Binyamin Ze'ev (Theodore) Herzl and the Zionist Movement

Background Text

by Nili Kadary

Educational Goals

To understand and evaluate:
1. Herzl's unique position among Zionist leaders during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
2. The significance of Herzl's solution to the Jewish problem.
3. Herzl's success in establishing the Zionist movement.
4. Herzl's first steps in the international-political arena.

Conceptualization

The Hovevei Tzion movement (Lovers of Zion) -- the first Jewish nationalist movement in modern times -- contributed to the development of the Zionist idea. In spite of the movement's achievements, it also experienced a significant number of failures. The movement did not manage to support the first colonies in the land of Israel. Nor did the Hovevei Tzion ever become a mass aliyah movement, capture the hearts of Western European Jews, or succeed in its contacts with the government of Turkey.

Above all, the Hovevei Tzion Zion did not manage to break through to the outside world and present its demands as a Jewish national movement. In the final decade of the nineteenth century, the movement found itself in serious crisis. This was the moment when Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl appeared on the scene. Herzl transformed the Zionist movement into a national force and placed his solution to the Jewish problem on the world's agenda.

The next two lessons are dedicated to Herzl's vision and his activities, which together succeeded in jump-starting the stalled Zionist movement and changing the history of the Jewish people in modern times.

Assimilation and Inspiration:
Chapters in the Life of Theodore Herzl

Herzl was born in 1860 in Budapest, Hungary, to an assimilated Jewish family. He was educated to German culture, which he deeply admired. When Herzl was eighteen, his family moved to Vienna. There, in the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he took up the study of law. The period of Herzl's studies contributed to the enrichment of his spiritual world and, for the first time in his life, brought him closer to manifestations of anti- Semitism. At that time, Egan Dihering's book, The Jewish Question as a racial, ethnic, cultural Question, appeared. The ideas expressed in this work were admired by a portion of the intellectual community. Herzl read the book and was deeply shocked by its anti-Semitic ideas.

Herzl concluded his legal studies. However, his life as a Jew trying to find a position of respect in the surrounding society became increasingly difficult and he was plagued with a persistent sense of discomfort. In Vienna of the 1880s, statements could be heard about the "Jewish problem" and voices of opposition to Jewish emancipation intensified. Herzl, an assimilated Jew, was sunk in deep psychological distress. Loss of his connection to the Jewish people had not brought the hoped for equality, and in the space of less than one generation since their emancipation, loud voices sounded against its continuation.

With the conclulsion of his studies, Herzl began writing plays and became a reporter for the most important newspaper in Austria, Neue Freie Presse.

In October 1891, Herzl was sent to Paris as a correspondent for his paper. His stay in the French capital permitted the young jounalist to witness incidents of anti-Semitism in the country that gloried in being the first country in Europe to end all anti-Jewish discrimination. Among the expressions of hate, particularly salient were the anti-Semitic articles of Eduard Dremon, who blamed the Jews for France's military setbacks. In this atmosphere, Herzl became increasingly convinced of the need to fathom the causes of anti-Semitism as a first step to solving the problem. The anti-Semitic atmosphere was greatly exacerbated as a result of the Panama Canal affair, a financial scandal involving wealthy Jewish investors and members of the French upper class. Herzl began to consider various programs for alleviating the Jews' distress.

Throughout the years 1892 - 1894, the implications of being a Jew in the period of Emancipation became increasingly clear to Herzl. At this stage, he still believed that assmilation or complete equality could guarantee Jews their peace and security in the surrounding society.

The ferment in France reached its climax with the Dreyfus trial. The trial and its outcomes shocked Herzl and led him to new lines of thought and attitude. For Herzl, this trial symbolized the hoplessness of the Emancipation and the need for radically different approaches to solving the problems of the Jewish people from the ground up. His shock over the Dreyfus affair led Herzl to adopt the national solution. The Dreyfus trial convinced Herzl conclusively that salvation for the Jewish people lay not in assimilation, Emancipation, or emigration, but rather, in a radical solution that would separate persecutor and victim.

Herzl viewed the Jewish problem as a national question requiring a diplomatic solution with the consent and support of the civilized nations of the world. In Herzl's opinion, as long as the Jews continued to seek other solutions, such as assimilation, inter-marriage, and emigration, anti-Semitism -- along with all its social, econonmic, and cultural influences -- would continue to rage. Anti-Semitism, in Herzls opinion, resulted from the very existence of a Jewish minority, which was considered a "foreign body" by the surrounding culture.

Herzl understood that anti-Semitism was a vicious circle, and that the only way to break out of this circle was to release the Jews from anti-Semitism by releasing the anti-Semitic world from the Jews. In other words, the Jews must be granted a state of their own.

The Jewish State

From this point on, the idea of redeeming the Jews never left Herzl. His first step was to approach not the Jewish masses, but rather Jews of wealth: Baron Hirsch and Baron de Rothschild. He believed that they would provide the funds required to acquire the appropriate territory and finance immigration. Both men rebuffed Herzl's overtures, believing the man to be nothing more than an eccentric.

After Herzl's failure to enlist the aid of the Jewish aristocracy came his second step, an appeal to the Jewish masses. In 1896, he published his book, Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State.

The book generated widespread enthusiasm, because Herzl knew how to state the main problem in clear, simple, and logical terms. It was also brilliantly structured. Herzl anticpated the questions that would preoccupy his readers and answered them in a clear and exceptionally well organized fashion, leaving no room for further doubts. He did not discuss the philosophical roots of anti-Semitism, choosing to focus on the practical solution, rather than on the problem. Herzl showed that a Jewish state was not merely a utopian dream, but rather an idea that would eventually be realized. His strength lay in the certainty he conveyed to his readers that the Jewish state would indeed be established. The book was comprehensible to people from all walks of life and reached a simple, decisive conclusion: that the Jewish problem was a national problem, and that the only possible solution was a diplomatic one. Herzl's small book created the first breakthrough to international public opinion.

There was not really anything novel about Herzl's plan. His analysis of the causes of anti-Semitism in the generation following Emancipation was preceded by the penetrating analyses of Hesse, Lilienblum, and Pinsker. However, although the nationalist, Zionist solution had been raised many years before Herzl, these thinkers had not succeeded in persuading the masses of the correctness of this solution and of its chances of fulfilment.

Herzl believed that in order to achieve a national solution - the establishment of a state for the Jewish people - first and foremost, political rights to the land of Israel had to be restored. Only afterward, Herzl believed, should settlement begin. Herzl did not take seriously, and even attacked, what he called the "infiltration" of a handful of Jews to the land of Israel and the establishment of a few agricultural settlements with the encouragement of the Hovevei Tzion movement and Baron Rothschild. Thus, Herzl became the standard bearer of the stream known as "Political Zionism."

The term Political Zionism differentiates Herzl's approach from the "Practical Zionism" of the Hovevei Tzion, led by Ussishkin, who favored practical work in the land of Israel even without any guarantee of political rights.

Ish haMa'aseh - Herzl: The Man of Action

Herzl worked on two fronts: the diplomatic and the organizational.

The Diplomatic Front -- Herzl sought international political recognition for his ideas by means of personal meetings with high level statesmen.

The Organizational Front -- Herzl aspired to build a Jewish political movement and to create the leadership for such a movement.

Herzl's practical activity on behalf of building a movement began after he returned from a disappointing meeting with Rothschild in England. As a result of this meeting, Herzl understood that his success depended upon the Jewish masses, whose admiration for him continued to grow. Thus, Herzl's plan to convene a congress of Zionist representatives ripened and matured. Within a year, Herzl was to realize his aspiration for a Zionist congress, which granted the Zionist movement momentum and the wherewithal to continue.

The closer the date of the Zionist Congress drew, the greater the opposition of various Jewish groups to its existence. This opposition included Orthodox, Reform, and secularist circles -- each group with its own reasons and arguments. However, the protests of Herzl's opponents did not prevent him from continuing his propaganda on behalf of the organization. Herzl also concluded that the movement needed an efficient organ for the dissemination of Zionist ideology, a new medium that would reach the Jewish masses. In June of 1897, at his own expense, Herzl established the politicial weekly Die Welt (The World), which was wholly dedicated to the Zionist cause.

At Basle I Founded the Jewish State

The first Zionist Congress opened ceremoniously in Basle, Switzerland on Sunday, 29 August 1897. One hundred ninety seven delegates, representatives of Zionist organizations from all over the world took part. Herzl was the central figure in the events of the congress, which opened with addresses by Herzl and Max Nordau, who described the goals of the Zionist movement. Afterwards, the delegates participated in discussions and took fundamental decisions which were to lay the foundation for all future activities of the Zionist Organization:

1. They formulated the Zionist platform:

"Zionism aspires to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, guaranteed by international law, in the land of Israel."

It was decided to adopt a blue and white flag bearing the Magen David (six pointed star) as the national flag of the Jewish people.

Four means were resolved as necessary to secure a "national homeland":

• Settling the land of Israel by farmers, artisans, and merchants.
• Organizing and uniting all Jewry by means of local and general activity in accordance with the laws of each country.
• Intensifying Jewish national feeling and Jewish national consciousness.
• Preparing to receive the consent of governments to the realization of the Zionist goal.

This platform was actually a compromise between the supporters of Herzl's approach -- Political Zionism -- and the Hovevei Tzion, who supported Practical Zionism.

2. The World Zionist Organization was established, with its sovereign institution - the Zionist Congress.

The elected institutions of the Zionist Organization were established: The Zionist General Council and the office of its chief executive, the Zionist Executive, and the president of the World Zionist Organization.

3. Guidelines for the choice of delegates to the Zionist Congress were established.

The foundation for these guidelines was the principle that the Zionist Congress held the status of a national assembly representing the entire Jewish people. Participants in the Congress would be elected representatives of the Jewish communities.

4. Plans were set forth and decisions taken concerning the establishment of additional bodies that would further goals of the Zionist movement.

Among these decisions:

* the establishment of a national bank and a national fund for financing the activities of the Zionist movement, and
* the establishment of the Jewish National Fund for acquisition of land in the land of Israel.

5. The first Zionist Congress established the executive arm of the Zionist movement in the form of the World Zionist Organization.

Zionism became a popular, national democratic movement of the Jewish people with a mandate for the broadest scope of activity.

With the help of the Congress, the supreme institution of the movement, Herzl planned:

• A. To organize Zionist propaganda among the Jewish communities
• B. To organize the financing necessary for Zionist activity
• C. To plan the immigration of Jews and their settlement in the land of Israel in preparation for being granted a "charter" by the Ottoman Turkish government.

Since Herzl considered the Jewish problem an international political problem, he fashioned the congress as a Jewish parliament, and his own position as president of the Zionist Congress as head of state.

6. Review: The Significance of the Zionist Congress at Basle

1. The Zionist Congress constituted a major break-through in international public opinion; the congress was covered by hundreds of national and regional newspapers.
2. The congress strengthened the ideological basis of Zionism.
3. It was an important meeting of Political Zionism and Practical Zionism.
4. The Congress served as a national assembly, expressing the will of the people, who, like other peoples, aspired to the right of self-determination.
5. Until this time, Herzl had acted as an individual. From now on, he stood at the head of a large organization that operated in the open.
6. Political Zionism became the mainstream of the Zionist movement.
7. The Congress contributed to strengthening the democratic process in the Zionist movement, because it provided an open forum for a full range of opinions and because it functioned on the basis of free elections.

The first Zionist Congress achieved the objectives that Herzl had set for it. Immediately after the congress, Herzl wrote in his diary:

"At Basle, I found the Jewish state.... The state, in its essence, has already been founded in the will of the people for a state."

Even though Herzl himself did not have the good fortune to witness the actual establishment of the Jewish state, there is no doubt that at Basle he laid the foundation for the State of Israel.

Note: Egon Duehring -- German philosopher and economist. One of the earliest and leading representatives of racial anti-Semitism.

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Editor: Yossi Pnini
Internet Version: The Pedagogic Center: pedagog@jajz-ed.org.il, Editor: Gila Ansell Brauner
Translator: Chaim Mayerson