I once asked one of the greatest Jewish sages of the last century why it was that between 1870 and 1940 almost the entire European Jewish population felt so comfortable about shrugging off the religious practice of their parents. Most had been brought up fairly orthodox. He had been there. He shrugged and said simply, ‘Zionism.’ This gave the masses an identity, a purpose, a replacement for religion and the most wonderful excuse to shrug off the old repression and control on their appetites.
The World in The Times of Theodor Herzl
They could live like non-Jews but still be proud to be Jews – in their adherence to Zionism. Now we need to be fair, even to old Theodore Herzl, the ultimate secularist. He saw a world of suffering and antisemitism. He saw a people many of whom were pathetically trapped by their secular gentile life because the gentiles utterly hated them and would absolutely not treat them as anything other than filthy Jews. They had given up Judaism only to find that they were still vermin in most gentiles’ eyes. And it made no difference who you were – from the composer Mahler to dear Sigi Freud.
The secular ‘enlightened’ Jews tried to become leaders in the new socialism. Moses Hess, a precursor of socialist Zionism, is credited with converting Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to the concept of historical materialism. Ferdinand Lassalle founded the first actual workers’ party in Germany in 1863. They were very successful – and, being Jews, too successful – but the socialists rejected them.
Then they tried to become leaders in the new communism. They were very successful – and being Jews, too successful – but the communists also rejected them. One Lev Davidovitch Bernstein ended up with an axe in his head whilst hiding in Mexico from Stalin and the gentile communists. He called himself Leon Trotsky. You may remember Karl Marx was also a clever Jew-boy. He basically fled to London and he now is still there – in oy vey – a gentile cemetery – Highgate. His personal ‘journey’ is extremely revealing. It describes millions of similar stories – without the fame of course.
Karl Marx: The Paragon of The Self-Hating Jew
Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. His paternal grandfather, Mordechai Levi, served as the chief rabbi of Trier. During the period of French rule over the Rhineland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, French law mandated that Jews adopt “civil” surnames. Consequently, Mordechai Levi came to be known in official documents as “Marcus Lewy” and later “Marx Lewy.”
His son, Heschel Lewy, who would become Karl’s father, eventually adopted the name Heinrich Marx. The family had to convert to allow them to be lawyers. Despite the conversion, the family maintained some ties to the Jewish community. Heinrich Marx served as legal counsel to the Jewish community, and his brother, Samuel Marx, succeeded his father as chief rabbi of Trier. An officially Christian Rabbi!!! However, Karl Marx himself never publicly referred to his Jewish origins and did not engage with Jewish themes in his major works, with the notable exception of his controversial essay “On the Jewish Question.” This treasure was published in 1844.
He felt that Jews were human beings and that should be recognized as such and not persecuted because of their race. However, the second part of the essay is highly contentious. Marx expressed strong criticisms of Judaism, identifying it with “huckstering” and “money” and portraying it as a symbol of the egoism and practical need he saw as characteristic of civil society under capitalism. He famously stated, “What is the secular cult of the Jews? Huckstering. What is his secular god? Money” and concluded that “the social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism.
Creating The Basis Of a New Jew And New Judaism
This means that Jews by birth were not allowed to feel ‘Jewish’ but rather reject every one of their “despicable” traits. So, he would not have let you or the 10 million secular Jews partying on our planet today lead the life you have led. A sort of Jew-ish lifestyle topped with Zionism with the odd Seder night and Jewish wedding, bar mitzvah and funeral.
No, the secular Jew had drowned his birth-right but then thrown out the baby with the bathwater. He was standing there – naked of purpose, history or purpose. He had sold everything to cuddle up with those who now coldly rejected him – and called him, of all things – ‘Jew’. Yet there was one unifying hope, one flag the Jews could rally around. It was convenient, libertine and open to all. The youth and cultural groups were completely and publically untrammelled by old fashioned restrictions on a completely hedonistic life style. They could revel in being proudly ‘Jewish’ and proudly immoral and modern.
Flaunting this new Jewish hedonism they attracting millions. They loved the bagels and pork sausage subculture suddenly available at every Zionist meeting. Often you got bacon. And deliciously the old guard frowned and shook their heads – until they also joined in. So they seized Herzl’s dream of returning to Israel, not to the ‘Holy Land’ but to a secular national home for the neutered secular Jews, in order to live a full non-Jewish life.
The Logic Behind Zionism
I must admit the logic is somewhat difficult. Why not just wait a couple of generations. Intermarriage and hiding your Jewish roots would solve all antisemitism much more cheaply! You could stay in Europe and not have to drain the Hula Swamps! But of course, the impetus created by antisemitism was now irreversibly swamped by Zionist nationalistic fervor. Yes, the early Zionists were not determined to wipe out the observant Jews. Provided they kept quiet and did not interfere or claim anything – the Zionists were able to show some tolerance for their backward brethren, whose children would certainly be secular and good Israelis.
Herzl’s Holy Land: A Homeland For Zionism
Herzl’s Land had no room really for anyone not staunchly secular and nationalistic. So, for 2000 years Judaism had kept alive the concept of Israel as a religious homeland and Herzl stole and perverted the idea. The Jews had preserved the Holy Land of Israel as a concept for two millennia and Herzl rebranded it. But there was an insidious cancer deep within it.
Tragically, today secular Zionism/Judaism is certain to destroy the very Jews supporting it. In two centuries it has wiped out the secular Jew, reducing their numbers far more effectively than the Germans. Remember by 2048, the secular Jew will be dying out around the globe. Already it is hitting the Israeli government as an inescapable fact.
What Israel’s Future (Probably) Holds
This year, 2026, was the first time that the number of secular children attending schools has fallen lower than the orthodox, haredi children. Yet, nearly 80% of Jews in Israel – 5.6 million – do not keep the Sabbath and send their few children to non-religious schools!! They will have 1 child for 4 or 3 adults. That means 1.8 million secular Jews in one generations’ time. Imagine Israel with only perhaps 2 million ‘normal’ Jews. The observant Jews have 3 to 4 children per adult. That means 4.5 to 6 million insane religious fundamentalists.
OK – this does include the acceptably-dressed (except for the skull cap) but very firmly observant Mizrachi and modern orthodox movements. So they will not all be black clothes and beards – like I am. But the problems will be horrific. Against whom will the ultra-orthodox mobs make demonstrations? The army will be full of bearded guys wiping their Uzis with their ear locks. The parliament will never ever finish anything because they will have to stop for prayers, or someone’s wedding or having a l’chayim (celebratory drink) if someone’s child gets engaged. Interviewing politicians will be impossible because they will always say, ‘Well, on the other hand ….’
Also negotiations with the Muslims will be impossible. One day will a Jewish holiday – one a Muslim holiday. The Muslims will be praying five times a day and the Jews three times. They will never get together – except perhaps Xmas day.
The Gift of G-d For Whom?
Now, seriously, the bottom line is that secularism is ethnic suicide which has really already happened. Sorry, check the statistics. Yet, hilariously ‘Theodore’ means ‘gift from the Almighty’. His Hebrew name probably would have been ‘Nataniel’ – same meaning. But his utterly secular family probably never willingly gave him a Hebrew name but rather this Greek one instead. If he had a Jewish circumcision, the Rabbi would have given a Hebrew name – but I doubt his parents would have had such an insane religious ceremony.
This ‘gift from the Almighty’ engineered the end of his type of Judaism. Born into a prosperous, utterly assimilated and proudly Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest, Herzl initially pursued a career in law and journalism. His exposure to virulent antisemitism, particularly during the Dreyfus Affair in France led him to conclude that even assimilation was not a viable solution for the Jewish people. He believed that antisemitism was an intractable problem that could only be overcome through the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state.
Note this was not a new idea in itself. It was using the popular nationalist rhetoric in Europe at that time as a solution. His utter ignorance of Judaism allowed his concoction of this non-Jewish idea. In his seminal 1896 pamphlet, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), Herzl articulated his vision for a Jewish homeland, arguing, inaccurately, that Jews constituted a nation lacking a state. This work, and his subsequent efforts to organize the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, laid the groundwork for the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Herzl‘s Zionism was primarily a political and secular movement, focused on securing international recognition and a territorial base for the Jewish people.
Reform Judaism’s Opposition to Herzl’s Zionism
Strangely many reform Jewish groups disapproved of Zionism. It meant that their own concept of basically secular – but still very European – Jews was weakened. They wanted free accepted Jewish citizens in their real ‘homelands’ of Germany, Austria, Hungary etc. Obviously, many Orthodox Jewish leaders and communities viewed Herzl‘s secular Zionism with deep suspicion and, in some cases, outright hostility. Their objections stemmed from several key concerns:
Religious Interpretation of Exile and Redemption
A cornerstone of traditional Jewish belief was the understanding of the Jewish people’s exile from the Land of Israel as a divine decree, and their return as an act of messianic redemption, to be initiated by the Almighty, not through human political endeavour. This approach held that Jews should patiently await the Messiah, and any attempt to force the end of exile was considered a transgression against Divine will. Prominent Orthodox rabbis invoked the “three oaths” from the Talmud (Ketubot 111a), which forbade Jews from returning to the Land of Israel in large numbers by force, rebelling against the nations, or hastening the redemption. Herzl’s ignorance and ‘chutzpah’ horrified many.
Zionism: An Un-Jewish Jewish Movement?
This was a most un-Jewish movement. Many religious leaders foresaw the religious decline modern Israel has created. Make no mistake – they were right!!! Just look around you. Be honest. Again, remember in two generations we will witness the decimation of Jews – and all the lost will be the secularist Zionists. By then, of course, half the lost Jews will be staunchly anti-Zionist – liberal-woke or whatever is the fashion and gone. As above – no offspring. Another generation after that and … not even any Hanukkah bushes! And the crazy ultra-orthodox? They will be perhaps reach 10 million world-wide by then. Some predict more!! The secular 2 million will be a persecuted minority in the land they created.
The Poisonous Legacy of Secular Zionism
Herzl’s vision obviously was a state occupied by Jews – but not a Jewish state. And in this he has been absolutely successful – even surpassed by the ethnic suicide the secular Israeli has wrought.
Many great leaders saw through the entire Zionist plan and saw its grim consequences. The concern was that Herzl‘s movement, by emphasizing Jewish nationhood outside of a religious framework, would lead Jews away from that which had preserved them – their religion. And it did. I remember a close family member who got to Israel via Auschwitz explaining to me that now we have Israel we do not need to be religious. I was not at all observant then, but it still seemed rather illogical – if understandable from his perspective. Obviously such a person cannot be judged.
Herzl saw Zionism as a solution for the failure of assimilation in Europe, many Orthodox Jews correctly feared that his secular nationalism would lead to a different form of assimilation—into a modern, non-religious Jewish identity. The opening of the ghettos and the French Revolution’s emancipation of Jews had already created an “identity crisis” within Jewish communities, blurring traditional distinctions. Herzl‘s vision, which prioritized political self-determination and dispensing with religious adherence, was seen by some as a continuation of this trend, further eroding the unique religious character of the Jewish people.
The Ignorance and Antagonism of Herzl to Judaism
Herzl‘s personal background and early ideas further fueled Orthodox concerns. He had initially considered solutions such as socialist revolution or, as mentioned, mass conversion to Christianity (!!!) before settling on national self-determination. While he ultimately rejected these, his initial exploration of such radical alternatives highlighted his distance from traditional Jewish thought. His novel Altneuland (The Old New Land) envisioned a pluralistic society with no religious devotion.
Shifting Perspectives on Zionism
The reactions to early Zionism within the Orthodox world were not monolithic. As we know, many fiercely opposed Herzl‘s movement. But, once the door has been slightly opened, a chill draught comes in, like it or not. Over time, particularly after the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, attitudes within the Orthodox world have evolved. While some Haredi groups continue to maintain their anti-Zionist stance, others have developed a more ‘nuanced’ relationship with the state. Religious Zionism is an extremely powerful movement. It is extremely attractive – because as Jews now occupy the country – they must be defended.
If it were not for today’s self-annihilation of the secular population something would have ‘to be done’ to sort out the growing friction between the ‘true’ Israelis and the religious – Haredi. Now, tragically, we simply must wait. Their rapid extinction means that we Haredi, indeed, must soon wake up to the harsh necessities of manning an army and running an economy with no hilonim (secular Jews). Of the 7.7 million Jews in Israel, remember only about 2 million are Haredi. That means 1 million men, half of whom are said to be in full time learning. Probably half their income comes from charity sources but half comes from secular governmental sources.
Some billions of shekalim are spent on the Haredi community! No hilonim – no billions. Yes, other groups also receive housing and other benefits. Of course, we have the children and are the future. Yes, at least they are spending some of their money on something eternal and invaluable. Yes, the Almighty will definitely always provide – but we are told that we must also take our own proactive steps. We will need to replace the extinct secular Jews big time. But this has already happened in Israel and especially in the USA where the ultra-orthodox are very active in the ‘real’ world of earning and paying tax.
Conclusion
The claim that Herzl and Zionism aimed to destroy Orthodox Judaism is an oversimplification. Herzl‘s primary motivation was the political and physical security of the Jewish people in response to pervasive antisemitism, not a direct assault on religious observance.
The state officials in Israel were mostly those with a deep, and lasting hatred of orthodoxy. Read on this site what they did to the Yemenites (if you have a very strong stomach). But the real problem might be that – within the future observant community, enormous schisms will appear. Instead of working together to ensure the continuance of an observant people, they will be shooting each other in the back.
The very air of Israel resonates with nervous aggression. This is infectious. Let there not be endless bitter battles over every issue imaginable. And, unless they have learnt from the suicide of secular Israel, they will all claim that they are ensuring our survival by fighting for their particular idea. Let secular Zionism’s values and practices not have replaced Judaism. But ….
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