ABSTRACT
The principal advocates of the unabashedly nationalist position before 1881 were secular Hebrew writers such as David Gordon, who espoused the fundamental ideas of Jewish nationalism and a national revival in Palestine in essays written as early as 1860. The new secular nationalist movement became a significant factor in Jewish enlightenment circles as a result of the work of the popular Hebrew writer Peretz Smolenskin. Smolenskin's position with regard to Judaism was unequivocally radical. The fundamental thesis argued by Smolenskin was that the ultimate salvation of the Jewish people was grounded in their national distinctiveness. The central issue for Smolenskin was the continued viability of the Jews as a nation. Smolenskin asserted, notwithstanding its many centuries of exile, "eternal people" had never yielded its claim or denied its devotion to the Land of Israel. A completely secular Jew, Pinsker placed little value, beyond that of historic sentiment, on the significance of a Jewish national restoration in the Land of Israel.
