Early Zionist Philosophy and Socialism

 By the 1860s, Zionism began to increase in prominence. Throughout the late 1800s, there were a number of anti-semitic incidents throughout Europe which spurred the Zionist movement. Notably, the Dreyfus Affair began in France in 1894 (DC Holocaust Museum). Alfred Dreyfus was accused and convicted of treason for giving French military secrets to Germany. Even after evidence came out proving Dreyfus wrongfully convicted and innocent, the courts still convicted him in a second trial in a move that many viewed as anti-semitic (DC Holocaust Museum). As a result of the trial, Theodor Herzl became a strong proponent of Zionism, created the Zionist Organization, and began strategically planning a safe haven for the Jewish people (Armstrong, 366).

Similarly, Moses Hess saw the seeds of Nazism growing in Germany in the 1860s and wanted a Jewish society in Palestine. He believed the messianic kingdom of Palestine could be “the utopia prophesied by Karl Marx” for the Jews (Armstrong, 364). David Ben-Gurion, who would later become the first Prime Minister of Israel, left during the Second Aliyah from Poland in search of a better economic situation (Armstrong, 367). The rising antisemitism throughout Europe, the feeling of displacement for European Jews, motivated them to find a new homeland where they could live in peace and security.

While many European Jews immigrated to places like the United States for economic opportunity–a number made the trek to Palestine. The first Zionists wanted a homeland in Palestine more for safety and economic purposes rather than for religious reasons. The Jews who were purged from Europe and made the trek to Palestine were working class individuals who grew up reading Marxist pamphlets. They wanted to create a socialist society to support themselves–the working class. Far outside the walls of Jerusalem, in a city that would later be known as Tel Aviv, the focus of the earliest Zionists was on creating an agricultural society. 

Today, the Israel government does not have many ties to the early Labor Zionists who first moved to Palestine. The Labor Party currently has the least amount of seats in the Israeli Parliament while the far-right conservative Likud Party holds the majority (Jewish Virtual Library).

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/alfred-dreyfus-and-the-dreyfus-affairhttps://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israeli-electoral-history