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The
Zionist Century - Concepts - Zionist Congresses
Third Congress - Basle, 1899
Herzl opened
the Third Congress with a report on his meetings with Kaiser William II
in Constantinople and Jerusalem. Despite the fact that these meetings
produced no practical results, the fact that they took place was of considerable
symbolic value.
The Congress spent a good deal of its time discussing the political dimensions
of Zionism although opposition to this orientation was voiced by those
who thought that the more practical efforts of settlement should be encouraged.
In a debate on the Jewish Colonial Trust, Congress decided that its funds
could only be spent in Palestine or Syria.
Whilst delegates were increasingly concerned with what was called the
question of culture - the Zionist attempt at a national/ethnic identity
for the Jews - Herzl was preoccupied with the political matters at hand.
Some historians argue that Herzl was not so much disinterested in these
cultural matters as he was frightened of their potential to split the
infant movement.
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