A Still-Relevant Miracle

Without the self-congratulatory flourishes of most, Fania Oz-Salzberger writes in Haaretz about Jewish nationalism as model for other national movements and dispels some characterizations of Jewish nationalism that are, well, insulting to everybody. (h/t to newly-married TFR spiritual curator Michael)

To call the 25,000 Jews from Russia, Romania and Yemen who comprised the first wave of Zionist influx (the First Aliyah ), and their followers, run-of-the-mill colonialists is to miss the profoundly unique aspects of Israel's evolution.

The Jewish national movement rose from the multitudes, although it was lucky enough to generate fine leaders on many levels. It came from a profound and warranted collective premonition of existential danger. It articulated a unique motivation of homecoming - not conquest. It drew on the memory of a people steeped in reading from a shared bookshelf. Its nature, from the very start, was deeply democratic. The interplay between distinct origins and a new "melting pot" was immensely inventive, and enabled the greatest accomplishment of modern Jewish culture: modern Hebrew. The language and the literature.