Zionist leader, born in Budapest, Hungary. He trained as a lawyer in Vienna, then became a journalist and playwright. After reporting the Dreyfus trial (1894), he was converted to Zionism, and in the pamphlet Der Judenstaat (1896, The Jewish State) he called for a world council to discuss the question of a homeland for the Jews, convened the first Zionist Congress at Basel (1897), and became the first president of the World Zionist Organization.
Benjamin Theodor Herzl (Hungarian: Herzl Tivadar, Hebrew: Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl)(May 2, 1860 – July 3, 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist who became the founder of modern political Zionism.
Herzl was born in Budapest. His early work was in no way related to Jewish life. Herzl at the same time became a writer for the Viennese stage, furnishing comedies and dramas.
The Leader of the Zionists
From April, 1896, when the English translation of his Der Judenstaat ("The Jewish State") appeared, his career and reputation changed. It is widely believed that Herzl was motivated by the Dreyfus Affair, a notorious anti-Semitic incident in France in which a French Jewish army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany. Herzl had been covering the trial of Dreyfus for an Austro-Hungarian newspaper.
His forerunners in the field of Zionism date through the nineteenth century, but he was perhaps unaware of this. Herzl followed his writing with serious work. He was in Constantinople in April, 1896, and on his return was hailed at Sofia, Bulgaria, by a Jewish delegation. Five days later he was given the mandate of leadership from the Zionists of the East End of London, and within six months this mandate was approved throughout Zionist Jewry. Jewish life had been heretofore contemplative and conducted by routine. Herzl inspired his friends with the idea that men whose aim is to reestablish a nation must throw aside all conventionalities and work at all hours and at any task.
In 1897, at considerable personal expense, he founded Die Welt of Vienna. In May, 1901, he was for the first time openly received by the Sultan of Turkey, but Sultan refused to cede Palestine to Zionists, and said, "I prefer being penetrated by iron to seeing Palestine lost."
In 1902–03 Herzl was invited to give evidence before the British Royal Commission on Alien Immigration. As a consequence, he came into close contact with members of the British government, particularly with Joseph Chamberlain, then secretary of state for the colonies, through whom he negotiated with the Egyptian government for a charter for the settlement of the Jews in Al 'Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, adjoining southern Palestine.
On the failure of that scheme, which took him to Cairo, he received, through L. Greenberg, an offer (Aug., 1903) on the part of the British government to facilitate a large Jewish settlement, with autonomous government and under British suzerainty, in British East Africa. At the same time, the Zionist movement being threatened by the Russian government, he visited St. Petersburg and was received by Sergei Witte, then finance minister, and Viacheslav Plehve, minister of the interior, the latter of whom placed on record the attitude of his government toward the Zionist movement. On that occasion Herzl submitted proposals for the amelioration of the Jewish position in Russia. He published the Russian statement, and brought the British offer, commonly known as the "Uganda Project," before the Sixth Zionist Congress (Basel, August 1903), carrying the majority (295:178, 98 abstentions) with him on the question of investigating this offer.
Herzl died in Vienna in 1904 of heart failure at age 44. His will asked that he be buried in the future Jewish state together with his three children. In 1949 his remains were moved from Vienna to be reburied on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Judenstaat and Altneuland
Whereas his first brochure and his first congress address lacked all religious thought, and his famous remark that the return to Zion would be preceded by a return to Judaism seemed at the moment due rather to a sudden inspiration than to deep thought, subsequent events have proved that he was right. The keynotes of the story are the love for Zion, the insistence upon the fact that the changes in life suggested are not utopian, but are to be brought about simply by grouping all the best efforts and ideals of every race and nation;
Herzl envisioned a Jewish state which combined both a modern Jewish culture with the best of the European heritage. He did not envision the Jewish inhabitants of the state being religious, but there is much respect for religion in the public sphere. Proponents of a Jewish cultural rebirth, such as Ahad Ha'am were critical of Altneuland.
Herzl did not foresee any conflict between Jews and Arabs. The one Arab character in Altneuland, Reshid Bey, who is one of the leaders of the "New Society", is very grateful to his Jewish neighbors for improving the economic condition of Palestine and sees no cause for conflict.
The name of Tel Aviv is the title given to the Hebrew translation of Altneuland by the translator, Nahum Sokolov. Nearby is Herzlia, named in honor of Herzl.
User Comments Add a comment…