The insular character of the Jewish community, at home and in exile, can best be described in the form of analogy. Jews do not proselytize, but this age-old Israelite imperative not to proselytize isn’t based in ethnic chauvinism. Rather, the aforementioned creed that character is based on action, dictates to us that proselytization is unnecessary….
For nearly two thousand years of exile the Jewish people suffered terrible persecution at the hands of their host governments and peoples. In Arab/Islamic countries in both Africa and the lands of the east, Jews were relegated to second class status (Dhimmi in Arabic) where they were often victims of massacres and institutional (legal) humiliation….
Staunch anti-assimilationist Ze’ev Jabotinsky may have inherited the national pride and self-actualization tenets of the Zionist ethos from the likes of Herzl and Pinkser, but he quickly made it his own. Amidst the outbreak of bloody anti-Semitic pogroms that struck Russia in the turn of the century, Jabotinsky founded the Jewish Self-Defense Organization; where he…
In 1999, when Benny Begin and Michael Kleiner split from the Likud on the political level, Karma Feinstein-Cohen, along with other Jabotinsky ideological adherents, left the Betar youth movement to start World Herut and its youth movement, Magshimey Herut (achievers of liberty); the reborn Jabotinsky movement for Zionist education and activism. World Herut has established…
The land of Israel has traditionally been understood as one of the three pillars of Jewish civilization: The G-D of Israel, the People of Israel, and the Land of Israel. Regardless, of one’s personal beliefs and/or level of observance, every Jew is connected by his/her roots to this land, the land of their recent and…
When Zionists declared independence and the return of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel, the founding fathers of Zionism understood that they were making a proclamation of the justice of the Jewish people’s return to sovereignty in their indigenous homeland. That is why Israel’s Declaration of Establishment proclaims: “Eretz-Israel was the birthplace of the…
The Iron Wall, Jabotinsky’s treatise— a cornerstone of Zionist thought— contextualizes the often misunderstood elements that underpin Zionism. Its legitimacy, necessity, and most importantly the justice it demands in the goal of liberating the exiled Jewish people via a revolutionary Return to Zion; their ancestral and indigenous homeland. Zionism, the idea of one of humanity’s…
While Jews have certainly been labeled by certain leaders and societies as belonging to a specific “race”, Jewish identity is rooted in concepts that are much deeper than blood and biology. While many Jews share genetic ancestry with the ancient Hebrew ancestors of the Jewish people, the heritage inherited from those ancestors defined Hebrew identity…
Of course, there are. Jews, like any other people, are prone to the same ills that afflict all of mankind. Judaism fundamentally rejects idol worship, yet Jewish history is replete with Jews relapsing into idol worship and other, far more immoral behaviors. A brief read through the books of the Judges or Prophets in the…
The language of “occupation” insinuates that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is both foreign and illegal. This is highly controversial and founded in fundamental prejudices regarding the Jewish people and the peace process. The term “occupied territories” is laden with legal and moral prejudice against Israel. Legally speaking, to be an occupier is to…
