Jewish Autonomism, not connected to the contemporary political movement autonomism, was a non-Zionist political movement and ideology that emerged in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, before spreading throughout Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the late 19th century, Jewish Autonomism was seen "together with Zionism [as] the most important political expression of the Jewish people in the modern era." One of its first and major proponents was the historian and activist Simon Dubnow. Jewish Autonomism is often referred to as "Dubnovism" or "folkism".

The Autonomists believed that the future survival of the Jews as a nation depends on their spiritual and cultural strength, in developing "spiritual nationhood" and in viability of Jewish diaspora as long as Jewish communities maintain self-rule and rejected assimilation. Autonomists often stressed the vitality of modern Yiddish culture. Various concepts of the Autonomism were adopted in the platforms of the Folkspartei, the Sejmists and socialist Jewish parties such as the Bund.

The movement's beliefs were similar to those of the Austro-Marxists who advocated national personal autonomy within the multinational Austro-Hungarian empire and cultural pluralists in America such as Randolph Bourne and Horace Kallen.

Though Simon Dubnow was key in proliferating Autonomism's popularity, his ideas were not completely novel. In 1894, Jakob Kohn, a board member of the National Jewish Party of Austria published Assimilation, Antisemitismus und Nationaljudentum, a philosophical work detailing his party's perspective. Kohn argued that Jews shared not only a religion, but were connected by a long, deep-rooted ethnic history of centuries of discrimination, attempts at assimilation and exile. To Kohn, the Jews were a nation. Similar to Dubnow, Kohn called for the establishment of a Jewish organization to represent Jewish interests within the state's policies. Again, Similar to Dubnow, Kohn denounced assimilation, claiming that it worked against the establishment of a Jewish nation.

The origins of Autonomism and Dubnow's ideas remain unclear. Notable philosophical thinkers from Eastern and Western Europe including Ernest Renan, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer and Auguste Compte are cited to have influenced Dubnow's ideas. Ideas from Vladimir Solovyov, Dmitry Pisarev, Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Konstantin Aksakov concerning the Russian people's distinct spiritual heritage may have brought rise to Dubnow's own ideas on the Jews shared heritage. In his memoirs, Dubnow himself refers to some of these thinkers as major influences. In addition, Dubnov had been immersed in histiographical study of Russian Jewry, its institutions and spiritual movements. This research led Dubnov to question the legitimacy of the Russians' monopoly of political power and fueled his own demands for Jewish political representation.

Jewish Autonomism advocates for the sovereignty of the Jews without a division from the governing state. Instead, Jewish Autonomism was concerned with establishing Jewish cultural minority rights within the state, primarily with an emphasis on language and educational rights. Dubnow argued that Jewish autonomism allowed Jews to simultaneously identify with Jewish nationalism and loyalty to their own state

Dubnow was the preeminent Jewish historian of his time and his Autonomism was based on his analysis of history and the implications he drew for the future. Dubnow broke the history of the Jewish nation (and all nations) into three different periods: tribal, political-territorial, and spiritual. The Jewish nation had experienced a series of tests (the loss of political independence, the loss of a homeland, the loss of a unifying language) which by passing, had allowed it (and only it so far) to ascend to the highest stage of nationhood. Without those traditional markers of nationhood, the Jewish people's continued existence was proof to him that they "had crystallized into a spiritual people... drawing on the natural or intellectual will to live." Thus, in contrast to many other ideologies, Dubnow believed that as a nation the Jews had transformed for the better. The Jews had transformed from a nation connected by a territory to a nation connected by a spirituality and heritage.

Whereas Zionism advocates for the establishment of an entirely separate Jewish state, Autonomism advocates for the sovereignty of the Jews without a division from the governing state. In fact, Dubnow felt that by his generation, the Jewish nation (unlike other nations) had superseded the use of force, and that if the Jewish nation ever developed into a state that resorted to military might, it would signify a step backwards.