The invention of a tradition : the Messianic Zionism of the Gaon of Vilna / Immanuel Etkes ; translated by Saadya Sternberg ; with a foreword by David Biale.
| Author/creator | Etkes, I. author. |
| Other author | Sternberg, Saadya. |
| Other author | Biale, David, 1949- writer of foreword. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024] |
| Description | ix, 220 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Uniform title | Tsiyonut ha-meshiḥit shel ha-Gaʼon mi-Ṿilnah. English |
| Series | Stanford Studies in Jewish history and culture Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture. ^A383414 |
| Contents | "Hazon Zion" : a Messianic-Zionist movement -- The main ideas of Kol ha-tor -- Does Kol ha-tor express a Messianic-Zionist doctrine held by the Vilna Gaon? -- Why did the disciples of the Gaon of Vilna immigrate to the Land of Israel? -- How did the Rivlinian myth take form? -- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher's The great era -- The academic version of the Rivlinian myth -- Did Shlomo Zalman Rivlin receive the text of Kol ha-tor from Yitzhak Zvi Rivlin? -- Mossad ha-yesod : the Old Yishuv recast as the beginnings of Zionism -- Midrash Shlomo, and The Department for Training Young Orators -- Ha-Maggid doresh Zion : Rabbi Moshe Rivlin as a 'Zionist' leader -- Sefer ha-pizmonim : Yosef Yosha Rivlin as 'Messianic-Zionist visionary' -- Who was the author of Kol ha-tor? -- Shlomo Zalman Rivlin : the man and his literary motives -- The embrace of the Rivlinian myth and Kol ha-tor in religious-Zionist circles. |
| Abstract | "The Gaon of Vilna was the foremost intellectual leader of non-Hasidic Jewry in eighteenth century Europe; his legacy is claimed by religious Jews, both Zionist and not. In the mid-twentieth century, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Rivlin wrote several books advancing the myth that the Gaon was an early progenitor of Zionism. Following the 1967 War in Israel, messianic sentiments spread in some circles of the national-religious public in Israel, who embraced this myth and made it a central component of the historical narrative they advanced. For those who identified with the religious Zionist enterprise, the myth of the Gaon and his disciples as the first Zionists was seen as proof of the righteousness of their path. In this book, Israeli scholar Immanuel Etkes explores how what he calls the "Rivlinian myth" took hold, and demonstrates that it has no basis in historical reality. Etkes argues that proponents of the Rivlinian myth seek to blur the distinction between Zionism as a modern national movement or a religious one - a distinction that underlies many of the central conflicts of contemporary Israeli politics. As historian David Biale suggests in his brief foreword to this English translation, "what is at stake here is not only historical truth but also the very identity of Zionism as a nationalist movement.""-- Provided by publisher. |
| General note | "Originally published in Hebrew in 2019 under the title Ha-tsiyonut ha-meshichit shel ha-gaon mi-Vilna: Hamtzaʼatah shel masoret." |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Etkes, I. Invention of a tradition. Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2024 9781503637092 |
| Genre/form | History. |
| LCCN | 2023017357 |
| ISBN | 9781503634534 |
| ISBN | 1503634531 hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic publication |