JWST 366 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Hajj, Effendi, Mufti

• School: McGill University
• Department: Jewish Studies
• Course: JWST 366
• Professor: Daniel Heller

Document Summary

1914, the eve of the first world war. 130,000/11mil jews worldwide paying dues to international zionist org. Zionism not super big in eastern europe. 85,000 jews, 12% of pop live in ottoman palestine. Idea was to create an urban settlement north of jaffa. City planner envisioned the first hebrew city . Revolutionary--most jews speak yiddish, only jewish male elite speak hebrew. Previous efforts to revive hebrew had been part of enlightenment, framed as revival of classical language that would make jews more european . Very hard for hebrew to get off the ground, really only promoted by fanatics for several decades. Huge loss of life/infrastructure for europe in general. In addition, see huge killing of jews in russian borderlands (ukraine, belarus) and destruction of jewish communities. But zionists also see opportunity in post-war national sovereignty ideas. Movement unprepared to function in wartime, future uncertain. Had zionists in german, austro-hungarian empire, russia, now pitted against each other.