Herzl’s colleague Nordau framed Zionism as European civilizing work in Asia

Evidence

As Max Nordau, Herzl’s assertive assistant, put it in addressing European Jews in 1907, “We shall seek to do in Western Asia what the English did in India” – and then catches himself by adding, “I mean the cultural work, not rulership and domination. We aim to come to Eretz Israel as messengers of culture and we aim to extend the moral boundaries of Europe all the way to the Euphrates.” — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 595 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Zionist leaders themselves framed the project as European civilizing mission — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 595; Zionist orientalism replicated earlier European discourse that had feminized the Jew — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 145; Zionists pitched Jews as carriers of European culture against the Arabs

Broader Connections

• Zionist leaders themselves framed the project as European civilizing mission #exemplifies (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 595