David Encaoua · July 2024 · Times of Israël — David Encaoua's Blog
Zionism has never been a monolithic ideology. From its origins at the end of the nineteenth century, different currents clashed over the fundamental question: what is the Zionist project?
Socialist Zionism (Borochov, Katznelson) sought to create a Jewish national home founded on labor and social justice. It was this current that dominated the first decades of the State of Israel.
Religious Zionism (Kook, father and son) saw in the return to Zion the messianic fulfillment of the divine promise. This current, a minority at the outset, became dominant after 1967 and the conquest of the West Bank.
Cultural Zionism (Ahad Ha'am) saw Israel not as the home of all Jews, but as the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish world. A profound vision, often neglected.
Revisionist Zionism (Ze'ev Jabotinsky) advocated a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan, with a powerful nationalist vision. The Likud is its heir.
For the Sephardic tradition represented by the Encaoua family, these debates are not abstract. The Jews of the Maghreb made their aliyah late, often driven by decolonization. They inherited a vision of Zionism founded on survival and identity, more than on ideology.