State or D iaspora: J ewish History as a Form of National Belonging

Abstract This study addresses the writing ofJewish history as a form of national belonging inIsrael and in theDiaspora.SimonDubnow laid the foundation forJewish national historiography in the beginning of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1920s, Zionist historians in Palestine emphasized the centrality of the Land ofIsrael inJewish history, whileJewish historians in theDiaspora preferred an elliptical model, which recognized two national centres – ‘Babylon and Jerusalem’. In the 1930s, a debate broke out between two principalJewish historians,SaloBaron andYitzhakBaer. While Baer stressed the Zionist conception ofJewish history,Baron emphasized the world dimensions ofJewish history. Similarly, during the 1950s a dispute arose betweenJewish scholarSimonRawidowicz andDavidBen‐Gurion. ForRawidowicz, aJewish centre in theDiaspora was parallel in significance to the State ofIsrael. By contrast, forBen‐Gurion only aJewish nation‐state could provide trueJewish national belonging. In this article,Ianalyse both arguments and draw conclusions for the current relationship between Israeli historical awareness and the use ofJewish history in theDiaspora.