Videolibrary for the Study of History
Modern Zionism
and Shlomo Avineri's Books
Talking about the Modern Period,
nationalism is often mentioned.
And rightfully.
Nationalism is the true power
in the 19th and 20th century.
When we talk about nationalism,
we talk about one of the great
ideologies of the 19th and 20th century.
Besides liberalism, conservatism
and socialism, there is nationalism.
When we try to characterise it,
for instance European nationalism
in the 19th and 20th century,
we talk about such phenomena as the
rise of new states in the 19th century.
The new nation state called Germany
came into being, as well as Italy.
We talk for example
about state nationalism,
nationalism from above,
nationalism from below.
That is actually the Czech case
because it was the Czech nationalism
which originated among
the lower or middle classes
in the multinational
Austrian empire,
Austria-Hungary at that time.
We often talk about the language
when we talk about nationalism.
The language is perceived
as the symbol of all symbols,
the important issue
which influences and creates
or co-creates the modern nation.
But there is one specific case
in the Modern Period.
There is not only nationalism of
the European ethnic groups or nations
or nationalism of multi-ethnic empires,
but there is also
Jewish nationalism.
This nationalism has
a number of specifics,
a number of paradoxes and
a distinctive revolutionary development.
We have to be aware
that in general Jewish nationalism
and its specific form,
Zionism,
is one of the most revolutionary
affair of 19th and 20th century.
And so that we can understand and
explore Jewish nationalism or Zionism,
we should reach for some books.
And I would like to
recommend them this way.
There are two books by Israel professor
Shlomo Avinery in the first place.
Avinery worked at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Although the books were published
in Czech quite recently,
they are not new.
They are few decades old,
but in my opinion
they are still worth reading.
I would like to recommend,
especially to the students
of the Bachelor's studies,
the book called
The Making of Modern Zionism.
The Czech version was published
in Prague in 2004 I think
and it is de facto a guide
to Jewish nationalism
and especially to Zionism
of the 19th and 20th century.
That means from
the time of Haskalah,
the Jewish Enlightenment of
the end of the 18th century,
till the half of the 20th century,
the birth of the Jewish state.
Shlomo Avineri did a great job,
he presented the history of European
Jewry through the extraordinary,
excellent figures of Jewish history,
Jewish thinking
and Jewish intelligentsia.
So in this book,
The Making of Modern Zionism,
there are the representative
figures of Jewish thinkers
who influenced Jewish
nationalism and Zionism.
There are figures like Moses Hess
who combined nationalism and socialism.
There are figures like Peretz
Smolenskin or Eliezer Ben Jehuda.
Jehuda was the one who caused,
or influenced,
that Hebrew became a modern
communicative language.
Instead of being a liturgical language,
it became an everyday spoken language
commonly used in Israel nowadays.
And the figures are presented
here up to David Ben Gurion,
the man who directly contributed
to the creation of
modern state of Israel.
So that was the book
The Making of Modern Zionism.
Beside this one I would like
to recommend another one
which was published
in Czech quite recently,
in 2012.
This book follows up the first one,
but on the contrary it is not
an overview of individual figures
but it focuses on one representative
personality of Zionism
and Jewish nationalism.
Shlomo Avineri introduced
the extraordinary character
of Theodor Herzl.
The book is called
Herzl's Vision:
Theodor Herzl and the Foundation
of the Jewish State.
I would rather recommend this book to
the students of the Master's studies
because it is de facto a special
monograph focussed on a personality,
its development and activities.
The personality of Theodor Herzl.
Theodor Herzl was a remarkable person,
an emancipated man who lived
in the emancipated European background.
Thus, we should not imagine
him as a traditional Jew
wearing caftan with orthodox opinions,
because he was an emancipated,
assimilated Jew.
But because of his participation
in the Dreyfus affair
and his journalistic work,
he came to the conclusion that
the Jews deserve the same benefits
as the rest of
the European nations.
And that they deserve their
homeland and their own state.
As we already know,
the ambitions were successful,
Theodor Herzl as well as the European
Jewry gained their own state Israel.
Shlomo Avineri presents here the
exceptional figure with single details.
He works with archive materials,
with other biographies and literature
and creates an outstanding portrait
which shows us how often is
history made by individuals.
Translated by Petra Černá
Created by Ondřej Neubauer
2018
