The Jewish people throughout Europe had been wanting a state in Palestine for years, and World War II was the propeller to make it happen. After the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust, the Zionist movement became a lot stronger and had a much stronger argument. It was not that more people adopted the ideology of the Zionist movement, but that the shared Jewish experience got a lot stronger. Psychological and therapeutic support became the backbone of the Zionist movement, binding them together with desire for a state more than ever.
In Avinoam J. Patt’s chapter, “Living in Landsberg, Dreaming of Deganiah: Jewish Displaced Youths and Zionism after the Holocaust,” he discusses the rise of Zionism and and preparation that the Jews went through postwar. Kibbutz groups, which were communal settlements unique to Israel, popped up around Europe as Jews were excited to practice what life would be like in their newly created state. The Jews that participated in these Kibbutz groups, and those who began to join the Zionist movement, were not all joining due to the ideology (p. 116). One of the main draws was psychological support, which is echoed in Gerard Daniel Cohen’s chapter, “Extraterritorial Jews: Humanitarianism, Philosemitism, and the Advent of Jewish Statehood.” He argues that the strong support that emerged for Zionism after the war was “therapeutic and utopian more than staunchly ideological” (p. 3). The Jewish peoples’ very unique and disturbing shared experience during WWII united them more than any ideology could. In Tom Segev’s article, “The Streets Are Paved with Money,” he examines how the pride that the Jewish people felt towards their history along with their new shared experiences allowed Jewish support for the Israeli State to really come together (p. 29).
The atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust of World War II allowed the Zionist movement to gain traction and lead to the creation of the Israeli state. Although the Zionist movement had been very strong before the outbreak of WWII, it was the collective experience that allowed the Jewish people to band together, whether they were truly behind the ideology of Zionism or not.
When looking at the events of the Holocaust it is easy to understand why many Jews left Europe. Though a question does arise, why did it that these events to build the state of Israel?
Christopher Jackson
To me it always seemed like Zionists were a very small but vocal minority. Do you think that the events of World War II added the numbers of the Zionists, or the Jews in Israel settling in Israel were just passive participants?
I think your statement which said, ” the pride that the Jewish people felt towards their history along with their new shared experiences allowed Jewish support for the Israeli State to really come together ” was very important. There is a reason why Jewish people have always been seen as outcast. In history, they been described as being very religious and having a very particular shared culture. This identity and shared beliefs of their history has always kept them together.
The idea of this combined understanding, the Jews who survived had to find a new place and the ones who chose to stay with the culture chose to conjugate with like-minded people. This gave the Zionists a chance to persuade not only fellow Jews but Europe as well to their cause. They used this as a way of telling Europe that if they hated them that much to give them their own state away from their site and influence. Europe agreed because of the guilt they had of not preventing it and the possibility of something like this happening to them again.
I agree with William’s comment and I would just like to add: What are the implications if the Jews moving to Palestine “were just passive participants”? Does this cast their argument for a new state, one which is based in this Zionist rhetoric, in a different light? Does this then turn into a simple case of postwar restitution from the international community to the Jews who were brutalized and slaughtered? Is it just a quick fix? Do you think that it actually “fixed” anything?
The zionists never seemed like they outweighed other Jewish ideas but they were incredibly outspoke to me. Do you think that they would have ever been able to gain more traction among the Jewish people if not for the holocaust?