Israel was always viewed as the spiritual and physical homeland, no matter where the Jewish people lived.
By ALAN ROSENBAUMSatellite view of Israel and the Middle East(photo credit: COURTESY NASA/PUBLIC DOMAIN)
The land of Israel and the Jewish faith have been inextricably linked since God promised Abraham, the first Jew, that the land of Canaan would be given to his descendants. When the Israelites left Egypt after being enslaved for hundreds of years, they set out for the Promised Land, arriving 40 years later. They remained in the land until the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE and returned 70 years later to build the Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Israel was always viewed as the spiritual and physical homeland, no matter where the Jewish people lived.
With the development of modern political Zionism at the end of the 19th century, many Jews saw the potential return to Zion as a fulfillment of the words of the prophets, who prophesied that the Jewish people would ultimately return from the lands of their dispersion. The founding of the State of Israel in 1948 has allowed the ingathering of Jews from around the world. Today, almost half of the world’s Jewish population resides in the Holy Land.
