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Herzl's Place in Zionist Historiography

Yossi Goldstein

in Studies in Contemporary Jewry: XI: Values, Interests, and Identity: Jews and Politics in a Changing World

Zionist historiography is not blessed with an abundance of biographies. However, more than forty biographies and monographs on Theodor Herzl have appeared. Herzl's attractiveness to the biographer or ... More

Zionist historiography is not blessed with an abundance of biographies. However, more than forty biographies and monographs on Theodor Herzl have appeared. Herzl's attractiveness to the biographer or essayist is clear: his Zionist activity and his success in establishing the World Zionist Organization. It is not surprising that the abundance of biographies is matched by a broad range of interpretations of Herzl's life. In 1934 the first edition Alex Bein's biography of Herzl appeared in Vienna and years afterward would be considered the definitive account. According to Bein, Herzl founded Zionism and endeavored to implement its programs almost singlehandedly. One of Bein's innovations was his attempt to furnish psychological explanations for Herzl's behavior. Peter Loewenberg adduced psychological explanations to analyze Herzl's historical developmnet and evoked psychology as his sole analytical tool. Several biographies of Herzl were published including that of Stewart Desmond, Steven Beller, Leon Kellner, Andrew Handler, Jacques Kornberg, and Ernst Pawel.Less

Theodor Herzl: A Non-Jewish State of Jews

Dmitry Shumsky

in Beyond the Nation-State: The Zionist Political Imagination from Pinsker to Ben-Gurion

This chapter examines Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), the founder of political Zionism. The very expression “Herzl, visionary of the state,” which has become common not only in Israeli public discourse ... More

This chapter examines Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), the founder of political Zionism. The very expression “Herzl, visionary of the state,” which has become common not only in Israeli public discourse but in academic discourse as well, contains more than a little anachronism. Here, the anachronistic approach creates an artificial dichotomy that disregards certain conceptual aspects of Herzl's thought while selectively emphasizing and isolating others. By way of comparison between Herzl's and Max Nordau's cultural–linguistic vision and the cultural–national conceptions of the Slovenian, Czech, Lithuanian, Norwegian, and other national movements of the nineteenth century's non-dominant nationalities, the chapter sheds new light on Herzlian Zionism as a cultural–national approach that is embedded in the historical context of its time.Less

Dissimilation

Ritchie Robertson

in The ‘Jewish Question’ in German Literature 1749–1939: Emancipation and its Discontents

This chapter turns to what historians have recently called ‘dissimilation’, the affirmation of Jewishness in response to an unwelcoming society. It inquires into new ways of being Jewish and ... More

This chapter turns to what historians have recently called ‘dissimilation’, the affirmation of Jewishness in response to an unwelcoming society. It inquires into new ways of being Jewish and reinventing Jewish identity: the rediscovery and revaluation of the traditional Jewish communities of eastern Europe; the notion that the Jew was really an Oriental and hence endowed quite differently from the Europeans among whom he was stranded; and finally the Zionist movement, typified by Theodor Herzl, which sought to solve the Jewish question by transporting the Jews to a new, or old, home in the East.Less

New Conflicts, New Directions: Birnbaum's New Nationalist Course and the Arrival of Herzl

in Nathan Birnbaum and Jewish Modernity: Architect of Zionism, Yiddishism, and Orthodoxy

In the last years of the nineteenth century, Nathan Birnbaum was already a prominent figure in the Zionist movement in Vienna. In addition to leading the Kadimah Society, Birnbaum published a ... More

In the last years of the nineteenth century, Nathan Birnbaum was already a prominent figure in the Zionist movement in Vienna. In addition to leading the Kadimah Society, Birnbaum published a newspaper called Selbst-Emancipation and coined the word “Zionism” by which Palestine-centered Jewish nationalism became identified. He also introduced to the German-speaking public the work of another Zionist luminary, Ahad Ha'am, and was considered a leader and inspiration to the growing number of supporter of Jewish nationalism throughout central Europe. Between 1890 and 1896, however, there was a subtle yet significant shift in Birnbaum's interests and ideals. Turning from the issues of land, Hebrew language, and anti-Semitism, Birnbaum began to advocate activism to secure a present state of safety and rights of the Jews. Birnbaum's alienation from Zionism could be attributed in part to the sudden and explosive growth of the movement under Theodor Herzl's leadership.Less

Marooned Mandarins: Freud, Classical Education, and the Jews of Vienna

Richard H. Armstrong

in Classics and National Cultures

This chapter discusses the unique plight of middle‐class Jews in the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, and uses Sigmund Freud as a representative case. Classical education in the tradition of Humboldtian ... More

This chapter discusses the unique plight of middle‐class Jews in the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, and uses Sigmund Freud as a representative case. Classical education in the tradition of Humboldtian Bildung had given newly emancipated Jews high hopes of becoming integrated into the national mainstream through their intellectual efforts. But despite Jewish achievements, the nationalisms that wracked the failing empire resorted increasingly to political anti‐Semitism as a unifying expedient, thrusting Jews into positions of either Zionist opposition or high‐minded but ineffectual liberal opposition. Freud and Theodor Herzl embody these two responses; while Herzl organized a Jewish nationalism that to many seemed quite pagan and not at all Jewish, Freud chose instead to ally with science and rejected nationalist enthusiasms as dangerous psychological traps.Less

The Dual Legacy of Theodor Herzl

Hermann Levin Goldschmidt

in The Legacy of German Jewry

This chapter discusses the dual legacy of German writer Theodor Herzl for the German Jewry. His first recognition of the Jewish problem and the reality of anti-Semitism came in November 1894 after ... More

This chapter discusses the dual legacy of German writer Theodor Herzl for the German Jewry. His first recognition of the Jewish problem and the reality of anti-Semitism came in November 1894 after witnessing the humiliation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. He also realized that the Jewish problem required a political solution. After this, Herzl engineered the “new exodus to Egypt” and composed the The Jewish State to spur the Jewish masses into action. He negotiated with various governments to have a place for the Jews to relocate, and thus brought the Jews into world politics.Less

Rupture and Renaissance: The Jewish Renaissance Movement and the Ahad Ha'am Affair

in Nathan Birnbaum and Jewish Modernity: Architect of Zionism, Yiddishism, and Orthodoxy

For reasons only he knew, Nathan Birnbaum resigned as secretary general of the Political Action Committee of the World Zionist Organization in 1899, essentially cutting his formal ties to Theodor ... More

For reasons only he knew, Nathan Birnbaum resigned as secretary general of the Political Action Committee of the World Zionist Organization in 1899, essentially cutting his formal ties to Theodor Herzl's movement. Herzl's charismatic leadership led to the rapid rise of Zionism in central and eastern Europe. No one effectively challenged Herzl in running the movement, and those that rejected his leadership outright, including Odessa Hovevei Zion, Ahad Ha'am (pseudonym for Asher Ginsberg), and Birnbaum himself, had to content themselves expressing their dissenting voices from the sidelines. Aside from personality clashes, Birnbaum's departure could be linked to a transformation in his thinking about Zionism and Jewish nationalism in the years prior to Herzl's arrival. In 1902, he was engaged once again in public debate about the meaning of Zionism and in the controversy surrounding the publication of Herzl's utopian novel, Altneuland. In the midst of this Kulturkampf, the “Ahad Ha'am affair,” Birnbaum became an advocate, participant, and inspiration for the so-called Jewish Renaissance Movement.Less

Terms of Engagement: International Law, the Jewish Question, Ideology, and Ambivalence

Rotem Giladi

in Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law: Ideology and Ambivalence in Early Israeli Legal Diplomacy

Chapter 1, a primer on international law in modern Jewish political thought and praxis, sketches the conceptual framework underlying the argument that Israel’s early ambivalence towards international ... More

Chapter 1, a primer on international law in modern Jewish political thought and praxis, sketches the conceptual framework underlying the argument that Israel’s early ambivalence towards international law was rooted in pre-sovereign ideological sensibilities. The chapter considers the Jewish turn to international law as driven by the ‘Jewish Question’ in the pursuit of competing ideological visions of Jewish emancipation. It presents three models of Jewish emancipation and the terms on which each engaged international law: Assimilation, invested in the civic emancipation of Jews as individuals; Zionism, seeking national emancipation through the establishment of a territorial polity; and Diaspora Nationalism, prescribing national emancipation through the practice of Jewish autonomy in the Diaspora. The chapter proposes to consider international law as a field of contestation among these models of Jewish emancipation. In particular, the chapter traces the ambivalence towards international law inherent in Herzlian, Zionist thought and entrenched by Zionism’s political experience.Less

ZIONISM AND THE EVOLVING NEW CULTURE

Menachem Mautner

in Law and the Culture of Israel

This chapter discusses the rise of the Jewish Enlightenment movement in the course of the last two decades of the 18th century. It also discusses four main approaches in Zionist thought as to the ... More

This chapter discusses the rise of the Jewish Enlightenment movement in the course of the last two decades of the 18th century. It also discusses four main approaches in Zionist thought as to the culture of the new Jewish society that took shape in Eretz Israel (Palestine) in the first half of the 20th century: the cultural revival approach, identified with Ahad Ha-Am; the halakhic approach; the European culture approach whose two most prominent representatives were Theodor Herzl and Zeev Jabotinsky; and the negation of exile approach. The chapter also considers the key constitutive principles of the new Jewish culture that actually evolved in Eretz Israel in the period from the 1880s until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The basic principle at the foundation of the new culture was ‘Hebrewness’, meaning that it should be the antithesis of the Jewish religious culture of Eastern Europe. Ever since the 1950s, however, ‘Hebrewness’ and ‘negation of the exile’ have been losing stature. Increasingly, room has been given to a self-identity in terms of Jewishness. Also, as a young culture, the new Jewish culture suffered from ‘thinness’. The chapter ends by arguing that during the second half of the 20th century the new Jewish culture underwent three significant metamorphoses: from a self-perception of Hebrewness to a self-perception of Jewishness; from a collectivist worldview to an individualistic worldview; from faith in socialism to neo-liberalism. These processes put the secular Jewish group on shallow, shaky and incoherent ground when it engaged in its kulturkampf with the religious Jewish group in the waning decades of the 20th century.Less

Tel Aviv: Vienna on the Mediterranean

S. Ilan Troen

in Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs, and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement

This chapter discusses urban Zionism, beginning with Theodor Herzl's Altneuland, a suggestive blueprint for Zionist colonization thought. Written between 1898 and 1902, Altneuland is a political ... More

This chapter discusses urban Zionism, beginning with Theodor Herzl's Altneuland, a suggestive blueprint for Zionist colonization thought. Written between 1898 and 1902, Altneuland is a political tract in the form of a utopian novel, and immediately recognizable as a contemporary, political/literary genre. The primary purpose of the book was to suggest possible solutions to the practical problems that had stymied colonization efforts in Palestine over the past twenty years. The novel's pervasive optimism regarding colonization is articulated in a phrase that has since echoed through Zionist discourse: “If you will it, it is no legend.” As is common with books of this genre, the reader is led to examine two societies. The first, which exists in the present with its problems and deficiencies, is contrasted with a vision of what that society could become.Less

The Lifework Of Martin Buber

Hermann Levin Goldschmidt

in The Legacy of German Jewry

This chapter discusses the lifework of Martin Buber, editor of Theodor Herzl's Zionist organ Die Welt and a Zionist who has rededicated himself to Judaism. Buber fought Herzl's claim against cultural ... More

This chapter discusses the lifework of Martin Buber, editor of Theodor Herzl's Zionist organ Die Welt and a Zionist who has rededicated himself to Judaism. Buber fought Herzl's claim against cultural Zionism, arguing that Zionism was itself only part of a renewed Jewish culture that would accompany the political work Herzl had made the movement's centerpiece. He has been consistent in his oppositional stance from the start, as a cultural Zionist opposed to political Zionism.Less

A Pilgrim to the Holy Land

Matthew P. Fitzpatrick

in The Kaiser and the Colonies: Monarchy in the Age of Empire

Kaiser Wilhelm II’s plans to visit the Ottoman Empire in 1898 sparked heated speculation in Britain, France, and Russia that the German emperor would use the royal visit to establish a German colony ... More

Kaiser Wilhelm II’s plans to visit the Ottoman Empire in 1898 sparked heated speculation in Britain, France, and Russia that the German emperor would use the royal visit to establish a German colony on Ottoman territory, thereby causing a scramble for Ottoman colonial possessions. The diplomatic order of Europe was further ruffled when Wilhelm II announced his intention to visit British-occupied Egypt. While the visit to Egypt was abandoned, the growing momentum for the Baghdad Railway and the emperor’s discussions with both German Templer colonists and the Zionist leader Theodor Herzl exacerbated the rumours of a colonial announcement. The reality of the visit and the Kaiser’s summit diplomacy, however, was far more modest, amounting to a pilgrimage to open a new German church in Jerusalem on land that had been donated to his father, Kaiser Friedrich III.Less

Double Colonialism in Palestine

Jeremy Salt

in The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands

This chapter examines the implantation of Zionism at the geographical heart of the Middle East from 1920 onwards. It discusses Arthur James Balfour's declaration of the opening of the Hebrew ... More

This chapter examines the implantation of Zionism at the geographical heart of the Middle East from 1920 onwards. It discusses Arthur James Balfour's declaration of the opening of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1925 and Theodor Herzl's formulation of the Zionist project. The chapter describes the territorial disputes of the Zionists of Israel with the neighbouring territories of Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.Less

Envisioning a Jewish Maritime Space: Arnold Bernstein and the Emergence of a Jewish Shipping Industry in the Interwar Years

Björn Siegel

in Place in Modern Jewish Culture and Society

This chapter examines the ideological and economic dimensions of the Zionist concept “conquest of the sea” that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s by focusing on the role played by Arnold Bernstein in ... More

This chapter examines the ideological and economic dimensions of the Zionist concept “conquest of the sea” that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s by focusing on the role played by Arnold Bernstein in the emergence of an example of a Jewish shipping industry during the interwar period. In 1895, Theodor Herzl characterized the future Jewish state as the end product of an organized mass migration and endorsed the notion of “conquest of the sea” as a necessary component of this process. The chapter first provides a background on the Palestine Shipping Company founded by Bernstein before discussing the spatial factors that influenced the emergence of a Jewish shipping industry. It suggests that the construction of a Jewish maritime “space” was guided by ideological clashes, economic and political interests, and personal networks.Less