Timeline of anti-Zionism

This timeline of anti-Zionism chronicles the history of anti-Zionism, including events in the history of anti-Zionist thought.

1800–1896

• 1880s – The Jewish community of Jerusalem (which largely consisted of Orthodox Jews) regarded the emergence of Zionism as a threat, particularly for its secular western character and redefinition of Jewishness. Through this decade, the Orthodox communities fought the Zionist idea of Jews as a people in search of a homeland, rather than being, for Judaism, a community awaiting redemption from the Messiah. The established Jewish community in Jerusalem denounced Zionist newcomers to the Ottoman authorities. ^[1]
• 1882 – United States minister to the Ottoman Empire, Lew Wallace, was moved by the hardships of Russian refugees he saw starving in the streets of Constantinople. He was called at the Porte's Foreign Office. He received a communication from the minister of foreign affairs in which the statement was made that Jews would be made welcome anywhere in the empire except in Palestine. ^{[2] [3]}
  • In reaction to Leon Pinsker's Autoemanzipation! that asserted Jewish emancipation required a homeland of their own outside Europe, Viennese rabbi Adolf Jellinek replied that 'Jews did not have any national characteristics, as such but "thanks to their universalism they adapt and absorb qualities from the nations in whose midst they are born and educated. We are at home in Europe and regard ourselves as children of the lands in which we were born and raised, whose languages we speak, and whose cultures make up our intellectual substance. We are Germans, Frenchmen, Magyars, Italians, and so forth, with every fiber of our being. We have long ceased to be true, thoroughbred Semites, and we have long ago lost sense of Hebrew nationality." ^[4]
  • The Russian Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society is formed, supporting hundreds of institutions in Syria and Palestine but refusing to serve Jews and functionally acting as an extension of Tsarist Russian policy. ^[5]
• 1885 – The Pittsburgh Platform, convened by Reform Judaism leaders Kaufmann Kohler and Isaac Mayer Wise, denounces Zionism, adopting the text: "We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israel s great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state". ^[6]
• 1891 – 24 June, Arab notables in Jerusalem petition the Ottoman Grand Vizier to prohibit Russian Jews from entering Palestine and purchasing land there. ^[7]
• 1897 – Chief Rabbi of Vienna Moritz Güdemann publishes his pamphlet Nationaljudenthum, his detailed rebuttal to Herzl's pamphlet Der Judenstaat rejecting Zionism as antithetical to Judaism. ^[8] It is one of the most enlightening theological and political critiques of the Zionist vision ever written. Güdemann feared that a day might come when “Judaism with cannons and bayonets would reverse the roles of David and Goliath to constitute a ridiculous contradiction of itself.” ^{[9] [ better source needed ]}
  • Henri Lammens, a Belgian scholar at the the Jesuit University of Beirut, publishes "Zionism and the Jewish Colonies" in Études, describing the first Zionist Congress: “As at an ordinary meeting of ‘goyim,’ almost all the delegates were in evening dress and white tie; rabbinical cloaks seemed very sparse. (...) The Jews of Jerusalem were recognisable by their repulsive grubbiness and above all by that famous Semitic nose, which is not, like the Greek nose, a pure myth" ^[10]

1. Zvi Sobel, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi (eds.)Tradition, Innovation, Conflict: Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Israel, SUNY Press, 2012 pp.5-7.
2. United States, Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
3. This directive was contrary to one of the Capitulations of the Russo-Turkish Wars, which guaranteed Russian subjects unrestricted travel throughout the Ottoman Empire. However, Palestine visas for pilgrims and businessmen were still allowed to visit for limited periods (Mandel 6.)
4. Robert Wistrich 'Zionism and Its Religious Critics in Fin –De-Siècle Vienna, ' in S, Almog et al. Zionism and Religion, Brandeis/UPNE 1998 pp.140–158 pp.142–43.
5. Mandel 54: "By 1909 (a dislike of the Jews among Greek Orthodox Arabs) had become apparent"
6. "Declaration of Principles". Central Conference of American Rabbis. 1885. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
7. Mandel xviii
8. Marsha L. Rozenblit, Reconstructing a National Identity: The Jews of Habsburg Austria During World War I, Oxford University Press, 2004 p.35.
9. Shlomo Sand (20 November 2012). The Invention of the Land of Israel From Holy Land to Homeland. Verso Books. p. 170. ISBN   978-1-84467-947-8.
10. Lammens, Henri (1 October 1897). "Études" [Studies by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus]. Gallica (in French). 73. Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus: 439. Retrieved 15 January 2026. via Mandel 53, noting the blend of Antizionism and Antisemitism