The Necessity of Exile

"Virtually all Zionist theories and activists have agreed in one way or another," historian Arnold Eisen wrote in 2014, "that galut (exile) and golah (a word connoting both exile and Diaspora in Zionist usage) must be opposed, condemned, denied legitimacy." The notion that Zionism's success is dependent on the idea that Jewish life in the Diaspora is dangerous, either physically or spiritually, is something common both to Zionism's earliest and contemporary formulations. Today, it is no longer much debated. It is theoretically believed, but in practice little discussed in the Diaspora, that Diaspora is an inferior state in which to live. That is, many ardently Zionist American Jews unquestionably aspire to end their years in Jerusalem - but are happy to delay the option for another year in Riverdale or Boca Raton.