“Neither angels, nor demons, but humans”: anti-essentialism and its ideological moments among the Russian Zionist intelligentsia

Abstract

This article shows that anti-essentialism was a pivotal ideological feature of Russian Zionism-the idiom of Zionism that lay behind Russian Zionist periodicals such as Rassvet in Late Imperial Russia. For Russian Zionists, the Jewish nation was the social field that existed as a social fact. While Russian Zionists' concept of the Jewish nation was inevitably influenced by their political context, nonetheless, it was primarily a result of the convergence of the following two ideological movements. First, there emerged a sense that a socioeconomic foundation was crucial in forming a nation. The transformation of Jewish socioeconomic positions in Eastern Europe and Russia was the background of this consciousness. The second is the ideological claim that any collective entity or social field should be respected regardless of its merit and utility visa -vis others. More specifically, for Russian Zionists, the Jewish raison d' etre was the simple existence of their own social field; they believed that no further definition was required. The emergence of this viewpoint can be understood as a reaction to the Zionists' perception of Jewish history where Jews pursued the recognition and validation of their place among non-Jews by virtue of their merit or utility visa -vis non-Jews.

How hybrid? Interethnic relationships within the self of Jewish Liberals in Tsarist Russia

“…Jabotinsky contended that it was crucial to be—and to be seen as—an independent Jewish nation, to avoid anti‐Semitic assaults (Zhabotinskii, 1911, p. 113). Third, the Zionists believed that defining Jewishness and justifying Jewish presence in relation to another nation was apologetic and that every nation had a right to exist independent of its utility to others (Tsurumi, 2010). Although the Zionists also held the Jewish and the Russian aspects in one self, the meaning of each, with its respective conceived connection to Jewish and Russian societies, was different from those for the Liberals.…”

“…Jabotinsky contended that it was crucial to be-and to be seen as-an independent Jewish nation, to avoid anti-Semitic assaults (Zhabotinskii, 1911, p. 113). Third, the Zionists believed that defining Jewishness and justifying Jewish presence in relation to another nation was apologetic and that every nation had a right to exist independent of its utility to others (Tsurumi, 2010).…”