A New Zionism

Without a Jewish People regenerated in spirit, no matter how successful the state that it would establish, and how large a population that state could muster, Zion will continue to be unredeemed’. Mordecai Kaplan, A New Zionism, 1959

 

Mordechai Kaplan followed in Ahad Ha’am footsteps. To him as well the real goal of the creation of the State was the regeneration in spirit of the Jewish People. Kaplan emphasizes that point by stating that “no matter how successful the state that it would establish, and how large a population that state could muster” Zion will be unredeemed. In other words redemption will be measured not by how many Jews live in Israel or how successful the State would be. It would be a function of the spiritual revival of the whole Jewish People.

It is important to note that Kaplan refers to the State as the State that the Jewish people established. For him the State would revive the People’s spirit the world over through the reconstitution of Jewish Peoplehood and reclamation of Eretz Israel (literally, the Land of Israel). Its purpose is dual looking both internally at the Zionist project and externally towards the Jewish People globally.

What this requires in Kaplan’s eyes is: “ (a) it has to foster among the Jews both in Israel and the Diaspora a sense of interdependence and a process of interaction; and, (b) it has to give the individual Jew the feeling that participation in that interdependence and interaction makes him more of a person (Kaplan 151)”. Zionism for Kaplan will infuse the Jewish People with a renewed sense of purpose that would engage and inspire both the collective and its individuals.