Orthodox Jewish Anti-Zionism

Orthodox Jewish Anti-Zionism

From the start of political Zionism in the 1890s, Haredi leaders voiced objection to its secular orientation and before the establishment of the State of Israel, the majority of Haredi Jews were opposed to Zionism. This was chiefly due to the concern that secular nationalism would replace the Jewish faith and the observance of religion, and the view that it was forbidden for the Jews to reconstitute Jewish rule in the Land of Israel before the arrival of the Messiah. Those rabbis who did support Jewish settlement in Palestine in the late 19th-century, had no intention of conquering Palestine from the Ottoman Turks and were resolute that only observant Jews be allowed to settle there.

During the 1930s, some European Haredi leaders encouraged their followers not to leave for Palestine where the Zionist’s were gaining influence. When the dangers facing European Jewry became clear, the Orthodox Agudath Israel organisation decided to corporate to an extent with Zionist leaders in order to allow religious Jews the possibility of seeking refuge in Palestine. Some Agudah members in Palestine preferred to form an alliance with Arab nationalists against the Zionist enterprise, but this never occurred.

The majority of Jews killed in the Holocaust were Orthodox and around 80% of European Haredim perished. Israel today functions as a secular state and has many laws which conflcit with Halacha. Around 80% of Israeli Jews identify as secular, and of the 20% whom identity as religious, 6% are Haredi. A study in late 2006 claimed that just over a third of Israelis considered Haredim the most hated group in Israel.

After the creation of the state, each individual movement within Orthodox Judaism charted its own path in their approach to the State of Israel.