Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
CUMHURIYET THEOLOGY JOURNAL, cilt.29, sa.2, ss.88-100, 2025 (ESCI, TRDizin)
Jewish nationalism, which emerged in parallel with the nationalist movements of 19th century Europe, developed both as a reaction to and as a product of modern political ideologies. While influenced by the European concept of the nation-state, Zionism—the dominant current within Jewish nationalism—was distinctly shaped by religious memory and historical consciousness. Central to Zionist thought was the aspiration to return to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), a notion rooted in sacred Jewish texts and collective historical identity. Theodor Herzl’s 1896 work Der Judenstaat provided a systematic political expression of this aspiration, arguing for a sovereign Jewish state in response to widespread antisemitism and marginalization in European societies. In the late 19th century, the Russian Empire was home to the world’s largest Jewish population. Legal restrictions, socioeconomic exclusion, and recurrent pogroms fostered an environment in which Zionist ideas found fertile ground. Organizations such as Hovevei Zion promoted Jewish resettlement in Palestine through agricultural colonization, and Russian Jews played a key role in the First Zionist Congress of 1897, which institutionalized the movement through the founding of the World Zionist Organization. However, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 fundamentally altered the trajectory of Jewish nationalism in the region. The Marxist-Leninist worldview classified nationalism as a bourgeois deviation incompatible with proletarian internationalism. While early Soviet tolerance briefly allowed the existence of socialist-leaning Zionist movements like Poale Zion, Zionist organizations were soon suppressed and labeled counterrevolutionary. For the Soviet regime, Zionism represented not only political dissent but also a challenge to the idea of a unified socialist identity. In response, the USSR initiated its own solution to the “Jewish question” by proposing an alternative to Zionism within its own borders. In 1928, the Soviet government designated Birobidjan—a remote area in the Far East near the Chinese border—as a Jewish settlement zone. This culminated in the 1934 establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), where Yiddish was made the official language and cultural autonomy was promised under socialist terms. Yet the project failed to gain genuine support among Soviet Jews, due to geographic isolation, harsh living conditions, and the absence of religious or historical legitimacy. International Zionist circles also condemned the project, asserting that Palestine remained the only rightful homeland for the Jewish people. This study aims to explore the ideological confrontation between Zionist aspirations and Soviet nationalities policy, particularly through the lens of the Birobidjan project. It employs a historical-analytical methodology, drawing on archival materials, primary sources, and scholarly works in both Russian and English. By examining the Soviet state’s attempt to construct a non-Zionist model of Jewish nationhood, the research contributes to broader discussions on nationalism, minority policies, and identity formation under totalitarian regimes. Ultimately, this work offers insight into how two conflicting visions—religious-historical nationalism and socialist internationalism—sought to define Jewish collective identity in the early 20th century.