Rekindling the Torch Quotes

“Labour Zionism, as distinct from the political Zionism of Theodor Herzl, arose out of the Jewish workers' movements of Central and Eastern Europe. Where political Zionism focused on appeals to the international community to support the creation of a Jewish state, Labour Zionists argued that the Jewish homeland could only emerge out of the efforts of a Jewish working class settling in Palestine and building the new state from the ground up. In North America, the Jewish National Workers' Alliance, or Farband, operated largely as mutual-aid societies alongside the political party Poale Zion (Workers of Zion) founded in 1905. The two Organizations later merged to become the Labour Zionist Alliance, which in turn became Ameinu in 2003.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“Although many members of the Orthodox Jewish community opposed Zionism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was not because Orthodox leaders were averse to the idea of a return to a Jewish national home centred on Zion. Instead, the disagreement arose from the Orthodox belief that the return to Zion should come "at the end of days," when the Messiah would lead the Jews from the "four corners of the earth" back to their home. In this early period, Zionism was seen to be anticipating the end of days and usurping the role of the Messiah.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“The Jewish national movement that emerged in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century and culminated in the 1880s—the concept of the distinctiveness of Jews as a people and a nation—developed in an atmosphere of nationalist idealism that had been spreading throughout Europe since 1848. These expressions of European nationalism—which manifested in such phenomena as the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismarck, the reunification of Italy (the Risorgimento) under Giuseppe Garibaldi, and the rise of Slavic nationalism—stressed the unity of peoples and nations and the uniqueness of their cultural identities. The elements that distinguished one people from another had become more important than the elements that united them as human beings.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“The idea of Jews as a people—and their connection to the land of Israel—goes back to Abraham. Throughout the five thousand years of Jewish history, "Eretz Yisrael," the land of Israel, has been central to the Jewish people. Even when all the Jews were not living on the land, they defined themselves by that land, considering themselves to be in exile from their homeland.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“Zionism, meaning Jewish nationalism, began as a European initiative in the nineteenth century that was focused on building Israel in the twentieth century. Yet the destruction of the European Jewish community in the 1940s, and the Jewish communities in the Arab lands shortly thereafter, shifted the historical focus of the Diaspora to North America.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“As Israel marks the sixtieth anniversary of its founding, Canadian Zionists have much to celebrate. Throughout the nation-building process Canadian Jews and non-Jews have been instrumental in helping to fulfill Zionism's six main achievements:

• re-establishing Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish homeland;
• offering a welcoming home to Holocaust survivors, refugees from Arab lands, and other oppressed Jews;
• returning the Jews to history, transforming Jews' image rom the world's victims to actors on history's stage, with rights and responsibilities;
• building a Western-style capitalist democracy with a strong Jewish flavour and a dynamic Jewish culture;
• reviving and modernizing Hebrew;
• making Israel a central force in revitalizing Jewish secular and religious life in the Jewish homeland and abroad.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“When Israel's return to the family of nations after the Second World War touched off a massive assault by five well-armed and highly trained Arab armies, Canadians were among those who shouldered weapons in defence of the nascent country.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism

“The struggle to re-establish a Jewish homeland began twenty centuries ago when the Romans expelled most of the Jews from the Kingdom of Judea, the southern portion of the land now known as Israel.”
― David J. Azrieli, Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism