Max Bodenheimer

Summary

A cofounder of the ZVfD and first-generation German Zionist who initiated the wartime Komitee für den Osten and protested Zionist “hypernationalism” in the name of German Zionists who did not intend to immigrate (Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, PDF p.266, p.270-271).

In a letter to David Wolffsohn of May 24, 1914, asking him to endorse a protest resolution by Franz Oppenheimer, Friedemann, Struck and other German Zionists against Zionist “hypernationalism”, Bodenheimer wrote that the creation of a Hebrew language and unique culture hub in Palestine under no circumstance requires a national affirmation of Hebrew language and culture in the current countries of Jewish residency (PDF p.266).
On August 4, 1914, Bodenheimer contacted the Auswärtiges Amt with a suggestion to create an East European Federation composed of the different ethnic groups, including Jews, as a buffer between Germany and Russia after victory; the suggestion was received enthusiastically (PDF p.270).
On August 17, 1914, he was among the first-generation Zionists who founded the Deutsches Komitee zur Befreiung der Russische Juden, renamed Komitee für den Osten in November; he was supportive of the ZO precept of neutrality (PDF p.271).
With Oppenheimer he gained an invitation to meet Ludendorff and Hindenburg at Ober Ost, who were initially favourable to an Eastern European Federation including a Jewish autonomous region (PDF p.273).
At the war’s beginning he communicated with the Ottoman ambassador in Berlin on behalf of both the KfdO and the ZO (PDF p.280).
Oppenheimer’s emphasis on Jewish education in Poland almost led to Bodenheimer’s resignation from the KfdO (PDF p.278).

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