Home > History Fact Finder > Political and Social Movements - What Is Zionism?

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

What is Zionism?

Zionism began in the 1890s as a movement to establish an independent Jewish homeland. The movement was founded as a solution for diaspora (dispersion of Jews around the world) and anti-Semitism (the hatred of Jews). In 1948 the state of Israel was founded in Palestine.

The roots of Zionism date to 1882 with the movement to encourage Jewish settlement of Palestine—the region in the Middle East (in southwest Asia) that borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Lebanon to the north, Syria and Jordan to the east, and Egypt (the Sinai Peninsula) to the southwest. Groups advocating immigration (moving from one country to permanently settle in another) to the Jewish homeland in Palestine called themselves Hoveve Zion (Lovers of Zion). Mount Zion is the site in Jerusalem where the Temple of David (?–962 B.C.; king of the ancient Hebrews) was built. It is therefore considered the center of Jewish spiritual...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. International Movements
   1. When did nationalism emerge?
   2. What is Zionism?
   3. What was the nonviolent Indian reform movement?
   4. What was the May Fourth Movement?
   5. Who were the Wobblies?
   6. Who was Eugene Debs?
   7. What happened at Tiananmen Square?
   8. What is Solidarity?
   9. What was the anti-apartheid movement?
   10. When did the birth control movement begin?
   11. Do women have the right to vote in all countries of the world?
   12. What is the zero population growth movement?
2. American Movements
   1. When did the abolitionism begin?
   2. How did the slavery question affect the admission of new states to the Union?
   3. What is racism?
   4. Did slavery end when the slave trade was outlawed in Britain?
   5. Why did President Lincoln wait to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?
   6. What is the history of the Ku Klux Klan?
   7. What was the Niagara movement?
   8. Who were the notable abolitionists?
   9. What was the nonviolence movement?
   10. When and how did the Civil Rights movement begin?
   11. What were the Freedom Rides?
   12. When did Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech?
   13. What does the letter "X" in Malcolm X's name mean?
   14. How did Southern states prevent African Americans from voting in the first half of the twentieth century?
   15. What was the Temperance movement?
   16. What was the American Suffragist movement?
   17. What is Populism?
   18. What was the Progressive movement?
   19. When did the U.S. labor movement begin?
   20. Why was the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory important?
   21. What is the AFL-CIO?
   22. Who was César Chávez?
   23. Who are Nader's Raiders?
   24. Who were the hippies?
   25. Did the feminist movement begin in the twentieth century?
   26. How did Silent Spring influence the environmental protection movement?
   27. What is the ERA?
   28. What is the gay rights movement?