Zionism, as an organised nationalist movement, is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897, the year of the First Zionist Congress of the Zionist Organization. Earlier movements in the 19th century, described as Proto-Zionism or Forerunners of Zionism, included Hovevei Zion (), responsible for the creation of 20 Jewish towns in Palestine between 1870 and 1897.

At the core of the Zionist ideology was the aspiration for a Jewish national home through the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in Palestine, to be facilitated by the Jewish diaspora (see aliyah). Herzl sought an independent Jewish state (usually defined as a secular state with a Jewish-majority population, in contrast to a theocratic Halakhic state), as expressed in his 1896 pamphlet . Though he did not live to witness it, his vision was fulfilled with the founding in 1948 of the State of Israel within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine.

Background

Jewish nationalism and emancipation

From the point of view of Modern Jewish historiography, Zionism arose as one of various proposed approaches to what was often called the "Jewish problem" in late 19th century Europe: an apparent inability to eliminate antisemitism and to ensure acceptance, integration, and equal rights for the Jews of Europe, who had frequently been subjected to segregation, discrimination, and persecution under Christian rule in the medieval and early modern periods.

In the 19th century, too, the idea of nationalism spread widely in Europe and beyond that nations, generally distinguished by a unique language, were the essential units into which humans were naturally divided. Throughout the century, this idea shaped the struggles of various peoples in overthrowing what they saw as foreign—and therefore illegitimate—rule in order to establish and unify independent nation states. According to Zachary Lockman, nationalisms in Europe "often raised the question of whether their indigenous Jewish minorities would be accepted as part of the new 'national family'."

Ideas of Jewish cultural unity developed a specifically political expression in the 1860s as Jewish intellectuals began promoting the idea of Jewish nationalism. This emerged amid the rise of nationalism in 19th century Europe.

In 1880, there were 8 million Jews in the world, 90% of whom lived in Europe. Of these, three quarters lived in Eastern Europe, and the vast majority of them lived in the territories of the Russian Empire, under Tsarist rule. Eastern European Jews did not benefit from the process of secularization and the project of Jewish emancipation that followed the French Revolution in Western Europe; most Jews living under Russian rule suffered from poverty and antisemitism, forced to live in the Pale of Settlement and subjected to waves of pogroms.

Zionism emerged towards the end of the "best century" for Jews who for the first time were allowed as equals into European society and gained access to schools, universities, and professions that were previously closed to them. By the 1870s, Jews had achieved almost complete civic emancipation in all the states of western and central Europe. By 1914, Jews had moved from the margins to the forefront of European society. In the urban centers of Europe and America, Jews played an influential role in professional and intellectual life. During this period, as Jewish assimilation was still progressing most promisingly, some Jewish intellectuals and religious traditionalists framed assimilation as a humiliating negation of Jewish cultural distinctiveness.: "While assimilation was still progressing most promisingly, and also quite independently of antisemitism when it later arose, not only religious traditionalists but also part of the Jewish intelligentsia decried the humiliating self-negation that assimilation exacted and rose to the defense of Jewish cultural distinctiveness." The development of Zionism and other Jewish nationalist movements grew out of these sentiments. In this sense, Zionism can be read as a response to the Haskala and the challenges of modernity and liberalism, rather than purely a response to antisemitism.

Emancipation in Eastern Europe progressed more slowly, to the point that Deickoff writes "social conditions were such that they made the idea of individual assimilation pointless". Antisemitism, pogroms and official policies in Tsarist Russia led to the emigration of three million Jews in the years between 1882 and 1914, only 1% of which went to Palestine. Those who went to Palestine were driven primarily by ideas of self-determination and Jewish identity, rather than just in response to pogroms or economic insecurity. Zionism's emergence in the late 19th century was among assimilated Central European Jews who, despite their formal emancipation, still felt excluded from high society. Many of these Jews had moved away from traditional religious observances and were largely secular, mirroring a broader trend of secularisation in Europe. Despite their efforts to integrate, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe were frustrated by continued lack of acceptance by the local national movements that tended toward intolerance and exclusivity. For the early Zionists, if nationalism posed a challenge to European Jewry, it also proposed a solution.

Biblical precedents

The concept of the "return" was a powerful symbol within religious Jewish belief,; ; ; traditionally emphasizing that their return should be determined by Divine Providence rather than human action. This 'return to Zion' is commemorated particularly at prayers at the end of Passover and Yom Kippur by the phrasing "next year in Jerusalem".

The theme of return to is also present in the Babylonian exile, after the Babylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE and the Judeans were exiled to Babylon. In the book of Psalms (Psalm 137), Jews lamented their exile while prophets like Ezekiel foresaw their return. The Bible recounts how, in 538 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and issued a proclamation granting the people of Judah their freedom. 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubbabel returned. A second group of 5,000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judea in 456 BCE.

Precursors

The 613 Jewish revolt against Heraclius is considered the last serious Jewish attempt to gain autonomy in Palestine in antiquity. In 1160 David Alroy led a Jewish uprising in Upper Mesopotamia that aimed to reconquer the promised land. The Jewish expulsion from Spain led to some Jewish refugees fleeing to Ottoman Palestine. In 1564, Joseph Nasi, with the support of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, attempted to create a Jewish province in the Galilee, but he died in 1579 before his plans could be completed. However, the community in Safed continued as did small-scale aliyah into the 17th century.

In 1648 Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) announced himself as the Messiah and gained many Jews to his side, forming a base in Salonika. He first tried to establish a settlement in Gaza, but moved later to Smyrna. After deposing the old rabbi Aaron Lapapa in the spring of 1666, the Jewish community of Avignon, France, prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom.; ;

Aliyah and the "Ingathering of the Exiles"

The cultural memory of Jews in the diaspora revered the Land of Israel. Religious tradition held that a future messianic age would usher in their return as a people. The biblical prophecy of Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of exiles in the Land of Israel as foretold by the Prophets, became a central idea in Zionism.: "A number of factors motivated Israel's open immigration policy. First of all, open immigration—the ingathering of the exiles in the historic Jewish homeland—had always been a central component of Zionist ideology and constituted the raison d'etre of the State of Israel. The ingathering of the exiles (kibbutz galuyot) was nurtured by the government and other agents as a national ethos, the consensual and prime focus that united Jewish Israeli society after the War of Independence": "Central to Zionist thinking was the concept of Kibbutz Galuiot—the "ingathering of the exiles". Following two millennia of homelessness and living presumably "outside of history", Jews could once again "enter history" as subjects, as "normal" actors on the world stage by returning to their ancient birth place, Eretz Israel"

Aliyah (return to Israel) has always been considered a praiseworthy act for Jews according to Jewish law and some Rabbis consider it one of the core 613 commandments in Judaism. From the Middle Ages and onwards, some famous rabbis (and often their followers) made aliyah to the Land of Israel. These included Nahmanides, Yechiel of Paris with several hundred of his students, Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and 300 of his followers, and over 500 disciples (and their families) of the Vilna Gaon known as Perushim, among others.

Europe's age of enlightenment and the Jews

The Age of Enlightenment in Europe led to an 18th- and 19th-century Jewish enlightenment movement in Europe, called the Haskalah. In 1791, the French Revolution led France to become the first country in Europe to grant Jews legal equality. Britain gave Jews equal rights in 1856, Germany in 1871. The spread of western liberal ideas among newly emancipated Jews created for the first time a class of secular Jews who absorbed the prevailing ideas of enlightenment, including rationalism, romanticism, and nationalism.

However, the formation of modern nations in Europe accompanied changes in the prejudices against Jews. What had previously been religious persecution now became a new phenomenon of racial antisemitism and acquired a new name: antisemitism. Antisemites saw Jews as an alien religious, national and racial group and actively tried to prevent Jews from acquiring equal rights and citizenship. The Catholic press was at the forefront of these efforts and was quietly encouraged by the Vatican, which saw its own decline in status as linked to the equality granted to Jews. By the late 19th century, the more extreme nationalist movements in Europe often promoted physical violence against Jews who they regarded as interlopers and exploiters threatening the well-being of their nations.

The transformation of the religious, and primarily passive connection between Jews and Palestine, into an active, secular, nationalist movement arose within the context of ideological developments within modern European nations in the 19th century. According to Gideon Shimoni, the religious Judaic notion of being a nation was distinct from the modern European notion of nationalism.

Forerunners Proto-Zionism

The forerunners of Zionism, rather than being causally connected to the later development of Zionism, are thinkers and activists who expressed some notion of Jewish national consciousness or advocated for the migration of Jews to Palestine. These attempts were not continuous as national movements typically are. The most notable proto-Zionists were rabbis such as Judah Alkalai and Zvi Hirsch Kalischer. Their idea of Jews as a collective was strongly tied to religious notions distinct from the secular movement referred to as Zionism that developed at the end of the century.

The idea of returning to Palestine was rejected by the conferences of rabbis held in that epoch. Individual efforts supported the emigration of groups of Jews to Palestine, pre-Zionist Aliyah, even before the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the year considered as the start of practical Zionism. Moses Montefiore, who is viewed as a proto-Zionist, established a colony for Jews in Palestine. In 1854, his friend Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine.