Research Paper on Moses Hess (Jewish Nationalist Movement)

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Research Paper- Moses Hess The Jewish Nationalist Movement began organizing a Jewish homeland in Israel for the Jewish people. There were many precursors before this movement who had many suggestions about how to come about Zionism. Moses Hess’s suggestions were prominent among them. He thought that just like other nations, the Jewish people should maintain their own land. He also realized that to stop anti Semitism, a Jewish state must be created in which the Jews can rule over each other. Hess was known as “the first Zionist” and he was unique because he looked at Zionism as a way for the Jewish people to be independent like other nations and as the solution of anti Semitism. Moses Hess was raised in Bonn by his grandfather because his father had moved to Cologne for business (Rome and Jerusalem). Although Hess was Jewish, he was not raised with a Jewish education; he was raised as a secular Jew. But despite his upbringing, anti-Semitism had always bothered him. During his lifetime, a person’s ancestry defined his status in life. Anyone born from a Jewish mother was considered Jewish, regardless of his or her beliefs. Hess recognized that Germans hated the Jewish race. He thought about the anti-Semitism in Germany at that time and "returned" to Judaism. Although his grandfather had raised him as a secular Jew, the sight of anti-Semitism motivated him to become more religious. Hess saw anti-Semitism as a reason for the Jews to settle in a Jewish homeland. He believed that Zionism was the only solution to anti-Semitism because it would give the Jews a homeland in which religious identity did not determine social acceptance. Hess predicted both the Holocaust and the beginning of the State of Israel (Zionism). Hess suggested different ways for the Jews to obtain a homeland. One thing that he recommended was for the Jews to hold onto the hope that making a Jewish

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