Jewish Diaspora, Zionism, and the Founding of Israel

The Origins of the Jewish Diaspora

"Diaspora" is a Greek term meaning "to disperse" or "to scatter," and is often applied to the Jews and their dispersion out of the land of Israel. Many scholars point to the year 588 B.C., when the kingdom of Judea was conquered by the Babylonians, as the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora ("Diaspora"). The Jews were forced to relocate to Babylon where, even after the Persians conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Jews to return to Judea, many remained. It was also during the Babylonian conquest of Judea that many Jews fled to Egypt, where they created a Jewish community in exile that continued for centuries.

After the return of the Jews to Judea in 538 B.C., the entire area became embroiled in a series of conflicts that resulted in the creation of a Hellenic culture throughout the Middle East. As a result, Jews spread out from their traditional homeland to create small Jewish communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

It was at this time, in the first century B.C., that the Romans came to dominate the Mediterranean and Judea became a Roman province. Roman occupation was intolerable to the Jews, and they revolted in 70 A.D., only to fall under the military might of the Roman army. As a result of their failed uprising, the Jews were forced to leave Judea — which was renamed Palestine — and scatter across the Roman world. It would be close to two thousand years before the Jews would once again establish a nation in their traditional homeland.

Roman Conquest and the Medieval Dispersal

After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, many Jews were taken away as captives and found themselves spread throughout the Roman Empire. These captives formed new Jewish communities and, along with those Jews who fled the Roman onslaught, maintained and adapted Judaism to their new circumstances. These communities would be the main focus of the Jewish faith until the end of the Roman Empire.

During the Middle Ages, Jews slowly emigrated from the Mediterranean region into Northern Europe. As a result, the Jews divided into regional factions: the Ashkenazi of Northern and Eastern Europe, and the Sephardic Jews of the Muslim world. With the discovery of the New World, new Jewish communities formed in the Americas as well.

The Rise of Zionism in the Nineteenth Century

It was during the 19th century that Jews around the world began to conceive of the possibility of returning to the land of Israel. "Zionism," as this movement would come to be called, first arose as a reaction to the easing of restrictions placed against Jews throughout Europe. By the 19th century there were nearly 2.5 million Jews in the world, with 90% of them living in Europe (Maor). As Jews became assimilated into the nation-states of Europe, many began to separate their religious beliefs from their civic lives. Many adopted the prevailing attitude of separation between church and state and became secularized; many spoke the languages of their respective nations, and some even converted to Christianity. There arose a distinct tension between the "personal life of a Jew and the public life among secular society… Zionism was a reaction to the attempts of Jews to bridge this gap" (Maor). The subsequent rise of anti-Semitism in the late 19th century further fueled the movement to create a place where Jews could construct a Jewish national life.

Throughout the 19th century there were isolated calls for the establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine from such proponents as Rabbi Yehuda Shlomo Alkalay, Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Kalischer, and Moses Hess (Maor). In 1862, "Hess argued that the Jews were not a religious group but rather a separate nation characterized by a unique religion whose universal significance should be recognized" (Maor). In the 1870s, the first calls for immigration to Palestine came from Russian Jews, but quickly spread. Zionism then diverged into a practical form, which established Jewish settlements in Palestine, and a political form, which strove for the formal recognition of a Jewish state in Palestine.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Palestine was under the control of the Ottoman Turks, who, being Muslim, were hostile to the idea of a Jewish state. When World War I broke out in Europe, the Ottomans sided with the Central Powers of Germany and Austria. This allowed the British to invade Palestine from their bases in Egypt, and it was not until December 11, 1917 that British General Allenby became the first Christian conqueror since the Crusades to take Jerusalem (Woodward).