Adam L. Rovner

In the Shadow of Zion

Adam L. Rovner

From the late nineteenth century through the post-Holocaustera, the world was divided between countries that tried to expel their Jewishpopulations and those that refused to let them in. The plight of thesetraumatized refugees inspired numerous proposals for Jewish states. Jews andChristians, authors and adventurers, politicians and playwrights, and rabbisand revolutionaries all worked to carve out autonomous Jewish territories inremote and often hostile locations across the globe. The would-be foundingfathers of these imaginary Zions dispatched scientific expeditions to far-flungregions and filed reports on the dream states they planned to create. But onlyIsrael emerged from dream to reality. Israel’s successful foundation has longobscured the fact that eminent Jewish figures, including Zionism’s prophet,Theodor Herzl, seriously considered establishing enclaves beyond the MiddleEast. In the Shadow of Zion brings to life the amazing truestories of six exotic visions of a Jewish national home outside of the biblicalland of Israel. It is the only book to detail the connections between theseschemes, which in turn explain the trajectory of modern Zionism. A grippingnarrative drawn from archives the world over, In the Shadow of Zionrecovers the mostly forgotten history of the Jewish territorialist movement,and the stories of the fascinating but now obscure figures who championed it. Provocative, thoroughly researched, and written to appeal toa broad audience, In the Shadow of Zionoffers a timely perspective on Jewish power and powerlessness. Visit the author's website: http://www.adamrovner.com/.