The evolution of a concept: The relationship between state and religion in the thought of Vladimir Jabotinsky, 1919–1940

Abstract

Jabotinsky’s ideological evolution underwent a considerable shift, caused by both internal Zionist concerns and external political processes throughout the 1930s. His assessment of Judaism was no exception, yet at the same time one cannot ignore the consistency of his earlier evaluation of Judaism. The usual interpretation, based on a presumption of Jabotinsky’s maintenance of a secular world view in his private life while adhering to the idea of a greater role for traditional Judaism in public, oversimplifies the complexity of his approach. One has to bear in mind that Jabotinsky’s opinions cannot be identified with those of Menahem Begin, despite Begin’s aspiration to present Jabotinsky as his teacher. While the usual designation of Jabotinsky as an extremist might serve the purposes of both the Zionist left and right, an academic discourse should not ignore certain similarities of Jabotinsky’s opinions to mainstream Zionist thought. His newly discovered emphasis on the “sublime notions” embodied in religion was an attempt to counterbalance the ideological influence of the radical Revisionist Zionist trends with which he came to be associated by the mid‐1930s.