cover image Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha'am and the Origins of Zionism

Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha'am and the Origins of Zionism

Steven J. Zipperstein. University of California Press, $50 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-520-08111-6

A leading thinker of the Zionist movement, the restless, reclusive, cynical Asher Ginzberg (1856-1927) was also its chief internal critic. Known by his pen name Ahad Ha'am (``One of the People''), the Russian Jewish activist would accuse his rival, Theodor Herzl, of reckless impatience; in Herzl's view, Ha'am's cautious vision of slowly building a Jewish national homeland was `` cloistered , impractical. '' Ha'am, who emigrated to Tel Aviv in 1922 and served as a moderating voice in a tense, factionalized Palestine, asserted that decent treatment of Palestinian Arabs was crucial to the future of a Jewish state. He was also a critic of the use of aggression as a tool to further nationalist goals. In this engrossing political biography, Zipperstein, director of the Stanford University Jewish Studies program, finds aspects of Ha'am's Zionist credo ``lamentably dated'' but also underscores his contemporary relevance. Photos. (Oct.)