Loading...
Always In The Name of Zion: A Rhetorical History of Ahad Ha-am and Cultural Zionism
Stutzman, Jacob
Stutzman, Jacob
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
Cultural Zionism was an ideological position that both predated and contended with traditional political Zionism. Operating from the assumption that a national sense of identity had to be established before a physical state could flourish, cultural Zionism was less reliant than political Zionism on anti-semitism as a justification for creating a Jewish state. Moreover, cultural Zionism envisioned a continued Diaspora of Jews around the world, with a Jewish state serving as a safe haven for those who were oppressed in other countries and a center from which Jewish culture could emanate into the world. The originator and strongest advocate for cultural Zionism was Ahad Ha-am, an auto-didact Russian Jew who spent his public career arguing for cultural Zionism against the other Zionist ideologies of the day. In this dissertation, I examine Ha-am's public advocacy in three distinct historical periods to construct a rhetorical understanding of his vision of a Jewish state. I conclude that although cultural Zionism complicates the typically simplistic understanding of Zionism and Ha-am's arguments were both compelling a prescient, his reliance on difficult truth-telling and a confrontational style limited the direct influence he could have on the Zionist movement.
Description
Date
2012-08-31
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Kansas
Archive Status
This item contains archived web content.
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Rhetoric, Judaic studies, Communication, Ha-am, Ahad, Israel, Palestine, Zionism