User:Thamyco/Golus nationalism

Summary
Golus nationalism, also known as Galuth Nationalism, is an ideology based in the cultural and ethnic identity of the Jewish diaspora as a nation that does not require a physical territory in order to maintain their national identity. The term golus has been understood both to mean diaspora, as well as exile.

There were many significant contributors to the theory of Golus nationalism, including its founder Nathan Birnbaum and his peers in political theorizing. Additionally, through its development, Golus nationalism was in conversation with many related and alternative theories of its time.

During the discussions surrounding establishment of a Jewish state and discrimination against Jews in Europe, diaspora nationalism was a ubiquitous contender. Golus nationalism specifically essentialized cultural aspects of Ashkenazi Jews in specific, such as the Yiddish language. Today, Golus nationalism typically comes into conversation as an alternative road to Zionist ideology and the state of Israel.

Origins
The concept of Golus Nationalism was conceived by Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937) during his political career beginning in the 1880s in Vienna. Birnbaum studied Yiddish and was fascinated by the Eastern European Jewish culture, which was juxtaposed with his Western European upbringing. Birnbaum was a co-founder of the the Jewish-Nationalist fraternity, Kadimah, founded and wrote for the first Zionist emancipation journal titled Selbst-Emancipation, and coined the term Zionist. Some of his thinking is represented in his two most popular articles, “The Jewish Renaissance Movement” and “Jewish Autonomy."

Related Theories
Around the 1880s, Birnbaum reportedly developed a resentment for Theodor Herzl's lack of interest in sustaining and reviving Jewish diasporic culture, and his favoring of political strategy towards sovereignty and territory. This caused Birnbaum to diverge from the territorial zionist ideologies of Herzl and others, and he joined the ranks of the Non-territorial autonomist theorists, who argued that physical boundaries are not necessary to define a people and maintain sovereignty. He supported a renaissance of Jewish Ashkenazi culture and language. Birnbaum's theories aligned with Simon Dubnow's concepts of Diaspora Nationalism, emphasizing a Jewish sense of unity, identity, and sovereignty across international countries and communities.

There was a division between Cultural Zionists who were represented by Ahad Ha-am, and Political Zionists, who were represented by Theodor Herzl, but Nathan Birnbaum's Golus nationalists countered both ideologies. Birnbaum's ideas also countered Ahad Ha-am because he did not place as much significance on the Holy Land of Israel and Palestine as carrying the spirit of Judaism.

This ideology is tied to the theory of Alljudentum, or Pan-Judaism, which was initially theorized by Birnbaum's colleague, Fritz Mordecai Kaufmann. Kaufmann was from Western Europe, specifically Eschweiler, and he studied medicine and history in Geneva. Like Birnbaum, Kaufmann was very motivated to learn from and about the cultural preservation and traditional practices maintained by Eastern European Jews. He seeked to apply that unity through his nationalistic visions for the Jewish diaspora. However, Kaufmann's views diverged from Birnbaum's in that he focused more on the socialistic aspects of these communities, rather than the modern Orthodox practices that drew Birnbaum's attention.

Birnbaum attracted significant supporters, such as Franz Kafka, after seeing him speak at a cultural evening in Prague.

Additionally, there is significant overlap between Golus Nationalism and Yiddishism, which share anti-Zionist, anti-assimilationist values.

Another involved theorist is Chaim Zhitlovsky, who had similar concepts as the Bundists, and he pushed for agricultural lifestyles for the usually city-dwelling Jews of Europe and America.