Reviewing: “The Zionist Ideas” by Gil Troy. Jewish Publication Society. 2018. English. Paperback. 608 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0827612556.
One of the most interesting books I ever read was “The Zionist Idea” by Arthur Hertzberg, published in 1959. It was a collection of excerpts from the writings of Jewish thinkers in the pre-Zionism stage and in the early years of the Jewish state. It began with excerpts from the precursors such as R. Zvi Hirsch Kalischer and Moses Hess. The book then moved on to Russia in the 1870s and 1880s with excerpts from Peretz Smolenskin, Eliezer Ben-Yehudah, Moses Lieb Lilienblum, and Leo Pinsker. Then it had excerpts from Herzl and Max Nordau (the period of the early Zionist Congresses). Then it continued with many others such as: Ahad Ha-Am, Aaron David Gordon, Rabbi Samuel Mohilever, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Judah Magnes, Louis Brandeis, Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, Vladmir Jabotinsky, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion. The excerpts were wisely chosen and