ABSTRACT
Ber Borochov’s chief theoretical achievement was an attempted synthesis of nationalism and socialism. He had a very specific national problem in mind—that of the Jews. This chapter represents a selection of his essays all of which, in one way or another, revolve around this topic. Borochov was a Zionist who tried to synthesize socialism with a form of nationalism that has not been popular on the Left. The Jewish question as a whole, including Zionism, has been almost as troublesome for the Left as the national question. The tone in two of his essays from 1905, “On Questions of Zionist Theory” and “To the Question of Zion or Territory” is far from Marxist in many respects. These essays represent his ideas right before the formulation of “Borochovism.” Three essays “The National Question and the Class Struggle”, the selections from “Our Platform”, and the “Economic Development of the Jewish People” reveal the full dimensions of Borochov’s Marxist Zionist synthesis.
