Terminology
The term "Zionism" itself is derived from the word Zion (Hebrew: ציון, Tzi-yon), referring to Jerusalem. Throughout eastern Europe at the time, there were numerous grassroots groups promoting the national resettlement of the Jews in what was termed their "ancestral homeland", as well as the revitalization and cultivation of Hebrew. These groups were collectively called the "Lovers of Zion." The first use of the term is attributed to the Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, founder of a nationalist Jewish students' movement Kadimah, who used the term in his journal Selbstemanzipation (Self Emancipation) . Readings of the founders of Zionism shows that they lived in the same Europe which spawned fascism and Nazism, and they adopted the anti-Jewish view that Jews did not belong in Europe as the core of their ideology.
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