Gretchen Spindler, age 14, of Haggerstown, Md., for her question:
CAN YOU EXPLAIN ZIONISM?
Zionism is the name given to the movement to unite the Jewish people of the exile or Diaspora and settle them in Palestine. It arose in the late 19th century and culminated in 1948 with the establishment of the state of Israel.
The movement's name is derived from Zion, the hill on which the Temple of Jerusalem was located and which later came to symbolize Jerusalem itself. The term Zionism was first applied to this movement in 1890 by the Austrian Jewish philosopher Nathan Birnbaum.
Zionism as an organized political movement originated in the 19th century, but its roots go back to the sixth century B.C., when Jews were carried off to captivity in Babylon and their prophets encouraged them to believe that one day God would allow them to return to Palestine, or Eretz Israel (the land of Israel).
After the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in A. D. 70, the Jews were once again scattered.
Over the centuries, the Jews of the Diaspora associated the hope of return with the coming of the Messiah, a savior whom God would send to deliver them. Individual Jews often migrated to Palestine to join the Jewish communities that continued to exist there, but they remained a small minority among a largely Arab population.
A secular Zionism could not emerge until Jewish life itself was to some extent secularized. This process began in the 18th century with the Haskalah, or enlightenment, a movement inspired by the European Enlightenment and initiated by the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. The Haskalah marked the beginning of a move away from traditional religious orthodoxy and created a need for Jewish national feeling to replace religion as a unifying force.
In 1897 an Austrian Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl organized the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. The program defined Zionism's goal as the creation "for the Jewish people of a home in Palestine secured by public law."
This goal gained a start when Palestine passed from Turkish to British control after World War I.
During the period of the British mandate between 1920 and 1948, the Jewish community in Palestine grew from 50,000 to 600,000 people. Most of the new immigrants were refugees from Nazi persecution in Europe.
On May 14, 1948, at midnight, the British mandate over Palestine ended and the Jews declared their independence in the new state of Israel. Israel owed its existence to a unique combination of circumstances: Western sympathy for Jewish suffering; the political influence of American Jews in securing the support of President Harry S Truman; Britain's inability to continue its rule in Palestine; and perhaps above all, the Jews' determination and ability to establish and hold on to its own state.
The purpose of Zionism during the first years of statehood seemed clear: to consolidate and defend Israel, to explain and justify its existence. Zionism today is based on the unequivocal support for two principles: the autonomy and safety of the state of Israel and the right of any Jew to settle there.