political Zionism | Britannica.com Political Zionism THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. Learn about this topic in these articles: in Theodor Herzl founder of the political form of Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland. His pamphlet The Jewish State (1896) proposed that the Jewish question was a political question to be settled by a world council of nations. He organized a world congress of Zionists that met in Basel, Switzerland, in August 1897 and became first president of the World Zionist Organization, established... Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl contact Theodor Herzl Theodor (Binyamin Ze�ev) Herzl (May 2,1860 - July 3, 1904), founded the Zionist political movement. He was born in Budapest in 1860, and educated in the spirit of the German � Jewish Enlightenment, as a secular Jew, though his grandfather had been a friend of Rabbi Yehudah Alkalai , a proto-Zionist of an earlier era.

In 1878 the Herzls moved to Vienna, where Theodor Herzl studied law in the university of Vienna, graduating in 1884. However, rather than studying law, Herzl became a writer, a playwright and a journalist, acting as Paris correspondent for influential liberal Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse. Herzl probably first experienced anti-Semitism while studying at the University of Vienna (1882). He thought of the Jewish problem as a social issue and wrote a play, The Ghetto (1894), about the dilemma of Vienna Jewry, in which assimilation and conversion were rejected as solutions. He hoped that The Ghetto would lead to debate and ultimately to a solution, based on mutual tolerance and respect between Christians and Jews. In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was falsely accused and convicted of treason (See Dreyfus Affair ) . Mobs shouted �Death to the Jews� in France, the home of the French Revolution and the emancipation of the Jews. Herzl became convinced that the Jews needed a country of their own. Herzl witnessed the Dreyfus affair as a newspaper correspondent.

According to conventional accounts, his Zionism resulted from contemplating the persecution of Dreyfus. According to some others, he may have been more influenced by the election of the anti-Semitic Karl Luger as mayor of Vienna. Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor, which assimilation would not solve, and which it was futile to combat. Despite ridicule from Jewish leaders, he published The Jewish State ( Der Judenstaat ) in 1896. Herzl claimed that the Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they stopped being an anomaly among nations. He asserted that the scattered Jews are one people. Their plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state guaranteed in international (public) law - "volkerrechtig" -- with the consent of the great powers. Echoing Rabbi Yehudah Alkalai and a few other Zionist forerunners, Herzl saw the Jewish problem as an international political issue. His ideas were quite similar to those of Leon Pinsker , but he evidently was unacquainted with Pinsker's Auto-Emancipation . Herzl proposed to collect funds from Jews around the world by a company which would work toward settling Jews in Palestine.

and securing a state. Eventually this idea was transformed into the Zionist Organization, the Jewish National Fund and other organizations. The Jewish State and Herzl's novel, Altneuland (Old New Land) published in 1902, pictured a Jewish social utopia in Palestine. It would be a pluralist, technologically advanced, secular society with equality for Arabs. Altneuland became a symbol of the Zionist vision in the Land of Israel. It was translated into Hebrew almost simultaneously with the name "Tel-Aviv," which soon became the title of the first Zionist city in Palestine. Herzl's ideas were rejected in Western Europe. Herzl was turned down by Jewish magnates such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild. Herzl then appealed to the people, organizing the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, on August 29�31, 1897. (see Theodor Herzl: Address to the first Zionist Congress ) The congress was historic not just for founding the Zionist movement, but because it was the first time an organized body , representing at least the Jews of the Western world, had been convened since the exile nearly 2000 years ago.

Herzl's ideas found mass support from the poor Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia. At Basle, the Zionist movement resolved to " establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.� The Basle congress also resolved to set up a political organization and financial institutions to carry forward the Zionist idea. The World Zionist Organization was established, and Herzl was elected president. Herzl wrote in his diary, "At Basle, I founded the Jewish state.. If not in five years, then certainly in fifty, everyone will realize it. � Herzl presided over six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1903, setting up the Jewish Colonial Trust, the Jewish National Fund and the movement's newspaper Die Welt. After Herzl's death, the movement continued to meet every year except during war. In 1936 the center of the Zionist movement moved to Jerusalem. In his quest for great power backing, Herzl traveled to Palestine and Istanbul in 1898 to meet with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Herzl met Kaiser Wilhelm in Palestine, where he showed him a Jewish settlement.

However, the meeting turned out to be a ceremonial one only, and the Kaiser refused to commit himself to backing a Jewish national home. Herzl's plan was to obtain money from Jewish financiers to pay off the onerous debt of the Ottoman Empire, and in return, get a charter from the Sultan to develop Palestine as a national home for the Jewish people. But the Jewish financiers were unenthusiastic. Rothschild ridiculed the idea that Palestine could be a home for the Jews. Herzl negotiated with the Sultan nonetheless. He assumed that the financial backing would be forthcoming if he could obtain a charter from the Sultan. But the Sultan, after lengthy negotiations was unwilling to give up Palestine and unwilling to have a concentration of Jews there. He offered immigration to other parts of the Ottoman empire instead. In 1902, the negotiations came to a final end. Herzl recorded in his diary: �February 15. �All right, let us establish on both sides what is involved here�, said the Sultan�s representative, Izzet.

�His Imperial Majesty is prepared to open his Empire to Jewish refugees from all countries, on condition that they agree to become Ottoman subjects with all the duties that this imposes, under our laws and our military service.� �Exactly!�, I replied. He continued: �Before entering our country they must formally resign their previous nationality and become Ottoman subjects. On this condition they may establish themselves in any of our provinces except - at first - Palestine.� I did not bat an eyelash, also understood at once that this was only the first offer and that they would be open for bargaining. �In return�, Izzet went on, �His Imperial Majesty asks you to form a syndicate for the consolidation of the public debt...� February 17. Thereupon Izzet took my letter to the Sultan. While we were waiting, Ibrahim and Ghalib raved about the happy conditions to come: how it would be when the Jews came. They dreamed aloud of the improvement of agriculture and industry, of banks which would not serve foreign interests, etc. But then Izzet returned with the Sultan's decision, and it was unfavorable.

The Sultan is willing to open his Empire to all Jews who become Turkish subjects, but the regions to be settled are to be decided each time by the government, and Palestine is to be excluded...A charter without Palestine! I refused at once.� And so the meeting ended. Herzl wrote to the Greater Action Committee of the failure of the Turkish negotiations, but wished to keep the setback a secret to prevent discouragement. Herzl then met with Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary and others, who offered, not Palestine, which Britain did not have, but possibilities of settlement in Cyprus or in east Africa, in what was called Uganda (actually part of Kenya today). Likewise, the possibility of settlement in the Sinai, near El Arish which would be "close" to Palestine, was explored. The British government in Egypt vetoed the El Arish project on the grounds that it would require an impractical scheme of bringing large quantities of water from Egypt. The Kishinev Pogrom in 1903 caused Herzl to realize the urgency of finding some shelter for the Jews of Russia.

He travelled to Russia in 1903 in order to meet with the notorious anti-Semite von Plehve, who was thought to be responsible for the wave of Pogrom s instigated against the Jews. Russian Zionists were upset by this visit, which they felt was playing into the hands of the enemy. Herzl to proposed that the Russian government assist the Zionist Movement to transfer Jews from Russia. Von Plehve gave a partially favorable reply, which he later withdrew. But Herzl did get Von Plehve to rescind some of the very restrictive laws against Zionist political activity. Nonetheless, the Russian Zionists were not happy with his visit. With the British offer in hand, Herzl proposed the British "Uganda" offer as a temporary refuge - a "night shelter" for the Jews of Russia, at the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903. Herzl made it clear that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, which was settlement in "Eretz Yisrael" - Palestine. However, the proposal aroused great anger, particularly, and surprisingly, among the Russian delegates, the very people whom Herzl had sought to help.

Menahem Ussishkin in particular, organized a protest congress of the Russian Zionists, the Kharkov Conference , that presented Herzl with an ultimatum requiring him to withdraw the Uganda proposal. Herzl wrote in his diary that the Russian Zionists were in open rebellion. A bitter exchange ensued. Herzl upbraided Ussishkin the pages of Die Welt. He asked rhetorically, if Ussishkin knew of a better and shorter way to bring about the open public settlement of Palestine by the Jewish people. If he knows such a way, then it is wrong for a such a good Zionist not to reveal it, Herzl noted sarcastically. But if he knows no such way, then it is better that he should keep silent and not destroy with empty rhetoric the unity of the Zionist movement, which is worth more than a couple of bits of land in Palestine. The proposal was finally rejected in part because the British themselves had withdrawn it. Though alternative homes such as Uganda were never considered by Zionists as more than a temporary measure, anti-Zionists have falsely seized on these initiatives for national homes outside Palestine as "proof" that Jews have no special tie to Palestine. The contrary is true.

Prior to the Zionist movement, various Jewish thinkers and philanthropists had proposed "national homes" in the United States or South America. However, though Baron Hirsch set up colonies in Argentina, the idea never captured the imagination of the people. The hearts and minds of the Jews were always set on "the Holy Land." On April 11, 1904, at a reconciliation meeting of the Greater Action Committee of the Zionist movement, Herzl redeclared his support for Palestine as the ultimate goal of the Zionists. His speech was characteristic of personality - tinged with hurt dignity and bitterness, it also defined with fair precision what Herzl had accomplished for the formerly disunited and ineffectual Zionists: I have undertaken to bring you a word of peace. I know what distress and anxiety reigns among the masses of our fine, good, faithful Zionists throughout the whole world, and particularly in Russia; I know with what concern they follow these negotiations, how profoundly they fear that these beginnings of a national organization, brought about with so much labor for the benefit of the national cause, may suffer injury.

As far I am concerned, I am without obstinacy; I pass the sponge across whatever has been said against me personally, and will say not another word about it. But I am aroused when it is a question of safeguarding our organization, completing our work, guarding our unity and fulfilling the obligations to which we pledged ourselves in accepting our mandates to the Congress. ... My personal point of view was and is that we have not the right simply to reject such a proposal, fling it back without even asking the people whether they want it or not. I do not want to use the much debated word "Night Refuge" in describing the English offer, but say rather: "Here is a piece of bread." I, who perhaps have cake to eat, and in any case can always have a piece of bread, have not the right to reject the piece of bread which is being offered to the poor because I don't need or want it. Perhaps I personally can be moved to great enthusiasm by the fact that there are some people who, in the midst of their need and hunger, are strong enough in their idealism to say: "No, we don't want the bread." But I am obligated at least to transmit the offer to the people.

That is my conviction. ... For, gentlemen, here in Vienna I tore myself loose one day from that which had been my life till then, from my friends and acquaintances, and devoted myself to that which I considered right. I do not feel the need of a majority. What I do need is that I shall be at one with my convictions. Then I am content, though not even a dog will take a piece of bread from my hand. ... We want the continuous growth of Zionism, we want Zionism as the representative of the people. Why do we want this? Because we believe that we cannot achieve our goal without great forces, and these great forces are not to be found in a federation of little societies. Such a federation you had twenty years ago, and you are always telling me that you were already Zionists twenty and twenty-five years ago. You are always throwing that up to me. But what do you prove thereby? What could you achieve as long as you did not have political Zionism? You lived in little groups and collected money. Undoubtedly your intentions were magnificent, your idealism unchallengeable. Nevertheless you could not achieve anything because you did not know the path to the objective.

This path is the organization of the people, and its organ is the Congress. That is why you must submit to the Congress, even though you may be utterly dissatisfied with its decisions. ... It was as a Jewish statesman that I presented myself to you. I gave you my card, and there the words were printed: "Herzl, Jewish statesman". And in the course of time I learned a great deal. First and foremost, I learned to know Jews, and that was sometimes even a pleasure. But above all, I learned to understand that we shall find the solution of our problem only in Palestine. ... If today I say to you: "I became a Zionist and have remained one, and all my efforts are directed toward Palestine", you have every reason in the world to believe me. ... Gentlemen, I have certain things to forgive you, for in certain matters pertaining to me you are to blame. But let me pass over that. I ask nothing more than that you do your duty as organized Zionists, without doing violence to your convictions.

Fight as much you like, think of every device which may obtain for you a majority at the Congress, but do not do it with the help of the instruments of the movement; do it in your personal capacities. If you should create a majority of votes, a party, against me, I would certainly be grateful, but only on condition that you really do get a majority. I counsel you: submit to the Congress decisions, as the rest of us have to do. Until now I have not conducted a fight against you. If you should leave this session of the Actions Committee and agitate against the Congress, than I shall carry out an agitation against you, and I promise you that you will be defeated. Please believe me that this effort at reconciliation, the trouble I have taken, the words I have uttered not altogether consonant with my dignity, do not indicate that I am in any way afraid of the struggle. We have a tremendous majority on our side. But what I want is that you shall be able to come home and say to your people: We have received reassuring declarations, we know that the Executive in Vienna is working, and we know what the leader wants.

Do not fix your eyes on an uncompleted house, just begun; wait till it is ready, and put your confidence in those men whom you have trusted till now and who have done nothing to lose your confidence! Herzl took ill in May. He died in Vienna a few months later, in July of 1904, of pneumonia contracted as a complication of heart disease, but the essential part of his work was done. In 1949, Herzl's remains were brought to Israel and buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. All of Herzl's political activity for Zionism was condensed into the brief period of eight years. He did not achieve a charter for a Jewish national home in his life time. However, he had done something almost as impossible: he created, by the force of his unique personality, a movement that unified not only the splintered Zionist groups, but much of the Jewish people, overcoming the opposition of assimilationists and reactionary religious leaders, as well as the indifference and aloofness of magnates. He got the secular, socialist, capitalist and religious Zionists to sit together in one hall and to bind themselves together into a single organization for a common purpose.

This unity, which he recognized and hailed in his Address to the first Zionist Congress is what made the Zionist project into a practical reality. Herzl's constant struggles to unite the quarreling factions behind a single Zionist program came at a price. Significantly, he had written In 1899, in an essay entitled �The Family Affliction� written for The American Hebrew, �Anyone who wants to work in behalf of the Jews needs - to use a popular phrase - a strong stomach.� Herzl became the symbol of Zionism. His picture dominates offices of the Israeli government and Zionist organizations. His name is commemorated in the names of towns, schools and streets. Every fair sized town in Israel has a Herzl street. On the other hand, foes of Zionism caricature the picture of Herzl, as well as his image. For Arabs and other anti-Zionists, Herzl is the symbol of "Zionist Colonialism." For ultra-orthodox Jews, he is the symbol of secularist evil. An ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist MK once declared in the Knesset, "May Herzl turn over in his grave.

The Israel government has declared that his birthday is to be marked each year on the twelfth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, exactly one week following Israel independence day. Herzl's work made possible what others had only dreamed about. He said "If you will, it is no legend." He was the midwife of a movement that was to fulfill the age-old impossible dream of the Jews, to be a free people once again in their own country. Ami Isseroff Notice - This biography is copyright � 2005-9 by Ami Isseroff and the Zionism-Israel Information Center. You may cite parts of this biography for nonprofit use in promoting Zionism, giving credit to Zionism and Israel Information Center and linking to this page. Please do not copy our original materials to your Web site. External Zionism Links This site provides resources about Zionism and Israeli history, including links to source documents. We are not responsible for the information content of these sites. These links are NOT intended to be an exhaustive reference about Zionism, but the list will keep growing... Please tell us about your favorite links and we will review them for inclusion. Thank you.

Theodor Herzl - My Jewish Learning Theodor Herzl Reprinted with permission from The Jewish Religion: A Companion , published by Oxford University Press Theodor Herzl (1860‑1904) was the foremost leader of political Zionism . Herzl belonged to a fairly assimilated Jewish family in Vienna. He took a law degree at the university but earned his living as a playwright and particularly as a successful journalist on the Neue Freie Presse. The story has often been told of how Herzl, reporting for his paper in Paris on the Dreyfus Affair , in which the thoroughly assimilated Captain Dreyfus, in an anti‑Semitic plot, was falsely accused of treason, came to realize that the Emancipation of the Jews , far from solving the Jewish problem, only aggravated it by creating severe tensions between the Jews and their neighbors in European society. In Herzl’s view, the Jews had to consider themselves to be not only a religious body but also a nation capable of developing its own political institutions in a land of its own. Herzl gave expression to his views in 1896 with the publication of Judenstaat (“ The Jewish State “).

He eventually came to appreciate that the creation of such a Jewish state could be feasible only in Palestine, the traditional homeland of the Jewish people. Herzl has been described as a practical dreamer, and it is true that, with considerable organizing ability, he worked for the practical realization of his aim, succeeding in winning many Jews to co-operate with him in, at the time, a seemingly impossible task. The first Zionist Congress was held in Basle in 1897 at which the World Zionist Organization was founded and Herzl elected its president. In 1902 Herzl published his utopian vision of the Jewish state, the Altneuland (“ Old New Land “). Herzl died, at the early age of 44, in Vienna, where he was buried. In 1949 Herzl’s remains were taken to Jerusalem where they were buried on a hill, now called Mount Herzl. More than any other thinker and politician, Herzl was indirectly responsible for the emergence of the State of Israel and is acknowledged to be the state’s true founder.

FROM THE JTA ARCHIVE: Basle, Again the Scene of Zionist Congress, Accentuates Contrast (1927) It is undeniable that Herzl’s ideas, while contributing immensely to the survival of the Jewish people, created problems for the Jewish religion. For Herzl and for political Zionism as a movement, the Jews were a nation like other nations, and this raised questions about the nature of Judaism. The majority of the rabbis in Herzl’s day, whether Orthodox or Reform, were opposed to his views on precisely these grounds. The Reform rabbis believed that the new emphasis on nationhood frustrated the universalistic thrust of Judaism as a world religion independent of nationality. The Orthodox, at the opposite end of the spectrum, believed that the particularistic elements in Judaism were contained in the Torah and the practice of its laws, not in any form of secular nationalism; though the Mizrachi ( Religious Zionist ) movement sought to combine the ideas of nationalism and religion for Jews in a modern state. Once the State of Israel had been established, the whole debate became purely academic, which is not to deny that many of the problems still await their solution.

The Zionist Movement The Zionist Movement The term ‘Zionism’ is most commonly defined as Jewish nationalism. Named for Mount Zion in Jerusalem, a symbol of the Jewish homeland, Zionism as an idea has existed among the Jewish community since Biblical times. In the book of Genesis, God promised Abraham, “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8). In Jeremiah, it is believed, the Lord promised to the Jews, “I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive” (Jeremiah 29:14). Today, this ancient land mentioned in Genesis encompasses present-day Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as Lebanon and parts of other neighboring countries. It is not a recent development among Jews to believe that this area is the site of their Promised Land. However, it is only within the last century that the mass movement to reclaim this land has been undertaken.

The work Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews) by the Jewish Austrian journalist, Theodor Herzl, was published in 1896. In his book, written in response to European anti-Semitism, Herzl outlined his vision for an independent Jewish state. Herzl suggested several locations for the creation of this state. Himself in limited contact with less assimilated Jews, Herzl was unaware just how unwilling his followers would be to see the creation of this state in anywhere but the Holy Land. From the point of his works publication, Herzl became the leading spokesman for Zionism, now quickly evolving from an idea into a movement. In 1897, the First Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland. Theodor Herzl led the congress as a president. At this Congress, the World Zionist Organization was founded. The mission of Zionism was clearly stated: “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Eretz Israel secured under public law.” It was now understood that Palestine was the only acceptable location for the establishment of this state.

Herzl personally made several visits to the Ottoman Sultan, at one point even offering to buy the land of Palestine, but to no avail (Ross, 2007, p.22.) This new Zionist movement, concerning ambition and aggressiveness, stood in stark contrast to its predecessor, Hovevei Zion, founded in 1882 by Jewish exiles meeting in Constantinople. Hovevei Zion, though based on the same principals as the new Zionist movement, attempted to encourage Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel without involving politics. This group did not aspire to establish the State of Israel, but rather support immigrants and build agricultural settlements within Palestine. Though mildly successful in these endeavors, the group soon became crippled by a lack of funds (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008.) It became obvious that politics would be nearly impossible to avoid if a mass movement were to be successful and eventually Hovevei Zion was absorbed by the new Zionist movement. Leaders of Zionism began encouraging the immigration of Jewish people to the Palestinian territory. Inevitably, this mass migration of a foreign population began to cause conflict with the native population comprised mostly of Arabs.

The First Aliyah (1882-1903), brought about 27,500 Jews to the area (Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, 2007.) The British, though seemingly in support of the founding of the State of Israel, had no choice but to impose immigration limits to abate conflict between the immigrants and the natives. While Zionism was slowly gaining a significant following among the Jewish population, it was not until the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and the subsequent Holocaust that most Jews became believers in the need for relocation, as supported by the Zionist movement. In fact, many Jews had stood firmly against the principle of Zionism, believing that “…only God should reunite Jews in the Promised Land…” (Beinin and Hajjar, p.2). When the State of Israel became a reality in May of 1948, and especially after the success of the Six-day war in 1967, most Jews came to support the efforts of the Zionist movement. Within the Zionist movement, several different forms and Zionist organizations have developed.

Like most movements, Zionism has given rise to extremist factions, such as the Gush Emunim, who have gone so far as to call for the destruction of Muslim holy buildings on the Temple Mount. Most forms of Zionism, however, are concerned with the politics of the movement, rather than the extermination of the Arab population laying claim to the very land they occupy. Labor Zionism existed as the dominant form for a while seeking to link nationalism and socialism. There also appeared Revisionist Zionism, which aspired to extend the borders of the State of Israel (Beinin and Hajjar, p.2.) Currently, it appears the main focus of Zionism is attempting to keep peace with the population on its existing borders. The Labor Party has considered a compromise with the Palestinians as a means of ending the still-raging conflict. However, the Labor Party has come to hold less and less power within the Zionist movement. A minority of Jews, refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state of Israel, still holds a vision of Israel and Palestine merging into one state with equal rights for all citizens. Still, though the Zionists now hold their ‘Promised Land’, a compromise to end the conflict desecrating it has yet to be reached.

Theodor Herzl | Austrian Zionist leader | Britannica.com Austrian Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion Theodor Herzl, (born May 2, 1860, Budapest , Hungary , Austrian Empire [now in Hungary]—died July 3, 1904, Edlach, Austria ), founder of the political form of Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland. His pamphlet The Jewish State (1896) proposed that the Jewish question was a political question to be settled by a world council of nations. He organized a world congress of Zionists that met in Basel , Switzerland, in August 1897 and became first president of the World Zionist Organization , established by the congress. Although Herzl died more than 40 years before the establishment of the State of Israel , he was an indefatigable organizer, propagandist, and diplomat who had much to do with making Zionism into a political movement of worldwide significance. Theodor Herzl. Photos.com/Jupiterimages Early years Herzl was born of well-to-do middle-class parents.

He first studied in a scientific secondary school, but, to escape from its anti-Semitic atmosphere, he transferred in 1875 to a school where most of the students were Jews. In 1878 the family moved from Budapest to Vienna , where he entered the University of Vienna to study law . He received his license to practice law in 1884 but chose to devote himself to literature . For a number of years he was a journalist and a moderately successful playwright. In 1889 he married Julie Naschauer, daughter of a wealthy Jewish businessman in Vienna. The marriage was unhappy, although three children were born to it. Herzl had a strong attachment to his mother, who was unable to get along with his wife. These difficulties were increased by the political activities of his later years, in which his wife took little interest. Conversion to Zionism A profound change began in Herzl’s life soon after a sketch he had published in the leading Viennese newspaper, Neue Freie Presse, led to his appointment as the paper’s Paris correspondent.

He arrived in Paris with his wife in the fall of 1891 and was shocked to find in the homeland of the French Revolution the same anti-Semitism with which he had become so familiar in Austria. Hitherto he had regarded anti-Semitism as a social problem that the Jews could overcome only by abandoning their distinctive ways and assimilating to the people among whom they lived. At the same time, his work as a newspaperman heightened his interest in, and knowledge of, social and political affairs and led him to the conviction that the answer to anti-Semitism was not assimilation but organized counterefforts by the Jews. The Dreyfus affair in France also helped crystallize this belief. French military documents had been given to German agents, and a Jewish officer named Alfred Dreyfus had been falsely charged with the crime. The ensuing political controversy produced an outburst of anti-Semitism among the French public. Herzl said in later years that it was the Dreyfus affair that had made a Zionist out of him. So long as anti-Semitism existed, assimilation would be impossible, and the only solution for the majority of Jews would be organized emigration to a state of their own. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent Herzl was not the first to conceive of a Jewish state. Orthodox Jews had traditionally invoked the return to Zion in their daily prayers. In 1799 Napoleon had thought of establishing a Jewish state in the ancient lands of Israel. The English statesman Benjamin Disraeli , a Jew , had written a Zionist novel , Tancred. Moses Hess , a friend and coworker of Karl Marx , had published an important book, Rom und Jerusalem (1862), in which he declared the restoration of a Jewish state a necessity both for the Jews and for the rest of humanity. Among the Jews of Russia and eastern Europe, a number of groups were engaged in trying to settle emigrants in agricultural colonies in Palestine . After the Russian pogroms of 1881, Leo Pinsker had written a pamphlet, “Auto-Emanzipation,” an appeal to western European Jews to assist in the establishment of colonies in Palestine. When Herzl read it some years later, he commented in his diary that, if he had known of it, he might never have written The Jewish State.

World Religions & Traditions Herzl’s first important Zionist effort was an interview with Baron Maurice de Hirsch , one of the wealthiest men of his time. De Hirsch had founded the Jewish Colonization Association with the aim of settling Jews from Russia and Romania in Argentina and other parts of the Americas. The 35-year-old journalist arrived at the baron’s mansion in Paris with 22 pages of notes, in which he argued the need for a political organization to rally the Jews under a flag of their own, rather than leaving everything to the philanthropic endeavours of individuals like the baron. The conversation was notable for its effect on Herzl rather than on the baron de Hirsch, who refused to hear him out. It led to Herzl’s famous pamphlet The Jewish State , published in February 1896 in Vienna. The Jewish question, he wrote, was not a social or religious question but a national question that could be solved only by making it “a political world question to be discussed and settled by the civilized nations of the world in council.” Some of Herzl’s friends thought it a mad idea, but the pamphlet won favourable response from eastern European Zionist societies.

In June 1896, when Herzl was en route to Constantinople (Istanbul) in the hope of talking to the Ottoman sultan about obtaining the grant of Palestine as an independent country, his train stopped in Sofia, Bulgaria, and hundreds of Jews were present at the station to greet Herzl and to hail him as a leader. Although he remained in Constantinople for 11 days, he failed to reach the sultan. But he had begun the career as organizer and propagandist that would end only with his death eight years later. The First Zionist Congress Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Herzl went to London in an effort to organize the Jews there in support of his program. Not all the Jewish leaders in England were happy to see him, because his political approach was not in tune with their ideas, but at public meetings in the East End he was loudly cheered. He was a tall , impressive figure with a long black beard and the mien of a prophet. Despite his personal magnetism, he found that his efforts to influence Jewish leaders in England were of little avail and therefore decided to organize a world congress of Zionists in the hope of winning support from the masses of Jews in all countries.

He proposed to hold the congress in Munich, but, as the Jews there—who were mostly assimilated—opposed it, he settled upon Basel. The congress met at the end of August 1897, attended by about 200 delegates, mostly from central and eastern Europe and Russia along with a few from western Europe and even the United States . They represented all social strata and every variety of Jewish thought—from Orthodox Jews to atheists and from businessmen to students. There were also several hundred onlookers, including some sympathetic Christians and reporters for the international press. When Herzl’s imposing figure came to the podium, there was tumultuous applause. “We want to lay the foundation stone,” he declared, “for the house which will become the refuge of the Jewish nation. Zionism is the return to Judaism even before the return to the land of Israel.” One of Herzl’s most faithful supporters was the writer Max Nordau , who gave a brilliant address in which he described the plight of the Jews in the East and in the West. The three-day congress agreed upon a program, henceforth to be known as the Basel Program, declaring Zionism’s aspiration “to create a publicly guaranteed homeland for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

It also set up the Zionist Organization with Herzl as president. Later accomplishments Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The seven remaining years of his life were devoted to the furtherance of the Zionist cause, although he remained literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse in order to earn a living. He established a Zionist newspaper, Die Welt, published as a German-language weekly in Vienna. He negotiated unsuccessfully with the sultan of Turkey for the grant of a charter that would allow Jewish mass settlement in Palestine on an autonomous basis. He then turned to Great Britain, which seemed favourable to the establishment of a Jewish settlement in British territory in the Sinai Peninsula . When this project failed, the British proposed Uganda in East Africa . This offer, which he and some other Zionists were willing to accept, aroused violent opposition at the Zionist congress of 1903, particularly among the Russians. Herzl was unable to resolve the conflict. He died of a heart ailment at Edlach, near Vienna, at the age of 44.

He was buried in Vienna, but, in accordance with his wish, his remains were removed to Jerusalem in 1949 after the creation of the Jewish state and entombed on a hill west of the city now known as Mount Herzl. Trending Topics Opium Wars After the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Herzl had written in his diary: If I had to sum up the Basel Congress in one word—which I shall not do openly—it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish state. If I were to say this today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years, perhaps, and certainly in 50, everyone will see it. While the Jewish state was the product of many complex historic forces, including two world wars and the labours of Herzl’s many followers, it was he who organized the political force of Jewry that was able to take advantage of the accidents of history. Through the strength of his personality, he aroused the enthusiasm of the Jewish masses and gained the respect of many statesmen of his time, in spite of the opposition of some Jewish leaders to his plans. Theodor Herzl - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) (1860-1904).

The founder of modern political Zionism was Theodor Herzl. His efforts gave impetus to a 50-year campaign that culminated in the establishment of Israel in 1948. In 1894, as Paris correspondent for a Vienna newspaper, he covered the treason trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army. The display of anti-Semitism he witnessed swayed him from his conviction that Jews could eliminate anti-Semitism by assimilating into their chosen countries. The only solution, he became convinced, was for a majority of Jews to emigrate to a country of their own. Article Contributors Zionist Leaders Zionist Leaders Home » Zionist Leaders Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) is the father of modern Zionism. Herzl was born in Budapest, Hungary on May 2, 1860 and was raised in a Jewish home, but after his Bar Mitzvah he moved steadily away from Jewish practice. Herzl became a novelist and successful journalist and felt that Jews could thrive in cosmopolitan Europe. But his opinion radically changed when Herzl was assigned to cover the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army accused of treason.

Herzl witnessed the anti-Semitism that seethed just under the surface of the society he had deemed so enlightened. In 1896 Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) where he argued that the only solution for the Jewish people was the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state. In 1897 Herzl convened the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, which created the World Zionist Organization, the driving force behind Israel’s establishment. To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth in April 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament): “In world history and in the history of our people, there are very few cases in which one can point out a certain man who almost single-handedly saved his people from extinction. Benjamin Zeev Herzl was one.” Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) was born on October 18, 1880, in the city of Odessa, Russia. . Jabotinsky is best known as one of the founders of Revisionist Zionism.

In 1920, Jabotinsky formally split from the mainstream Zionist organization and established the Revisionist movement and its youth arm, Betar. He advocated the importance of Jewish self-defense, not just as a means to ensure physical security, but as a necessary source for Jewish confidence and pride. Together with Josef Trumpledor, he established the Zion Mule Corps, a Jewish fighting unit in World War I. As conditions in Europe worsened, Jabotinsky was at the forefront of creating underground armed resistance groups in Palestine to fight the British and smuggle European Jews to safety in Palestine. Ahad Ha’am (1856-1927) Born Asher Ginsberg in Russia, he is best known by his pen name Ahad Ha’am which means “one of the people” in Hebrew. Ha’am is regarded as the founder of Cultural Zionism. He envisioned Palestine as a spiritual center for Jews – a hub whose spiritual and creative energy would radiate to Jews throughout the world. He thought that the political solution proposed by the Zionist organization was impractical because not all Jews would or could move to a Jewish national home in the Land of Israel.

Ahad Ha’am, in contrast to other Zionist leaders, advocated for a “Jewish State, not merely a state of Jews.” Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) was the first President of the State of Israel. He was born in a small Russian town and trained as a biochemist. Weizmann became involved with the Zionist cause in its early days while living in England. A total pragmatist, he championed a Zionism that created a Jewish homeland through political and diplomatic avenues alongside Jewish settlement in Palestine. He championed Zionist activity in the Diaspora as a means to bring the Jewish state to life. Weizmann played a key role in convincing the British to issue the Balfour Declaration in 1917, officially expressing support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He also become the founder of the first Israeli research institute known today as the Weizmann Institute of Science. David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) was the first Prime Minister of Israel. He was born in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, as David Grün.

From his earliest years, he was an avid Zionist and moved to Palestine as a young man where he took the Hebrew name of Ben-Gurion and eventually became the leader of the Jewish Yishuv (Jewish residents in pre-state Israel). On May 14, 1948, Ben-Gurion declared Israel a sovereign Jewish state. The new country was immediately attacked by its Arab neighbors, but Ben-Gurion against all odds, led Israel to victory in the War of Independence. As the Prime Minister of Israel, he was instrumental in the formation of the infant State, building state institutions and absorbing vast numbers of olim (immigrants) into Israel. Ben-Gurion never stopped leading by example and upon his retirement from public life in 1970, he moved to the sparsely populated Negev (desert) which he believed offered great opportunities for Jewish settlement. Golda Meir (1898-1978) was dubbed Israeli politics’ “Iron Lady.” Born in Kiev, Meir moved to Milwaukee with her family at age eight, and then made aliyah (immigration) at age twenty-three.

In the nation’s earliest days, Meir raised $50 million to purchase armaments for Israel to defend itself against the Arab onslaught in the War of Independence. An ardent Zionist her entire life, Meir served her country in a multitude of official capacities, including Ambassador to Moscow, Labor Minister, Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister from 1969-1974. Golda Meir led Israel through the difficult period of the Yom Kippur War of which she famously said, “We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.” Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine and is considered the father of Religious Zionism. Rav Kook was born in what is today Latvia and was a child prodigy in Torah study. He moved to Palestine in 1904 as the Chief Rabbi of Jaffa where he engaged in Jewish outreach to the mostly secular Zionist agricultural settlements in the area. Rav Kook succeeded in building bridges between the secular Zionists, the religious Zionists, and more traditional non-Zionist Orthodox Jews.

He believed that the modern movement to re-establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel had profound theological significance and that the Zionists were agents in a heavenly plan to bring about the Messianic Era. Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) was a prominent American jurist who served as the head of the Federation of American Zionists from 1914-1918. President Woodrow Wilson appointed Brandeis to be the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice in the Unite States in 1916. Justice Brandies paved the way for a uniquely American vision of Zionism and was instrumental in the negotiations leading up to the Balfour Declaration of British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He led the way in creating a space for American Jews to participate in the Zionist endeavor. Henrietta Szold (1860-1945) established Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization, in 1912 to provide nurses and health services to the mostly impoverished Jews living in Palestine. She was the only female member of the executive committee of the Federation of American Zionists. Her accomplishments in health, education and social work continue to impact Israel today.

Szold was born in Baltimore, Maryland where her father, a rabbi, instilled in her a commitment to the Jewish people. Szold immigrated to Palestine in 1933 to run the Youth Aliyah program, which helped rescue over 20,000 Jewish children from Nazi occupied Europe. Leon Pinsker (1821-1891) was a leader of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia which was one of the first Zionist organizations, promoting settlement in the Land of Israel. Pinsker spent most of his life in Odessa, where he was a practicing physician. Initially he believed that equal rights and assimilation would resolve the Jewish problem, but the 1871 Odessa pogrom changed his mind and spurred him to become active in Jewish public life. In the wake of additional pogroms and state-sponsored anti-Semitism, Pinsker wrote Auto-Emancipation and argued for a Jewish national homeland. A.D. Gordon (1856-1922) was one of the spiritual forces behind the Labor Zionist movement.

Aaron David Gordon was born in Russia and was an early member of Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion movement) and eventually moved to Palestine in 1904. He believed that agricultural labor could unite the Jewish people with their Land. Gordon believed that much of the “Jewish problem” was a direct result of the Jewish dis-connection from nature and manual labor that rendered the Jew “parasitic.” He thus promoted physical labor and agriculture as a means of strengthening the Jewish spirit and restoring Jewish pride and security. Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet Theodor (Binyamin Ze'ev) Herzl was the visionary behind modern Zionism and the reinstitution of a Jewish homeland. Herzl (born May 2, 1860; died July 3, 1904) was born in Budapest in 1860. He was educated in the spirit of the German-Jewish Enlightenment, and learned to appreciate secular culture. In 1878 the family moved to Vienna , and in 1884 Herzl was awarded a doctorate of law from the University of Vienna. He became a writer, playwright and journalist.

The Paris correspondent of the influential liberal Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse was none other than Theodor Herzl. Herzl first encountered the anti-Semitism that would shape his life and the fate of the Jews in the twentieth century while studying at the University of Vienna (1882). Later, during his stay in Paris as a journalist, he was brought face-to-face with the problem. At the time, he regarded the Jewish problem as a social issue and wrote a drama, The Ghetto (1894), in which assimilation and conversion are rejected as solutions. He hoped that The Ghetto would lead to debate and ultimately to a solution, based on mutual tolerance and respect between Christians and Jews . The Dreyfus Affair In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus , a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly accused of treason, mainly because of the prevailing anti-Semitic atmosphere. Herzl witnessed mobs shouting “Death to the Jews” in France, the home of the French Revolution, and resolved that there was only one solution: the mass immigration of Jews to a land that they could call their own. Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the determinants in the genesis of Political Zionism .

Herzl concluded that anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor in human society, which assimilation did not solve. He mulled over the idea of Jewish sovereignty, and, despite ridicule from Jewish leaders, published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State, 1896) . Herzl argued that the essence of the Jewish problem was not individual but national. He declared that the Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they ceased being a national anomaly. The Jews are one people, he said, and their plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state with the consent of the great powers. He saw the Jewish question as an international political question to be dealt with in the arena of international politics. Herzl proposed a practical program for collecting funds from Jews around the world by a company to be owned by stockholders, which would work toward the practical realization of this goal. (This organization, when it was eventually formed, was called the Zionist Organization.) He saw the future state as a model social state, basing his ideas on the European model of the time, of a modern enlightened society. It would be neutral and peace-seeking, and of a secular nature.

In his Zionist novel, Altneuland (Old New Land, 1902), Herzl pictured the future Jewish state as a socialist utopia. He envisioned a new society that was to rise in the Land of Israel on a cooperative basis utilizing science and technology in the development of the Land. He included detailed ideas about how he saw the future state’s political structure, immigration, fund­raising, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion and the state. In Altneuland, the Jewish state was foreseen as a pluralist, advanced society, a “light unto the nations.” This book had a great impact on the Jews of the time and became a symbol of the Zionist vision in the Land of Israel. A Movement Is Started Herzl's ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, although Jewish leaders were less ardent. Herzl appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild , to join the national Zionist movement, but in vain. He then appealed to the people, and the result was the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, on August 29­31, 1897.

The Congress was the first interterritorial gathering of Jews on a national and secular basis. Here the delegates adopted the Basle Program, the program of the Zionist movement, and declared, “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.” At the Congress the World Zionist Organization was established as the political arm of the Jewish people, and Herzl was elected its first president. Herzl convened six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1902. It was here that the tools for Zionist activism were forged: Otzar Hityashvut Hayehudim, the Jewish National Fund and the movement’s newspaper Die Welt. After the First Zionist Congress, the movement met yearly at an international Zionist Congress . In 1936, the center of the Zionist movement was transferred to Jerusalem . Uganda Isn’t Zion Herzl saw the need for encouragement by the great powers of the aims of the Jewish people in the Land. Thus, he traveled to the Land of Israel and Istanbul in 1898 to meet with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire .

The meeting with Wilhelm was a failure - the monarch dismissed Herzl’s political entreaties with snide anti-Semitic remarks. When these efforts proved fruitless, he turned to Great Britain , and met with Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary and others. The only concrete offer he received from the British was the proposal of a Jewish autonomous region in east Africa, in Uganda. In 1899, in an essay entitled “The Family Affliction” written for The American Hebrew, Herzl wrote, “Anyone who wants to work in behalf of the Jews needs - to use a popular phrase - a strong stomach.” The 1903 Kishinev pogrom and the difficult state of Russian Jewry, witnessed firsthand by Herzl during a visit to Russia, had a profound effect on him. He requested that the Russian government assist the Zionist Movement to transfer Jews from Russia to Eretz Yisrael. At the Sixth Zionist Congress (1903), Herzl proposed the British Uganda Program as a temporary refuge for Jews in Russia in immediate danger.

While Herzl made it clear that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism, a Jewish entity in the Land of Israel, the proposal aroused a storm at the Congress and nearly led to a split in the Zionist movement. The Uganda Program was finally rejected by the Zionist movement at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905. Herzl died in Vienna in 1904, of pneumonia and a weak heart overworked by his incessant efforts on behalf of Zionism. By then the movement had found its place on the world political map. In 1949, Herzl’s remains were brought to Israel and reinterred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Herzl’s books Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”) and Altneuland (“Old New Land”), his plays and articles have been published frequently and translated into many languages. His name has been commemorated in the Herzl Forests at Ben Shemen and Hulda, the world's first Hebrew gymnasium — “Herzliya” — which was established in Tel Aviv , the town of Herzliya in the Sharon and neighborhoods and streets in many Israeli towns and cities.

Herzl coined the phrase “If you will, it is no fairytale,” which became the motto of the Zionist movement. Although at the time no one could have imagined it, Zionism led, only fifty years later, to the establishment of the independent State of Israel. Herzl’s Family Herzl met his future wife Julie when he was 26 and she was only 18 years old, in 1886. They enjoyed a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship until they married in 1889, in an Austrian village on the outskirts of Vienna . Two years after their marriage Herzl moved to Paris for work, leaving Julie behind in Vienna with their children. Although during the later years of his life he was rarely even in the same country as his wife, she was not willing to consider getting divorced and so they stayed together until his death at age 44 in 1904. Julie died three years later at 39 years old. Herzl and his wife Julie, who was prone to mental instability, had three children, each of whom met a terrible end. His eldest daughter Pauline was a drug addict who died in a French hospital.

His son Hans, who shot himself upon learning of his sister’s death, had left Judaism for a series of Christian churches. Herzl had failed to have his son circumcised, and the Zionist leadership, following Herzl’s death, saw to it that the oversight be remedied when the boy was 15 years old. His youngest daughter Trude perished in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt . Her son, Stephen Theodore Norman (born Stephen Neumann), had been sent to safety in England. On November 20, 1946, after learning of the death of his parents, he jumped to his death from the Massachusetts Avenue bridge in Washington, D.C. at the age of 27. Herzl himself was 44-years-old when he died in the summer of 1904, on the 20th of Tammuz in the Jewish calendar. Sources: Green, David B. “This day in Jewish history: A Zionist makes a very unfortunate marriage,” Haaretz , (June 25, 2015) Family information taken from: The Jerusalem Report, July 12, 2004.

"Israel: 100 Years Since Herzl's Death." Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) - The Herzl Institute – Machon Herzl Contact Us Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) Theodor Herzl was the founder and president of the Zionist Organization, the modern political movement to establish an independent Jewish state. A successful Viennese journalist and playwright, Herzl published his Zionist manifesto The Jewish State (“Der Judenstaat”) in 1896. The following year, he convened the first Zionist Congress with the aim of taking practical steps to establish the Jewish state. Herzl led the Zionist Organization for seven years until his death in 1904 at age 44. Herzl is the only individual mentioned by name in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which refers to him as the “author of the vision of the Jewish state” (הוגה חזון המדינה היהודית). Herzl’s efforts on behalf of Jewish restoration in Palestine were many and varied.

In addition to the annual Zionist Congresses, he conducted a broad diplomatic effort that involved him in negotiations with the leadership of Britain, Germany, Russia and the Ottoman Emprire over the issuing of a formal charter for a Jewish government in Palestine. He established hundreds of chapters of the Zionist Organization throughout Europe and in America, a Jewish national bank and the Zionist newspaper Die Welt. Herzl’s campaigns paid off in pledges of support from British candidates running for office already during his lifetime. During World War I, a decade after Herzl’s death, his former legal counsel in Britain, David Lloyd George, became Prime Minister and adopted a policy of establishing a Jewish national home in territories liberated from Turkey by British forces. This alliance between Britain and the Zionist Organization brought hundreds of thousands of Jews to Palestine and led to the establishment of Israel as an independent Jewish state in 1948, a mere 52 years after the publication of Herzl’s book The Jewish State. Today, Herzl is remembered principally for his “political Zionism”–a term coined by his principal detractor, Ahad Ha’am, as a term of derision.

Herzl realized that the rapid rise of anti-Semitism in France, Germany, Austria and Russia was leading to a catastrophic persecution of the Jews, and saving Jewish lives was a principal motive behind his efforts to establish a territory under Jewish legal and military control that could serve as a place of refuge. But Herzl’s critique of the Jewish condition ran deeper than this. Even Jews living in physical safety were in an intolerable position, he believed, because they had given up their dignity and honor in leaving the identity and traditions of their fathers. As he wrote in an essay published a few months after The Jewish State: The atrocities of the Middle Ages were unprecedented, and the people who withstood those tortures must have had some great strength, an inner unity which we have lost. A generation which has grown apart from Judaism does not have this unity. It can neither rely upon our past nor look to our future. That is why we shall once more retreat into Judaism and never again permit ourselves to be thrown out of this fortress… We shall thereby regain our lost inner wholeness and along with it a little character—our own character. Not a Marrano-like, borrowed, untruthful character, but our own.

(“Judaism,” November 1896) Thus for Herzl, Zionism was a means of restoring the inner unity of the Jewish soul. As he told the assembled delegates at the First Zionist Congress, “Zionism is a return to Judaism even before there is a return to the Jewish land.” In Herzl’s writings he repeatedly emphasized that the creation of a Jewish homeland was merely the external change that he wished to attain. The true aim was the establishment of a firm Jewish consciousness, a unique Jewish “character” and perspective on things that the Jews would contribute to the world, and by means of which they would again be able to play a special role among the nations. For a little more on Herzl’s idea of a “return to Judaism,” read the following Hanuka story, apparently autobiographical, which Herzl published a few months after the First Zionist Congress under his Hebrew name, Binyamin Ze’ev:

Question: In 1897, Theodor Herzl became the first President of the political form of which movement?
Answer: Zionism