities of Europe. These three aspects are community, autonomy and torah (religion). In relation to Torah, there is a common yearning to return to their homeland in Eretz Yisrael. As it is known from the Greek era, the purpose of a state or community was to glorify one's own religion and as a result, Jews could not be members of a Christian state. Therefore, they had no choice but to form their own communities within the larger Christian State. A Jew is a member of the Jewish nation and people and religion is what defined your life and place in society. Virtually everything revolved around the community; decisions were made with the impact of the community in mind. An essential aspect of this community was the conceptions of ghettos; Jews lived, worked, and played in these ghettos. These ghettos kept the Jewish community contained, and also provided a sense of separatism from outside influences. "The point can also be made that separation was in fact a contributing factor to healthy relations (between Jews and non- Jews)" with their concern for l...
For a Jew arriving in America from Europe starting anew marked a defining point. After losing six million Jews in the Holocaust, the United States of America served as one of the most secure havens for reestablishing a strong Jewish presence ...
Edward Said “States” refutes the view Western journalists, writers, and scholars have created in order to represent Eastern cultures as mysterious, dangerous, unchanging, and inferior. According to Said, who was born in Jerusalem at that time Palestine, the way westerners represent eastern people impacts the way they interact with the global community. All of this adds to, Palestinians having to endure unfair challenges such as eviction, misrepresentation, and marginalization that have forced them to spread allover the world. By narrating the story of his country Palestine, and his fellow countrymen from their own perspective Said is able to humanize Palestinians to the reader. “States” makes the reader feel the importance of having a homeland, and how detrimental having a place to call home is when trying to maintain one’s culture. Which highlights the major trait of the Palestinian culture: survival. Throughout “States”, Said presents the self-preservation struggles Palestinians are doomed to face due to eviction, and marginalization. “Just as we once were taken from one habitat to a new one we can be moved again” (Said 543).