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ABSTRACT
Ahron Marcus (1843-1916), a committed Hasid and an active player in the early Zionist movement until his withdrawal in late 1900, developed a form of Jewish identity and politics that combined his Hasidic piety with deep adoration for Theodor Herzl and political Zionism, precisely at the moment that Orthodoxy was closing its ranks against the Zionist movement. This article gathers a wide range of sources on Marcus, particularly his Zionist-supported newspaper and nearly two dozen surviving letters between Marcus and Herzl, to establish the history and development of this Zionist and to consider its implications for the history of Zionism and political Orthodoxy. I argue that Marcus's attempt to link political Zionism with Hasidic Orthodoxy both theologically and politically-by uniting the Zionist Organization with major Hasidic leaders while remaining within traditional society-was an intriguing exploration of Jewish identity beyond the existing typologies of eastern European Jewry.
Key words: Ahron Marcus, Orthodoxy, Zionism, Hasidism, Theodor Herzl, eastern European Jewry
In a private conversation at the First Zionist Congress, Max Nordau asked Mayer Ebner (1873-1955), a young delegate from Czernowitz, whom he considered to be the most important figure in the Zionist movement. When Ebner hesitated to answer, Nordau continued, "I do not want to disparage my friend Herzl but I consider Aaron [sic] Marcus the most important personality." Nordau, recalled Ebner, was enchanted with the Polish Jew "in Kaftan and Kipah, untrimmed beard and peyoth" who spoke like a German professor. "This contrast in the exterior of Aaron Marcus made Nordau, the European-minded, the man of paradoxes, consider that he was an undiscovered genius."1
Ahron Marcus (1843-1916), a native of Hamburg and graduate of its Jewish gymnasium, left Germany as a young man to study among Hasidim in Moravia, Galicia, and possibly Hungary. He eventually settled in Podgórze, outside Kraków, where he became a committed Hasid of several courts (see portrait).2 Marcus is best known for his numerous works on the Hasidic world-some scholarly, some hagiographical- in which he attempted to apply the scientific training of his youth to his newfound faith.3 His two biographies-neither critical-focus overwhelmingly on his religious transformation and on his supposedly happy, if turbulent, life in eastern Europe.4 Both virtually ignore the fact that, in 1896, Marcus-an active supporter of...