Zionism without Zion: The Jewish Territorial Organization and Its Conflict with the Zionist Organization

371 Pages·2016·9.806 MB·English

by  Gur Alroey

Zionism
Zion
without
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Z ion i sm
Zion
without
The Jewish Territorial Organization
and Its Conflict with the Zionist Organization
Gur Alroey
Wayne State University Press | Detroit
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© 2016 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced without formal permission.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
20 19 18 17 16 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-0-8143-4206-0 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8143-4207-7 (e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015953523
Designed and typeset by Bryce Schimanski
Composed in Adobe Caslon Pro
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Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: A Shared Ancestry 1
1. The Big Bang 15
2. A Land Ablaze 73
3. A Land for a People, Not a People for a Land 123
4. The Territorialist Movement in Palestine 172
5. The Search for a Homeland 202
6. Swan Song 254
Conclusion: Zionism Without Zion? 295
Notes 305
Bibliography 333
Index 343
v
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Preface
Zionism Without Zion: The Jewish Territorial Organization and Its Con-
flict with the Zionist Organization, completes a triptych begun with two
of my earlier books: An Unpromising Land: Jewish Migration to Palestine
in the Early Twentieth Century and The Quiet Revolution: Jewish Emigra-
tion from Imperial Russia, 1875–1924 (in Hebrew). These three books—
each from a different perspective—deal with Eastern European Jewry
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and with the various
alternatives proposed to resolve their distress and poverty. The question
“Wohin?” (whither), which was a key concern in those years, is the con-
necting thread that runs through all three volumes.
In the first two books I examined the large wave of Jewish migra-
tion from Eastern Europe to Palestine and America from the viewpoint
of the ordinary Jewish migrant who sought to escape the privations of
daily existence and begin a new life across the sea. Both books describe
how the decision to emigrate was reached, the perilous journey until the
destination was reached, and the difficulties of absorption into the new
society. On the other hand, Zionism Without Zion deals with the ter-
ritorialist ideology, which was a political reflection of the mass migra-
tion, pogroms, and sufferings of the Jews in Eastern Europe. Historians
of Jewish nationalism have written little about Territorialism. There is
not even a single book about the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO),
established as a result of the crisis of ideology and principles that beset
the Zionist Organization. I hope that this book will fill the gap and shed
light on a political movement that had power and influence over the Jew-
ish people at the beginning of the twentieth century but has vanished
into the sea of (historical) oblivion.
The Territorialists had a pessimistic worldview and foresaw a dire fate
for the Jews in Eastern Europe. Their fear that the Jews could not wait
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Preface
for the Zionist Organization to establish a state for the Jewish people in
Palestine led them to favor a solution “here and now”—and not only in
the Land of Israel.
During the four years I spent in my research on the territorialist
movement, I discovered by chance (or perhaps not by chance) a copy
of Medinot la-yehudim (States for the Jews), which Eliyahu Benyamini,
the author, dedicated to a respected professor and scholar at an Israeli
university: “To my neighbor, Prof. . . .: Oy mit rahmones! In friendship,
E. Binyamini.” The deeper I delved into the territorialist ideology and
the more I came to understand its character and the reasons for its
emergence, the louder these words rang in my mind. What did he mean,
“Have mercy”? Was he asking the stern professor to treat him gently
while reading the book? Or was this a cry of despair provoked by his
study of the territorialist idea? I believe that intelligent readers will find
an answer to this question after reading Zionism Without Zion.
The ITO collection in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem
made it possible for me to trace the history of the organization from its
founding until its disbanding in 1925. Although the Territorialists seceded
from the Zionist Organization after the Uganda controversy and set up
an alternative organization, throughout their activities they regarded
themselves as Zionists in every sense of the word and as continuing the
historical path laid out by Leon Pinsker and Theodor Herzl. The fact
that ITO documents in the Central Zionist Archives lie alongside those
of Herzl, Menahem Mendel Ussishkin (the Territorialists’ most bitter
antagonist), and the institutions of the Zionist Organization is a kind of
poetic justice.
Zionism Without Zion would not have been completed without the
kind and devoted assistance of the staff of the Central Zionist Archives:
Rachel Rubinstein, Batia Leshem, Simone Schleichter, and Anat Banin.
Thanks are also due to the staff of the YIVO, especially librarian Yeshaya
Metal, as well as Gunnar Berg and Jesse Cohen, who devoted much
effort to locating the relevant files and publications concerning the
Territorialists. Finally, I wish to express my thanks to the team at Wayne
State University Press, especially the Editor-in-Chief, Kathryn Wildfong,
for her patience, good will, and good advice; and Mimi Braverman for her
professional copyediting.
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Introduction
A Shared Ancestry
The ideologies of Territorialism and Zionism were born at the same time.
“The goal of our present endeavors must be not the Holy Land, but a land
of our own,” wrote Leon Pinsker in Auto-Emancipation.1 There were those
in Jewish society who adhered to the idea of “a land of our own” and sought
to establish a state, or an autonomous entity, outside the Land of Israel.
Pinsker was not the first to conceive of the idea to settle Jews in various
territories around the world. The idea had been raised many years earlier by
Jewish leaders who were seeking creative solutions to the Jewish question.
These proposals were usually local initiatives by individuals and vanished
soon after they were raised, without leaving any traces behind. From the
second half of the seventeenth century until the 1880s, a variety of ideas
kept springing up to settle Jews in places such as Curaçao in the West
Indies; Suriname; Cayenne (French Guiana); Novorossiya; the Crimea;
Buffalo, New York; Texas; broad tracts along the Tennessee, Mississippi,
and Missouri rivers; Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, or Kansas; and Cyprus.2
None of these initiatives were connected with territorialist ideology, which
was spawned by the Zionist movement in the early twentieth century.
The term ideology, as used here, is based on the definition
proposed by historian Gideon Shimoni in his book Zionist Ideology: a
system of ideas that require action. Shimoni differentiates between the
basic concept (“fundamental ideology”) and its execution (“operative
ideology”). Fundamental ideology constitutes the substantive claims
inherent in a system of ideas that require action and shape the ideology
and its ultimate goals. Operative ideology, on the other hand, constitutes
the strategy and tactics that are applied in service of the basic ideas.3 In
this book I use Shimoni’s definition to examine the components of the
1
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IntroductIon
territorialist ideology and the core principles of territorialist thinking. I
also try to trace the actual hunt for some territory for the Jewish people
and the political activities of Territorialists in Jewish society.
However, in this book I do not cover any of the specific attempts
at settlement (of which there were many) by individual Jews outside
Palestine. I also do not review such initiatives in earlier or later periods
of Jewish history. Rather, I examine the political expression of the idea
and its crystallization into an organized and compelling doctrine known
as Territorialism. The process began in the early 1880s but did not mature
into an autonomous ideology until the establishment of the Jewish
Territorial Organization (ITO) in August 1905.4 Thus here I attempt to
understand Jewish Territorialism, how the Territorialists wanted to ease
the hardship of Eastern European Jewry in the early twentieth century,
and their competition with their colleagues in the Zionist movement.
The use of the term Zionist colleague and not rival is intentional. The
Territorialists were legitimate children of the Zionist movement; many
of them saw themselves as full-fledged Zionists. They participated in its
establishment, and some even implemented their Zionism by immigrating
to Palestine. In contrast with the opponents of Zionism—both on the
right and on the left—the Territorialists never denied the Zionist idea or
rejected its legitimacy. On the contrary, they considered themselves the
true Zionists, the followers of the historical path laid down by Pinsker and
Theodor Herzl, and supported Jewish sovereignty anywhere in the world,
even outside the Land of Israel. It was actually their conceptual closeness
and common parentage with the Zionists that made the struggle between
the two groups so emotional and even violent at times. The exchange
of ideas between the Zionists and the Territorialists was imbalanced:
The Zionists categorically rejected territorialist ideology, whereas the
Territorialists believed that the two doctrines could exist side by side.
History proves that the Zionist path eventually led to the establishment
of a Jewish state in Palestine, whereas the Territorialists failed in their
attempt to find a territory to settle. Nevertheless, in this study I refrain
from referring to “Zionist success” and “Territorialist failure” for several
reasons. First, there is no place for judgmental terminology in historical
scholarship. The territorialist ideology must be understood first and
foremost from a contemporary perspective and not from our own. The
pogroms of 1903–1906, the westward migration of hundreds of thousands
2
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