Jewish Autonomism was a non-Zionist political
movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in
the late 19th and early 20th century.
One of its major proponents was the historian
and activist Simon Dubnow, who also called
his ideology folkism.
The Autonomists believed that the future survival
of the Jews as a nation depends on their spiritual
and cultural strength, in developing "spiritual
nationhood" and in viability of Jewish diaspora
as long as Jewish communities maintain self-rule,
and rejected assimilation.
Autonomists often stressed the vitality of
modern Yiddish culture.
Various concepts of the Autonomism were adopted
in the platforms of the Folkspartei, the Sejmists
and socialist Jewish parties such as the Bund.
Some groups blended Autonomism with Zionism:
they favored Jewish self-rule in the diaspora
until diaspora Jews make Aliyah to their national
homeland in Zion.
The movement's beliefs were similar to those
of the Austromarxists, who advocated national
personal autonomy within the multinational
Austro-Hungarian empire, and cultural pluralists
in America, such as Randolph Bourne and Horace
Kallen.
In 1941, Simon Dubnow was one of thousands
of Jews murdered in the Rumbula massacre.
After the Holocaust, the notion of Autonomism
practically disappeared from Jewish philosophy.
It is not connected to the contemporary political
movement autonomism.
== See also ==
Jewish political movements
Chaim Zhitlovsky
National personal autonomy
== External links ==
Autonomism at JVL
