FREE ESSAY ON THEODORE HERZL

THEODORE HERZL

Theodore Herzl was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1860. He was raised in an assimilated
Jewish family that celebrated Christmas. He moved to Vienna, Austria, where he studied
for the bar exam and later in 1884 was awarded a doctorate of law from the University of
Vienna. However, instead of practicing law, he chose the dual career of journalist and
playwright. His Judaism was not much of a factor in his life. 
In 1894, when Herzl was 34, an earth-shattering event in France transformed his life
forever. He was sent there to cover the trial of Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a French
Jewish Army captain accused of treason, for selling military secrets to Germany. It soon
became obvious to Herzl that the charges against Dreyfus were erroneous and that he was
innocent. As a Jew, Dreyfus had become the scapegoat for the frustrations of the people
of France, which had just suffered defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The Dreyfus trial
had unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism in France. 
Herzl, whose Jewish connections were weak, nonetheless saw in the Dreyfus affair a harsh
reminder of the poisonous persistence of anti-Semitism. He concluded that Jews could
never be integrated fully into their adopted countries. They would always be considered
outsiders. They could never feel safe from persecution except in a land that they could
claim as their own. 
Hundreds of other Jews also saw the Dreyfus affair as evidence of incurable, widespread
anti-Semitism. Yet, few, like Herzl, believed that we needed a special Jewish homeland. 
Soon, thereafter, Herzl wrote his first major book, Der Judenstaat- The Jewish State.
Here he outlined his program of political Zionism. He wrote that the solution to the
problem of Jewish vulnerability was a Jewish state. This state would be legally
recognized and sanctioned by most of the world's super powers. He even proposed the
transfer of Jewish populations from around the world to that homeland. The State was to
be modern, sophisticated, and technologically advanced. 
What Herzl did not discuss, was the Jewish content of that state. Was it to be a state of
the Jews or a Jewish state? He essentially saw that place as a secular entity. It was to
be a haven of safe refuge for harassed Jews, rather than a vibrant center of Jewish
spiritual life.
There were two groups whose religious outlook could not have been more different opposing
Herzl. First were the Reform Jews. They insisted that we must live comfortably in any
nation of the world where we find ourselves as citizens. They go on by saying that don't
need our own land. Furthermore, the Reform Jews argued that we as Jews are not a national
entity. That we are solely a religious community, and that we differ from our Christian
counterparts only in one way: we practice the Jewish religion and they practice
Christianity. We go to a synagogue and they go to a church. In every other respect, we
are the same. The other fierce opponents to Zionism were the Orthodox. They insisted that
as Jews we could not have a state of our own, until the Messiah comes. 
Nonetheless, Herzl was undeterred by these objections. He persisted in pursuing his
goals. In 1897, exactly 100 years ago, Herzl organized the First Zionist World Congress,
in Basle, Switzerland. About 200 participants representing different countries assembled
there. 
Following the Congress, Herzl continued to try to gain support of European statesmen
towards the Zionist cause. Some, like Kaiser Wilhelm II, of Germany, seemed favorably
inclined, however others, like the Sultan of Turkey were unreceptive. 
Herzl was now somewhat discouraged by his lack of success. In fact, he was willing to
settle for any land that he could obtain as a haven of refuge for Jews. 
Eventually he developed the Uganda Plan and negotiated with Great Britain. Great Britain
proposed, as a temporary solution, that the Jews secure a section of East Africa. Herzl
thought it would be politically sensible to accept the offer. He viewed Great Britain's
proposal to be an official endorsement of the Zionist cause. He thought that Britain
would eventually come around to accepting the idea of the land of Israel as the Jewish
homeland. 
However, the Zionist masses, especially those in Eastern Europe roundly rejected the
Uganda Plan, and Herzl had to abandon it. He continued to appeal to political dignitaries
for support, yet most of them were not encouraging. 
Herzl soon decided that all his efforts must be directed toward securing the land of
Israel as the Jewish national homeland and that no other country would be acceptable.
After visiting the Holy Land, Herzl wrote his second major work, a novel in German,
called, "Altneuland- The Old New Land."
Many stresses caused Theodore Herzl's health to deteriorate. In 1904, at the age of 44,
Herzl succumbed to a fatal heart attack. He was buried in Vienna. In 1949, a year after
the State of Israel was established, his remains were brought to Jerusalem to Mount
Herzl, the site of Israel's military cemetery, for reburial. 
Herzl came to understand that the Zionist idea was probably too revolutionary for its
time. Yet he predicted that, within 50 years, it would be widely accepted. After the 1897
Zionist Congress, he wrote in his diary: "Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word-
which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly- it would be this: 'At Basel, I founded
the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal
laughter. Perhaps in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.'" 
His prediction came true. Almost 50 years after the First Zionist Congress, as he
forecasted, the State of Israel was established, thus ending 2000 years of Jewish
homelessness. During those first 50 years, more and more of the world Jewish community
had come to accept Zionism. Orthodox Jews, except for the extreme fanatics among them,
had accepted Zionism shortly after the turn of the century. 
After the Six Day War in 1967, Reform Jews finally accepted the Zionist idea. In fact,
today, there is even an official Reform Zionist organization, called ARZA, the
Association of Reform Zionists of America. 
It took the Holocaust and other monumental events of recent Jewish history, to convince
Reform Jews that we needed a Jewish state. Had there been a place of escape for victims
of Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, countless numbers of Jews could have been saved
from Hitler's executioners.
Theodore Herzl dedicated his life to the Zionist cause and lost his life fighting to
obtain a Jewish state. His efforts, although at first were unappreciated, and looked to
be unnecessary, were later understood and found to be a great necessity for the Jews of
today.