Zionist History & Thought

Recent years have seen the flourishing of research on Lithuanian Kabbalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the point that some scholars speak of a defined and delineated stream of Kabbalah, a school unto itself dubbed "Lithuanian Kabbalah." Such scholars include within this stream all those who saw the Vilna Gaon as their teacher in Kabbalah (parallel to the position of the Baal Shem Tov in Hasidism) and they ascribe to it such fixed categories as its "Articles of Faith." In their conception, this stream was part and parcel of the broader and well-known nationalist-messianic current that had its source, supposedly, in the Vilna Gaon himself; this current reached its full fruition in the twentieth century, and so too has the smaller stream within it, now a clearly defined "school," developed in various ways until the present. As if this were not enough, scholars have joined the later ideological trend which seeks to revise the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a decidedly messianic way, presenting it in a continuous line from the Vilna Gaon to the emergence of Zionism and then to the founding of the State of Israel. Again, the Vilna Gaon is not merely presented as a "herald" of Zionism but as one who encoded within his Torah the secret of redemption, the beginning of which, apparently, we are witnessing today. The article conducts a critical analysis of the concept of "Lithuanian Kabbalah," and uses as its case study the life and teachings of Rabbi Shimon Tsvi Horowitz.


בשנים האחרונות צומח ועולה מחקר סביב למקובלים בני ליטא במאות התשע עשרה והעשרים, עד שיש כאלו המדברים על זרם מוגדר ומובחן, אסכולה בפני עצמה, המכונה 'קבלה ליטאית'. בתוך זרם זה כוללים את כל אלו שראו בגר"א את מורם בקבלה, כמעין בעש"ט לחסידות, ומונים קטגוריות מקובעות של 'עיקרי אמונה' של אותו זרם הרוכב על מהלך משיחי ולאומי ידוע שמקורו כביכול בגר"א עצמו והגיע לגמר בישולו במאה העשרים. עד שנוצר בעיני כמה חוקרים מעין 'חוג' ברור ומוגדר שמתגלגל באופנים שונים עד לימינו. אם לא די בכך, הרי שהמדברים על אותו זרם קבלי רוכבים למעשה על קו אידיאולוגי מאוחר שבא לפרש מחדש את ההיסטוריה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל במאה התשע עשרה ברוח משיחית וליצור מעין המשכיות מימי הגר"א עד להופעתה של הציונות ולמאורעות שהתרחשו עם הקמת מדינת ישראל. שוב אין הגר"א מצטייר רק כ'מבשר' הציונות אלא כמי שצפן בתורתו את סוד הגאולה שאנו עומדים לכאורה בפתחה. המאמר עוסק בניתוח ביקורתי של המשוג "קבלת ליטאית" וכמקרה מבחן יש כאן דיון בדרכו של ר' שמעון צבי הורביץ

No history of a population is, probably, as ‘mysterious’ as the Roma
(“Gypsy”) people. However, the contemporary mitochondria, DNA,
phylogenetic and population history research confirms the Classical Greek
writers such as Herodotus’ position that Europe is but peopled by people
from East Africa known as Ancient Cushites or Ethiopians or Egyptians.
The Roma are consistently clear—they count themselves to Ancient
Nubian-Africans. This paper hypothesized the Roma People cannot be
different from the Ancient African Cushites, who ruled, lived and civilized
the three oldest continents. Classical as well as contemporary Roma and
Oromo-Cush, as well as Ancient Egypto-Meroitic, linguistic and cultural
lexicons were collected and analyzed in the wider comparative culturalhistorical-
evolutionary perspectives. The findings indicate that there is
significant lexical, grammatical and cultural-historical similarity which
supports the Ancient Cushite origin of the Roma language and people. Key
implications have emerged. The Roma people cannot be different from the
whole Euroasians who populated Europe and Asia moving out of Africa in
the three Millennia preceding the Christian era as well as the first Millennia
of this era. The Roma people populated Euroasia in the same way and
time the rest peopled the two continents moving out of (East-North)
Africa. Europe is as much homeland to them as it is to the rest of their
friends. The whole Indo-European languages must have been the
offshoots of these pioneers of human civilizations. The continuing racism
against the Roma People is but an irrational and crazy existent in the
heart of the ‘Modern’ and ‘Civilized’ Europe.

The establishment of the Technikum - now the Technion - at the beginning of the 20th century is considered to be one of the most important events in the history of Haifa. This institute of science and technology was the first of its kind not only in Haifa, or in Eretz Israel. In fact, there was no technical university worthy of that title in the entire Ottoman Empire. The decision of the German Ezra (“Aid”) Society to focus their efforts on Haifa had long-term effects on the development of Jewish settlement in the city. The process of creating the Technion in Haifa continued for more than 15 years (1908-1924), during which time – in 1913-1914 – the controversy about the language of instruction raged: German or Hebrew? The "War of the Languages", ending in victory for Hebrew, was a national contest that formulated the emerging national identity of the Jewish settlement (Yishuv).

A lo largo de su historia el Imperio romano tuvo que hacer frente a numerosas revueltas, debido al enorme territorio que controlaba. De entre los pueblos que las protagonizaron, los hebreos se contaban entre los que con mayor insistencia lucharon por recuperar su independencia. En cuanto a los diversos conflictos que enfrentaron a judíos y romanos, la que, a la postre, seria recordada como la Primera Guerra Judeo-romana (66-73 d.C.) pasó a la historia como el más importante de todos. Ello se debe tanto a que requirió de la participación de dos futuros emperadores al mando de las tropas romanas que debían restablecer la paz en la provincia de Judea, Vespasiano y su hijo Tito, como al hecho de que la ciudad de Jerusalén y el Gran Templo que albergaba acabaron completamente destruidos.

En el año 66 d.C. numerosos factores se unieron al odio que sectores radicales hebreos sentían hacia sus conquistadores romanos, provocando la caída del procurador de Judea, Gesio Floro, y la derrota del Legado de Siria, Cestio Galo, en Beth Horón, quien acudió con sus tropas a pacificar la región sin conseguirlo. El movimiento fue cobrando fuerza tras estos éxitos, y Jerusalén se convirtió en el epicentro del independentismo judío. Roma no podía permanecer pasiva ante estos acontecimientos y Nerón envió allí a Vespasiano, un general experimentado, para acabar de una vez por todas con el problema. La resistencia implacable que demostraron los rebeldes y los problemas políticos que, durante ese tiempo, se produjeron en Roma, provocaron que la conquista final quedara en manos de su capaz hijo Tito quien, a la postre, consiguió conquistar Jerusalén y acabar con la revuelta. El gran triunfo que se celebró en Roma para conmemorar la victoria era lo que la nueva dinastía Flavia necesitaba para afianzar su poder. Sin embargo, la campaña no finalizó hasta el año 73 d.C., tras la toma de la fortaleza de Masada, donde los últimos insurrectos prefirieron suicidarse antes de ser derrotados. El enfrentamiento se saldaría con una enorme pérdida de vidas, tanto entre los soldados romanos como entre los insurrectos judíos y la población civil. Gracias a la obra de Flavio Josefo, podemos reconstruir lo sucedido para poder así conocer con detalle uno de los grandes episodios de la Historia Antigua.

This paper explores the anti-Jewish heart of Modern Political Zionism. It is asserted that modern Zionism is a racist, anti-Semitic ideology and movement in a double sense. Zionism is most clearly racist in the obvious sense that it is an ideology invented for the specific purpose of displacing the native inhabitants of a land in favour of an external group that claims sole title to that land, as a superior, so-called ‘Chosen People’. At the centre of this worldview is a profound pessimism: anti-Semitism is eternal, because it is impossible to eradicate.

The article concerns an issue uncommon in Poland pertaining to the way Jews perceived the opening of the Hebrew University. The main sources used by the author are “Nowy Dziennik” and “Chwila”. Those journals published first in Cracow and then in Lwów throughout the Second Republic of Poland were of great importance for Jewish people. They were also Zionist titles and the opening of Hebrew university was highly valued by them. The author presented the nascent idea of a Hebrew University which was present among Jewish intellectuals since the 1880s. The outcome of World War I had a decisive impact on establishing a Jewish higher school in Palestine. The attempts made by the Zi-onist movement finally met with success in 1925.  The article presents the expectations and response of Jews and Christians both in the country and abroad. Many world-class scientists and politicians expressed their interest in the university.

بعد أن سجّل أحد الفيديوهات بالصدفة حادثة تعرّضي لتحرّش جنسي على معبر رفح، تحوّل جسدي إلى حلبة تحاربت فوقها القوى الأيديولوجيّة الأكثر هيمنةً في غزّة. دفعني هذا الفيديو، ودفع صفتي كشخص، إلى الهامش، تحت ستار "حمايتي" كامرأة، ا مر الذي يُعدّ من البديهيّات و"حسّاً مشتركاً" في نظر المجتمع عموماً. أثبت الخطاب االإعلامي المرتبط بالحادثة تعدّد صراعات النساء في المجتمع الفلسطيني، كما الدّور المركزي الذي يؤدّيه االإعلام والبنى السلطويّة في تعريف بعض الخطابات المهيمنة وترسيخها، كالأبويّة. لكنّ النساء قدّمن أمثلة  لا تُحصى عن مقاومة يخضنها بشكل ظاهر وغير ظاهر من أجل استرداد دورهنّ كفاعلات قادرات على مواجهة القمع والذكوريّة. وفي حالتي أنا، فقد أتاحت لي أدوات التواصل الاجتماعي باسترجاع السياق الحقيقي لحادثة التحرّش الجنسي وفضح العادات الثقافية الذكوريّة التي تختصر النساء بأجسادهنّ وتُحدهنّ وتُهمشهنّ. كما نجحت في تمهيد الطريق للمزيد من النقاشات المفتوحة حول الانتهاكات التي تتعرّض لها النساء بشكل يومي في الفضاءات الخاصّة والعامة، ممّا فرض تحدّياً واضحاً للتابوهات الثقافيّة المحيطة بالعنف الجنسي
الًممارس على النساء

Beyond the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
from Blackfriars Hall PLUS 2 years ago / via Vimeo Desktop Uploader NOT YET RATED
Historical Approaches to International Law, Immigration Policy and Arab-Jewish Rapprochement - Blackfriars, 3rd May 2011
The Las Casas Institute welcomes Robert Franklin Barsky (Ph.D. McGill), to Oxford to give a seminar open to those in all departments and colleges. Robert Barsky is Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Director of Graduate Studies in French at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Can a person who has divorced himself from Jewish culture still be considered a member of the Jewish national collective? Does Jewish nationalism allow for multiple positions regarding the very connection of Jews with Judaism? This article examines the responses of Ahad Ha-am and Mordecai Kaplan to these questions, juxtaposing their positions with those of three rival exponents of Jewish nationalism: Theodore Herzl, Yosef Hayim Brenner, and the hypothetical case of a Jew who adopted Christianity as his religion. An additional case for comparison is Ahad Ha’am and Mordecai Kaplan’s differing reactions towards the Reform formula of attachment to the Jewish religion, rather than to Jewish nationality.

In an earlier article titled 'What Egypt needs now – Part I, Sinai', I suggested a series of measures that the Egyptian government must take immediately to make sure that civil order and concord will prevail in the area and nationwide. These measures are expected to thwart an existential threat against Egypt's national integrity. The existing threat is very real and the dangers tremendous. In the present article, I will reveal covert insinuations made by a key Israeli minister, proceeding through textual analysis. These hints do not augur well for Egypt's territorial integrity and must therefore be taken very seriously.
First published on 27th October 2014 here:
https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/what-egypt-needs-now-part-ii-an-existential-threat-must-be-thwarted/

"הקורס עוסק בפלמוסים ובסוגיות מרכזיות הנובעות וקשורות לצמיחתה של הלאומית היהודית במאה העשרים תוך שימת דגש על פולמוסים פנימיים ומפעלי כינוס. נקרא טקסטים הגותיים מרכזיים סביב לסוגיות הבאות: פולמוס אחד העם ומיכה יוסף ברדיצ'בסקי; יוסף חיים ברנר, יוסף קלוזנר ו'מאורע ברנר'; חיים נחמן ביאליק ותוכניות הכינוס; גרשם שלום, שמואל הוגו ברגמן ופולמוסי ברית שלום; אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק ועליית הציונות הדתית; ריב הלשונות והקמת האוניברסיטה העברית; ברל כצנלסון והוצאת עם עובד.
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