On Zion

Martin Buber’s writings on Zion and Zionism go back to the early years of this century. To him, Zion was not primarily a political issue. Zionism implies a reorientation of the entire being, an overcoming of a Diaspora mentality, a catharsis, and a readiness to build in the land of Israel a new, just, free, and creative community.

On Zion grew out of a series of lectures delivered by Buber in 1944. World War II was still raging. News of extermination of Jews reached the West; the British administration of Palestine refused entry to Jewish refugees. The Palestinian Arabs offered stiff resistance to Zionism. Buber’s political orientation called for a binational state and for equality of rights for both Jews and Arabs. But, just as strongly, he insisted on the sacred, ethical mission implied in Zionism. Buber illustrates his strong faith by analyzing the centrality of Zion to biblical and Talmudic thought, how it inspired medieval thinkers and mystics, and how it moved modern Jews from Moses Hess to Rav Kook and A. D. Gordon.