Cultural Zionism

Cultural Zionism (Hebrew: צִיּוֹנוּת רוּחָנִית, romanized: Tsiyonut ruchanit, lit.'Spiritual Zionism') is a strain of Zionism that focused on creating a center in historic Palestine with its own secular Jewish culture and national history, including language and historical roots. Unlike Political Zionism, it did not necessarily favor the creation of an independent Jewish state in Palestine, and was opposed to the creation of such a state anywhere other than Palestine. The founder of Cultural Zionism is Asher Ginsberg, better known as Ahad Ha'am. With his secular vision of a Jewish "spiritual center" in Eretz Israel/Palestine, he confronted Theodor Herzl. Unlike Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, Ha'am strove for "a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews".