Golus nationalism (Yiddish:גלות נאַציאָנאַליזםGolus natsionalizm aftergolus,Hebrew:לאומיות גולוס,romanized: Leumiyút gālūṯ), or diaspora nationalism, is anational movement of theJewish people that argues for furthering Jewish national and cultural life in centers of large Jewish communities throughout the world while simultaneously seeking recognition for a Jewish national identity from world powers.[1] The termgolus has been understood to mean both "diaspora" and "exile."[2]
Golus nationalism was conceived of byNathan Birnbaum (1864–1937): the Austrian philosopher who had givenZionism its name.[3] Although Birnbaum was an early theorist of Zionism and participated in theFirst Zionist Congress (1897), he broke with the movement shortly thereafter. Birnbaum began to develop a theory of pan-Judaism (Alljudentum) that embraced Jewish life in theDiaspora.[4]
Birnbaum studiedYiddish and was interested in the degree to whichEastern European Jewry preserved its internal culture relative to that of the Western European Jewish culture in which he was raised. Birnbaum was a co-founder of the Jewish-nationalist groupKadimah, and founded and wrote for the first Zionist emancipation journal,Selbst-Emancipation.[5] Some of his thinking is represented in two articles entitled "The Jewish Renaissance Movement" and "Jewish Autonomy."[6]
Birnbaum was opposed to the idea thatJewish assimilation was inevitable. Instead, he was inspired by the Jews of Eastern Europe who had retained Yiddish as a language, had a robust folk culture, and banded together in recognizably distinct communities.[1]
Birnbaum made several attempts to have a Jewish national identity recognized by state powers. In 1907, he unsuccessfully advocated forYiddish to be included as a Jewish national language in theAustro-Hungarian census. The following year, he ran a campaign for a seat in Parliament; despite his successful campaign, he failed to take his seat owing to local government corruption.[7] In 1910, he again attempted to have Yiddish recognized. Birnbaum felt that if he could get state recognition for elements of Jewish nationhood, he could petition for Jews to have shared control of a province inGalicia. He was encouraged by the fact that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was offering the possibility of autonomous regions to ethnic groups and nationalities.[8]
Birnbaum also propagandized on behalf of Yiddish as a language, coining the words "Yiddishism" and "Yiddishist." He organized Yiddish events inVienna, translate Yiddish authors into German, and in 1905 established a student organization for the furtherance of the language calledYidishe Kultur.[1] In 1908, he organized an international conference on the Yiddish language inCzernowitz, in which different Jewish factions squared off as to whether Yiddish should be declared the official language of Jewish nationalism or instead one of several Jewish languages.[8]
Around the 1880s, Birnbaum reportedly developed a resentment forTheodor Herzl's lack of interest in sustaining and reviving Jewish diasporic culture and favoring political strategy towards sovereignty and territory.[9] This caused Birnbaum to diverge from the territorial Zionist ideologies of Herzl and others, and he joined the ranks of thenon-territorial autonomist theorists, who argued that physical boundaries are not necessary to define a people and maintain sovereignty. Birnbaum supported a renaissance of Jewish Ashkenazi culture and language. His theories aligned withSimon Dubnow's concept of Diaspora nationalism, emphasizing a Jewish sense of unity, identity, and sovereignty across countries and international communities.
There was a division betweenCultural Zionists, who were represented byAhad Ha'am, andPolitical Zionists, who Theodor Herzl represented; Nathan Birnbaum'sGolus nationalists were in opposition to both ideologies. Unlike the former two theories, Birnbaum'sGolus nationalism did not require a territory to maintain a national identity. 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.[10]
Golus nationalism is tied to the theory ofAlljudentum, or "pan-Judaism", which was initially theorized by Birnbaum's colleague, Fritz Mordecai Kaufmann. Kaufmann was from Western Europe, specificallyEschweiler, and he studied medicine and history inGeneva.[11] Like Birnbaum, Kaufmann was very motivated to learn from and about the cultural preservation and traditional practices maintained by Eastern European Jews. He sought 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.[12]
Birnbaum attracted significant supporters, such asFranz Kafka, after seeing him speak at a cultural evening in Prague.[10]
Additionally, there is significant overlap betweenGolus nationalism andYiddishism, which share anAshkenazi background alongside their anti-Zionist and anti-assimilationist values.[citation needed]
Another involved theorist wasChaim Zhitlowsky, who had similar concepts as theBundists, and he pushed for agricultural lifestyles for the usually city-dwelling Jews of Europe and America.[citation needed]
Golus nationalism prefigured a variety of attempts to reconcile Jewish identity with the experience of diaspora. RabbiMordecai M. Kaplan would wrestle with similar themes, developing a theory that Judaism should be seen as a civilization, rather than a religion, and foundingReconstructionist Judaism on this theory.[13] YiddishistAbraham Golomb wrote frequently about maintaining a Jewish identity in the Diaspora, and the centrality of Yiddish and Hebrew in this pursuit.