Syjoniści chrześcijańscy w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej, 1876–1884. Przyczynek do powstania Hibbat Syjon, pierwszego ruchu syjonistycznego

Abstract

In his article, Philip Earl Steele analyzes the impact of Christian Zionists in Central-Eastern Europe from 1876 to 1884, i.e., in the period when the first Zionist movement, known as Hibbath Zion, coalesced. Steele focuses on the efforts of Jews from the Russian Empire and Romania to settle in Palestine, and above all on the encouragement to do so as variously provided by English Christian Zionists. Steele examines the ideas of Zionism in a variety of contexts: literary, historical, political, and religious. He foremost emphasizes: how George Eliot’s novel Daniel Deronda fueled Zionist thinking and efforts among Jews across Central-Eastern Europe; the surpassing role of Laurence Oliphant, whom Jews widely hailed as “a messiah”, “a second Cyrus”, and “a Samson”; and the significance of Rev. William Hechler (best remembered as an associate of Theodor Herzl), who in 1882 met Leon Pinsker and had a role in persuading him to uphold Palestine as the territory of the future Jewish state he argued for in his pamphlet Auto-emancipation. Steele presents the famous Hoveve Zion conference of 1884 – held in today’s Katowice, Poland, and chaired by Pinsker and Białystok’s rabbi Samuel Mohylewer – as the culmination of the first phase of the newly created movement.