A JEWISH STATE
Jehovah's Witnesses and Zionism
In August 1891, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and called for the establishment of a Jewish state. While he was in Palestine, he wrote philanthropists Baron Maurice de Hirsch and Baron Edmond de Rothschild and urged them to purchase land from the Ottoman Empire to found a Jewish state there. A few years later Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, made a similar proposal.
Russell believed that Palestine belonged exclusively to the Jews. The persecution of Russian Jews, he wrote, was God’s way of calling them back to their homeland where they would be the center of earthly leadership. It isn’t known if the barons received or read Russell’s letters but a month after Russell’s plea Baron Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association to buy land in North and South America and in Palestine to establish agricultural colonies where persecuted Jews could resettle.
Russell also believed that the redemption of the Jews and their return to Palestine held great symbolic importance. He equated Jewish emigration to Israel with the deliverance of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Russell was born in Pittsburgh in 1852, the son of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and became a partner in his father’s clothing store. At age thirteen, Russell joined the Congregational Church. He chalked Bible verses on fence boards and city sidewalks to attract converts. But he later rejected mainstream Christianity and joined William Miller’s Adventist movement, drawn to the idea that the Bible could be used to predict God’s plan for the end of the world.
Russell used complex biblical calculations to conclude that Christ’s “invisible return” had occurred in 1874 and that the end times and start of a golden age would come in 1914, followed by war between capitalism and communism or socialism, after which Christ would rule the earth. Russell dedicated his life and his fortune to preaching Christ’s millennial reign.
In October 1910, he spoke about Zionism at the Hippodrome in New York. The New York American called it an “unusual spectacle [with] 4,000 Hebrews enthusiastically applauding a Gentile preacher…It was not long before all reserve, and all possible doubt of Pastor Russell’s entire sincerity and friendliness, were worn away. Then the mention of the name of a great leader [Herzl] who, the speaker declared, had been raised by God for the cause -- brought a burst of applause."
After his death in 1916, Russell was succeeded as president by Joseph Franklin Rutherford who changed the group’s name to Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931. Witnesses believe that they are living in the last days and look forward to the imminent establishment of Christ’s kingdom, administered by 144,000 Witnesses.
Witnesses do not salute the flag of any nation, which they believe is an act of false worship, refuse to perform military service and do not participate in public elections. Lawsuits supporting their beliefs and practices have led to 59 Supreme Court rulings that are regarded as landmark decisions on the free exercise of religion. Witnesses also oppose medical practices that they believe violate Scripture, including blood transfusions.
Members of local congregations meet at Kingdom Halls and engage in doorstep preaching. There are an estimated 8.6 million members involved in evangelism. About 20.5 million people attend the Witnesses annual Memorial of Christ’s death at the beginning of Passover.
Witnesses today are not Zionists. The Watchtower, the official magazine of Jehovah’s Witnesses, states: “There [is] no Scriptural support for political Zionism.”
Sources:
“Before Herzl, There Was Pastor Russell: A Neglected Chapter of Zionism,” Philippe Bohstrom, Haaretz, August 22, 2018
“Charles Taze Russell” and “Jehovah’s Witness,” Britannica
“Are Jehovah’s Witnesses Zionists?,” JW.org