Theodor Herzl is considered to be the father of what is known to be Zion or the Zionist Movement. He was born in 1860 in Budapest and was raised as a Jewish - German in Germany. In 1878 his family moved to Vienna where Herzl experienced anti-Semitism. Herzl graduated from University in Vienna in 1884 with a doctorate in law. He became a writer, playwright and a journalist. He worked for couple of years in Germany and during the same time married and had three children. After the downfall of his marriage, he went into the world searching for who he was and what he was doing to do with his life. He joined one of the biggest newspaper companies in Austria called “ Neue Freie Presse”. In the year of 1891 he was sent to Paris to write a story for his newspaper when he came face to face with the problem of anti- Semitism. This sparked the beginning of what Herzl called the Zionist Movement.
Theodor’s Herzl the Jewish State written in 1896 is one of the most influential pieces of literature in Jewish History. Herzl in his book takes a rather old idea that was unsuccessful and transforms it in a way that would speak to the Jewish population within Europe. Herzl “was the first leader who gave a clear political definition of the solution to the Jewish problem and acted to implement it. Herzl's message was phrased clearly and unequivocally: the establishment of a Jewish state. He was the first who dared to declare this openly, to speak on behalf of modern Jewish nationalism and to work to implement it.” (Dror, 2004). He sought to unite the Jewish people all over Europe as one people, one culture, and one religion. Herzl argued that “salvation for the Jewish people lay not in assimilation, emancipation or immigration, but rather in a radical solution that would separate prosecutor and victim.” (Kadary, 2005). As long as Jews continued to blend into the population of other cultures and tried to live among them in their country anti – Semitism will continue to occur. Herzl really tries to pull the Jewish population together by referring to them as one nation, one people. He goes back in history and refers that Jews through the years have suffered so many downfalls and persecutions and that their religion was stomped on for years and yet they still manage to survive all the struggles and sufferings because their culture, religion and national pride lies within their hearts and souls and not within the external world.
Herzl plan is to create a Jewish State where all the Jews can live in as one people, free of persecutions and anti-Semitism. His plan is difficult, but possible. He tries to appeal to the Jewish population to join his movement by saying “we have in our day witnessed the process in connection with nations which were not largely members of the middle class, but poorer, less educated and consequently weaker than ourselves.” (Herzl, 1896). What Herzl is trying to convey is that other’s who were below their capabilities have achieved their own state, so can they. Herzl’s plan is to appeal to other countries for help, since they so desperately want to get rid of the Jews, the creation of a Jewish State is the ultimate solution for everyone. Two companies would assist in this The Society of Jews, which would create the science and politics of the State and the Jewish Company, which will provide employment for the Jews who immigrate there. Herzl plans to send the poor first to do the labor work on the land. He argues that “The labor expended on the land will enhance its value, and the Jews will soon perceive that a new and permanent sphere of operation is opening here for that spirit of enterprise which has heretofore met only with hatred and obloquy.” (Herzl, 1896). This means that their prosperity lies within their dedication to the new found land and country.
After Theodor Herzl published his book in 1896, the message that he was trying to pass on to people started to be heard by the Jewish population. He appealed to the Jewish nation by speaking in a simple language and by offering a solution to a growing problem. Jews everywhere were starting to rise from the Ghettos and instead of living with the problem started to try to find a solution to the anti-Semitism that was occurring.
Many Jews joined the Zionist Movement lead by Herzl himself. The Jewish people started lobbying for a country of their own. Through out the years Jews have assimilated into other cultures and have become quite distant from their own culture and religion. Herzl’s the Jewish State reminded people of their own heritage, their own culture, their own religion. He created a sense of unity within the people. The Jews started rediscovering themselves and their roots, something that has long been forgotten. It is that unity, nationalism and patriotism and the idea that in order to get a country of their own they have to stick together as one people that in 1948, the Jewish population received a country of their own, The State of Israel. Theodor Herzl is remembered as being “A Jewish journalist without means who converted a rag into a flag and a degraded multitude into a nation, that rallied, heads erect, around the flag.” (Bianco, 1998).
Reference
Bard, G. M. (2005). Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved
July 5, 2005, from .
html.
Bianco, D. (1998). The History of Israel. Los Angeles, CA: Torah Aura.
D'Avigdor, S. (1988). The Jewish State. New York., NY: Dover Publications.
Dror, E. R. (2004). Herzl's Radical Vision changed World History. The Hagshama
Department - World Zionist Organization. Retrieved July 5, 2005 from
.
Herzl, T. (1896). The Jewish State (1896). Retrieved July 5, 2005, from Fordham
University, Modern History Sourcebook Web site:
halsall/mod/modsbook.html.
Kadary, N. (2005). Binyamin Ze'ev (Theodore) Herzl and the Zionist Movement. The
Jewish Agency for Israel. Retrieved July 5, 2005 from
education/100/act/10zion.html.