Between Nationalism and Internationalism: Robert Weltsch and the Colonial Dilemma in World War II Palestine

This article proposes that the marginality of World War II in the historiography of Zionism and Israel is based on a historical perspective that shaped contemporaries' evaluation of reality and framed postwar historiography. Through the wartime writings of Robert Weltsch, I argue that this hist...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kabalek, Kobi (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Pennsylvania Press 2024
In: AJS review
Year: 2024, Volume: 48, Issue: 1, Pages: 77-99
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Palestine / Nationalism / Internationalism (Motif) / History / World War / Weltsch, Robert 1891-1982 / Colonialism
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
CA Christianity
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Summary:This article proposes that the marginality of World War II in the historiography of Zionism and Israel is based on a historical perspective that shaped contemporaries' evaluation of reality and framed postwar historiography. Through the wartime writings of Robert Weltsch, I argue that this historiographic absence draws on a dilemma: Should Britain's colonized populations continue their fight for independence from British rule during the war or support the empire in the world conflict against the Axis? The dilemma expressed a tension between the colonial aspects of the Yishuv and its reliance on the British Empire, on the one hand, and its anticolonial struggle for independence from the British, on the other. This article examines the Yishuv's wartime dilemma using the distinction Weltsch made between a narrow perspective, which he associated with World War I's legacy of self-determination, and a broad international view.
ISSN:1475-4541
Contains:Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/ajs.2024.a926058