At the first-ever national gathering of Jewish American trade unionists, held in Jan. 1919 & representing 500,000 working-class Jews, the delegates voted to oppose creation of Jewish state in Palestine. Instead they favored a free republic in Palestine w/ equal rights for all.
Here is the exact language of the resolution they adopted. Note that it still says Jews from abroad should have the right to "free immigration & colonization." There had been another, more explicitly Zionist resoultion they voted down in favor of this one.
@JeffSchuhrke Hmmm…did something happen between 1919 and 1948? Something maybe involving gas chambers?
@JeffSchuhrke Zionism as an ideology for most of its history was a fringe idea, not adopted by the majority of Jews across Europe & Russia. Even in Poland in the 1930s the Bund were leading most of the Jews against Zionism, because it was being pushed by imperial powers to counter communism.
@JeffSchuhrke 'free immigration & colonization' + 'national autonomy' + 'no special rights, until they become the majority' = oppose the [immediate] creation of a zionist state. demonstrates how weak opposition to zionism was for the bundists et al. it was *the* issue for zionists, others no.
@JeffSchuhrke @ruppe_tr To bad it didn't turn out that way.
@JeffSchuhrke Exactly!!! That is the only just way!!