Brothers for Resistance and Rescue 1 - CENDO

ZIONISM IN RED-WHITE-GREEN
‘Zion’: the biblical name of Jerusalem. It originates in the name of the stronghold that King
David captured from the Jebusites (II Samuel, V, 7). After the destruction of the temple the
mourners were called ‘mourners of Zion’.
The emissaries to the Diaspora were called ‘Zion emissaries’.
The Middle-Age poets, with Yehuda Halevy at their head, called the Jewish people by the
name of ‘Zion’.
In modern times the Zionist movement adopted the name of 'Zion'.
The activists of the first Aliya called themselves ‘lovers of Zion’.
The concept of ‘Zionism’ was coined for the first time by Natan Birnbaum in 1890.
The Zionist movement that was founded by Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl, who was born in Budapest,
was established by the name of the 'World Zionist Organization’.
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In Hungary Zionism faced many difficulties mainly because of the assimilation of Hungarian Jewry.
Hungarian Jews saw themselves as Hungarians or wanted to consider themselves as such and
were encouraged by the liberal ideas in Hungarian society at the end of the 19th century.
The Jews proved their loyalty to the Hungarian government many times. In the Hungarian War of
Independence from the Habsburgs (1848) and during WW I (1914-1918), many Jews fought in the
Hungarian army and thousands fell in battle. Hungarian Jews excelled in the fields of economics,
art and culture and had a unique influence on life in Hungary in the last two hundred years.
This was changed in 1919 when there were violent events that were called the ‘white terror’ or the
oppression of communists and their supporters among whom there were many Jews. The ‘white
terror’ caused a series of pogroms against Jews and resulted in the legislation of the “Numerus
Clausus” laws that limited the number of Jews in institutes of higher education. Hungary was the
first country in 20th century Europe whose parliament passed anti-Jewish laws already in 1920.
Nonetheless it has to be mentioned that Jews, especially in the larger towns and in the capital city,
Budapest, lived a prosperous life in relative safety.
Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl, who knew the Jewish reality in Hungary very well wrote in 1903 to Ernő
Mezei, the representative of the Budapest Jews in the Hungarian parliament, the following words:
‘Zionism in Hungary can only be in red-white and green…’ (the colors of the Hungarian flag).
The first branch of the Zionist movement in Hungary was established in 1897 in Nagyszeben,
nowadays Sibiu, Romania, by János Rónai, who took part in the first Zionist Congress in Basel in
1897. The first Zionist organization in Hungary was called ‘Zion Organization’ (Czion Egylet) and
according to its basic regulations it was intended for ‘Jews without a homeland’ who wanted to
emigrate to Palestine.
Brothers for Resistance and Rescue 10