Since you asked let me explain that the Jews are an exceptional set of characters. They believe in themselves that they are a different stock of the human race; the best of it. It was this belief that made them, right from time, to be creating Jewish ghettos, in all the communities they lived. Social historians termed what they were doing to mean creating ‘nations within nations’.

They have three books they hold as divine. The Torah, the Midrash and the Talmud! The Talmud is commonly referred to as the book of Jewish Nationalism. There’s also the term Talmudic Judaism which is an aspect of the books that holds the superiority of the Jews, as a race, over all.

There are two classes of Jews; Sephardim and Ashkenazim. The Sephardim are the Middle Eastern Jews known throughout history. The Ashkenazim speculatively, are said to be a Mongoloid ethnic variation in Eastern Europe known as Khazar. They converted to Judaism – as a survival strategy – around 11th century and adopted the books and codes of conduct. The strategy was in order to appear neutral in the then hostile environment where Christians and Muslims were aggressively competing for expanded territories. They could not remain pagan that they may be fought by either of the groups. They then became Jews and remained neutral making peace with the two different groups.

Karl Max, the Austro-German Jew and expounder of the social theory, Marxism, and Chaim Weizmann the mid-20th century leader of Zionism were from this class of Jews. It is said they also formed the greater population of Jewish Israel today. Jewish code of conduct and value system taught in the ghettos are generally what breed the especial character in them. Much passion for material reality and exceptional ingenuity!

During the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, the maximum French emperor (1804-1815), Jews in Europe, which were mostly Sephardim then, were made to sign an agreement that they would abandon all their ghettos and live in and among the immediate communities they found themselves. But Napoléon died before the plan got fully actualized. It is said, they would have been assimilated into the larger identities in Europe within an estimated period of about 50 years.

It was from among these Jews that Zionism started in the late 18th century. They wanted a nation that will give them an expanded enclave which will also be recognized among world comity of nations. Theodor Herzl, a Sephardic, was the first leader for the Zionist movement. At a point, it is believed they agreed to be given a space in Africa where they would create the mega and all-superior Jewish nation. Soon after, it is said, the Eastern European Jews surfaced – out of relative obscurity- and rejected the compromise. They insisted for a space in the Middle East; the onetime seat of King David’s empire! It was much later that Weizmann assumed the leadership for Zionism and fight for Israel. In 1948 David Ben Gurion as the Zionists leader announced the establishment of the state where Weizmann became its first President.

In some works referred to by Douglass Reed, a British reporter who covered Austria and Germany during the second world war, Weizmann’s mother was quoted as having said long before Theodor that she would be free if the revolution in Russia would succeed and the communist nation be born but fulfilled if they could go back home Israel and live. This is the more reason why some say Communism and Zionism, which where the major ideas that shaped the 20th and 21st century world, are both products of Jewish ghetto ingenuity; of Talmudic Judaism!

*Further reading:
1. The Controversy of Zion, By Douglas Reeds
2. The Thirteenth Tribe, By Arthur Koestler