ABSTRACT
In the last moments of Tsarist Russia, the Jews redefined their group so that they could fit into the new settings surrounding them. In addition to traditional Jews who continued to define themselves in religious terms, Jews involved in secular movements such as socialism and liberalism, while also believing in the collective nature of Jewishness, began to define themselves as either a nation like Russians and Poles or as people who were entangled with social and political environments. The former was represented by Zionists who strove to build Jewish homelands in Palestine; the latter was represented, among others, by Bundists, members of the Jewish socialist movement called the Bund, and liberals who least emphasised the collectivity of Jews although they distinguished themselves from assimilationists. Why, then, did the Zionists appropriate the term “nation” rather than “people,” and the Bundists and liberals refrain from using the term “nation” and prefer a more popular term? This chapter explores the background that each group of Jews had in mind when they chose each term and what they looked for and tried to avoid in such considerations. In doing so, we will discuss the conditions that push or hinder a small group of people from defining themselves as a nation.
