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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Zionism . Zionism , Jewish nationalism movement with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. In the 16th–17th century, a number of “messiahs” tried to persuade the Jews to return to Palestine, but by the late 18th century interest had largely faded.
Zionism is a variety of Jewish nationalism. It claims that Jews constitute a nation whose survival, both physical and cultural, requires its return to the Jews’ ancestral home in the Land of Israel. Pre-1948 Zionism was more than a nationalist movement: it was a revolutionary project to remake the Jewish people.
The roots of Zionism lay in Eastern Europe, notably within the confines of the Russian Empire. It was there, towards the end of the 19th century, that the largest and, in many ways, the most dynamic of Jewish communities was located — though it was also the most troubled. Conceived by czarist autocracy as a major obstacle to its drive to ...
