Zionism

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Pronunciations

Zionism (ZYE-uh-nizm) listen

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Definitions

  • n. A political movement focused on re-establishing and (now) protecting the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their historic homeland, the Land of Israel.


Example Sentences

  • "Zionism was also a cultural and national renaissance movement which sought to enable the Jewish people to revive their language, Hebrew, and reestablish self-determination over their traditions, culture, religion and education." (source)

  • "Herzl’s Zionism was purely political in theory and practice: the Jews as a nation did not need a new culture, language, or concept of the messianic era, but only a national polity of their own, whose creation would solve the problem of anti-Semitism both for the Jews themselves and for Europe as a whole." (source)

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Languages of Origin

  • English

Etymology

  • Zion 'a hill on which ancient Jerusalem was partly built' + -ism

      • Who Uses This

      • Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
      • Israel: Diaspora Jews who feel connected to Israel and have spent time there
      • Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).

Notes

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