“In Basle I founded the Jewish State. Maybe in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will realize it.”

 

Theodore Herzl was the visionary of Zionism. Born in Budapest in 1860, he was a thoroughly assimilated Jewish correspondent covering France for the Neue Free Presse when Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted unfairly for being a spy. During the trial of Dreyfus, virulent anti-Semitic protests and articles erupted throughout France, with mobs shouting “Death to the Jews.” While Herzl had witnessed prejudice in his native country, he was shocked by these sentiments in the Home of the French Revolution. Herzl felt that there was only one solution: mass immigration of Jews to a land that they could call their own, because anti-Semitism was a stable and immutable factor in human society, which assimilation could not solve.

 

In his first efforts to create support both from within and outside the Jewish community for a Jewish homeland, Herzl met almost universal opposition. He published a book in 1896, The Jewish State. He argued that the essence of the Jewish problem was not individual but national. He felt that Jews would be only accepted if they established a state with great powers. He saw the Jewish question as an international political question to be dealt with in the arena of international politics. In order to gain support for his proposition, Herzl met with the Pope, the Sultan of Turkey, Kaiser Wilhelm II, members of the Rothschild family, leading British (Lord Chamberlain) and French politicians, and other important leaders. Through whirlwind activity, he provided a needed spark to the 2000-year-old dram of Jews for a homeland.

 

His ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, although Jewish leaders were less ardent throughout the Continent. Among his ardent followers Herzl was perceived as a prophet send by God to direct the Jews to safety.  He failed to get the active support of French Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild, who feared that supporting a Jewish state would undermine the progress Jews had enjoyed throughout much of Western Europe. 

 

Herzl convened six Zionist Conferences between 1897-1902 that met in Basel Switzerland. He said at the first conference. “If I said this aloud today, I would be answered by laughter. Perhaps in five years and certainly in fifty, everyone will agree. It was fifty-one years later on May 14, 1948, that the independent nation of Israel was established. His most famous quote “If you will, it is no fairytale” has become the motto of the Zionist movement.

 

 In 1904, Herzl died at 44 from a weakened heart and pneumonia. In eight years though sheer personal magnetism he transformed a dormant dream into a viable political movement.