Representing the Nation

With the collapse of the old imperial order in 1918, Zionists anticipated that nationhood would be the defining paradigm for the political reorganization of the region. Chapter 5 shows how Zionists fought to establish the Jewish nation as an equal participant in this process, and to attain recognition of its nationhood and national rights by both their non-Jewish neighbours and the Great Powers. It analyses one of the most important forms of Zionist organization and political practice after the end of the First World War: the Jewish national councils. The chapter focuses on three sites where those institutions evolved out of different forms of wartime activism and gained significant influence in Jewish society for a time—East Galicia, Vienna, and Prague—as well as on similar efforts in Poland, Lithuania, and at an international level. It examines the day-to-day work of the Jewish national councils, their political aims, how they corresponded and related to other nationalist movements, and how they attempted to turn their claim to represent the Jewish nation into a reality. In this process, Zionists built on their wartime experiences, their standing in society, and their relations with the new rulers, demonstrating how previous engagements determined the viability of national claims and projects in the postwar era. The chapter connects the ‘big’ story of the Paris Peace Conference to local events and activists by analysing the role nationalist representatives played in the context of the peace negotiations and the struggle for national and minority rights.