The restoration of Israel to the Holy Land was originally an English, Protestant idea. Jewish Zionism came later and succeeded only because of the Holocaust. The principal impetus for the promotion of a Jewish return to Zion was religious and began with the translation of the Bible from the Hebrew to English by Tindale. Because literature in the English language depicted Jews almost always in an unfavorable light, both British and American religious and political leaders were ambivalent about Jews. Nevertheless, the religious impulse to restore Israel became political in the twentieth century and succeeded with the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

The Author: Gerhard Falk graduated from Western Reserve University with a B.A. and an M.A. in sociology. He earned his Ed.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is Professor of Sociology at Buffalo State College and author of 15 books and 42 journal articles. In the course of his career, he has been awarded the State University Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Buffalo State College President’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Research, and the SUNY Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Scholarship.