Why Israel?
What does it mean to be Jewish? This is a question that even a lot of Jews have trouble answering for many reasons. The answer is complicated. For centuries, Jewish people have been pushed to the wayside of society and in many cases scapegoated for things they had nothing to do with, such as the black plague. However, this is not a pity story for the Jewish people. In fact, Jews have remained an important group for centuries and remain so to this day. Israel, the only official Jewish state in the world, is the pride and joy of the Jewish people. Many call it home and take great pride in its beauty. Israel is a place for Jews to live as one. So what led to the creation of Israel? It did not arrive overnight. In fact, it took centuries for even the idea to materialize.
A long time ago, we are talking ancient Roman days long time ago, the Jewish people lived in ghetto style living arrangements. Not the kind of ghetto living arrangements that Jews were forced into in the 1930s. These were lively communities where people were happy to be around their own kind. There was a special kinship in these communities, (if you have ever heard of a kibbutz, it is a lot like that.) This is how the Jewish people remained for a thousand years. As society modernized in the 16th to 19th centuries, Jews had a choice to make. They could either remain in the ghettos living as they had for thousands of years, assimilate in society but still retain Jewish religion, or completely assimilate into society and become secular mostly cultural Jewish people. Today these are known as Orthodox, a conservative and reform Judaism (Note: people are complicated and never fully fall into one category or another, there are strict guidelines). The Jewish people lived scattered and the idea of a Jewish state was discussed, but never created. Then the Holocaust happened and for many Jewish people “life” seemed over. Most could never even imagine how anything could be “normal” again. So what would they do?
In Theodore Herzl's 1896 book, Der Judenstaat, he described the Zionist movement. Herzl was born in what is now Hungary in 1866 to a secular Jewish family (think reform Judaism). He believed that Jews would always be persecuted due to such things as the Dreyfus affair (think J’accuse!) and that the Jewish people found comfort in places where they could congregate together. So he proposed the idea of a Jewish state. He believed if the Jewish people had their own homeland they would be safe and free to flourish. In 1948, his dream was realized. To put things in perspective, the last time the Jewish people had their own state before then was 73 CE, when the Jews controlled Masada a plateau hill top above the dead sea. To this day, Jewish people cherish their homeland and will fight for it to remain. Israel represents a long history of Jewish pride and ritual, but most importantly, it tells the story of love for the Jewish faith and culture.
