20th-century history would have been a lot different if 200 years ago, a Jewish state had flourished in upstate New York.
In 1825, Mordecai Manuel Noah started to establish Ararat there – a Jewish city-state which he imagined as a refuge for persecuted Jews.
He failed miserably.
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@TheConversationUS "Most Jews at the time believed that founding a Jewish state in the land of Israel was a pipe dream, or worse. God had expelled their ancestors from the Holy Land in 70 C.E., they believed, so taking matters into their own hands and rebuilding a Jewish state there would be blasphemy."
