Summary
German Zionist who, in Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, was deputy head of the Palästinaamt from 1908 and, writing in Altneuland on the planting association Palästina, recast Zionism for the diaspora as a “return to Judaism” measured by individual engagement rather than state-founding alone (PDF p.159, p.169).
Details
- The Palästinaamt started operating in 1908 with Arthur Ruppin at its head and Thon as deputy (PDF p.159).
- Thon regarded the planting association as a democratization of Zionism, allowing individuals a direct “return to the land” without emigrating to become farmers, and claimed the CEP was reestablishing an old Jewish tradition of planting trees as “surveillant territorial markers” (PDF p.169).
Related pages
Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, Arthur Ruppin, Altneuland (journal), Franz Oppenheimer