National Individuality, Social Justice and Universal Humanity in Nachman Syrkin’s Thought

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship that Nachman Syrkin, one of the early founders of socialist Zionism, claimed to exist between national individuality, social justice and universal humanity.

Employing Syrkin’s focus on ‘national psychology’ as a key for understanding his views, the article examines the tension between national individuality and universal humanity in several of the historical, political and theoretical issues. Although a number of distinctions exist between his earlier and later thinking, Syrkin consistently uses the concept of ‘national psychology’ when discussing the problems of Jewish existence and the struggle for creating a just humanity as a goal shared by socialism and Zionism.

The paper’s conclusion is that Syrkin believed that the universalization of culture is the highest form of national development but that national individuality is also necessary for the establishment of social justice and universal humanity. In other words, the principles of freedom and social equality embedded in the concept of universal humanity can be realized only through the creative power of a ‘national psychology’.