he wrote in 1896, “still exists. It would be foolish to deny it. It exists wher-
ever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not yet exist, it will be
brought by Jews in the course of their migrations.” He thus concluded that
the creation of a Jewish homeland was the only means through which Jews
could escape anti-Semitism.
To this end, he decided to convene the First Zionist Congress in 1897 as a
grand ceremony with himself presiding. The problem was that no Jewish
community in western or central Europe was willing to host the congress.
The idea of creating a Jewish state in the Middle East and expecting European
Jews to relocate to a area that was largely swampland and deserts seemed ludi-
crous and was embarrassing to emancipated Jews. Thus, the Jews of Paris,
Vienna, Berlin, London, Geneva, and Budapest refused to host the conference.
In addition, none of the leaders of western or central European Jewry agreed
to attend or even endorse the congress. As a result, the first Zionist Congress
took place in Basle, Switzerland. Other than Herzl and Max Nordau, all of
those in attendance were members of Hovevei Zion or BILU from Russia,
Galicia, or Romania.
Herzl’s Zionism was almost exclusively political Zionism. His chief goal
was to obtain a charter from the sultan; he also wanted to create a refuge for
less fortunate, persecuted Jews. He did not expect western or central
European Jews to move to Israel, and had little interest in founding a settle-
ment or transforming the Jews.
He presented his Zionist vision principally in two works: a treatise called
Der Judenstaatand a utopian novel called Altneuland. Der Judenstaat(mistrans-
lated as The Jewish State; “The Jews’ State” would be a more apt translation –
“The Jewish State” is a translation of “Der jüdische Staat”) was Herzl’s
Zionist manifesto. Altneuland(Old-New Land) was a utopian novel written in
1902 but set “far in the future” in 1923. In it, the main character leaves civi-
lization for twenty years. On his return home, he stops in Palestine and notes
the changes that have taken place.
Thus, his novel and manifesto expressed the same vision using two dif-
ferent genres. In each work, his vision of the Jewish state differs from the
eventual State of Israel in four respects. First, Herzl did not envision the
language of the Jewish state as Hebrew, but rather “German, French, or
some other civilized language.” In addition, he did not envision a major
presence of religious Jews; rabbis in the Jewish state would be like soldiers,
living apart from the general population, just as soldiers are housed in bar-
racks and summoned when needed to perform specific functions. Third,
Herzl regarded socialism as too radical and extremist. Thus, his Jewish
state has no socialist presence; rather, he envisioned the economic organiza-
tion of the Jewish state as a network of Saint-Simonian agricultural
cooperatives: shared labor with private ownership. Finally, Herzl never
envisioned a conflict with the indigenous Arab population. He imagined
himself wearing a suit with tails and attending the opera – just as he would
Anti-Semitism and Jewish responses, 1870–1914 191