Biblical Covenants
G-d promises Jews a great nation in return for observance of belief and practice of laws.
Assembled here are key sources that have shaped the modern Middle East, Zionism and Israel. We have included items that give texture, perspective and opinion to historical context. Many of these sources are mentioned in the Era summaries and contain explanatory introductions.
Liturgical References to Zion and Jerusalem
The Hebrew Bible, Prophetic Books, the Talmud, the daily prayer book, and ancient Jewish texts reinforce Judaism’s relationship to G-d and Eretz Yisrael.
“The Jewish State,” Theodor Herzl
Eventual head of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl says anti-Semitism requires a Jewish state.
Max Nordau: Address at the First Zionist Congress, 1897
Nordau’s impassioned speech summarized the unique Jewish identity to belief, Torah, ritual and community. With those central elements as a people, their state of impoverishment and wretched physical insecurity, he argued, were vital for rebuilding the Jewish national territory.
First Zionist Congress, Hebrew Language Newspaper Reporting
Three European journalists provide their first hand accounts of the First Zionist Congress and reporting of the delegates attending.
Balfour Declaration, 1917
British Foreign Ministry promises to set up a Jewish National Home in Palestine with no harm to non-Jewish populations, or to Jews living elsewhere who might want to support a Jewish home.
Vladimir Jabotinsky, “The Iron Wall,” 1923
April 11, 1923 Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky (October 17, 1880-August 3, 1940) was a Russian-Jewish intellectual, writer, soldier and political activist who founded the Revisionist Zionist movement. A charismatic orator and prolific author, Jabotinsky broke with…
Minutes of Jewish Agency Meeting on Inaugural Maccabiah Games, Jerusalem, 1932
Zionists decide to hold the first international sports games in Tel Aviv bringing 400 Jewish athletes from 18 countries. The games open on March 28, 1932. Zionists value the games as a “possible awakening of youth in the Diaspora” to Zionism and the positive economic outcome for the Jewish community in Palestine.
The Biltmore Program, 1942
In New York, urging American (Jewish) support, Ben-Gurion proclaims the eventual establishment of a Jewish state.
Jewish Request at End of WWII: Let My People Go (to Palestine)! Moshe Sharett, 1945
Moshe Sharett urges the British and Americans to open Palestine to unimpeded Jewish immigration from Europe.
Jewish Cultural Life in Palestine, 1944-1945
Gerda Luft’s, “Cultural Life in Palestine,” is representative of the dozens of excellent analyses of Jewish life and politics in Palestine/Israel and the world located in the annual Palestine Yearbooks, later the Israel Yearbook, published from 1945 forward.
Volume XXIII, Series A (August 1947-June 1952)
The last of 23 volumes of Chaim Weizmann’s Letters summarized wonderfully by Aaron Klieman, recalls the Israeli first president’s views of those fateful years for Zionism and Israel from 1947-1952. Chaim Weizmann died at his home in Rehovot on 9 November 1952, shortly before his 78th birthday. All of the letters read together, provide ring side seat to Zionism as an idea to the reality of the Jewish state.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence, 1948
The Declaration recounts the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, the birth of Zionism and U.N. recognition of a Jewish state’s legitimacy. It also promises that the state will be a democracy for all its citizens.
Israel State Archives, “Immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, 1948-1985,” and MFA Documents, 2022
Read full article at the Israel State Archives.
Proposed Constitution for State of Israel, 1948
This draft spoke eloquently about protecting individual, religious, and civil rights for all. Instead individual civil rights in Israel were protected by a series of Basic Laws.
Israel’s Law of Return
Jews worldwide are given the right to come to Israel and become citizens.
American Jewish Relationship With Israel: Speech by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Response by AJC President Jacob Blaustein, 1950
August 23, 1950 American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 53. 1952. 64-8. Over time, world Jewish opinion became splintered not only about the nature of Zionism or the role of Israel in their identity, but the degree…
1950-1951 Israel Yearbook, “The Zionist Movement”
The Israel Year Book, 1950/51, Tel Aviv, Israel Publications Limited, 1951, pp. 23-34.,(reprinted with permission). The Zionist Movement, the unique instance in world history of a people without a land organizing itself for the rebuilding…
1951 U.N. Report, “The Situation of Jews in Moslem Countries”
This report submitted to the United Nations at the end of 1951 notes that “some one million Jews have become the victims of accelerated antiSemitism” since 1948 in the Muslim countries of the Arab League and North Africa, “communities which have existed for thousands of years.” The report analyzes the situation for Jews overall and explains restrictions and oppressive measures country by country.
David Ben-Gurion, “Jewish Survival,” 1953
Israel’s first prime minister was a prolific writer. In this excerpt of a 50-page document, he notes that the Jewish nation’s DNA included relentless challenges marked by dispersal, ostracism and hatred by many people. Despite these adversities, Israel’s establishment symbolizes a remarkable victory against all odds — a culmination of the Jewish people’s tenacity and unyielding spirit. The state and Zionism were not remotely close to being finished, nor having succeeded in the quest for the Jewish people’s normalization.
David Ben-Gurion’s “Vision and Redemption,” 1958
Ben-Gurion elegantly connects modern Israel from messianic redemption to Zionism, building the country through labor and immigration, with dual needs to remain actively linked to the Jewish diaspora and Jewish values through education.
Prime Minister Begin’s Knesset Address During Sadat’s Visit, November 1977
Begin welcomes Sadat’s bold initiative, seeking an end to the conflict with other Arab states through negotiated treaties. Begin invites other Arab leaders to negotiate as Sadat was doing.
How Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin Viewed the 1993 Oslo Accords — A Collection in His Own Words
In September 2023, thirty years after the historic signing of the Oslo Accords, there is occasion to review Prime Minister Rabin’s understanding of them. I assembled this collection years ago from Daily Reports- Near East and South Asia, 1993-1995. Two short items about Rabin’s views are also found or linked here. Rabin provided a summary of his views of the Accords in a Knesset speech in October 5, 1995. Some of Rabin’s reasons for signing the Accords are also provided in Yehuda Avner’s The Prime Ministers.
Amos Oz, “The Whole Reckoning Is Not Over Yet,” 2018
June 3, 2018 As of December 2024, Amos Oz’s last speech, “The Whole Reckoning Is Not Over Yet,” has been translated from Hebrew into Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Dutch and published as a book…
