From the late nineteenth century through the post-Holocaust
era, the world was divided between countries that tried to expel their Jewish
populations and those that refused to let them in. The plight of these
traumatized refugees inspired numerous proposals for Jewish states. Jews and
Christians, authors and adventurers, politicians and playwrights, and rabbis
and revolutionaries all worked to carve out autonomous Jewish territories in
remote and often hostile locations across the globe. The would-be founding
fathers of these imaginary Zions dispatched scientific expeditions to far-flung
regions and filed reports on the dream states they planned to create. But only
Israel emerged from dream to reality. Israel’s successful foundation has long
obscured the fact that eminent Jewish figures, including Zionism’s prophet,
Theodor Herzl, seriously considered establishing enclaves beyond the Middle
East.
In the Shadow of Zion brings to life the amazing true
stories of six exotic visions of a Jewish national home outside of the biblical
land of Israel. It is the only book to detail the connections between these
schemes, which in turn explain the trajectory of modern Zionism. A gripping
narrative drawn from archives the world over, In the Shadow of Zion
recovers the mostly forgotten history of the Jewish territorialist movement,
and the stories of the fascinating but now obscure figures who championed it.
Provocative, thoroughly researched, and written to appeal to
a broad audience, In the Shadow of Zion
offers a timely perspective on Jewish power and powerlessness.
Visit the author's website: http://www.adamrovner.com/.