The Metamorphosis of Pre-Dubnovian Autonomism into Diaspora Jewish-Nationalism

Marcos Silber In the late nineteenth century geopolitical landscape of Eastern Europe, when the Habsburgs and Romanovs ruled over an assortment of nationalities, peoples, and ethnicities that coexisted or overlapped, a political idea evolved that called for sovereignty for each of these groups, without dismantling the larger political unit of which they were part. In other words, this idea did not demand the division of the State into nation-states, but rather its metamorphosis into a State of nations — an alternative to the classical objective of creating a nation-state for a people inhabiting a certain territory. For the Jews, this idea allowed a synthesis between Jewish nationalism and loyalty to the State. In Jewish history, this national idea is identified primarily with Simon Dubnov. The topic of Jewish nationalism is by no means uncharted territory in the historical research. Excellent studies have been, and are being, written on this theme throughout...