Jewish Autonomism, a non-Zionist
ideology first enunciated in the early twentieth
century by Simon Dubnow, crystallized in Eastern
Europe. It believed in the future viability
of Jewish life in the Diaspora as long as Jewry continues to maintain self-rule
in community organizations; to sustain its
educational and mutual-assistance institutions;
and to develop its "spiritual nationhood."
The Autonomism ideology
served as a conceptual foundation for the
People's Party (Volkspartei) that operated
mainly in Poland and Lithuania,
and it appeared in various versions in the
platforms of Socialist Jewish parties such
as the Bund and the Sejmists. Some of the Zionist parties
favored Jewish self-rule in the Diaspora as
long as the Diaspora existed, but did not
consider it a solution to the problem of the
Jewish people.
The Holocaust put an end to the foundation of autonomism;
today it has no practical impact on Jewish
life and philosophy.