Israel Palestine 3. Background to Zionism

Send us Fan MailJews had traditionally said that they were "Germans of the Jewish faith" or something similar. But by the end of the 19th century there was a new movement -- Jewish nationalism or Zionism -- that had a different perspective.  Zionism is the belief that the Jews are not merely a religious or an ethnic group but a national people living in temporary exile and awaiting a return to their homeland.  How did this transformation occur?  This podcast discusses the enlightenment, its impact on Jewish thinking and Jewish standing in Europe,  the reaction against the enlightenment.  It discusses scientific racism, the Dreyfus Affair, the pogroms of 1881, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the devastating impact of late industrialization on the Jewish social and economic system.