What do you mean, historical significance? Are you asking about whether or not this has been a theme in Jewish history and thought? If so, absolutely.

The archetypal "Wandering Jew" has been a theme in both Jewish thought and, more nefariously, in anti-Semitic thought for centuries, if not longer. In the Tanakh, the "Hebrew Bible" or "Old Testament" by some descriptions, Jews are quite often expelled and find themselves pushed out of their homes. In the Mishnah, known as the "Oral Law" or "Oral Torah", exile is described as coming "because of the worshipers of idols and because of sexual immorality and because of the spilling of blood and because of [the violation] of the resting of the earth", relating to numerous aspects of Jewish law being transgressed. The origin of Jewish diaspora, in rabbinic thinking, can be seen at least in part in the events leading up to the destruction of the Second Temple, which is usually attributed to destruction caused by division among Jews and "sinat chinam", or gratuitous hatred. But rabbinic thought also sees the destruction as having been caused by more; the Talmud also includes an implication that destruction was caused by God because Jews had, God says, "forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked therein". Jeremiah is the book cited here, and that story relates the destruction of the first Temple and the Babylonian exile in Jewish thinking, but can be seen as a commentary on the Second Temple's destruction as well. And that destruction is typically coupled with exile from the land, as seen in the Babylonian case with the First Temple and the Roman case with the second.

Historically, the theme of exile is even more common in Jewish thought. Diaspora rabbinic thought has long held that return to the land of Israel in truth will only come about with the coming of the messiah (contrary to Christian thought, which views Jesus as the messiah and views Jesus as returning to herald this end of days). Maimonides, known as the Rambam, was himself exiled from Cordoba, and fled to Morocco, in his youth. This theme of constant shifting from place to place by Jewish populations and its meaning for theology was not lost on the Rambam, who wrote in Mishneh Torah, "During the days of King Messiah, when he will be secure in his monarchy, and all of Israel will gather about him, everyone’s genealogy will be clarified by him by means of the Holy Spirit which will rest upon him". In short, the coming of the messiah would lead to the gathering in Israel of all the "exiles". Until then, however, Jews would continue to face trouble so long as they transgressed, as he wrote, "all those things are in this world, for instance, plenty, famine, war, peace, government, oppression, permanency in the land, exile, success in undertakings, its failure...as long as we transgress [the laws of the Torah] we will be met by those evil things described therein".

Rashi, another famous Jewish scholar, talks about this idea, galut (a sense of uprootedness; diaspora) as well. While Rashi is convinced that the Jewish people are the land's proper owners and that they will someday inherit it, he is also well aware of the pains of exile and persecution that Jews undergo and underwent. Rashi wrote of the need for internal cohesion, to protect against persecution by others.

Jewish thought was not just colored by discussions of eventual return from exile, but also by historical experience. Jews have, as I mentioned, experienced expulsions throughout history. The Tanakh tells of the Babylonian exile (historically accurate or not, it forms a core part of collective memory), and of the diaspora more broadly. Jewish experience since then has been not much better, whether that be because of conquest of the areas they lived in (Maimonides wrote his famous "Epistle to Yemen" because of persecution of Yemeni Jews by rebels against Saladin, for example), or because of irrational fears of Jews (i.e. the blood libel causing pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia, for example, or even the Middle East in the 19th century). Jews have seen expulsions as a constant part of life as a Jew, and therefore long felt uncertain about their position in society. This is what Goldberg is alluding to with the question.

This also has a prominent place in Zionist thought. Herzl's Der Judenstaat saw the need for a Jewish state, and saw persecution and repeated exile as part of the reason. He wrote:

Let us first settle the point of staying where we are. Can we hope for better days, can we possess our souls in patience, can we wait in pious resignation till the princes and peoples of this earth are more mercifully disposed towards us? I say that we cannot hope for a change in the current of feeling. And why not? Even if we were as near to the hearts of princes as are their other subjects, they could not protect us. They would only feel popular hatred by showing us too much favor. By "too much," I really mean less than is claimed as a right by every ordinary citizen, or by every race. The nations in whose midst Jews live are all either covertly or openly Anti-Semitic.

He also noted the futility of simply continuing to move around, in his view, with each exile or outburst of anti-Semitism:

What is achieved by transporting a few thousand Jews to another country? Either they come to grief at once, or prosper, and then their prosperity creates Anti-Semitism. We have already discussed these attempts to divert poor Jews to fresh districts. This diversion is clearly inadequate and futile, if it does not actually defeat its own ends; for it merely protracts and postpones a solution, and perhaps even aggravates difficulties.

This thinking was repeated by numerous Zionist thinkers over the years. Ahad Ha'am, a religious Zionist, wrote:

Thus it came about that, after the destruction of the second Temple, what the Jews felt most keenly was not the ruin of their country and their national life but "the destruction of the House [of God]:" the loss of their religious centre...

...the gap was to be filled by spiritual means...It was a long exile of much study and much prayer, in which the national hope for the return to Zion was never forgotten.

And, referring to the Zionist movement:

It had almost become unthinkable that this outworn hope could renew its youth, and become again the mainspring of a new movement, least of all of a rational and spontaneous movement. And yet that is what has happened. The revolutions of life's wheel have carried the spirit of our people from point to point on the circle, until now it begins to approach once more the healthy and natural condition of two thousand years ago. This ancient spirit, roused once more to life, has breathed life into the ancient ideal, has found in that ideal its fitting external form, and become to it as soul to body.

Part 2 below