The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-07-23
THE DREAM OF A
MODERN MOSES
HOW DIR. HERZL CONCEIVED
THE ZIONIST IDEA.
Racial Selfconsciousness Brought Out
by the Dreyfus Case-His Mono
graph on the Jewish State Brought
Out in 1S96-The Lease of Pales-
tine from the Sultan Proposed by

Vienna.-The death on July 8, of DR..
Theodor Herzl, the leader of the Zion
list movement, removes from the arena
Of action a figure of international i'm
portance. That he initiated one Of
the greatest racial movements OF
modern times-that he succeeded In
organizing an unruly and dispersed
people for the first time in twenty
centuries-the world at large has
come to recognize. Mourning for his
death is sincere and universal, for
Jews all over the world regard him as
a veritable second Moses.
The strange fact must be noted,
however, that DR.. Herzl did not repre-
sent the typical Jew. Born some for
ty-four years ago in a rich family In
Budapest, he had received an excel
lent university education, had turned
to journalism and the drama, and had
finally settled down as the Paris cor
respondent Of the Neue Frete Presse.
But the Jewish question had never
seriously concerned him, because by
his position he had never had occa-
sion to feel the keen edge OF perse e.,
cution. 1t was only the Hep! Hep"
cries Of Vienna and the miserable
travesty Of justice in the Dreyfus af-
fair that shocked him out of his in
difference into keen racial self-con-
seriousness. The Jewish question
| doomed up before him in all it's press
ing import. He began to consider
Jews packed in the ghettos Of Europe.
They were despised and oppressed,
crowded into a killing competition
with each other, thwarted In their
natural development and wanted no
where. What was to be done with
them? DR.. Herzels suggestions for a
solution Of this vexing question were
y, @t,t
'Die Judenstaat" (The Jewish State)
which appeared in 1896. He there
argued for a legally-assured Jewish
state as the only solution to the
troublesome problem. He received a
/ hearty response from the thinkers OF
u Europe, and practical measures were
taken in the shape of calling con
gress which met in Basic in 1897
/ Thus was political Zionism inaugu-
rated. ..
u DR.. Herzl believed that Palestine
could leased by charter from the sui
tan, and that in spite of it's waste con-
dition it could be developed into a
great industrial center; that by its
natural position it was the key to the
commerce of three continents, bor-
dering, as it does, on the Mediter-
: ranean, on India and on Egypt; thai
it would afford place where the
Jews might develop sanely and nor.
mally into a great, free and strong
nation, throwing off the vices &C.
quired under the stress Of persecu.
ton; and, moreover, that this solu-
ton would not only be a God-sent de-
liverance to the Jews but a consum.
nation most devoutly to be wished
for the European power themselves
Whether DR.. Herzls Zionism be
merely a fond dream, or whether Il
be destined some day to concrete re-
aIization ONLY time can decide Tha
he was no mere visionary, that he hac
| a firm grasp on all the political ant
economic bearings of his question, NJ
one can deny. And that he was {
noble and great-hearted patriot will
also be universally affirmed.