Timeline of Zionism

See also: Timeline of Jewish history

This is a partial timeline of Zionism in the modern era, since the end of the 18th century.

Late 18th Century, A.D..

1700

Judah he-Hasid leads some 1,500 Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel and settles in Jerusalem. In 1720 their synagogue was burned down and all Ashkenazi Jews were banned by the Ottomans.

1777

Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk along with a large group of followers emigrates and settles in Safed. In 1783 they were forced out of Safed, and moved to Tiberias.

Early 19th Century, A.D..

1808

The first group of Perushim, influenced by the teachings of the Vilna Gaon, leaves Shklov and after a 15-month journey settles in Jerusalem and Safed.

1839

Judah Alkalai publishes his pamphlet Darhei No'am (The Pleasant Paths) advocating the restoration of the Jews in the Land of Israel, followed in 1840 by Shalom Yerushalayim (The Peace of Jerusalem).

1844

Mordecai Noah publishes Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews.

1844

The Old Yishuv Jews constitute the largest of several ethno-religious groups in Jerusalem. See Demographics of Jerusalem.

Late 19th Century, A.D..

1861

The Zion Society is formed in Frankfurt, Germany.

1861

Mishkenot Sha’ananim : first neighborhood outside the Old City of Jerusalem, built by Sir Moses Montefiore.

1862

Moses Hess writes Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question (text) arguing for the Jews to return to the Land of Israel, and proposes a socialist country in which the Jews would become agrarianised through a process of "redemption of the soil". His ideas later evolved into the Labor Zionism movement.

1862

Zvi Hirsch Kalischer publishes Derishat Zion, maintains that the salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only by self-help. His ideas contributed to the Religious Zionism movement.

1867

Mark Twain visits Palestine as part of a tour of what westerners call the Holy Land.

1869

Twain publishes The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress documenting his observations through his travels. He indicated he observed that Palestine was primarily an uninhabited desert. His account was widely circulated and remains a controversial snap-shot of the area in the late 1800s.

1870

Mikveh Israel, the first modern Jewish agricultural school and settlement was established in the Land of Israel by Charles Netter of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.

1870-1890

The group Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) sets up 30 Jewish farming communities in the Land of Israel.

1878

Galician poet Naphtali Herz Imber writes a poem Tikvatenu (Our Hope), later adopted as the Zionist hymn Hatikvah.

1878

Petah Tikva is founded by Jerusalem Jews, but abandoned after difficulties. Resettled in 1882 with help from first aliyah.

1881-1884

Pogroms in the Russian Empire kill several Jews and injure large numbers, destroy thousands of Jewish homes, and motivate hundreds of thousands of Jews to flee.

1881-1920

Over two million of the Russian Jews emigrate. Most go to the US, others elsewhere, some to the Land of Israel. The first group of Biluim organize in Kharkov.

1881

Eliezer ben Yehuda makes aliyah and leads efforts to revive Hebrew as a common spoken language.

1882 January 1

Leon Pinsker publishes pamphlet Autoemancipation (text) urging the Jewish people to strive for independence and national consciousness.

1882

Baron Edmond James de Rothschild begins buying land in the region of Palestine and financing Jewish agricultural settlements and industrial enterprises.

1882-1903

The First Aliyah, major wave (estimated at 25,000-35,000) of Jewish immigration to Ottoman-occupied Palestine.

1882

Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pinna, Zikhron Ya'aqov are founded.

1883

Rabbi Isaac Rülf publishes Aruchas Bas-Ammi, calling for a Hebrew-speaking Jewish homeland in Palestine.

1890

Austrian publisher Nathan Birnbaum coins the term Zionism for Jewish nationalism in his journal Self Emancipation.

1890

The Russian Tsarist government approves the establishment of "The Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Eretz Israel," a charity organization which came to be known as "The Odessa Committee."

1894

The Dreyfus affair makes the problem of antisemitism prominent in Western Europe.

1896

After covering the trial and aftermath of Captain Dreyfus and witnessing the associated mass anti-semitic rallies in Paris, which included chants, "Death to Jews", Jewish-Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl writes Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) advocating the creation of a Jewish state.

1896-1904

Herzl unsuccessfully approaches world leaders for assistance in the creation of a Jewish National Home.

1897

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is founded.

1897

The First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, urges "a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine" for Jews and establishes the World Zionist Organization (WZO).

January 13, 1898

The French writer Émile Zola exposed the Dreyfus affair to the general public in a famously incendiary open letter to President Félix Faure to which the French journalist and politician Georges Clemenceau affixed the headline "J'accuse!" (I accuse!). Zola's world fame and internationally respected reputation brought international attention to Dreyfus' unjust treatment.

1898

Sholom Aleichem writes an Yiddish language pamphlet Why Do the Jews Need a Land of Their Own?

1899

Henry Pereira Mendes publishes Looking Ahead: Twentieth Century Happenings, the premise of which is that the restoration of Jewish sovereignty over historic Israel is essential to the world's peace and prosperity.

Early 20th Century, A.D.

1901

Fifth Zionist Congress establishes the Jewish National Fund.

1902

Herzl publishes the novel Altneuland (The Old New Land), which takes place in Palestine.

1903-1906

More pogroms in Russian Empire. Unlike the 1881 pogroms, which focused primarily on property damage, these pogroms resulted in the deaths of at least 2,000 Jews and an even higher number of non-Jews.

1903

Uganda Proposal for settlement in East Africa splits the 6th Zionist Congress. A committee is created to look into it.

1904-1914

The Second Aliyah occurs. Approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman-occupied Palestine, mostly from Russia. The prime cause for the aliyah was mounting anti-Semitism in Russia and pogroms in the Pale of Settlement. Nearly half of these immigrants left Palestine by the time World War I started.

1909

Tel Aviv is founded on sand dunes near Jaffa. Young Judaea, a zionist youth movement, is founded.

1915 October-1916 January

McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, agreeing to give Arabia to Arabs, if Arabs will fight the Turks. The Arab Revolt began in June 1916.

1916 May 16

Britain and France sign the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement which details the proposed division of Arabia at the conclusion of World War I into French and British spheres of influence.

1917 August

The formation of the Jewish Legion (Zion Mule Corps), initiated in 1914 by Joseph Trumpeldor and Zeev Jabotinsky.

1917

T.E. Lawrence leads Arab militias to defeat various Turkish Garrisons in Arabia.

1917 November 2

The British Government issues the Balfour Declaration which documented three main ideas:

• First, it declared official support from the British Government for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", and promised that the British Government would actively aid in the these efforts.
• Second, it documented that the British Government would not support actions that would prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish residents of Palestine.
• Finally, it confirmed that Jews living in any other country would, similarly, not be prejudiced.

1917 November 23

Bolsheviks release the full text of the previously secret Sykes-Picot Agreement in Izvestia and Pravda; it is subsequently printed in the Manchester Guardian on November 26.

1917 December

The British Army gains control of Palestine with military occupation, as the Ottoman Empire collapses in World War I.

1918-1920

Massive pogroms accompanied the Russian Revolution of 1917 (the Russian Civil War), resulting in the death of an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews throughout the former Russian Empire; the number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000.

1919-1923

The Third Aliyah was triggered by the October Revolution in Russia, the ensuing pogroms there and in Poland and Hungary, the British conquest of Palestine and the Balfour Declaration. Approximately 40,000 Jews arrived in Palestine during this time.

1920

The San Remo conference of the Allied Supreme Council in Italy resulted in an agreement that a Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain would be reviewed and then issued by the League of Nations. The mandate would contain similar content to the Balfour Declaration, which indicates that Palestine will be a homeland for Jews, and that the existing non-Jews would not have their rights infringed. In anticipation of this forthcoming mandate, the British military occupation shifts to a civil rule.

1920

Histadrut, Haganah, Vaad Leumi are founded.

1921

Chaim Weizmann becomes new President of the WZO at the 12th Zionist Congress (the first since World War I).

1921

Britain grants autonomy to Transjordan under Crown Prince Abdullah. Jewish settlement is outlawed there.

July 1922

The offer of a Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain from the San Remo conference is confirmed by the League of Nations.

September 1923

Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain comes into effect.

1923

Britain cedes the Golan Heights to the French Mandate of Syria.

1923

Jabotinsky establishes the revisionist party Hatzohar and its youth movement, Betar.

1924-1928

The Fourth Aliyah was a direct result of the economic crisis and anti-Jewish policies in Poland, along with the introduction of stiff immigration quotas by the United States. The Fourth Aliyah brought 82,000 Jews to British-occupied Palestine, of whom 23,000 left.

1932-1939

The Fifth Aliyah was primarily a result of the Nazi accession to power in Germany (1933) and later throughout Europe. Persecution and the Jews' worsening situation caused immigration from Germany to increase and from Eastern Europe to continue. Nearly 250,000 Jews arrived in British-occupied Palestine during the Fifth Aliyah (20,000 of them left later). From this time on, the practice of "numbering" the waves of immigration was discontinued. ­

1933-1948

Aliyah Bet: Jewish refugees flee Germany because of persecution under the Nazi government with many turned away as illegal because of the British-imposed immigration limit.

1936

The British propose a partition between Jewish and Arab areas. It is accepted by the Zionists, but rejected by the Arab parties (See Jewish Defense Organizations).

1936-1939

Great Uprising by Arabs against British rule and Jewish immigration.

1939

The British government issues the White Paper of 1939, which sets an absolute limit of 75,000 on future Jewish immigration to Palestine and increases Zionist opposition to British rule.

May 1942

The Biltmore Conference makes a fundamental departure from traditional Zionist policy and demands "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth" (state), rather than a “homeland.” This sets the ultimate aim of the movement.

Late 20th Century, A.D..

1947 November 29

The United Nations approves partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. It is accepted by the Jews, but rejected by the Arab leaders (See [1] [2]).

1947 November 30

The 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine starts between Jewish forces, centered around the Haganah and Palestinians supported by the Arab Liberation Army.

1948 May 14

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel

1948 May 15

Five neighboring Arab countries invade, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war ensues.

1975

The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 equates Zionism with racism.

1991

The UN GA resolution 3379 is revoked by Resolution 4686.

See also

• Zionism
• Anti-Zionism
• History of Israel
• Timeline of Jewish history

External Reference

• Resources > Timelines The Jewish History Resource Center, Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• A Timeline of Zionism, Modern Israel and the Conflict