European Zionism in the United States: The Americanization of Herzl's Doctrine by American Zionist Leaders--Case Studies

Abstract

The emergence of Theodor Herzl as a Zionist leader and the creation of the Zionist movement occurred at the same time as the large Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to the United States, starting after 1881. Those millions arriving in New York produced one of the most significant demographic changes in modern Jewish history. Although Herzl was aware of this and appointed Jacob De Haas as his American representative, he did not pay special attention to the United States, and both among the Jews and in international politics his activities centered on Europe. Letters from him to American Zionist leaders indicate that his interest in the American Jewish community focused in the main on Zionist fund-raising.1 In sharp contrast to the scant attention he paid them, the image of Herzl the Zionist leader, his writings, and his worldview were central to American Zionists for generations. Speeches, sermons, memoirs, letters, and the social clubs named for him all attest to this. In this article I present the reasons why early American Zionism received Herzl’s ideas so enthusiastically despite communication difficulties, language barriers, and ideas born of his familiarity with Europe and thus difficult to adapt to the needs of American Jewry.2 In addition, I describe the unique way in which the American Jewish leadership adopted the Zionism of Herzl from the First Zionist Congress until the establishment of Israel as a state. Adapting Herzl’s work and thought to the American reality produced a special interpretation of Zionism centered around the legitimizing of Jewish existence in America while at the same time constructing the Zionist movement as a political, communal, and ideological tool for improving and reinforcing the Jewish position within American immigrant society.3 Observing the processes whereby Herzl’s theory became accepted by American Zionist leaders sheds light on the development of American Zionism and allows us a better understanding of its uniqueness.4