CORRECTIONS/ELABORATIONS: First: at 3:39 Vienna is misplaced, in reality it's much further north next to Pressburg/Bratislava. Second: "Jewish State" is really a mistranslation but it's one that's accepted. _Judenstaat_ should really be translated as "Jews' State." The German and Hebrew are much clearer about this, and that's what Ahad HaAm was playing on: he wanted not a "Jews' State" (a state comprising a Jewish majority) but a "Jewish State" (a state with an authentic and organic Jewish culture).
It’s true that Vienna was misplaced, but I’m very impressed by the accuracy of the maps you use! I’m thinking for instance of the orange shading of the Italian states ruled by other branches of the Habsburgs. Appreciate the commitment to accuracy!
The literal translation of "Der Judenstaat" is "the state of (the) Jews", but yes, it can also be literally translated as "the Jews' state" The German language uses a lot of compound words consisting of neologisms and "Judenstaat" is one of those, but these compound words are unusual in other languages, therefore they should rather be translated with the possessive prepositions. Also, as a result, these compound words lose their articles and therefore it's not always clear if it would be a state of the Jews or a state of Jews, it can mean both things, depending on the context.
Hey I know this is a niche subject but could you maybe do a small video on Jews in Cuba or Latin America in general? I’m a Puerto Rican Jew and most here came from Cuba after Castro took power. There’s not much info on it though It would be cool to see what you can find
I would love to see that I know there are definitely a lot of small communities of Latin American Jews especially descending from the Inquisition and converso community
Yes! I’d love to see a video on the Caribbean Jewish diaspora communities especially since I feel as if I’m reconnecting with Judaism through the Caribbean
i never read altneuland but i learned about its importance in school and how hertzl invisioned the jewish state in it. but while hearing your description of it i died laughing. much of it is hindsight of course but with hesses predictions i was surprised by their relative accuracy in most cases here i just died laughing by how far off and fictional everything he said sounds
@@chimera9818 I get that but I kinda was taught about it in a romanticized way making it sound like this was hertzels vision of a Jewish country and it came true
In his book "Jerusalem", historian Simon Sebag Montefiore says the following about Herzl's vision for a Jewish state: “Herzl concluded that Jews could never be safe without their own homeland. At first, this half-pragmatist, half-utopian dreamed of a Germanic aristocratic republic, a Jewish Venice ruled by a senate with a Rothschild as princely doge and himself as chancellor. His vision was secular: the high priests “will wear impressive robes”; the Herzl army would boast cuirassiers with silver breastplates; his modern Jewish citizens would play cricket and tennis in a modern Jerusalem.”
I'm shocked at how I was familiar with so little of this, and how this narrative was different to the one taught in Israeli schools. I feel as if this is your best video yet, though to be honest I think that was the case for all of your videos in the past few months. What a great video to enter the 20th century with
@@smorcrux426 אני לא חושב שזו דרך קיצונית, זה בדיוק מה שהבחור בסרטון ניסה להסביר. הרצל לי באשליה שבישראל תיווצר עוד אמריקה שמדברים בה גרמנית, והוא היה היחיד עם החזון הזה וזה נראה. אף אחד לא תמך ברעיונות שלו. הוא פשוט עשה רעש מהציונוץ ומשך אליה תשומת לב, זה מה שהרויח לו את את המעמד הניתן לו היום אבל הוא בהחלט לא הקים את התנועה או אף הקים אידיולוגיה פופולרית.
31:15 Do you mean Yiddishism, or Jewish territorialism? Because Jewish territorialism was part of the Zionist movement and its ideas were discussed in the Zionist congress. Only eventually it split from the Zionist movement. Herzl himself was one of the prominent supporters of its ideas at first. Especially in Argentina (as you mentioned) and the Uganda plan. If you mean Yiddishism and Jewish Autonomism of Simon Dubnow, it was indeed very popular in Eastern Europe. The Bund was even one of the main establishers of the "Russian Social Democratic Labour Party" of which Lenin was the leader. But after the Bolsheviks split from it and later took power, Jewish Autonomism was heavily suppressed. Only in Poland, Romania and Lithuania, it was thriving. And even there it constantly suffered from "defectors" to Labour Zionism as anti-Semitism increased more and more.
That last part is incorrect. The Bund in Poland increased in popularity massively during the 1930s, when antisemitism became state policy. In fact, it gained more votes than all other Jewish parties combined in the 1938 local elections.
@@zetmo2205 I didn't say it was decreasing in popularity. I just said that more and more people from the Yiddishism movements turned to Labour Zionism.
I’ve read Herzl’s Jewish State but had no idea how ignorant he was to the movement at large both the fact it existed and its ideas and makeup. This is truly fascinating.
There was precedent for it. In the early days of the empire, only Jews were allowed to own printing presses in order to protect the jobs of scribes. You can learn more from Al-Muqaddimah's video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5PwdYmT5U9c.html
@@SamAronow In the book "Why Nations Fail" these types of bans were blamed as one of the big reasons why the Ottoman empire stagnated. The book argued that the Ottoman empire created an atmosphere that actively punished innovation and "creative destruction" in order to protect older power structures. Really fascinating book if you haven't read it.
If I’m remembering Altneuland correctly, wasn’t it a weird system where non-Jews who don’t want to be a part of the country can instead be members of a different nation that exists side by side, which is an….interesting idea
Really amazing episode. I got chills by the end and now I am so excited for the next one. I know Altneautland was very much a utopian idea, but the idea of a peace force centered in Jerusalem with the focus of aiding everyone around the world is an ideal I wish manifested and maybe one day can. Learning about Jewish history makes me feel more connected to the world and that one day everyone can live in harmony.
היי סאם, אני מנסה ליצור איתך קשר אני רוצה לקשר אותך לבית יד לבנים בחולון או הרשת בכללי שתבוא לעשות סדרת הרצאות בנושא יהדות בסיסית ויהדות בתפוצה .. אין לי תפקיד פשוט ממש אהבתי את הערוץ שלך ואני חושב שיש לך קול מלומד חשוב שיש לשמוע אותו בקהלים צעירים...
I know this is because this was the situation at the time, but I hope future episodes relating to zionism will have more than 'the one arab mentioned in the book'
I've already heard of Karl Leuger as he was one of the main people who inspired the Nazi and anti Semitic beliefs of Adolf Hitler the infamous Nazi leader and Nazi dictator who was infamous for his role in starting ww2 and the holocaust.
Through the perspective of the Ottomans it would make more sense to give Herzl concessions in Armenia or Bulgaria than Palestine as Palestine was predominantly Muslim so their was really no reason for the ottomans to believe that the new Jewish settlers in the region would be any more loyal to the empire than the people who were already their. Meanwhile with a region like Armenia or Bulgaria that was predominantly Christian and in close proximity to the Russian Empire, Russian backed separatism was a very real threat for the ottomans just like it had been in regions like Serbia and Romania. Settling the area with Jews would not only enable further development it would also suppress Russian influence in the region as was perhaps no group of people with more reasons to hate the Russians than European Ashkenazi Jews
Great work! Keep this content up! Its been a great help in helping me understand the history of Palestine and whats happening now, and Ive been using this clip in particular to prove my point. Trying to help people on twitter understand to look at this history and not just at the terror flooding their screens. ❤
This is fantastic research. Thank you for presenting. It's amazing how Herzl went 720 degrees on his views regarding socialism, since altneuland was the theoretical layout for the socialist utopia. It's also amazing seeing other socialistic Zionists working other angles as well. Theodore Hertzka (not Herzl) wrote "Freiland," which is actually a trial balloon for seeing up a socialist Jewish colony in East Africa. Couple that with the Austrian School of Economics, we have some lovely debates along Kärtnerstraße! Keep up the good work!
Ah great Parnell's effect is showing, it always shocks me how often Irish nationalists effect in different ways so many other national movements. Even Jewish ones it seems
@@SamAronow I honestly havent a clue why. Unless you're gonna tell me he was at the founding of the Irish volunteers or something haha. OH SHIT, could it be because of Parnells scandal with the Times? Or is that too late?
Nice videos, recently saw your channel, and I gotta say I really like the storytelling approach. Also nice ending song choice, gave me that historia civilis vibe. :)
Wait is leuger the guy who fired Gustav Mahler from his job as conductor of the Vienna Orchestra? The guy who said “I decide who is a Jew and who isn’t”?
I do really appreciate the very clear criticism of herzl that I see you demonstrating and I think it's important to examine as we go further into the Zionist movement and into the 20th and 21st centuries in this channel that we appreciate that the Israel that was created and the conflict that came thereafter was not the only potential Israel that could have existed it was not the only potential Jewish state that could have existed and the current conflict in its current form did not have to be and if those things are true then to some extent that must mean that there is a solution whether it is far in the future or near at hand for a more cooperative Jewish state with its Palestinian community. I'm sure as a left-wing supporter as I believe I have gathered you are that you must be rather concerned about the new Israeli government under the very far right coalition that netanyahu has put together and some of its plans to further cause dissent and conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and this is an issue that I am watching closely as well as both a Jew and a friend of Palestinians. I'm really interested to see how you represent the issue and I am confident it will be fair because everything else you have done so far has been very historically reasonable even though you are telling the story from a Jewish perspective
I disagree. As an Israeli and a liberal, we have tried the high road, we have offered peace, we have given back land, we legitimized terrorists and what did it bring to us? More terror, no peace and less land. The Palestinians are ruled over back incompetent and corrupt islamists. As the World Cup showed us, there will never be support for a Jewish state by the Arabs. It will always be "from the river to the sea" and Bibi is fully aware of that and hence there are no legitimate left wing parties in the country left. What's the conflict Bibi is trying to steer? Allowing Jews to pray at their most religious site? Oh the horror. Annexing land that was bought from the Greek Orthodox Church? Land that Jordan, the actual Palestinian state, lost in 1967? I'm more concerned about the LGBT law than anything else. Israel will only be successful through force. We're dealing with an enemy ready to attack us on our holiest day.
I think treating ongoing tensions as merely a symptom of the current government misses the root cause. Netanyahu and other members of his coalition are just more open about the goals of Zionism and the means of achieving that, which necessitates the continued displacement and disenfranchisement of Palestinians and adopting policies to maintain a Jewish demographic majority at all costs. The road to actual coexistence and reconciliation in the region requires ending the forced displacements, adopting laws that do not discriminate based on ethnicity, and granting equal status to all inhabitants; all of which are fundamentally incompatable with Zionism.
@@TheKalihiMan Arafat and Abbas turned down every peace deal offered to them. They want a 1 state solution. Barack offered the deal of a life time to Arafat, the deal he always claimed he wanted, and he still turned it down and showed he was disingenuous. The Palestinians will never accept coexistence and the Israel withdrawal from Gaza shows that they can't even rule over themselves. Hundreds of rockets shot onto Israel within days of the withdrawal. The Palestinians arent serious about peace and Israel will not compromise its safety to achieve your naive goals.
that one cliffhangy way to end an episode, the typewriter story sounds so rediculous it has to be some jewish legend, literally has all the components, a kind hearted well meaning king with an evil advisor trying to fool him, with the clever jew trying to outsmart the advisor
I just watched a debate on Jesus and slavery. I live in a country that for some reason has a very small Jewish population so it's hard for us to understand antisemitism. Now I think the four gospels are the root of the problem especially the gospel of John.
Hi Sam, I would suggest for you to make a video about Latin American jews, as a Venezuelan-Jew myself I would be more than willing to help on anything you need
I am a newcomer to your excellent channel. Some videos seem to be standalone, others end in cliffhngers, like this one, but I'm not sure where to go for the next instalment!
I've been waiting so long for this video and it still surprised me more than I expected. That last cliffhanger was indeed a perfect one! Good work, Sam!
@Aris Totle It looks like he's referring to both the Jewish Labour Bund, which were a socialist movement that also advocated for Jewish nationalism in the Russian Empire, and the Yiddishist/Cultural Autonomist Movement led by people like Zhitlowsky that wanted Jewish national autonomy within a broader secular context.
He may have used a more generalised term in Turkish, and it got translated as "kingdom" because this was ~1900 and kingdoms were standard. Or he didn't really care what for of government they actually envisioned and defaulted to a monarchy.
I knew this would be good. I've loved this whole series, but as we get closer to the birth of modern Israel, I knew it would be even more interesting. You are so good at what you do, Sam Aronow.
First time I have heard of a Jewish man being confirmed, I thought it was a Christian ceremony which I remember being expected of me as a youth until I objected as a non-believer.
And that was the point - Confirmation is a Protestant ceremony, i.e. what many Germans did. I'm not sure how it worked, if he actually found a Protestant pastor to conduct it, or if he just copied the ritual form, but having a decidedly "German" ceremony was the whole idea behind it.
@@mrmr446 Read a bit more - apparently, it was a ceremony that was wide-spread in German Reform Judaism (which was much more influenced by Protestantism than Catholicism), mimicking specifically the Protestant ceremony, not the Catholic one.
Folks, it was a Jewish confirmation. It was discussed in my video on the Hamburg Temple Disputes. They have this in some Reform and Conservative synagogues even today. I had the option of confirmation after my Bar Mitzvah.
I really like these vids, and I've learned a lot, but I'm really missing what was the plan that all these people's had for the millions of Palestinians that already lived in Palestine. I remember you mentioned someone whose plan was a binational state, but beyond that there hasn't been any discussion of what to do with the indeigenous Palestinian population.
Non-Jews would simply be outnumbered. The total population of Palestine around this time was just over half a million, of whom 10% were Jews, and the Jewish population worldwide was nine million. In _Altneuland,_ Herzl predicts the non-Jewish population of Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians being huge, maybe 40%. We should also be careful with our understanding of the word "Palestinian" at this time. It is a term of regionality/nationality rather than ethnicity, and until 1948 that encompassed the entire population including the Yishuv.
@@SaraLevins Palestinians are native to the land. They are directly descended from the ancient Levantine population that inhabited the land. After the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate into the Levant in the 7th century, many of the native Christian and Jewish inhabitants of Palestine converted to Islam.
If it was all based on Herzl's judgment of the French I'd suggest he--and WE--remember it required Hitler and the Holocaust to relegate FRENCH treatment of its Jewish population to a mere historical footnote by comparison.
Your political ideas can be the best around, the most well thought, most well cited, most well supported But until you find someone who can get the crowd on their feet, your ideas aren't going anywhere fast. Ladies and gents, I think we found our public speaker.
Very good video and good to see you discuss the Jewish Z|ionist opposition to Herzl over creating a state not a nation. One question - what's going on with the borders in Sinai?! Know that UK concluded a treaty with Ottomoans in 1906(?) creating a border - as far away from the Suez Canal as possible, so what are the triangular looking borders in Sinai?
Great video, and its interesting that you mentioned Lueger, as in my video on "What Hitler Got Wrong" I pointed out how his anti-semitic populism was a major inspiration for a young Adolf
Could you make a video about the Jewish history in the Netherlands? (a video about Baruch de Spinoza for example?) It was very important during the Dutch golden age but most of Dutch Jewish history was destroyed during world war 2.
The author of this video seems to accept without questioning Herzl's belief that Jewish people could not have been accepted or ever become assimilated. That belief is at the root of Zionism and the birth of the modern state of Israel and appear to be validated by the events of the Shoah but it is also behind the current conflict in Palestine. The paradox is that the pursue of a safe haven for Jewish people has created that place where more than anywhere else on Earth their life is at risk and the moral capital accumulated during WW2 is more than ever dilapidated. The movement labelled 'Zionism' (a term that has assumed a negative connotation) has been one of the greatest tragedies also in the history of the Jewish people. My grandmother died in the camps. Feel free to call me a 'bad Jew' because I am not ready to do to others what had been done to us.
I'm not a Jewish but just a cat😺.... This Herzhl dude amaze me of his dream having a Jewish State as priority and not the Jewish Nation.... His Jewish State utopia is capitalism and not run by religious group of parties, that's why he's not into Jewish Nation.... I believe if the current Israel government did apply some of Herzhl's ideas Jewish and Arab Muslim community will be peaceful instead and no killing and greediness are being exploited against he native Palestinian in Israel
Finally saw all videos up to here - what an accomplishment! (you making it - not me watching it - because to me it was a joy). Looking forward to more!
Fantastic vid and a great series. Not sure if the teaser at the end refers to Zhabotinsky, Trumpeldor, and Revisionist Zionism so not gonna be overly critical here about some typical Anglophone oversights regarding Eastern Europe that do occur: Jews were residing in Poland (and Lithuania) no later than the 11th C. CE, with rights so liberal by the time of the reign of Kazimierz III "the Great" that, while they might not technically qualify as "emancipation," they ought not be overlooked as having preceded rights granted by Western European nations such as France and the Hapsburgs. After all, ethnic Poles who were not land owners of the time didn't enjoy the franchise either, regardless of gender.
