Jewish "Diaspora"

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History of Zionism

Zionism is a movement that seeks to return the Jewish people from exile back to the land of Israel, and is a central component of Jewish religious belief (Snitkoff, 2011). This movement was started at the end of the 19th Century, and transformed from a religious belief into a political ideology by Theodor Hertzl (Snitkoff, 2011). To understand why the Jewish people felt they needed such a movement, it is important to understand a bit of history related to the Jewish people.

The Diaspora

The Jewish Diaspora began in 587 B.C; this is when the Kingdom of Judea was conquered by the Babylonians (The Jewish Diaspora, 2011). When the Jewish people were conquered by the Babylonians, they were moved into Babylon, which is in the area of Southern Iraq (The Jewish Diaspora, 2011). It is because of the Diaspora that the Jewish people have been scattered throughout the world, but the Zionist Movement has given Jews the hope to return to their homeland after many years of exile. There are currently over thirteen million Jews around the world today, with just over five million residing in the nation of Israel (Rich, 2011).

Impact of World War I

During World War I, the Jewish people were again on the move. Many of the Jews viewed Russia as the enemy and Germany was considered a country that supported the Jewish community (Fraenkel, 2007). The Jews migrated into Britain, and more than 200,000 Jews came to America for refuge. The United States became a financial center for the Zionist movement around 1914 (Fraenkel, 2007). After the war broke out in 1914, it was the desire of the Jews to remain neutral and to support allies of the Germans, namely Turkey, because they were then in control of the region then known as Palestine (Reinharz, J., 1993). The Jewish people maintained this commitment throughout the entire war. On November 2, 1917, Arthur Balfour made a landmark declaration known as the Balfour Declaration, which expressed the view of Britain's government for the establishment in Palestine of a new Jewish homeland (Yapp, 1987). This declaration led to the establishment of the Jewish State. The reasoning behind the acceptance of the declaration may have been to keep President Woodrow Wilson of the United States happy, as he had Zionists on his staff, to keep continued support of the Jewish community, because they were instrumental in ...