Religious Zionism

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There were a handful of religious Jewish leaders, in the early 1900s that had Jewish Messianic ideas within Zionism. They also recognized that European Jewry suffered overwhelming political and social difficulties and that “returning to Zion” would alleviate Jewish dependency on foreign powers. These leaders combined the Torah with Zionist principles. For them, building a Jewish state in the land of Israel was justified based on religious grounds.

Many religious Jews countered that only the Messiah can herald the return to Zion and that “forcing” a Jewish homeland contradicted Divine will. Religious opposition to Zionism was based on ideology, tactics and personality. It was based on ideology as Zionism claimed to be the alternative to faith and religion. The tactical objection was that the new Zionists, who were secular – and in the majority, rejected the Torah as the foundation stone of Jewish existence. And finally personalities, many Jews found it hard to believe that people that were assimilated, intermarried, who had no background in Judaism, whatsoever, would somehow be the ones to lead the Jewish People to back to the Holy Land

Secular Zionism redefined the Jewish people. Their slogan was, “our people are a nation because of culture, geography, nationalism and persecution”. This was an idea that religious Jewry could not accept.

However, there were Rabbis who thought differently. Early religious Zionist leaders included:

Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874) who wrote first Hebrew book to appear in eastern Europe on the subject of modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Eretz Israel
Rabbi Judah Alkalay (1798-1878) a Sephardic Kabbalist who was known as the founder of Political Zionism
Rabbi Samuel Mohilewer (1824-1898) (1824-1898) who founded the first Chovevi Zion Society. He persuaded Baron Edmund de Rothschild to support first Hebrew book to appear in eastern Europe on the subject of modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Eretz Israel.

In 1902, at the first Congress of Religious Zionists in Vilna, Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines (1839-1915) founded a religious Zionist movement, Mizrachi (Mizrach meaning East) within the secular Zionist party. The name originates from the Hebrew acronym for “spiritual centre” Merkaz Ruchani. Rabbi Reines believed that by fusing religion and nationalism, one could create an institution that would bring Jews closer to Torah life.