1. Ethnos
2. Worldview
3. Way of Life
4. Distinctive
1. First age of Diversity, ca 500 B.C.E to 70 C.E.
2. Age of Definition. 70 C.E. to 640 C. E.
- Rabbinic
- Talmudic
- Classical
- Judaisms
3. The Age of Cogency 640 C.E. to ca. 1800
4. Second Age of Diversity 1800 to present
Paradigm changes
- the place of the individual over community
- secularism
- renewed Zionist impulses
One of our most oft-asked questions is "what is
Zionism?" (http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/zionism/history.cfm)
Zionism is a movement
founded by Theodor Herzl in 1896 whose goal is the return of Jews to Eretz
Yisrael, or Zion, the Jewish synonym for Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
The name of "Zionism" comes from the hill Zion, the hill on which the
Temple of Jerusalem was situated.
Supporters of this movement are called "Zionists".
The Jewish people, from its inception, has been unique by
its identity as a religious entity. Through the centuries its religious character
had been a premise agreed upon by Jews and non-Jews alike. Our faith demands as
the fundamental condition for recognition as a Jew, belief and adherence to the
word of G-d, as was revealed to our forefathers on Mount Sinai. This is in
itself, according to the tenets of the Jewish religion, sufficient to fulfill
the definition of a Jew. Our religious and traditional history bears no aspect
of racism. Hence, one of non-Jewish origin is capable of being proselytized and
attaining the same status as a born Jew. Conversely, one of Jewish birth who
does not recognize his being bound to the Jewish Torah, is by Jewish law a
heretic, and therefore forfeits his spiritual birthrights as a Jew.
The purpose of the Jew is to bear witness to the existence of G-d,
through his adherence to the Torah. The Al-mighty granted the Jews the
land of Israel as the particular setting which would serve as the most
conducive atmosphere to their performance of their duties to G-d.
The Jews in ancient times were banished from the land of Israel
because they had failed to fulfill their obligations to the Al-mighty. Every
Jew acknowledges this in his prayers (Umipnei Chatoeinu Golinu Meiartzeinu).
They accepted the penalty of exile and were at that time expressed sworn by the
Al-mighty not to accelerate their redemption on their own, and especially not
to rebel against the nations under whose rule they were found. To the contrary,
every Jew is commanded to pray for the peace and well being of the government
of which he is the subject.
Through all the years of exile, pious Jews as individuals were
attracted to reside in the Holy Land because of its innate holy character and
the opportunity it offered for the observance of various precepts bound in the
land. Jews as a whole continue to pray that the Al-mighty return his Divine
presence to the Land of Israel, by the coming of the Messiah, who will build
His Temple, from whence will emanate Divine Wisdom and ultimate spiritual
fulfillment of the entire human race.
Through the many years that Jews resided in the Holy Land for this
purpose, they enjoyed tranquil and cordial relations with the non-Jewish
population there.
The Zionist movement which was formed at the latter part of the
last century, sought to endow the Jews with a nationalistic character which was
heretofore strange to them. It sought to deprive them of their historically
religious character and offered in substitution of faith in G-d and adherence
to the Torah, and belief in their ultimate redemption by the coming of the
Messiah, a nationalistic ideology and the possibility of establishing through
political media, a Jewish national homeland.
During the period of the British Mandate, the Balfour
Declaration, which recognized the eventual possibility of founding a Jewish
national homeland, in Palestine, was affirmed to be the British government. The
Jewish Agency, who then was the Chief representative of Zionist interests in
the Holy Land, was entrusted with the issuance of visas to the Holy Land, thus
resulting in an increased Zionist immigration from various parts of the world,
which ultimately succeeded in superceding in numbers, the veteran Orthodox
dwellers.
Orthodox Jewry all over the world and the Orthodox Community in
the Holy Land in particular, immediately sensed in this stage of Zionist
success, the threat of grave danger for the religious future of Jews. The Arab
inhabitants began to exhibit open hostility to their Jewish neighbors. The
British government failed to distinguish between the Orthodox community, who
for generations in habited the Holy Land, and the newly arrived Zionist
immigrants.
With the acquisition by the Zionist nationalists of the power to
organize communities in Palestine, they formed the Vaad Haleumi Leknesset
Yisroel (National Jewish Council Committee). This committee ignored the rights
of the Orthodox veteran dwellers who did not recognize this validity of
Jewish nationality, and whose identification as Jews was solely with their
loyalty to their religious heritage. The religious inhabitants, on the
other hand, shuddered at the prospects of spiritual disintegration of World
Jewry, with the new rise to power of the Zionist nationalists.
The Orthodox inhabitants actively objected to being subject to the
authority of the secularists. They appealed their cause to the League
of Nations, who consequently granted them a "Right of exclusion"
to the subjugation to the Vaad Haleumi, which rights provided that any Jew
wishing not to be incorporated into the Vaad Haleumi, may remain lawfully
independent if he so stated his wish in writing. Thousands of Jews did so.
Such was the case until November 1948, when the United
Nations finally sanctioned the establishment of a Zionist State. We do not
doubt that their success in finally realizing their goal was due in great
measure to their having misled the world into viewing the Zionist cause
as the Jewish cause. The formation of the Zionist state resulted in the
automatic deprivation of the autonomy heretofore possessed by the Orthodox
inhabitants of the Holy Land.
The Zionists grasped in the acquisition of their new powers, the
opportunity to openly disassociate themselves from any identification with Jews
as a religion. They systematically began to orient the minds of their generations
according to the tenets of Zionist nationalism. Through the Ministry of
Religions they employed part of the Rabbinate to assist them in
their aims.
The religious Jews who by virtue of their faith, clearly
contradicted Zionist nationalism, and who had lived peacefully with their
Arab neighbors for generations, became unwillingly identified with the Zionist
cause and their struggle with the Arabs. They requested the United
Nations that Jerusalem be designated as a defacto international city. They appealed
to the diplocatic corps assigned to Jerusalem -- but to no avail. They were
hence confronted with the choice of either becoming a part of the Zionist
State, which diametrically opposed the interests of Jews as a religion, or
abandoning the land of which their forefathers were the first Jewish settlers.
We find it of supreme importance to emphasize that we are fearful
of the consequences of the Zionist rebellion against the Creator, as stated
expressly in Jeremich, "For it is bad and bitter your renunciation of
G-d..." We wish not to be affected by the behavior of this government who
in the name of Israel, persist in their renunciation and utter disregard of
religious Judaism such as is clearly attested by their laws expressly
permitting wanton autopsies (Law of Anatomy and Pathology, 1953), forcible
desecration of the Sabbath (Law of Emergency Labor Draft 1967: PPS 1, 19; 27,
36), profanation of Holy Sites by retaining non-religious custodians,
desecration of Holy Cemetaries by Safed, Beth Shearim and elsewhere, and
countless more examples, proof of which is readily available.
Insofar as all human being find necessary the protection of their
rights as human beings, we hereby request all those that find it within their
power, to aid us in reacquiring the rights we possessed prior to the formation
of the Zionist State*, to remain lawfully independent of the Zionist authority.
_____________
* The Laws of Palestine -- Robert Drayton -- Volume 3, Page 213B -- Chapter
126, Paragraph 17(4) -- January 1, 1928.