Asher Ginsberg
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Asher Ginsberg (1856 - 1927), also known by the pen name Ahad Ha'am (also: Achad Ha'am, Echad Ha'am etc.) (Hebrew: one of the people, compare with L.L. Zamenhof's Unuel), was one of the great pre-state Zionist thinkers.
Ginzberg was a friend and supporter of Leon Pinsker, and a leader of the Hovevei Tsyion (lovers of Zion) movement. Hovevei Tsiyon began as independent study circles in the late 19th century, and formed a confederation called Hibbath Tziyon. Their practical aim was settlement of Jews in Palestine, and they produced the settlements of the first Aliya (immigration wave). The Zionist settlement program of those days was, however, beset by nearly insurmountable practical difficulties, so that many of these settlements failed or were failing.
Unlike Pinsker, however, Echad Ha'am did not believe in political Zionism or in settlement of Palestine before conditions were ripe. Conditions would somehow ripen, he thought, by spreading enthusiasm for the idea of returning to the Land and nationalist sentiment and culture among Jews in the Diaspora. He split from the Zionist movement after the first Zionist congress, because he did not believe that Herzl's program was practical. He would have laughed had he known that Herzl wrote in his diary after the first Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in August, 1897:
"Were I to sum up the Basle Congress in a word- which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly- it would be this: At Basle, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. If not in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it."
Achad Ha'am traveled frequently to Palestine and published reports about the progress of Jewish settlement there. They were generally glum. They reported on hunger, on Arab dissatisfaction and unrest, on unemployment, and on people leaving Palestine. He believed that rather than aspiring to establish a "National Home" or state immediately, Zionism must aspire to bring Jews to Palestine gradually, making it a cultural center. At the same time, Zionism must inspire a revival of Jewish national life abroad; that would help to bring about a Jewish majority in Palestine. Then and only then will the Jewish people be strong enough to assume the mantle of building a nation state, according to Achad Ha'am. He simply could not believe that the impoverished settlers of his time, ignored by the majority of Jews, would every lead to a Jewish homeland. He saw that the Hovevei Tzion movement of which he was a member, was a failure, in that the new villages created in Israel were dependent on the largess of outside benefactors.
Achad Ha'am's ideas were popular at a very difficult time for Zionism, beginning after the failures of the first Aliya. His unique contribution was to emphasize the importance of reviving Hebrew and Jewish culture both in Palestine and in the Diaspora, and this was recognized only belatedly and became part of the Zionist program after 1898. Herzl did not have much use for Hebrew, and many wanted German to be the language of the Jewish state. Achad Ha'am is in some ways responsible for the revival of Hebrew and Jewish culture, and for cementing the link between the Jewish state in the making and Hebrew culture.
Achad Ha'am saw what was in front of him - the impoverished settlements and the pitiful conditions in Palestine. Herzl looked down from the mountain and saw the promised land. Achad Ha'am could not have foreseen the First World War or the Balfour declaration, nor the Holocaust. He should have understood however, that while few Jews would come to Palestine as long as conditions were what they were under the Ottoman Empire, increasing numbers of immigrants would be attracted by improving conditions and by statehood. Like Herzl, Achad Ha'am was apparently blind to the potential of Jews of the Arab countries. For him, and for everyone else at the Zionist congress, "the East" was Russia.
Achad Ha'am's "cultural Zionism" and his writings have been widely distorted however, or misunderstood and quoted out of context to imply that he thought Jews should not settle in their land, or that he thought it was impossible to ever establish a Jewish state. In 1889 his first article criticizing practical Zionism, called "Lo Ze ha-Derekh" (This is not the way (http://www.zionismontheweb.org/ehad_haam1.htm)) appeared in "Ha - Melitz." The ideas in this article were the basis for the Bnai Moshe (sons of Moses) group that he founded that year. The Bnai Moshe lasted until 1897. It occupied itself with the improvement of Hebrew education, with the dissemination of Hebrew literature, and with the interests of the Palestinian settlements.
In 1897, following the Basle Zionist Congress, which called for a Jewish national home "recognized in international law" (Volkerrechtlich), Achad Ha'am wrote an article called Jewish State Jewish Problemridiculing (http://www.zionismontheweb.org/stateproblem.htm) the idea of a Volkerrechtlichstate given the then pitiful conditions of the Jewish settlements in Palestine. He emphasized that without a Jewish nationalist revival abroad, it would be impossible to get realistic support for a Jewish national home. Even if the national home were created and recognized in international law, it would be weak and would quickly be devoured by greedy powers.
In 1898, the Zionist congress adopted the idea of disseminating Jewish culture in the Diaspora as a means of advancing the Zionist movement and the revival of the Jewish people. The Bnai Moshe founded Rehovoth, as a settlement that was to be self sufficient, as well the Achiasaf Hebrew publishing company. Achad Ha'am died in Tel-Aviv in 1927.
Adapted from the original at Zionism on the Web (http://www.zionismontheweb.org/ehad_haam1.htm) by the author. This work may be reproduced with this credit.
External links
General links
- History of Zionism and the Creation of Israel (http://wwww.zionismontheweb.org/zionism_history.htm) Provides background on cultural Zionism and other controversies in the Zionist movement, First Aliya, Hovevei Tziyon...
- Biography (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/ahad_haam.html)
Essays
- Essays in Hebrew (http://benyehuda.org/ginzburg/)
- This is not the way (The Wrong Way) (http://www.zionismontheweb.org/ehad_haam1.htm)(1889)
- Letter to My Friends - Pinsker's Pamphlet: Auto-Emancipation (http://www.zionismontheweb.org/achadhaam_letterpinsker.htm) (1891)
- "Anticipations and Survivals" (http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6640/zion/anticipations.html) (1891)
- Jewish State Jewish Problem (http://www.zionismontheweb.org/stateproblem.htm) (1897)he:אחד העם