The Zohar and the Zionist Travelogue

The Zionist travelogues of the 1920s and 1930s hold a special position in the canon of travel literature of the early twentieth century. One such work is Nous Venons de Palestine (We Come from Palestine), a fictionalised account of the voyage to Mandatory Palestine of two Jewish Cairenes, Jules Levy and Willy Chalom. On 7 July 1937, on the evening of the handing down of the Peel Commission, Levy and Chalom’s protagonists set sail from Alexandria to Haifa where they begin their extended tour.

2022 marks the 85th anniversary of their travels and a timely opportunity to revisit their writings. Today, Nous Venons de Palestine lends itself to being richly viewed through a range of lenses. This paper examines it through that of the Zohar.

At surface level, the Zohar and Zionist travel literature both involve the journeying of Jews through the Land of Israel. In the former, it’s that of Rabbi Shim’on bar Yochai and his companions as they strive to unpack the Torah and gain insight into its hidden meanings; and in the latter, it’s that of Diaspora Jews touring the Jewish communities, extolling the progress they are making, and thus reinforcing the Zionist narrative. Both the Zohar and Zionist travel literature also look to inspire. Beyond these, the two have seemingly little connection. `The Zohar and the Zionist Travelogue` however seeks to commence a conversation that may establish an association.

This new reading of Nous Venons de Palestine identifies the influences of, and commonalities with, the Zohar, across a range of parameters including purpose, narrative, language, biblical engagement, kabbalistic symbolism, mystical journey, eroticism and the desired, "historical moment", and status of the feminine. It then posits that it is the Zoharesque in this particular Zionist travelogue that was key to its success in capturing hearts and minds.