Editing Ahad Ha'am (section)

==Zionist activism==
In his early thirties, Ginsberg returned to [[Odessa]] where he was influenced by [[Leon Pinsker]], a leader of the [[Hovevei Zion]] (''Lovers of [[Zion]]'') movement whose goal was settlement of [[Jew]]s in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. Unlike Pinsker, Ginsberg did not believe in political Zionism, which he fought, 'with a vehemence and austerity which embittered that whole period'.<ref>Shalom Spiegel, ''Hebrew Reborn'',(1939) Meridian Books, Cleveland, New York 1962 p.271</ref> Instead he hailed the spiritual value of the Hebrew renaissance to counter the debilitating fragmentation (''hitpardut'') in the diaspora, he believed that the ingathering of Jews in Palestine was not an answer. ''Kibbutz galuyot'' was a messianic ideal rather than a feasible contemporary project. The real answer lay in achieving a spiritual centre, or 'central domicile', within Palestine, that of [[Eretz Israel]], which would form an exemplary model for the dispersed world of Jewry in exile to imitate; a spiritual focus for the circumferential world of the Jewish diaspora.<ref>Shalom Spiegel, ''Hebrew Reborn'', ibid. pp.286–289</ref> He split from the Zionist movement after the [[First Zionist Congress]], because he felt that [[Theodor Herzl]]'s program was impractical.<ref>S J Zipperstein, "Ahad Ha'am and the Politics of Assimilation, p.350</ref> In an essay entitled ''The First Zionist Congress'' (1897), he supports: <blockquote>"the emancipation of ourselves from the inner slavery and the spiritual degradation which assimilation has produced in us, and the strengthening of our national unity by joint action in every sphere of our national life, until we become capable and worthy of a life of dignity and freedom at some time in the future."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ha'am |first=Ahad |title=Ten Essays on Zionism and Judaism |publisher=GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LTD |year=1922 |isbn=978-1-7178-3913-8 |location=London, United Kingdom |pages=70–78 |language=en-us}}</ref> </blockquote>His criticism of political Zionism would give way to the development of his doctrine of cultural Zionism. From 1889 to 1906, Ginzberg flourished as a preeminent intellectual in Zionist politics.