Zionist cultural regeneration was explicitly conceived as Europeanization, not return to Asia

Evidence

In the words of Marcus Ehrenpreis, discussing the new Hebrew literature: “Aspiring to a national Renaissance in our historical homeland does not mean that we wish to be Asian again. We are Jews but European Jews; hence our culture, which is an extension of ourselves, must be both national and European. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 648

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Saidian thesis about the West constructing ‘the Orient’ and to how nationalist movements internalize orientalist self-images — parallels the discussion of Jewish self-definition as European in the decline of exile discourse.
• SEED: An article angle: how nationalist ‘returns to roots’ movements often actually Westernize or modernize the very past they claim to restore — Ehrenpreis’s words are a primary-source gem.