ABSTRACT
The creation of the State of Israel by European Jews was predicated upon reconfiguring Jewish identities. European Zionist leaders asserted that the creation of a state for European Jews would normalize the abnormal situation of European Jewry insofar as European Jews, like Christian Europeans, would now have a state to call their own, thus becoming a nation. In addition to defending European Jews against anti-Semitic attacks, Zionism was also going to make available to them a whole range of economic activity denied it in Europe, especially in agriculture and soldiery. Hence, the objective of the Zionist movement was not simply to transplant European Jews into a new geographical area, but also to transform the very nature of European Jewish society and identity as it had existed in the diaspora until then-a transformation that was to go beyond the notion of ‘Am Yisrael becoming Medinat Yisrael.1
