By MICHAEL ZIMMERMAN(photo credit: PEPE FAINBERG)Beautiful is the word Zionism. with momentous and glorious implications. The word is rooted in the Hebrew verb le-tza-yen meaning to highlight, related to the word mi-tzu-yan, meaning excellent. It derives from the place Zion, which is mentioned more than 100 times in the Bible – as a hill, a mountain in Jerusalem, and as the Promised Land.Zionism is the Jewish connection with Israel, an appreciation of the profound relationship of the Jewish people with this particular small land.The word Zionism is also used to suggest the Jewish mitzvah to return to the Land of Israel, but the core meaning is broader – simply the appreciation of the historic and religious link of the Jewish people with Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.In our time, our century, we live in what is already a pivotal period of Jewish history with such drama to be biblical in scope – vast conflict, diffuse confusion, unmitigated disaster and courage, courage with magnificent resurgence in the trying battle for independence, the re-establishment of statehood, the ingathering of millions and repeated sensational military victories against great odds. And so – Zionism evokes awe!It behooves Jews and friends to realize and appreciate the truth and beauty of the word Zionism and its concept, and educate their families, community, and the broader society. All times are appropriate, but especially symbolically suitable are the holidays of Passover and Independence Day.Passover celebrates the first national act of Zionism – the Exodus from Egypt to return to the Land of Israel. The Bible commands Jews thereafter at Passover to remember the Exodus as though there as participants, and to discuss it. As such, Passover provides a perfect annual opportunity to integrate a discussion of Zionism into the seder ritual.The rebirth of Israel as a political state in 1948 is stunning in its magnificent resurgence virtually immediately after the Holocaust suffered by Jewry during World War II. The active battle for independence of modern Israel begun the century before and accelerating following WWI and especially from 1944 during World War II, was successful against the British occupiers of the promised land by 1947. A defensive war against invading Arab state armies was waged during spring 1948 into 1949.The following passages review some of the long history of Judaism and Zionism, and are suitable for reading aloud, by one person or responsively by a group of people, during Passover around the Seder table, and on Independence Day.
A Poem of Zionism: The long history
The following passages resonate with positive Jewish cadence and illuminate some of the long history of Judaism, Zionism and Israel.1. Jews maintained a presence in the Land of Israel for over 3,400 years with Hebrew as their language, preceding and throughout the recorded history of European Western and Arab Muslim civilizations.This is Zionism!2. For the past 18 centuries, since Judea’s military defeat and partial dispersion of Jewish population by the Roman Empire in the year 135, some Jews always dwelt in the Land of Israel, while those exiled from their homeland dreamed of and prayed to it.This is Zionism!3. The core book of Western civilization, the Bible, relates the story of the patriarchs of the Jewish people, that Abram (later Abraham) left his home at God’s bidding for a land that I will show thee, the land that came to be known as Israel, and there fathered Isaac, who fathered Jacob, who was renamed Israel and received for his descendants the inheritance of the Land of Israel from God.This is Zionism!4. Moses led Jews from slavery in Egypt to receive the Ten Commandments in Sinai and toward the Land of Israel.This is Zionism!5. Forty years after the Exodus, Joshua and the Israelites from the desert and Egypt joined with Israelites who had remained in the Land of Israel and wrested back their inheritance.This is Zionism!6. The kings Saul, David and Solomon, the judges Deborah, Gideon, Samson and Samuel, the prophets Amos, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Miriam, built a civilization in Israel that has inspired the world ever since.This is Zionism!7. The Maccabees successfully fought imposition of Hellenistic culture by daring military action against the odds and by steadfast adherence to Jewish tradition; their courage and willingness to accept martyrdom inspired the generations of Jews and Christians to our time.This is Zionism!8. During centuries of conquest and occupation of Judea/Israel by foreign powers, Jews persisted in attempts to reestablish national sovereignty in the Land of Israel, and in the twentieth century Jews again asserted their right of self-determination in their own country where a Jewish presence always remained.This is Zionism!9. For the past century, Jews bought and developed vacant desert and swamp land, they brought life to uninhabitable land, draining the swamps and making the desert bloom, and created a homeland for millions of Jews.This is Zionism!10. In the mid-1940s a handful of the 600,000 Jews in the Land of Israel drove out the British occupation, and then the Jews rose en masse in 1948 to defeat the onslaught of Arab armies.This is Zionism!11. Israel fights to remain independent and free to develop as the only Jewish state; small in size and population in a sea of 22 Arab states, one defeat could destroy it; Israel’s success is not inevitable, but dependent on Jewish belief, sweat, brains, persistence, courage and blood, and the hand of God.This is Zionism!12. The Land of Israel and Palestine comprise the same territory laced by the Jordan River, with an exclusively Arab state—Jordan--east of the river and Arabs residing east and west; Zionists pursue justice and equality, the recognized right to a Jewish state and to live freely and securely in the Land of Israel.This is Zionism!13. The Exodus from Egypt and the Sinai Desert sojourn led by Moses, the ascent to the Land of Israel homeland and battles to regrasp the inheritance captained by Joshua, the return from Babylonian exile, the campaign to build modern Israel before and after the Shoah, are of one kind.This is Zionism!14. Israel has absorbed its racially diverse people from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Americas and former Soviet Union, re-established Hebrew as the national language of a sovereign state, integrated past and present, and has become a world leader in science and technology, in military prowess, in the arts, in medicine and agriculture.This is Zionism!15. Jewish pioneers are resettling the Land of Israel, known 2,000 years ago as Judea – for which Jews were named as a people.This is Zionism!16. Judaism, from which Christianity and Islam have drawn, is based on the relationship of the one God, the Torah of Israel, the People of Israel and the Land of Israel.This is Zionism!17. The Jewish national liberation movement involves revolt and repatriation, the rebirth of Israel and the ingathering of Jews.This is Zionism!18. The root of the Hebrew word Tziyonut meaning Zionism is the three letters tzadek, yud and nun, which form the verb meaning “to point out,” “to signify” and “to distinguish.” The same three letters are the Hebrew root of the word mitzuyan, meaning “excellent.”This is Zionism!19. Israel is the only Jewish state in the world, and it stands on the land promised the Jews by God, as related in the Torah, the/Hebrew Bible, the original and the core book of Western civilization.This is Zionism! ■The author is an American writer who worked for a decade in Israel as a political analyst
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