Israel was voted into existence as a sovereign state by the United Nations in 1947 and the movement which catalyzed this turning point in the history of the Jewish people was Zionism.

Until the emergence of Zionism in the 1880s, the solution to the centuries-old tragedy of Jewish persecution had rested in prayer and appeals to God. “Lord, Lord, why hast Thou forsaken me?” was the anguished cry of terrified and bereaved Jews. But when the libels and calumnies against the Jews persisted, enlightened Jews like Theodore Herzl, a Western journalist who had been shocked by the antisemitism inherent in the Dreyfus trial, realized that a pragmatic solution to the problem had to be found.

Herzl’s views resonated with those of many Russian Jews, horrified by the pogroms, discriminatory laws and persecutory acts battering their people. An independent Jewish state came to be seen as the only way in which Jews could live in safety. The two parties of East and West coalesced and the Zionist movement was born, which rapidly grew into a worldwide political and cultural movement.

Israel was chosen as the territory for the new state as much for........

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