The Political Philosophy of Zionism Trading Jewish Words for a Hebraic Land

Zionism emerged at the end of the nineteenth century in response to a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe and to the crisis of modern Jewish identity. This novel, national revolution aimed to unite a scattered community, defined mainly by shared texts and literary tradition, into a vibrant political entity destined for the Holy Land. However, Zionism was about much more than a national political ideology and practice. By tracing its origins in the context of a European history of ideas and by considering the writings of key Jewish and Hebrew writers and thinkers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the book offers an entirely new philosophical perspective on Zionism as a unique movement based on intellectual boldness and belief in human action. In counter-distinction to the studies of history and ideology that dominate the field, this book also offers a new way of reflecting upon contemporary Israeli politics.

1. Jews and the temporal imaginations of modernity; 2. The Zionist temporal revolution; 3. The end of building; 4. Hebrew and politics; 5. Democratic language and Zionism.

Eyal Chowers is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Tel Aviv University, Israel, where he also serves as the co-head of the graduate program in political leadership. He is author of The Modern Self in the Labyrinth: Politics and the Entrapment Imagination (2004).