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ID:
178297
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| Summary/Abstract |
In May–June 1969, David Ben-Gurion set out on his last trip abroad. Ben-Gurion, eighty-two years old, was aware of his situation and knew what the ravages of time had done to his ability to function. Still, he felt physically fit enough for one last effort. Thus, he spent five weeks visiting Jewish communities on three continents – his longest stay outside Israel since the country had been founded. The worldview that undergirded the journey and lent them purpose and meaning within the whole of Ben-Gurion’s outlook on the Jewish and Israeli reality sheds multifaceted light on the leader in his dotage.
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| 2 |
ID:
171677
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| Summary/Abstract |
The yearning and determination of Jews to re-establish their Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel is “Zionism” – an integral component of Jewish identity. It is more than the political movement launched in the 1800’s. The deep religious, ancestral, and ethnic connection of Jews to the Land of Israel is as old as Abraham and the Bible. Jewish messianic movements brought Jews to Israel between the 13th and 19th centuries, proving the Jews’ historic sense of peoplehood and their belief in the “ingathering of the exiles.” Only in the 18th century did Jews first shed this element of Jewish identity because European governments demanded this surrender in exchange for citizenship. Why are Jews demonised and marginalised today when they express support for Israel? It is a modern manifestation of the antisemitic pressure on Jews to shed the national and ethnic part of their Jewish identity. Discrimination against anyone who observes the Jewish Sabbath, wears a kippah, or maintains a kosher diet is universally recognised as antisemitism. It is equally antisemitic to marginalise or harass Jews for expressing the Zionist component of their Jewish identity. Isolating and dehumanising Zionists is akin to branding Jews with a virtual “yellow Star of David.” To ensure that history does not repeat itself, we must forcefully condemn this modern mode of antisemitism.
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