Israel and Jewish communities worldwide: New approaches and directions

Abstract

This special issue of The Journal of Israeli History reflects on the development of complicated relationships between the yishuv, and later, the State of Israel, with Jews worldwide, including those who identify with the Zionist movement while mainly residing outside of Palestine and Israel. The characterization of such relationships were (and are) frequently couched in emotionally-charged terms, ranging from ardent love and a fervent embrace, to cold distance suffused with contempt and rejection. In a great deal of Zionist and Israeli discourse, “diaspora,” the term most frequently used for Jewish communities beyond the yishuv and Israel, infers that the Land of Israel is the center, and the Diaspora, the periphery. Those living outside of the exalted center are denigrated as spiritually diminished, purportedly endemic to galut and exile. In Zionist mythology, individual and collective redemption is exclusively attained by making aliyah and settling in the Land of Israel. Such vague and quasi-mystical hyperbole has long been inextricably bound with the earthly politics of Zionism and the vicissitudes of approaches to Israel. But while Zion as a messianic utopia, the shape of which depends on one’s variety of Jewishness, remains an abstract ideal, the Zionist movement and the State of Israel has played a variety of roles with regard to Jews and their communities. And since its creation in 1948, Israel has stimulated and helped shape the perceptions and self-perceptions of Jews around the world. These communities have simultaneously influenced Israeli culture, society and politics. Populationmovement in both directions is a key element of these relations asmigrants serve as agents of transcultural exchange and considerably determine mutual perceptions. These complex and multilayered relations and their representations were the common theme of a workshop held at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich in May 2016. Most of the contributions to this volume were, in their earlier incarnations, presented at this workshop. Each of them, however, have been expanded and revised according to the stipulation of the editors and anonymous readers for the journal, to whom the editors express their gratitude. The first article, “Early Danish Zionism and the Ethnification of the Danish Jews,” by Maja Gildin Zuckerman, explores the early Zionist movement as an agent of change in the entire Danish Jewish community. The scrutiny of Danish Zionism, despite being a distinct minoritywithin-a-minority phenomenon, enhances our understanding of the impact of incipient Zionism precisely through the organizational means by which the movement’s adherents