Theodor Herzl
Altneuland ( Old-New Land) 1902
The Jewish State
EARLY LIFE
- A novel set in the idealistic and utopian Jewish state in Israel.
- Born May 2, 1860 in Budapest to a secular Jewish family
- Awarded a Doctorate of Law from the University of Vienna in 1884
- He married his wife Julie and had 3 children
- Published in 1896, Herzl argued that the problem was not individual, but national
- He declared that the Jews would only gain acceptance by having their own state
- He wanted to have the great powers at the time acknowledge this new idea
- Herzl viewed this as a international issue that needed to be dealt within the arena of international politics
- A Zionist vision for the Jews on establishing the state of Israel
- He included detailed plans on how he saw the country's political structure, immigration, fundraising efforts, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion and state.
1st Zionist Congress
Impact
Dreyfus Affair
- Seen as the father of the Zionist movement
- The (World) Zionist Organization pushed for the creation of Israel
- WZO still urges for Israel to be a state for the unification of all Jewish people
- Held in late August, 1897
- Herzl elected president
- Created "Basal Program," goals for the Organization
- the strengthening of the Jewish community
- the push for Jewish settlement in Palestine
- In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a jewish officer in the french army, was wrongly accused of treason.
- Herzl was present during the trial and witnessed mobs of people shouting "Death to the Jews".
- He realized that the only solution was a mass immigration of Jews to a land that they could call their own.
- The beginnings of political Zionism