Our Nationalism: A Hanukkah Reflection

Robert Weltsch grew up in a German-speaking Jewish milieu in Prague in the last days of the Habsburg Empire. He chaired the Zionist student Bar Kochba Association (1911–1912) while studying in the Karl-Ferdinand German University law school in Prague. He contributed Zionist articles to the papers Die Welt (The World) and Selbstwehr (Self-Defense) throughout his student years and while serving on the Russian front as an Austro-Hungarian officer in World War I. From 1919 to 1938, he served as editor of the twice-a-week, Berlin-based Zionist newspaper Jüdische Rundschau (Jewish Review). Because of his association in the 1920s and 1930s with the Brit Shalom (Covenant of Peace) group, which championed bi-nationalism, he was a frequent target of criticism by mainstream Zionists. After fleeing Nazi Germany, he settled in Palestine, where he worked for the prestigious Hebrew daily Haaretz, serving as its London correspondent from 1945 to 1978. He was instrumental in establishing the Leo Baeck Institute, which promotes scholarship on the history, culture, and legacy of German-speaking Jews.