Moritz Güdemann. Nationaljudentum.

(ZIONISM).

M. Breitenstein

Leipzig & Vienna

1897

First Edition. Text in German. The bibliographer Joshua Bloch’s review copy. Uncut and unopened.

Anti-Zionist tract by the Chief Rabbi of Vienna published immediately following (and by the same publisher as) Theodor Herzl’s Judenstaat. Güdemann (1835-1918) was opposed to Herzl’s primary focus upon the national element of Judaism, rather than its religious character. Moreover, he argued that a nationalist Jewish state "based on cannon and bayonets" was likely to be as warlike and intolerant as the increasingly belligerent states of Christian Europe. For more on Herzl and Güdemann’s lengthy, contentious relationship see Ismar Schorsch, Moritz Güdemann: Rabbi, Historian and Apologist in: The Leo Baeck Institute Year-book (1966) pp. 42-66.