Nachman Syrkin
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Nachman Syrkin
1867 - 1924
Early Socialist Zionist.
Nachman (also spelled Nahman) Syrkin wrote a brochure in German, "The Jewish Problem and the Socialist Jewish State," under the pseudonym Ben Elieser, in Switzerland in 1898. The pamphlet was his considered opinion on solving the Jewish problem with Socialist Zionism. Born a Russian Jew who subsequently went to the West for an education, Syrkin drew on his experience of both Russian socialism and the misery and suffering of Russian Jewish life. He was one of the first to do so.
He attended the first Zionist Congress in 1897 and remained in the World Zionist Organization until 1905, when at the seventh Zionist Congress it was clear that the British offer of Uganda as a place for a Jewish state was impossible. He moved to the United States in 1907 to continue as an official of the Labor Zionist movement and worked as a territorialist (a member of Israel Zangwill's Jewish Territorial Organization [ITO], willing for the Jewish people to settle any unpopulated area). He also wrote and edited journals in Yiddish and Hebrew in support of his views.
Syrkin's socialism was utopian and ethical, not Marxist. At the base was his view that the common people would realize a Jewish state, not the successful or wealthy; and the state was necessary, since even a new socialist order would not integrate the Jewish minority. He reasoned that modern antisemitism was different from historical forms that had been unleashed in earlier eras, since it stemmed from dislocations of modernization.
Bibliography
Hertzberg, Arthur, ed. The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1997.
Syrkin, Marie, ed. Nachman Syrkin: Socialist Zionist. New York: Herzl Press, 1960.
— DONNA ROBINSON DIVINE
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Nachman Syrkin
Nachman Syrkin (or Nahman Syrkin or Nahum Syrkin; b. 11 February 1868; d. 6 September 1924) was a political theorist, founder of Labour Zionism and a prolific writer in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, German and English language.
Born in the Russian Empire (now Belarus), Syrkin was influenced by Hovevei Zion and socialism in his youth and dedicated himself to synthesising the two concepts. In this task he was joined by Ber Borochov, although, unlike Borochov, Syrkin was no orthodox Marxist. He was one of the leaders of the socialist Zionist faction at the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and was an early proponent of the Jewish National Fund. He was also the first person to propose that emigrants to Palestine form collective settlements.
Unlike many other socialist thinkers of the time, Syrkin was quite comfortable with his Jewish heritage and, although he does not spell it out explicitly in his essay "The Jewish Problem and the Jewish Socialist State" (1898), it is clear that he had in mind the biblical emphasis on strict social justice, irrespective of wealth, power or privilege. However, he saw Zionism as a replacement for traditional Judaism:
The new, Zionist Judaism stands in complete contrast to the Judaism of exile … Zionism uproots religious Judaism in a stronger way than Reform or assimilation, by creating new standards of 'Judaism' which will constitute a new ideology that can be elevated to the status of a religion.[1]
Syrkin worked to establish socialist Zionist groups throughout Central Europe. After studying and working in Germany and France and after being banned from Germany in 1904, Syrkin returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1905. He took part at the 1905 Basle Seventh Zionist Congress as a delegate of the new Zionist Socialist Workers Party.[2]In 1907 he moved to the United States, where he became one of the leaders of the Poale Zion party in America.
In 1919, Syrkin was a member of the American Jewish delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. He was also a leading figure in the World Poale Zion conference that year and was given the task of visiting Palestine to develop a plan for kibbutz settlement. He intended to relocate to Palestine, but died of a heart attack in 1924 in New York City.
In 1951 his mortal remains were buried in the Kibbutz Kinneret beside the other founders of Labour Zionism. Kfar Sirkin (founded 1933) close to Petach Tikva is named after Nachman Syrkin.
Works (in English)
- Essays on socialist Zionism (New York, Young Poale Zion Alliance of America, 1935, 64p). Includes:
- The Jewish problem and the Jewish socialist state (1898)
- National independence and international unity (1917)
References
- ^ "A Libel Refuted". Mishpacha (214): 11. 25 June 2008.
- ^ Frankel, Jonathan (1984). Prophecy and politics: socialism, nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917. Cambridge University Press. pp. 686. ISBN 978-0-521-26919-3. http://books.google.com/?id=-ycwctuCSpQC.
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Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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