Why is the "State of Israel" not named after Judah?
In a recent Brit-Am Video Clip,
Rabbi Avraham Feld: Is Redemption Here?
Guest Speaker, Rabbi Avraham Feld, explains why the present State of Israel was named after Israel (forefather of all the Israleite States) instead of "Yehudah." He ascribes the decision to David Ben Gurion then de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine and soon to become first Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Ben Gurion is quoted as saying that the name was chosen for the sake of the Lost Ten Tribes, who are Israelites but not Jews, who it was hoped would eventually return.
What sources Rabbi Feld was basing himself upon are not clear at present but he is fairly well-versed in the history and politics of the State of Israel including its formative years and the period leading up to it.
Here are relevant sources:
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Why Is Israel Called Israel? by Elon Gilad
https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-why-is-israel-called-israel-1.5353207
Extracts:
While the Bible usually uses "Israel" to mean the northern kingdom, elsewhere the name is commonly used to refer to both Israel and Judah together, and less commonly, to Judah alone. Thus it is that Jews in the Diaspora refer to themselves as 'Sons of Israel' and sometimes just Israel, in addition to the more common name Yehudim ('Jews'), which derives from the name of Judah, the southern kingdom.
Similarly, the land they left behind was often referred to as the "Land of Israel" ("Eretz Yisrael") in addition to other names including Judah, and "Holy Land" ("Eretz HaKodesh") .
During the British Mandate, Palestine's official name in Hebrew was "Eretz Yisrael." That was the name that appeared in Hebrew (alongside "Palestine" in English and Arabic) on the local currency, stamps and official documents, lending the name "Israel" official status.
On May 14, 1948, a couple of days before the British rule over Palestine ended, the Jewish leadership in Palestine met in Tel Aviv. Presided over by David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel's first prime minister, the small group decided that a Jewish state would be declared independent on the day the British left.
According to the only source extant for the proceedings, an article by Palestine Post writer Moshe Brilliant, published a year later, at first the group wanted to go with the name Judah, the name of the ancient Jewish Kingdom. But this name was rejected, after some discussion, since most of historic Judah fell outside the borders of the nascent state according to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine that was on the table at the time.
The group turned to other possible names - among them "Zion" and "Tzabar" (sabra) - but then someone suggested "Israel" and a vote was held. The name "Israel" won by 7 to 3.
As for who suggested the name, Brilliant says that it was Ben-Gurion himself. It is possible however that as he wrote a year after the event, he got this detail wrong. Moshe Sharett, Israel's second prime minister, had been calling the future Jewish State "The State of Israel" in speeches at least since 1946, while Ben-Gurion was using "Medinat HaYehudim" ("The State of the Jews"), so it seems plausible that it was Sharett, not Ben-Gurion. (In an interview in 1965, Ben-Gurion was asked who suggested the name, and replied he didn't remember).
Anyway, neither Ben-Gurion nor Sharett were first to call the nation "State of Israel" ("Medinat Yisrael"). That honor belongs to a rather obscure Jewish Galician writer named Isaac Pernhoff... [in an]1896 article, Pernhoff predicted that the Jewish state in Palestine would be called "Medinat Yisrael" - the State of Israel. And so it was.
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Israeli Declaration of Independence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The writers also had to decide on the name for the new state. Eretz Israel, Ever (from the name Eber), Judea, and Zion were all suggested, as were Ziona, Ivriya and Herzliya.[12] Judea and Zion were rejected because, according to the partition plan, Jerusalem (Zion) and most of the Judean mountains would be outside the new state.[13] Ben-Gurion put forward "Israel" and it passed by a vote of 6-3.[14]...
Two assumptions were made: "That an Arab state was about to be established alongside the Jewish one in keeping with the UN’s partition resolution the year before, and that the Jewish state would include a large Arab minority whose feelings needed to be taken into account".
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A book-length account (in Hebrew) of the naming of the State of Israel was penned by Dr. Rivka Bilibaum, "Hi Medinat Yisrael," 2018 (Publishers: Yad Ben Tsvi), Israel.
See Also:
House of Israel
Terminology. When did this term apply ONLY to the Ten Tribes and When Not?
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/hoi.html
The Prophet Isaiah predicted it!
Isaiah forsaw that in the End Times a portion of Judah would return to the Land and call itself "Israel" but they should not have done so!
Isaiah 48:
1 Hear this, O House of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and who came forth from the loins of Judah;
who swear by the name of the LORD,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth or right.
In chapter 48 it appears that the Prophet Isaiah is using the system of Prophetic Extrapolation.
On its simple level this involves the Prophet doing some symbolic act and then using it as symbolic of the future.
A more sophisticated application occurs when the Prophet takes something that happens in his own time and then makes it a model for the future.
A further extension takes place when the Prophet based on his own time predicates what will take place shortly after, describes it, and then extrapolate from it for the distant future.
The previous chapter 47, following chapter 49, are dedicated mainly to Ten Tribes and their return. Isaiah 48 however is mainly that of Judah.
What does the Prophet means by "not in truth or right?"
The Commentators "Radak" and "Metsudat David" say it means that the Jews at the time in question are not genuine enough in observing the Torah.
This is pertinent to out time.
See Also: Rabbi Feld and LTT Return