ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the origins of Jewish identity and ideational transformation of the Jewish identity from a Diaspora-based people to a territorial national polity. It illustrates identity based perspectives of the polity and applies them to the Zionist enterprise. Political Zionism specified the main goal for the Jewish people as the establishment of a Jewish state. According to Ahad Ha'Am, Judaism based on religion could not provide an answer in the secular world. Hence, he considered it necessary that the Zionist movement also be engaged in cultural activity. Ahad Ha'Am's cultural approach conflicted with another important faction in the Zionist movement. Three decades after the Uganda debate the Zionist movement could look backward with satisfaction. Its status had changed drastically in many respects. In the wake of World War I, the League of Nations had adopted, in principle, the November 1917 Balfour Declaration that favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.
