Reddit reviews New Essays on Zionism

>No, Zionism began in 1882.

There were movements for Jews to return to the Land of Israel centuries before the term "Zionism" was coined. Most of them were of a messianic character, but they were for a return of the Jews to their national homeland. Many of them were fairly large and led to continuous settlement in the land. (See the essay "Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240-1840" by Arie Morgenstern in "New Essays on Zionism", edited by David Hazony, Yoram Hazony and Michael Oren (former Israeli Ambassador to the US), published by Shalem.

Before the term 'Zionism' became generally accepted as the label for the Jewish nationalist movement, the term most used was the Russified 'Palestinofilstvo' (love of Palestine).

***

www.amazon.com/New-Essays-Zionism-David-Hazony/dp/9657052440/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520286470&sr=1-1&keywords="New+Essays+on+Zionism"David+Hazony,+Yoram+Hazony+Michael+Oren)

> Zionism [is] a semi-modern Jewish/Israeli political movement that started in the 20th century advocating for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and after the formation of Israel morphed into a nationalist movement.

There were movements for Jews to return to the Land of Israel centuries before the term "Zionism" was coined. Most of them were of a messianic character, but they were for a return of the Jews to their national homeland. Many of them were fairly large and led to continuous settlement in the land. (See the essay "Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240-1840" by Arie Morgenstern in New Essays on Zionism, edited by David Hazony, Yoram Hazony and Michael Oren (present Israeli Ambassador to the US), published by Shalem.)

Before the term 'Zionism' became generally accepted as the label for the Jewish nationalist movement, the term most used was the Russified 'Palestinofilstvo' (love of Palestine).

In the latter part of the 18th century, the "Emancipation" arrived and Jews moved out of the ghettos in large numbers for the first time and assimilated (with passion) into the societies in which they lived. Hundreds of thousands of Jews in western Europe gave up their religious practice and cultural identification and embraced the Enlightenment.

To meet the new situation, a new anti-Semitism arose. Traditional antisemitism was a religion-oriented bigotry. Under it Jews could retain their religion, and live apart, or convert to Christianity and be, more or less, welcomed into the society in which they lived. The newer anti-Semitism was race-oriented bigotry. There was a progression from 'you can not live among us as Jews' to 'you can not live among us' (which only a few decades later, under the Nazis, reached its logical culmination: 'you cannot live').

"And so Zionism emerged. More than an old answer to an old problem, it was a new answer to a new problem. Jews throughout the world rallied around Herzl with the slogan 'We are one people.' Yet just as the persecution of the Jews was no longer religion-based, neither was the Zionist solution. For the first time in history, Jews saw themselves as a people in the national, rather than religious, sense. World Jewry—intellectuals from Western Europe, rabbis from the Pale of Settlement, merchants from North Africa—all were united by a national-cultural bond." ("The Curious Case of Jewish Democracy", by Amnon Rubenstein - Azure, Summer 5770/2010)

May I suggest some reading for you?

• A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel, by Walter Lacquer
  
  
• New Essays on Zionism, edited by David Hazony, Yoram Hazony, and Michael B. Oren