- Proposals for a Jewish state
There were several proposals for a Jewish state in the course of
Jewish history between the destruction of ancient Israel and the founding of the modernState of Israel . While some of those have come into existence, others were never implemented. The Jewish national homeland usually refers to theLand of Israel . [TheLand of Israel andJerusalem have been embedded into Jewish national and religious consciousness since the 10th century BCE:
*"Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some three thousand years ago, when KingDavid seized the crown and united thetwelve tribes from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. "To Rule Jerusalem", University of California Press, 2000, p. 8. ISBN 0520220927
*"The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe. "The Holy City:Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament", Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. ISBN 0814650813
*"Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict", Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330. ISBN 0028644107
*"For Jews the city has been the pre-eminent focus of their spiritual, cultural, and national life throughout three millennia." Yossi Feintuch, "U.S. Policy on Jerusalem", Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, p. 1. ISBN 0313257000
*"Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maʻoz, Sari Nusseibeh, "Jerusalem: Points of Friction - And Beyond", Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1. ISBN 9041188436
*"The Jewish people are inextricably bound to the city of Jerusalem. No other city has played such a dominant role in the history, politics, culture, religion, national life and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. Since King David established the city as the capital of the Jewish state circa 1000 BCE, it has served as the symbol and most profound expression of the Jewish people's identity as a nation." [http://www.adl.org/israel/advocacy/glossary/jerusalem.asp Basic Facts you should know: Jerusalem] ,Anti-Defamation League , 2007. AccessedMarch 28 , 2007.] Jews and their detractors have both put forth plans for Jewish states.Ararat city
In 1820, in a precursor to modern
Zionism ,Mordecai Manuel Noah tried to found a Jewish homeland at Grand Island in theNiagara River , to be called "Ararat," afterMount Ararat , the Biblical resting place ofNoah's Ark . He erected a monument at the island which read "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tishri, 5586 (September, 1825) and in the Fiftieth Year of American Independence." Some have speculated whether Noah's utopian ideas may have influenced Joseph Smith, who founded theLatter Day Saint movement in Upstate New York a few years later. In his "Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews" Noah proclaimed his faith that the Jews would return and rebuild their ancient homeland. Noah called on America to take the lead in this endeavor.Selig Adler and Thomas E. Connolly. "From Ararat to Suburbia: the History of the Jewish Community of Buffalo" (Philadelphia: the Jewish Publication Society of America, 1960, Library of Congress Number 60-15834)]British Guyana
In March 1940, the issue of an alternative Jewish Homeland is raised and British Guyana discussed in this context. The British Government decides, however, that "the problem is at present too problematical to admit of the adoption of a definite policy and must be left for the decision of some future Government in years to come". [http://www.archiveeditions.co.uk/titledetails.asp?tid=124 Zionist Movement And The Foundation Of Israel 1839–1972, The - Archive Editions ] ]
British Uganda Program
The British Uganda Program was a plan to give a portion of
British East Africa to theJew ish people as a homeland.The offer was first made by British Colonial Secretary
Joseph Chamberlain toTheodore Herzl 's Zionist group in 1903. He offered 5000 square miles of theMau Plateau in what is todayKenya . The offer was a response topogrom s against the Jews inRussia , and it was hoped the area could be a refuge from persecution for the Jewish people.The idea was brought to the
World Zionist Organization 's Zionist Congress at its sixth meeting in 1903 meeting inBasel . There a fierce debate ensued. The African land was described as an "ante-chamber to the Holy Land", but other groups felt that accepting the offer would make it more difficult to establish a Jewish state inPalestine (the historical land of Israel). Before the vote on the matter the Russian delegation stormed out in opposition. In the end the motion passed by 295 to 177 votes.The next year a three man delegation was sent to inspect the plateau. Its high elevation gave it a temperate climate making it suitable for European settlement. However, the observers found a dangerous land filled with
lion s and other creatures. Moreover it was populated by a large number ofMaasai who did not seem at all amenable to an influx of Europeans.After receiving this report the Congress decided in 1905 to politely decline the British offer. Some Jews, who viewed this as a mistake, formed the
Jewish Territorialist Organization with the aim of establishing a Jewish state anywhere.Schreiber, Mordecai. "The Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia", 2003. Page 291.] A few Jews did move to Kenya, but most settled in the urban centers. Some of these families remain to this day.Fact|date=March 2007Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia
On March 28, 1928, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee of the USSR passed the decree "On the attaching for
Komzet of free territory near the Amur River in the Far East for settlement of the working Jews." The decree meant that there was "a possibility of establishment of a Jewish administrative territorial unit on the territory of the called region". [http://www.eao.ru/eng/?p=361 Establishment and Development of the JAR] Jewish Autonomous Region official government website. Accessed 2007-08-30]On
August 20 ,1930 the General Executive Committee of RSFSR accepted the decree "On formation of the Birobidzhan national region in the structure of the Far Eastern Territory". The State Planning Committee considered the Birobidzhan national region as a separate economic unit. In 1932 the first scheduled figures of the region development were considered and authorized.On
May 7 ,1934 , the Presidium of the General Executive Committee accepted the decree on its transformation in the Jewish Autonomous Region within the Russian Federation. In 1938, with formation of the Khabarovsk Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) was included in its structure.According to
Joseph Stalin 's national policy, each of the national groups that formed theSoviet Union would receive a territory in which to pursuecultural autonomy in a socialist framework. In that sense, it was also a response to two supposed threats to the Soviet state:Judaism , which ran counter to official state policy ofatheism ; andZionism , the creation of the modern State of Israel, which countered Soviet views ofnationalism . The idea was to create a new "Soviet Zion", where a proletarianJewish culture could be developed.Yiddish , rather than Hebrew, would be the national language, and a new socialist literature and arts would replace religion as the primary expression of culture.Stalin's theory on the National Question held that a group could only be a nation if they had a territory, and since there was no Jewish territory, per se, the Jews were not a nation and did not have national rights. Jewish Communists argued that the way to solve this ideological dilemma was by creating a Jewish territory, hence the ideological motivation for the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Politically, it was also considered desirable to create a Soviet Jewish homeland as an ideological alternative to Zionism and the theory put forward by Socialist Zionists such as
Ber Borochov that theJewish Question could be resolved by creating a Jewish territory inPalestine . Thus Birobidzhan was important for propaganda purposes as an argument against Zionism which was a rival ideology toMarxism amongleft-wing Jews.Another important goal of the Birobidzhan project was to increase settlement in the remote Soviet Far East, especially along the vulnerable border with China. In 1928, there was virtually no settlement in the area, while Jews had deep roots in the western half of the Soviet Union, in
Ukraine ,Belarus and Russia proper. In fact, there had initially been proposals to create a Jewish Soviet Republic in theCrimea or in part of Ukraine but these were rejected because of fears of antagonizing non-Jews in those regions.The geography and climate of Birobidzhan were harsh, the landscape largely swampland, and any new settlers would have to build their lives from scratch. SomeWho|date=August 2008 have even claimed that Stalin was also motivated by
anti-Semitism in selecting Birobidzhan: he wanted to keep the Jews as far away from the centers of power as possible.Fact|date=August 2008 On the other hand, it must be said that the Ukrainians andCrimea ns were reluctant to have a Jewish national home carved out of their territory, even though most Soviet Jews lived there, and there were very few alternative territories without rival national claims to them.Fact|date=August 2008By the 1930s, a massive propaganda campaign was underway to induce more Jewish settlers to move there. Some of these incorporated the standard Soviet propaganda tools of the era, and included posters and Yiddish-language novels describing a socialist utopia there. Other methods bordered on the bizarre. In one instance, leaflets promoting Birobidzhan were dropped from an airplane over a Jewish neighborhood in
Belarus . In another instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called "Seekers of Happiness" told the story of a Jewish family that fled the Depression in theUnited States to make a new life for itself in Birobidzhan.As the Jewish population grew, so did the impact of
Yiddish culture on the region. A Yiddish newspaper, the "Birobidzhaner Shtern " ( _ru. Биробиджанер Штерн, _yi. ביראָבידזשאַנער שטערן, "Star of Birobidzhan"), was established; a theater troupe was created; and streets being built in the new city were named after prominent Yiddish authors such asSholom Aleichem andY. L. Peretz . The Yiddish language was deliberately bolstered as a basis for efforts to secularize the Jewish population and, despite the general curtailment of this action as described immediately below, the "Birobidzhaner Shtern" continues to publish a section in Yiddish.Valdgeym is a Jewish settlement within the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. [http://www.traveleastrussia.com/jewish.html] The settlement was founded in 1928 and was the firstcollective farm established in theoblast . [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/html/panel13.html] In 1980 a Yiddish school was opened in the settlement. [http://books.google.com/books?id=52Ew77pZsNUC&pg=PA272&lpg=PA272&dq=waldheim+birobidzhan&source=web&ots=59ePnekVgd&sig=WSkb_3rku-AYgt8hqfmgvFIsuiU]Amurzet also has ahistory ofJewish settlement in the JAO. [http://www.travelpost.com/AS/Russia/Birobijan/Amurzet/1408075] [http://www.travelpost.com/AS/Russia/Birobijan/Amurzet/1408075] [http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=225680] For the period 1929 through 1939, this village was the center of Jewish settlement south of Birobidzhan. [http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=170388&cid=84435&media=80392&NewsType=80052&origMedia=80392&scope=3806&start=30] The present dayJewish Community members hold KabalatShabbat ceremonies and gatherings that feature songs in Yiddish,Jewish cuisine , and broad information presenting historical facts onJewish culture . Many descendants of the founders of this settlement, which was established just after the turn of the 20th century, have left their native village. Those who remained here in Amurzet, especially those having relatives inIsrael , are learning about the traditions and roots of theJewish people . [http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=267005] The population of Amurzet, as estimated in late 2006, is 5,213. [http://population-of.com/en/Russia/89/Amurzet/]Smidovich is another early Jewish settlement in the JAO.The Birobidzhan experiment ground to a halt in the mid-1930s, during Stalin's first campaign of purges. Jewish leaders were arrested and executed, and Yiddish schools were shut down. Shortly after this,
World War II brought to an abrupt end concerted efforts to bring Jews east.There was a slight revival in the Birobidzhan idea after the war as a potential home for Jewish
refugee s. During that time, the Jewish population of the region peaked at almost one-third of the total. Efforts in this direction ended, however, with theDoctors' plot , the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state, and Stalin's second wave of purges shortly before his death. Once again, the Jewish leadership was arrested and efforts were made to stamp out Yiddish culture—even theJudaica collection in the local library was burned. In the ensuing years the idea of an autonomous Jewish region in the Soviet Union was all but forgotten.Some scholars such as Louis Rapoport, Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov assert that Stalin had devised a plan to deport all of the Jews of the Soviet Union to Birobidzhan much as he had internally deported other national minorities such as the
Crimean Tatars andVolga Germans , forcing them to move thousands of miles from their homes. TheDoctors' Plot may have been the first element of this plan. If so, the plan was aborted by Stalin's death onMarch 5 ,1953 .With the
collapse of the Soviet Union and new liberal emigration policies, most of the remaining Jewish population left forGermany andIsrael . In 1991, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast was transferred from under the jurisdiction ofKhabarovsk Krai to the jurisdiction of the Federation, but by that time most of the Jews had gone and the remaining Jews now constituted less than two percent of the local population. Nevertheless, Yiddish is once again taught in the schools, a Yiddish radio station is in operation, and as noted above, the "Birobidzhaner Shtern" includes a section in Yiddish.Fugu plan
The nihongo|Fugu Plan or Fugu Plot|河豚計画|Fugu keikaku was a scheme created in the 1930s in Imperial Japan, centered around the idea of settling
Jewish refugees escapingNazi -occupied Europe, in Japan's territories on the Asian mainland, to Japan's benefit. The Plan was first discussed in 1934, and solidified in 1938 at the Five Ministers' Conference, but the signing of theTripartite Pact in 1941, along with a number of other events, prevented its full implementation. The plotters believed that theJew s could be quite beneficial to Japan, but also quite dangerous. Therefore, the plan was named after the Japanese delicacy "fugu ", a puffer-fish whose poison can kill if the dish is not prepared exactly correctly.At its core, the Fugu Plan was a scheme to convince thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Jews to settle in the puppet state of
Manchukuo (Manchuria ) –or possibly Japan-occupiedShanghai –, thus gaining not only the benefit of the supposed economic prowess of the Jews but also convincing theUnited States , specifically American Jewry, to grant their favor and investment to Japan. The plan was based on a naive acceptance of European anti-Semitic mythology, as found for example in "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ".Madagascar plan
The Madagascar plan was a suggested policy of the
Third Reich government of Nazi Germany to forcibly relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island ofMadagascar .Browning, Christopher R. "The Origins of the Final Solution." 2004. Page 81]The evacuation of European Jewry to the island of Madagascar was not a new concept.
Henry Hamilton Beamish ,Arnold Leese ,Lord Moyne , German scholarPaul de Lagarde and the British, French, and Polish governments had all contemplated the idea. Nazi Germany seized upon it, and in May 1940, in his "Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East",Heinrich Himmler declared: "I hope that the concept of Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony."Although some discussion of this plan had been brought forward from 1938 by other well-known Nazi ideologues, such as
Julius Streicher ,Hermann Göring , andJoachim von Ribbentrop , it was not until June 1940 that the plan was actually set in motion. Victory in France being imminent, it was clear that all French colonies would soon come under German control, and the Madagascar Plan could become reality. It was also felt that a potential peace treaty with Great Britain, which in a few weeks' time was about to experience German aerial bombardment in theBattle of Britain and whom the Germans fully expected to capitulate as quickly as the French, would put the British navy at Germany's disposal for use in the evacuation.Other attempts of Jewish self-governance throughout history
Ancient times
*
Adiabene - an ancient kingdom in Mesopotamia with its capital at Arbil was ruled by Jewish converts during the first century.
*Anilai and Asinai - Babylonian-Jewish chieftains.
*Nehardea - the seat of theexilarch inBabylonia .
*Khaybar - a self-governed oasis in Arabia.
*Himyar - there were many Jewish kings at this region ofYemen since 390 CE when a local chieftain named Tub'a Abu Kariba As'ad formed an Empire.Middle ages to 19th century
*The
Resh Galuta or Exilarch exercised considerable authority over the Jewish community in thePersian Empire and later theCaliphate
*Khazar kingdom - during theMiddle Ages Khazaria had Judaism as its official religion. Jewish scholars and refugees were actively invited to settle within Khazar territory, particularly inTmutarakan and theCrimea .
*Makhir of Narbonne and possibly his descendents were acknowledged by theCarolingian emperors asethnarchs of westernJewry , with their seat atNarbonne
*Council of Four Lands - the central body of Jewish authority inPoland from 1580 to 1764. Seventy delegates from local "kehillot" met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community. The "four lands" wereGreater Poland , Little Poland,Ruthenia andVolhynia .
*Principality of Malabar from the eighth century to 1524 theCochin Jews had an ethnarch ruling over them.
*TheMountain Jews of remote parts ofDaghestan were self-ruling for much of the medieval and early modern period.
*Jarawa Berber tribe on the Maghreb in the seventh century, believed to be Jews, and resisted arabicization under the leadership of QueenKahina .
*Jodensavanne : an attempt to establish a safe haven for Jews inSurinam Modern times
*In the early 20th century
Cyprus andEl Arish and its environs were proposed as a site for Jewish settlement byHerzl .
*Jewish Autonomous Oblast was a region created by the Soviet Union in theRussian Far East . It has been in existence from 1934 to the present.
*TheKimberley Plan was a failed plan by theFreeland League , led byIsaac Nachman Steinberg , to resettleJewish refugees from Europe in the Kimberley region inAustralia before and duringthe Holocaust . [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160362b.htm Steinberg, Isaac Nachman (1888 - 1957)] by Beverley Hooper, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, pp 298-299. Online Ed. published by Australian National University]
*Krasnaya Sloboda - The town is the primary settlement of Azerbaijan's population of Mountain Jews, who make up the population of approximately 4,000.
*Kiryas Joel, New York - a town composed largely of Yiddish-speakingHasidic Jews.
*Sitka, Alaska - a plan for Jews to settle the Sitka area in Alaska, theSlattery Report , was proposed by U.S. PresidentFranklin Roosevelt 'sSecretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes in 1939 but turned down. ["Novel involving Alaska Jewish colony is rooted in history," Tom Kizzia, Anchorage Daily News. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/8828757p-8729539c.html] Analternate history of the proposal where Jews do settle in Sitka is the subject of authorMichael Chabon 's novel "The Yiddish Policemen's Union ".
*Vietnam - Vietnamese government officials in 2005, told Israeli officials of a plan discussed betweenHo Chi Minh andMoshe Dayan to invite Jews to live in the country. No documentation of the offer and discussion has yet been made available. There is currently a small expatriate community of Jews inHanoi andHo Chi Minh City , intermarrying with Vietnamese, with the first Bar Mitzvah in Vietnam held in 2004, in Hanoi. There are currently no synagoges in Vietnam. Though there were French Jews in the country before 1954, there is no confirmation of any synagogue inSaigon . [ Reported byDavid Lempert , researcher in Vietnam, 1998-2006 ]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.