It Is No Dream (2012) - full transcript

The Jewish
question still exists.

It would be foolish to deny it.

It is a remnant of the middle ages

which civilized nations do not even yet

seem to be able to shake
off try as they will.

Attacks in Parliament, in
assemblies, in the press,

in the pulpit, in the street

become daily more numerous.

In countries where we
have lived for centuries

we are still cried down as strangers.

Oppression and persecution
cannot exterminate us.



No nation on Earth has
survived such struggles

and sufferings as we have gone through.

Distress binds us together,

and thus united we suddenly
discover our strength.

Yes we are strong enough to form a state,

and indeed a model state.

We possess all human
and material resources

necessary for the purpose.

The idea which I have developed in

this pamphlet is a very old one.

It is the restoration of the Jewish state.

The world resounds with
outcries against the Jews,

and these outcries have
awakened the slumbering idea.

These words
were written in 1895



almost 120 years ago.

They were part of a pamphlet entitled

"The Judenstaat" or "The Jewish State".

The author was a 36 year
old Viennese journalist,

and playwright named Theodor Herzl.

In 1895 what Theodor Herzl was proposing

seemed, even to his
supporters, an impossible goal.

But to all who insisted it was a fantasy

Theodor Herzl had this to say

if you will it it is no dream.

- Herzl was the first
name that I can remember

because the king wrote the truth.

I mean

it was a King without a kingdom,

and a prince without a people.

But it touched the most
important thing in Jewish life.

And he said faith,

spirit,

flames, legend.

And it's an honorable story.

- In 1894, Theodor Herzl
was living in Paris,

and working as the
bureau chief for Vienna's

Neue Freie Presse,

one of Europe's most respected newspapers.

At the moment the big
story making headlines

was the criminal trial
of Captain Alfred Dreyfus

who'd been arrested on
a charge of high treason

for selling military
secrets to the Germans.

Dreyfus who came from a
prominent Jewish family

that had been living in
France for generations

insisted he was innocent.

His supporters maintained
that he had been framed

by a group of anti-Semitic officers.

In the days following Dreyfus's arrest

Theodor Herzl, like much
of the French public,

believed that he was guilty.

The evidence indicates that

Dreyfus has really committed
the ignominious act.

But as the
military trial unfolded

at the Ecole Militaire in
Paris throughout December 1894

Herzl's opinion about Dreyfus's
guilt began to change.

He became completely convinced
that Dreyfus was innocent,

and was being unfairly
prosecuted because he was Jewish.

Despite the fact that
in 1791 France became

the first country in the world

to emancipate its Jewish population

anti-Semitism was surging among the French

in the years leading
up to the Dreyfus case.

In fact, anti-Semitic violence had been

spreading throughout Europe starting

in the 1870s in Germany and Austria.

Then hundreds of Jews were killed

in pogroms in Russia, and the Ukraine.

The situation began turning
against French Jews in 1882

with the collapse of the L'Union Generale

the Catholic bank founded with the

blessings of Pope Leo the Thirteenth.

The faithful had invested
heavily in L'Union Generale.

Both the aristocracy and the middle class

had their money in the bank

upon the advice of their priests.

When the L'Union Generale collapsed

in the 1882 stock market crash

rich and poor French Catholics
were economically devastated.

And the Jews were blamed for it all.

When rival banks, including
the house of Rothschild,

came through the crash
relatively unscathed.

Edward Drumont, an unknown writer,

soon made his reputation
on a two volume book

entitled La France
Juive, or Jewish France.

An immediate best seller Drumont's book

exposed what he maintained was

the evil power of Jewish finance.

In the wake of this success Drumont

created the National Anti-Semitic League

dedicated to fighting the clandestine,

and merciless conspiracy of Jewish finance

which jeopardizes daily the welfare,

honor, and security of France.

In 1892 Drummond founded La Libre Parole

which became one of the country's
most popular newspapers.

It led a campaign to drive Jewish

officers out of the French army.

After it was discovered
that military secrets

had been passed to Germany from a

member of the French general staff

Dreyfus fell under suspicion
because he was Jewish,

and disliked by his fellow officers.

But after his arrest no
evidence could be found

linking him to the act.

At the Ecole Militaire
the officers in charge

of Dreyfus's investigation fabricated

a so-called secret file
proving Dreyfus's guilt.

Military authorities then ordered

Dreyfus's immediate court martial.

The proceedings were held in private,

and the secret file kept from the defense.

Throughout the trial proceedings

Drumont continued to fan
the flames of anti-Semitism.

The French public took to the streets

not only against Dreyfus

but also the French Jewish community.

Not far from Theodor Herzl's hotel room

en rue Cambon there were
nightly demonstrations

in the Place de la Concorde.

Through his windows he could
hear the crowd screaming

death to the Jews.

Where was this happening?

Herzl asked himself.

Where?

In France.

In Republican, modern, civilized France.

100 years after the declaration
of the rights of man.

Though what troubled

him even more profoundly were the events

that occurred after Dreyfus
was pronounced guilty

at the end of December 1894,

and sentenced to life
imprisonment on Devil's Island.

Herzl was one of the few journalists

allowed to witness Dreyfus's public

degredation in

January 1895.

- It was a bitterly cold January morning.

It happened to be

the Sabbath.

Dreyfus was marched
around the Ecole Militaire

in front of the garrison of troops.

He had his uniform, all
the buttons on his uniform

were ripped off by this giant of a man

who descended from his horse,

and publicly humiliated Dreyfus.

And the Parisian mob who
were behind the railings

that are watching this scene,
several thousand people,

they are screaming down with the traitor.

And there are also cries of

death to the Jew.

, Which come from

this almost hysterical

mob who were baying

for Dreyfus's blood.

Herzl is in the journalist box.

He notes that, twice, as
Dreyfus is marched around

he stops where he sees the journalists,

and he shouts I am innocent.

You are convicting an innocent man.

Vive le France!

Long live France.

Vive l'armee.

Long live the army.

That night in a state of

what he would later call strange agitation

Herzl wrote his dispatch
for the Neue Freie Presse.

In Vienna the newspaper
censored the report

changing his account of the mob

shouting death to the Jews
to death to the Judas.

In a later edition the Neue Freie Presse

changed it even further
to death to the traitors.

Herzl's editors, themselves Jews,

were worried that the truth would inspire

similar chants to occur
in the streets of Vienna.

Although he tried Herzl could

not shake the scenes of the trial,

and the anti-Semitic
demonstrations from his mind.

He woke up to the French newspapers

editorializing that Dreyfus's
protests of innocence

were even further examples
of Jewish duplicity.

He became even more disturbed when

a few days later the
French National Assembly

introduced legislation that

would ban Jews from public service.

It was defeated by less than 70 votes,

and news from Vienna, where
his family was living,

added to his anxiety.

Anti-Semitic factions had reached a

majority status in the
Austrian parliament.

There were calls for expulsion
of the Jews from the country,

and the confiscation of their property.

During the first three months of 1895

all of the events Theodor
Herzl was witnessing,

and writing about for
the Neue Freie Presse

were transforming him.

He began writing a diary trying to

describe the process he was undergoing.

Much of what Herzl was writing about

involved finding a solution
to the Jewish question.

I asked the cultivated men

whom I am addressing to set many

preconceived ideas entirely aside.

I shall even go as far
as to ask those Jews

who have earnestly tried to
solve the Jewish question

to look upon their previous attempts

as mistaken, and futile.

By the spring of 1895

Herzl had decided that he
needed to take drastic action.

He would spearhead an international effort

to solve the Jewish problem as he saw it.

He might have been the
most unlikely person

to lead such a campaign.

Theodor Herzl was born on May the 2nd 1860

in the heart of the Jewish
community of Budapest, Hungary.

In fact the Herzl family's home

was adjacent to the Dohany synagogue

one of Budapest's most
prominent buildings,

and the largest synagogue in Europe.

Herzl's father, Jakob, was born to a

poor Orthodox Jewish family in Yugoslavia,

and came to Budapest in 1856

where he made a success
of himself in banking.

Like many from the rural
villages or shtetls.

He moved to Budapest after residence

restrictions against Jews in the

Austrian Hungarian empire were lifted.

In 1857

he married Jeanette Diamant

the daughter of a wealthy merchant.

Jeanette's family background could not

have been more different than Jakob's.

The Diamants had been living

in Budapest for three generations,

and were not religious Jews.

Their first child, Pauline,

was born a year after their marriage,

followed by Theodor two years later.

Jeanette focused much
of her attention on Dori

as he was called by the family.

She passed on her love of German poetry,

and literature to him
when he was very young.

Theodor was said to
have been able to recite

Geoethe and Schiller by heart, in German,

before the age of eight.

Despite's Jakob's religious upbringing

the Herzls, like most Budapest Jews,

were quite assimilated.

For that reason on Theodor's 13th birthday

guests were invited not to a Bar Mitzvah,

but rather to a confirmation reception

at the family's new home
not far from the Danube.

In 1878 Jakob and Jeanette Herzel

decided to move the
family home from Budapest.

Many Jews were leaving
the city at that time

because they were uncomfortable with

the growing nationalism
of the Hungarian people.

Jakob set his sights on Vienna.

Not only more hospitable
to Jews at that moment,

but also a place with much better

business prospects for him.

The plan was for their
family to move in the spring

after Theodor's final exams.

But on February 7th, 1878

tragedy struck.

A typhoid epidemic had been
raging through Budapest.

Pauline Herzl fell victim
to it, and died within days.

She was only 19 years old.

Jeanette was so grief-stricken that

even though Theodor still had four months

of high school to complete she insisted

on immediately moving to Vienna.

The family's new home was on

the Prata Strasse in Leopoldstadt

an elegant predominantly
Jewish district of the city.

That fall Herzl began his classes

at the University of
Vienna Faculty of Law.

His course of study,
chosen by his parents,

held very little interest for him.

Instead of focusing on his classes

he concentrated on his literary pursuits

writing dozens of poems, short
stories, novellas, and plays.

In 1881 Herzl, like many of
his fellow university students,

joined a so called dueling
fraternity named Albia.

Belonging to one was essential
to career advancement,

and a higher rank in the military.

They were called dueling fraternities

because acceptance
required fighting a duel,

and getting a scar.

Herzl's scar or schmiss was a small one

requiring only one stitch,

but many of its members made no secret

about their unhappiness that Jews

were being allowed to join.

For this reason it was not long

before Herzl found himself

disenchanted with his new fraternity,

and became an inactive member.

But it was an event on

March the 5th, 1883
that led to a full break

between him and his fraternity.

A memorial service was taking
place at the Sofiensaal,

a popular Vienna social hall,
for composer Richard Wagner

who had died three weeks previously.

One of the featured speakers was

a prominent member of Albia Herman Bahr

who proceeded to deliver a
violently anti-Semitic address.

Herzl was infuriated by the speech,

and demanded that his fraternity
condemn Bahr's remarks.

When that did not happen he
wrote to its steering committee.

Even if I were a non Jew

I would feel compelled
by sheer love of freedom

to oppose a movement of which my

fraternity has also allied itself.

I request severance of my
links to the fraternity.

Upon graduating Theodor Herzl

began working as a trainee lawyer

first in Vienna and then in Salzburg.

Many years later he would proclaim

that he had spent some
of his happiest hours

working in the courts at
the High Salzburg Castle,

and that he might have
remained there forever.

But because advancement in the legal

profession was limited to Jews

Herzl walked away from the law at

the end of his training year.

He returned to Vienna,

and decided to concentrate his

energies on his first love writing.

He began work on a play,

and also spent time polishing

several older ones he'd written
during his student days.

For close to two years he received

one rejection after another from the

producers he sent his plays to.

By 1885

he was in deep despair.

Miserable, miserable life.

No success.

When is it time?

And then, in the fall,

he received some good news.

A german language theater
company in New York City

decided to mount a production
of his play entitled Tabarin.

That November at the Star Theater

at 13th street and Broadway

Theodor Herzl had his professional
debut as a playwright.

The production received excellent reviews

in newspapers in New
York, Berlin, and Vienna.

Herzl was now confident that he

would soon achieve his
main goal as a playwright

getting one of his plays produced by

Vienna's fabled Burgtheater

perhaps the most prestigious in Europe.

Though the attention surrounding his

New York debut was short lived,

and once again he was met with rejection

from every theater company
to whom he sent his plays.

Yet as his theatrical career was stalled

Herzl unintentionally began to make a name

for himself in another field of writing.

On a European vacation Herzl had written

a number of short observational pieces

called feuilletons that
ended up being published

in several German and Austrian newspapers.

Soon he was contributing regularly

for some of the best
known newspapers in Vienna

including the highly
esteemed Neue Freie Presse

though he still dreamed of
success at the Burgtheater,

and not long after he
began his newspaper career

that dream finally came true.

Two of his plays were accepted

by the Burgtheater's management

and produced to great public acclaim.

During this same period

Theodor Herzl met and fell
in love with Julie Naschauer

the daughter of a Viennese
Jewish millionaire industrialist.

Despite all his recent success

Herzl was not whom Julie's father

Jakob Naschauer had in mind
as a husband for his daughter.

However Julie was used to getting her way,

and her parents gave their blessing,

albeit reluctantly, to the engagement.

The wedding ceremony
took place in June 1889

in the resort town of Rankweil

a few hours outside of Vienna

where his bride's parents
kept a weekend home.

The wedding was quite lavish,

and Julie's dowry befit her

father's status as a millionaire.

But trouble between the two started

almost as soon as they began

their two month honeymoon
to Switzerland and France.

- She appears to have
been very highly strung.

Neurotic, a big spender.

She did not identify with Herzl's

literary and artistic ambitions.

The marriage seems to have
got off to such a bad start

that Herzl was contemplating
divorce within a year or so.

The birth of their daughter Pauline,

named for Herzl's sister,

just shy of their first anniversary

seemed to have saved the
marriage for the moment.

This became a pattern for the couple

as they separated and
reconciled innumerous times

while their family grew with the birth

of their son Hans, and later, Trudy.

By the summer of 1891 Herzl was now

one of the Neue Freie Presse's
most celebrated columnists.

Publishers Eduard Bacher
and Moriz Benedikt

decided to offer their
rising star a new position

before someone else hired him away.

- They chose him to be their
foreign correspondent in Paris

which was

probably the most attractive proposition

that any correspondent or any
journalist could hope for.

Paris was considered the center

of modern European culture.

Its politics were clearly important

because France was one of

the leading great powers in the world.

Herzl
immediately took to the job,

and to the City of Lights.

He focused on covering
the political debates

at the Palais Bourbon

and enjoying the city's unique nightlife.

Dear parents

I am busy from the early
morning until the evening.

I really believe that
I am now in my element.

By the spring of 1892

Julie and the children joined him,

and the family moved into a flat in

one of Paris's most stylish neighborhoods.

At almost the same time
an event took place

that would not only rock France,

but shake Herzl to his core as well.

A duel between a high ranking

Jewish army captain Armand Mayer,

and an outspoken anti-Jewish aristocrat

ended in Mayer's death.

Herzl took part in the
Captain's funeral procession

where onlookers shouted
dirty Jews at the mourners.

In subsequent weeks, while
covering the French parliament,

he witnessed angry debates on
the so-called Jewish question.

And at a political rally he heard the cry

death to the Jews for the very first time.

- And Herzl writes about this.

An article called French Anti-Semites.

It's the first time he
addresses the question,

and this is a period in which
he's constantly weighing,

for the first time in his life,

the significance of this issue

as a societal

problem.

Herzl began to brood

about this constantly.

He had spent little, if any, time

thinking about his Jewishness

since his university
days in the early 1880s.

He decided to read
Drumont's La France Juive

which had sold more than
a million copies in France

since its publication
seven years previously.

It left him very disturbed
about the future of the country.

His dispatches from Paris
throughout the winter

and spring of 1893 focused increasingly on

the troubled political scene in France,

and what he saw as the
country's slide into barbarism.

To his friends he became
outspoken about the situation.

By April his name appeared on
a list of suspect foreigners

submitted to the Minister of the Interior

by the secret police.

Reports from Vienna added to his worries

where the popularity of Karl Luger,

the stridently anti-Jewish leader of

Austria's Christian Socialist party,

was growing tremendously.

He now became obsessed with

finding a solution to anti-Semitism.

Over the course of the next year

Herzl considered several approaches

to attacking the problem head on.

He proposed challenging Europe's

leading anti-Semites to a duel.

He devised a plan where Europe's Jews

would undergo a mass conversion

at a ceremony at St.
Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

And he wrote his first new play in years

that he believed would put

a spotlight on anti-Semitism

and lead to debate =that will put

an end to it once and for all.

But after time he concluded that

none of these solutions were feasible.

He grew depressed about the fact that

nothing he'd come up with to solve

the problem seemed reasonable.

Night after night

I write down prophecies
that never materialize,

confessions of faith that
are never acted upon,

declarations that lead to nowhere.

As he was covering
the French elections of 1894

Herzl contracted a form of malaria

that left him bedridden
for much of the winter

and permanently damaged his heart.

As he continued his
convalescence at Lake Altaussee

on the family's annual summer holiday.

He saw old friends,

and visited his parents at
their nearby summer home.

The talk amongst them all centered

around the latest anti-Semitic
incidents throughout Europe.

Newspaper reports from Vienna, Berlin,

Paris, and Prague described one

anti-Semitic attack after another.

At summer's end Julie

announced to him that she and the children

would return to Vienna rather than Paris.

Her father was dying,

and she felt it was better to be at home.

Herzl moved into a room
at the Hotel Castille

on Rue Cambon where he began reporting

on the Dreyfus trial unfolding
at the Ecole Militaire.

During this period of time he decided

to attend services at
Paris's Grand Synagogue

on Rue Victoire not far
from where he was living.

It had been the first time

he set foot in one since childhood.

He found himself incredibly
moved by the services,

and for the first time as an adult

discovered a connection to other Jews.

He left the synagogue making
an even greater commitment

to himself to help the Jewish people.

In the weeks following Captain

Dreyfus's degradation
at the Ecole Militaire

it appeared to Herzl that all of Europe

was on a rampage against the Jews.

He became convinced that
by remaining in Europe

the Jews were facing an apocalypse.

As he saw it they needed to leave,

and create a sovereign Jewish
state in another place.

But where?

Palestine was an obvious choice.

Jews had been returning to their

Biblical home there for
well over 100 years.

Then there was Argentina.

Jews had been settling in farming

communities there since the late 1800s.

These settlements were underwritten

by Jewish philanthropists
like Baron Moritz von Hirsch

the Bavarian born railroad tycoon

whose fortune was one of
the largest in the world.

Von Hirsch was one of the
few rich men at the time

who believed in sharing
his wealth with the poor.

It was estimated that he had spent upwards

of 400 million Francs on
Jewish charities alone.

Herzl decided to approach the Baron,

who lived in Paris, with a proposal

that he underwrite the financing of an

efficient, well planned, mass
exodus of Jews from Europe,

and the purchase of
territory for the new state.

Baron von Hirsch consented to a meeting

most likely because of Herzl's
reputation as a journalist.

The get-together started off poorly.

The Baron kept Herzl waiting.

When he finally came in
Herzl addressed him harshly,

and began criticizing the industrialist's

resettlement projects in Argentina.

You should have started

the whole thing differently.

You dragged these farm Jews overseas.

They must think they would
be supported by you forever.

This does not promote eagerness to work.

You are breeding shnoras.

Herzl then began to discuss

what he believed was needed
to help the Jewish people.

The first task is to

improve the race here and now.

The Jews must be made strong,

eager to work, and virtuous.

Baron von Hirsch lost

his temper with his guest.

No, I don't want to

raise the general level at all.

All our misery comes from Jews
who want to climb too high.

We have too many intellectuals.

I want to keep the Jews from
always wanting to get ahead.

Herzl then raised his scheme

for a mass exodus of Jews from Europe.

Where are you
going to find the money?

Rothschild will give you 500 Francs.

The money?

I'll raise a Jewish national
loan of 10 million Marks.

A fantasy.

The rich Jews will give you nothing.

Without ceremony the

Baron brought the meeting to a close.

He told Herzl that he might be willing

to see him when he returned
from a business trip to London.

Herzl would never hear
from von Hirsch again.

In the days after his

encounter with the Baron

Herzl began composing
a series of documents

that would become the most
significant he would write.

They would include his innermost thoughts

about why a state was needed,
the nature of that entity,

and what was required
to make it a reality.

I have been pounding away

for some time at a work
of tremendous magnitude.

I don't even know now if I will
be able to carry it through.

For days and weeks it has saturated me

to the limits of my consciousness.

It goes with me everywhere.

During
the same period of time

Herzl also decided to draft a proposal

to the famed Rothschild
family about his ideas

since his appeal to von Hirsch

seemed to have been fruitless.

When it was finished it ran 68 pages

containing details about the
new country's economic system,

its form of government, its
military, arts, and culture.

He explained that the national
language will be German

much closer to the Yiddish that
most Jews spoke at the time,

and that the state would
not be a theocracy.

But he also had some blunt
talk for the Rothschilds.

You are rich enough,

gentlemen, to further this plan,

but you are not rich enough to prevent it.

And he had a stark warning

for the family that even
with all of their wealth

they were not immune from anti-Semitism.

Your fortune
will be expropriated,

and like all Jews, you will be
expelled from some countries,

and in those where we seek
refuge they will kill us.

I bring you the salvation.

For weeks Herzl did nothing

but work on his diaries and his
proposals to the Rothschilds

which he intended to deliver as

a speech to their family counsel.

He neglected his work at
the Neue Freie Presse,

and rarely left his room
at the Hotel Castille.

The nearby Tuileries was one
place he would venture out to.

Wandering aimlessly at
night, talking to himself,

and thinking about all the details

of his plans that needed to be sorted out.

The Opera de Paris was another

location he turned to for inspiration

especially when Wagner's
works were being performed.

During a performance of Tannhauser

that he attended one evening

he vowed to himself that
one of the first acts

of the new Jewish state will be

to build an opera house to rival Paris's.

We too are going to

have such resplendent halls.

Men in formal black tie,
ladies in high fashion.

Yes I want to make use of everything

including the Jewish love of luxury.

After
completing his speech to

the Rothschilds Herzl wrote to

Vienna's Chief Rabbi, Moritz Gudemann.

He asked the Rabbi who had close ties

to Albert von Rothschild,

the head of the Austrian
branch of the family,

to arrange an urgent meeting on

his behalf to help the Jewish people.

Gudemann did not take
Herzl's letter seriously,

and never forwarded his
request to von Rothschild.

Not long after writing to Rabbi Gudemann

a close friend of Herzl's,
who was also a physician,

stopped by the Hotel Castille to see him.

He was shocked at his appearance,

and became even more disturbed

as he started reading to him

from his speech to the Rothschilds.

He was sure that Herzl had
suffered a nervous collapse.

He took his pulse and
found that it was racing.

My dear friend.

There is something wrong with your nerves.

This book is a product of sickness.

He became even more alarmed

when Herzl told him he had written

about all of this to Rabbi Gudemann.

The Rabbi
will rush to your parents,

and inform them that their son
has had a mental breakdown.

Now Herzl became panicked.

The last thing he wanted to
do was to upset his parents.

After the doctor left he went out,

and began walking again in the Tuileries

trying to figure out what to do.

By evening he decided
to give up his scheme

to create a new Jewish nation,

and then he received a
letter from his mother

in which she enclosed
the poem she had clipped

from the Neue Freie Presse.

Weaknesses are
easily forgiven to the crowd.

To you, their leader,
they are not allowed.

The poem had an
immediate effect on Herzl.

He started believing again in the ideas

that he'd abandoned a few days before.

He scribbled a note to himself

from the margin of the clipping.

From my good
mama who copied it for me

and sent it while I was
working on the plan.

As if mother heart divined it.

Vienna
during the summer of 1895

turned into a hotbed of
anti-Jewish violence.

Even Sigmund Freud was now
taking notice of the problem.

I have been given the

first glimpse into the abyss.

I have seen things calculated
to sober and even frighten me.

As Herzl
vacationed with his family

that summer at Lake Altaussee

he was not able to escape
Austria's anti-Semitism

even amidst the beauty of the area.

One day at a cabin near the lake

he came upon walls filled
with anti-Jewish graffiti.

Herzl copied one example
into his notebook.

Oh God,
return Moses to this land

to take his Jews by the hand,

and lead them to the promised land.

And when the whole bad lot's afloat

in the middle of the sea

then, good Lord, just sink the boat.

And all good Christians will be free.

Chief Rabbi Moritz Gudemann,

who had been dismissive of
Herzl a few months previously,

was now very interested
in what he had to say

about the problem of
anti-Semitism in Europe.

A meeting was scheduled in Munich.

At an elegant hotel on the Sabbath

Herzl outlined his proposals for

the Jewish exodus from
Europe and the new state.

He shared details from his
speech to the Rothschilds.

Rabbi Gudemann became so enthusiastic

about what Herzl was discussing

that he exclaimed to the journalist--

You remind me of Moses.

Yet despite
expressing such sentiments

that evening the Rabbi wrote
a postcard to his wife.

Herzl is a poet.

His plan, however
interesting, is not feasible.

Herzl moved back to Vienna

in the fall rather than return to Paris.

His Neue Freie Presse
editors wanted him in Austria

to serve as the paper's
new literary editor.

By then he'd been away
from home for five years.

He was a much different man than

he had been when he
left for Paris in 1891.

He and the family moved into
a home on the Pelikangasse

a stylish area near the university.

Herzl's new passion quickly caused

strains with his employers.

He suggested they publish
a special Sunday edition

with a front page story
he had written entitled

The Solution To The Jewish Question.

His request was dismissed out of hand.

Herzl felt quite dejected by the decision,

but his spirits were lifted after

being in touch with Max
Nordau an old friend in Paris

who'd become an ardent supporter

of his idea of creating a Jewish state.

If you are insane then
we are insane together

the best selling author

and social scientist
told Herzl when they met.

He convinced him to make a trip to London

where he was certain

there would be tremendous
support for his ideas.

While Herzl did not know a
single person in the city,

and his English was limited

within days he was speaking with

the leaders of the
city's Jewish community,

and gave a triumphant speech
to the Maccabean club.

His first public talk about his views

was rewarded with a standing ovation.

Herzl left England excited and determined

to build a Zionist movement.

As soon as he returned to Vienna,

at the end of 1895, he adapted his

speech to the Rothschilds into
a 86 page booklet entitled

Der Judenstaat, or The Jewish State.

An attempt at a modern solution
of the Jewish question.

No-one can deny the gravity

of the situation of the Jews.

Wherever they live in perceptible numbers

they are more or less persecuted.

Everything tends, in fact, to
one and the same conclusion

clearly enunciating the classic
Berlin phrase Juden raus.

Jews get out.

I shall now put the question
in the briefest possible form.

Are we to get out now and where to?

In the
booklet Herzl explained

why he believed Palestine for

historic and religious reasons

should be the home for
the new Jewish state.

The Jews have dreamt

this kingly dream all through
the nights of their history.

Next year in Jerusalem is our old phrase.

It is now a question of showing that the

dream can be converted
into a living reality.

Only a tiny publisher

with a bookstore of
Vienna's Wahringer Strasse,

N. Breitenstein, was willing to take

a chance publishing Der Judenstaat.

While Breitenstein displayed
a few copies of the book

in its store window the
bulk of the printing run,

500 copies, was sent to Herzl's
home a few streets away.

As he opened one of the boxes he

could not contain his excitement.

I was terribly shaken.

This package of pamphlets constitutes

the decision in tangible form.

My life may now take a new turn.

His prediction came true

when the London Jewish Chronicle published

an excerpt from his book sparking

great interest across Europe.

When the wire services identified Herzl

as the literary editor
of the Neue Freie Presse

his editors were furious.

Moriz Benedikt offered to pay him to

withdraw The Jewish
State from publication.

No individual has the right

to take upon himself the
tremendous moral responsibility

of setting this avalanche in motion.

We shall lose our present country

before we get a Jewish state.

The pamphlet is unripe for publication.

You are risking your literary reputation.

But Herzl refused
to take his editor's offer.

I have
already published the idea.

It no longer belongs
to me but to all Jews.

If I keep silent now I endanger
my reputation all the more.

Very quickly The Jewish State

became one of the main
topics of conversation

in Vienna, not all of it complementary.

Vienna's cafes were filled

with people joking about Theodor
Herzl's new Jewish state.

Behind his back he was being called

the redeemer from the Pelikangasse.

One evening as Herzl
entered the Burgtheater

people laughed at him as he
made his way to his seat.

He heard whispers of
'his Majesty has arrived'

and 'Herzl the King'.

One prominent member of
Vienna's Jewish community

was asked what he was willing
to do for Herzl's cause.

If Herzl should
be taken to the lunatic asylum

I shall be glad to put my
carriage at his disposal.

Yet Herzl, who had always

been sensitive to criticism
ignored the jibes.

In order to
be proved right in 30 years

one has to be prepared in the

first few weeks to be considered a madman.

In political circles Herzl

was condemned by everyone
from the Prime Minister

to the aging Emperor Franz Joseph.

Orthodox Jewish leaders
were also up in arms.

- The Orthodox Jews said that

he was anticipating the Messiah.

That he was an adventurer,

and

that

only God, in His own time,

could bring about the redemption

and the gathering in of the exiles.

But so were the reform Rabbis by and large

in most of the world.

They

were alarmed at this

affront to their notion of patriotism.

Patriotism

not for a Jewish state,

but for full integration
in their own society.

Ironically one of those

most supportive was Herman Bahr,

Herzl's old fraternity brother

whose anti-Jewish speech caused
his resignation from Albia.

Bahr had long renounced
his anti-Jewish views,

and became a well known
and respected author.

He had written an international
survey of anti-Semitism,

and concluded that it was a new madness.

Another admirer was Sigmund Freud

who would later send a
copy of his seminal book

The Interpretation of Dreams
to Herzl with a letter

praising him for being a fighter

for the human rights of all people.

Herzl also received the
almost unanimous endorsement

from the Jewish student fraternities

at the University of Vienna.

At the University of Berlin

a group of Russian Jewish medical

students who'd been Zionists for years

were jolted by Herzl's book.

One of them was a 22 year
old named Chaim Weizmann.

And veteran Zionists
throughout eastern Europe,

and Russia, and even the
small settlements in Palestine

who had joined the cause decades earlier

also jumped on his bandwagon.

In the shtetl of Plonsk, in Poland,

a 10 year old boy David Grun heard talk

that the Messiah had arrived.

A tall, handsome man.

A learned man of Vienna.

A doctor no less, Theodor Herzl.

Letters of support by the hundreds

starting arriving at the
Herzl home on Pelikangasse.

A polish Rabbi wrote
that 3 million Hasidin

were ready to join the movement.

Julie was horrified when supporters

started showing up at their front door.

The majority of them were
poor eastern European Jews

for whom she had no affinity.

They were the last people she
wanted in her elegant home.

One of the more unusual visitors

was the Reverend William Hechler.

The Anglican minister showed up,

and insisted that it was his destiny

to arrange a meeting between Herzl

and Germany's Grand Duke of Baden

who was also the uncle of
Kaiser Wilhelm the second.

Herzl was taken aback by
the flamboyant Reverend

who asked if he would be
willing to pay his expenses

to travel to Germany to
meet with the Grand Duke

in order to setup the royal audience.

Still he was willing to
risk a few hundred gilden

if there was a chance
that Reverend Hechler

could make good on his word
which he did a few weeks later

when he summoned Herzl to come to

the Grand Duke's estate in Germany.

A nervous Herzl fretted over his remarks,

and worried about what to wear.

But rather than being
intimidated by the Grand Duke

the Zionist leader charmed
and impressed the royal

for the better part of
two and a half hours.

He outlined a scheme where world Jewry

would pay off the huge foreign debt of

Sultan Abdul Hamid and the Ottoman Empire

which controlled Palestine.

In exchange the Jews would be

granted Palestine for their new state.

Herzl wanted the Kaiser's assistance

in convincing Abdul Hamid
to go along with the plan.

By the end of the meeting the Grand Duke

was fully committed to helping
Herzl realize his goal.

He agreed to use his influence to help him

gain a meeting with his nephew.

Leaving the Duke's estate

Herzl was in a daze.

He could not believe what
he'd just accomplished.

12 months previously he was

rejected by Baron von Hirsch.

Now we was a step away from
meeting with the Kaiser.

Writing in his diaries he reflected on

what he had accomplished in a year's time.

If during the coming year

I make relatively the same progress

from the zero point of last year

then we shall be at the
L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim.

Next year in Jerusalem.

Herzl returned
home to more good news.

One of his contacts had been in touch

with government officials
in Constantinople.

The word was that Sultan Abdul Hamid

was willing to meet with him.

Herzl was soon on his way to Turkey.

Once in Constantinople Herzl found himself

going from one meeting to the next

paying off one Turkish
official after another

in what he quickly learned was

the custom in the Ottoman Empire.

All in the hope of seeing Abdul Hamid.

Despite getting a glimpse of him

at one of his main residences,

and even being invited
on an inspection tour

on the bosphorus of his palaces

the promised audience with
the Sultan never took place.

The officials to whom Herzl
had paid lavish bribes

insisted that a meeting would
happen during his next visit.

At his hotel the evening
before his departure

Herzl was extremely depressed,

and then a gift arrived for him

from one of the royal palaces.

A box containing the

Commander's Cross of the Ottoman

Empire from the Sultan himself.

His mood changed.

Herzl wrote in his diary that

the trip had been a brilliant success.

He was certain that he had laid the

foundation for the future

negotiations with the Ottoman Turks.

On his way home Herzl stopped off in Paris

to convene with Max Nordau

who bolstered his spirits by marveling

over everything he'd
accomplished in Turkey.

With Nordau's help he secured a

meeting with Edmund de Rothschild

whose family charities had been

supporting a number of Jewish
colonies throughout Palestine.

Herzl was hoping that Rothschild would

be willing to help him in his
negotiations with the Sultan.

But it turned out that
the French banking heir

had yet to read The Jewish State,

and had absolutely no interest in

the idea of a max exodus
of Jews to Palestine.

It will be impossible to

control the influx of the
masses into Palestine.

The first to arrive
will be 150,000 beggars.

They would have to be
fed, presumably by me,

and there could be unforeseen mishaps.

Herzl responded furiously.

Are there no mishaps now?

Is anti-Semitism not a permanent mishap

with loss of honor, life, and property?

For several hours
the two men argued bitterly.

When it became clear to Herzl that

he was getting nowhere with
his case he decided to leave.

Back at his old Paris
haunt the Hotel Castille

he expressed his frustrations about

the meeting to an associate.

There's only one answer.

Organize our masses at once.

Let us get them ready to go.

Stand by for word of command.

As a means of agitation I suggest

the flag with seven gold stars.

Here is my design for it.

When he returned to Vienna

after more than six weeks
away from his family

he returned to a new home.

A more elegant address on the Burgasse

near the house of Sigmund Freud.

As 1897

began Herzl was receiving

hundreds of supporters at his home,

and preparations were in full swing

for an international
conference of Zionists

that he wanted to convene that August.

He was also forced to go back to work

at the Neue Freie Presse

more dependent upon his job than ever

because of his diminishing finances.

The strain on his health
was becoming apparent.

His heart, damaged from his bouts

of malaria in France years
before, was causing him problems

forcing him at times to take to his bed.

Fearing his own mortality he

wrote his last will and testament.

In a letter to a friend he exclaimed--

We must think of the future.

The movement must not rest on two eyes.

The idea must not die with me.

A few weeks
later Herzl announced

the creation of Die Welt, or
The World, a Zionist weekly

initially financed by
his father and himself.

The announcement led to yet

another battle with Moriz Benedikt.

I speak as your true friend.

You only do yourself harm
by standing up as a Jew.

Heed my friendly advice.

Promise me that you will
close down Die Welt.

But Herzl
ignored his publisher,

and even went as far as
cleaning out his desk

at the Neue Freie Presse
fully expecting to be fired.

Yet because he was one of the paper's

most popular columnists
his job remained secure.

He later jotted in his diary.

The greatest happiness

to be able to be what one really is.

During the spring
Herzl convened a conference

of his deputies in Vienna to
organize the Zionist Congress

he wanted to hold that August.

Among other things it was decided to

hold the conference in Munich.

A central location with plenty

of kosher restaurants and hotels,

but as soon as the word got out

about the congress
trouble began developing.

Vienna Chief Rabbi Moritz Gudemann,

who a year and a half earlier
has likened Herzl to Moses,

wrote an attack against Zionism

insisting that Judaism and
nationalism were not compatible.

In Berlin, the Rabbinical
Council of Germany

also published a strong statement

against the Zionist movement
and the plans for a congress.

This led to protests from
Munich's Jewish leadership

about holding the Zionist
Congress in their city.

An angry Herzl decided to move

the convocation to Basel, Switzerland

where he had more support from
the local Jewish community.

Herzl arrived at Basel's hotel

Les Trois Rois overlooking the Rhine

a few days before the
congress was to begin.

He quickly rented the Stadt Casino

a well known concert hall in a

small Swiss city for the assembly,

and then the delegates,
more than 200 of them

from 17 countries, started to arrive.

They had come to the congress seeking a

life beyond pogroms and
religious persecution.

They could hardly contain their excitement

over what they believed was

about to happen for the Jewish people.

They were sure that they were transforming

the dream of returning the Jewish people

to the land of Israel into a reality.

- This was the first
gathering on such a scale

that had taken place
for almost 2,000 years.

Delegates coming from all over the world,

different Jewish communities,

meeting in Basel to establish
a Jewish national home

in Palestine recognized
in international law.

The delegates hailed from

all over Europe, North Africa,
Palestine, and America.

There were lawyers from Vienna,

bankers from Holland and Sweden,

along with professors
and students from Germany

as well as shopkeepers
from Poland and Hungary.

Some were rich and others poor.

Many were young men from
eastern Europe and Russia

carrying satchels of
food with them from home

prepared by their wives and
mothers for the long journey

primarily by third class rail.

The religious mingled with the secular.

One group that stayed away
was the Jewish aristocracy,

and so did the Neue Freie Presse.

While more than 30 members of

the world press covered the congress

Herzl's editors who were angrily opposed

to his Zionist activities
chose not to send a reporter,

and never mentioned one word

about the conference in the paper.

Julie Herzl was also

a no show.

She and her husband had argued for weeks

because she refused to attend.

She disapproved of her
husband's Zionist activities

even more than his employers did.

What had happened to the prominent

journalist she had married she demanded.

The well known man about town

who was now leading an ethnic cause

she had no interest in whatsoever.

Herzl's experience in the theater

gave him a sense of how
to choreograph the event.

He personally supervised the lighting,

the stage setting, and even
how the delegates would dress.

That evening as he walked to the podium

to deliver his inaugural address

Theodor Herzl was greeted
with a stomping of feet,

and a thunderous ovation.

People reached out to kiss
his hand as he walked by.

On the stage as he tried
to begin his speech

the cheers of the crowd would not end.

One delegate, the Hebrew writer Ben Amid,

recorded how among the cheers one

could hear the cries of

Long live the King.

When he finally got the
opportunity to speak

Herzl went straight to the point.

He explained that they needed
to setup an organization

to negotiate with the great powers,

and specifically with the Ottoman Empire

to achieve Jewish settlement
in Palestine on a large scale.

Jewish colonization should no longer

be conducted in secret,

and must be in accord
with international law.

Herzl concluded that the
goal of the Zionist Congress

was to create a new kind of Jew.

A people
can only help itself.

If it cannot that people
cannot be helped at all.

We want to lay the
cornerstone of the edifice

that is one day to
house the Jewish nation.

We have come home as it were.

Zionism is our return to Judaism

even before our return to the Jewish land.

When Herzl
finished his speech

pandemonium once again broke out.

The crowd rushed to the stage

knocking over chairs and tables.

A woman in the gallery fainted.

As Herzl rested in his hotel room

for the first time in days he

took a moment to write in his diary.

The man who brought to Basel

the daydreams he had had in

the Tuilerie gardens two years before

that man may yet sail the

Mediterranean Sea as a Jew returning home.

On the Sabbath,

a day before the first
Zionist Congress opened,

Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau

who could count on less than one hand

the number of times they'd
been to synagogue as adults

decided to attend services out of respect

to the religious
delegates who were coming,

and the Jewish community of Basel.

When the Zionist leader was called up

to the Torah to say the blessings

there was a hush as he recited
them perfectly without pause.

Herzl's trip to the synagogue was also

evidence of a growing relationship

with Basel's Rabbi Arthur Cohen

who also served as Chief
Rabbi of Switzerland.

At the closing session of the congress

one of the most emotional moments occurred

when Rabbi Cohen came to the podium

and recalled how several weeks earlier he,

like most of Europe's Rabbis,

spoke out against Zionism.

But now, he explained,
that after listening

to the speeches of the past few days

and meeting with Herzl
he had a change of heart.

He was now a supporter of the movement.

The Rabbi expressed that
he had only one concern

about the new Jewish state.

Would the Sabbath, and other
doctrines of the faith be kept?

Herzl rose from his
chair and answered him.

Judaism has nothing to fear

from the Jewish state.

Rabbi Cohen responded that

he would now dedicate his
life to the Zionist cause.

- My grandfather

was a man

not only of an enormous wisdom.

He had an enormous wisdom of life,

and his vision

was

that the future of Judaism

must be linked with something

like what Theodor Herzl wanted.

The greatness of the whole thing

is

Herzl himself, an assimilated Jew,

with no knowledge whatsoever about

any tenets of Judaism

insists

that they absolutely
need an Orthodox Rabbi

because if you don't have that

we will not have the Orthodox Jewry

and if you don't have the Orthodox Jewry

the whole Zionist movement
will have no future.

As Herzl announced the

first Zionist Congress is now closed

a celebration took place that even the

Zionist newspaper Die
Welt maintained was hard

to adequately describe.

Delegates danced and sang
while embracing and kissing.

Women waved handkerchiefs.

Throughout the hall cries of next year

in Jerusalem could be heard.

The scene went on for more than an hour.

In the days following
the delegates meditated

on how profoundly the experience

had not only changed them,

but the future of the
Jewish people as well.

Leib Yaffe from Grodno spoke for many.

For us the first congress

was a crisis that changed our faith.

It revolutionized our entire world,

and divided the history of
our exile into two parts.

The first before the congress,

and the second the part that came after.

Writer Israel Zangwill,

a delegate from England,

was known for being a skeptic and a cynic.

He was uncharacteristically emotional

when he wrote about the congress.

By the rivers of Babylon

we sat down and wept
as we remembered Zion.

By the river of Basel

we sat down and resolved to weep no more.

Not long after its end

Theodor Herzl also reflected on

what had been accomplished at
the first Zionist Congress.

Were I to sum up

the Basel Congress in a
few words it would be this.

In Basel I founded the Jewish state.

If I said this aloud today I would

be answered by universal laughter.

Perhaps in five years,
and certainly in 50,

everyone will agree.

The Zionist Congress

profoundly changed Herzl's
personal life as well.

That December there was no
Christmas tree in his house.

Instead Hanukkah was celebrated.

Just before the holiday Herzl penned

an autobiographical short
story entitled The Menorah.

There was a man
who felt deep in his heart

the distress of being a Jew.

He had long ignored his Jewish origin.

Then the old hatred rose again.

Like many others he believed

that the trend would soon disappear,

but it grew worse.

The mounting assaults pained him

until his soul was one bleeding wound.

And it came to pass that through these

inner muted passions he was led

to their source to his Judaism.

Out of dark feelings grew clear thoughts.

He uttered them aloud.

The one way out of the
misery of being Jewish

is to return to Jewishness.

Throughout 1898 Herzl

and the Zionist movement continued

to gain credibility around the world.

By the fall he received word that

Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm the second

was ready to endorse his plan.

The Emperor was willing to meet with Herzl

in Constantinople where he was on his way

to the Holy Land for a pilgrimage.

Wilhelm the second had no
great love for the Jews.

He was known to call them kikes,

and felt that their
persecution was deserved

for having been responsible
for the killing of Jesus.

But that October when the audience

took place in Constantinople
in one of the Sultan's palaces

the Kaiser was very blunt with Herzl.

There are
elements among your people

for whom it would be a good
thing to move to Palestine.

There are users at work
among the rural population.

If these people settled in the colonies

with their possessions they
would be more useful citizens.

Herzl became so irritated

that he almost lost his composure.

Jews are neither better

nor worse than other people.

Anti-Semitism is stabbing the

very best of us right to the heart.

We have been deeply hurt.

After all we will be taking the Jews

away from the revolutionary parties.

Herzl's remarks
disarmed the situation.

The Kaiser announced that he

would receive the Zionist leader

and his delegation in Jerusalem where,

in a formal setting, Herzl could

present his plan in a
speech to the royal party.

A few days later Herzl and his delegation

were aboard a steamship
on their way to Palestine.

About 7 o'clock
the first touch of land.

Two little mountain tops were sighted.

The delegation arrived in

Jaffa Harbor early on October 26th.

The Jaffa to which Herzl arrived

looked better from afar.

It was a city of poverty,

of mud huts, and open sewers.

Just 10 % of the city's
32,000 residents were Jews,

but many of them crowded the harbor

to catch a glimpse of the
author of The Jewish State.

They were eager to see the man

they called King of the Jews.

Over the course of two
days Herzl and his party

visited one Jewish
settlement after another.

One of the stops was the

agricultural school of Mikveh,
Israel founded in 1817.

Herzl had been informed that the

Kaiser would be traveling
by horseback to Jerusalem

stopping at Mikveh, Israel along the way.

It was suggested that he try

to meet Wilhelm the second there.

The Kaiser rode up to the gates of

the settlement on a huge white stallion,

and seeing Herzl, greeted him,

and began conversing about
his impressions of Palestine.

A member of the delegation had been

recruited to take a photo
of the Kaiser and Herzl,

but he was so nervous that he

only managed to capture
Herzl's hand in the lens.

When the error was noticed
after it was developed

another member of the group had an idea.

A snapshot of Herzl and
a snapshot of the Emperor

were sent to a photo
retoucher who merged the two

in what became the official photo

the Zionist movement
sent around the world.

Shortly after the encounter

Herzl and his delegation
traveled by train to Jerusalem.

He toured the old city,

and visited the Kotel the western
wall of the Second Temple.

- He was disappointed with
what he saw in Jerusalem.

He was shocked,

and taken aback

by their squalor,

the backwardness, the misery.

At the same time he saw the
potential of the country.

He didn't cast any doubts

on the

correctness

of his

vision that this would have to
be the Jewish national home.

After waiting almost a week

Herzl and his delegation were

finally called to see the Kaiser.

Dressed in formal attire they arrived

at the Emperor's encampment.

Herzl started his speech by describing

the nature of the Zionist dream.

We are
bound to the sacred soil.

Many generations have come
since this land was Jewish,

but the dream still lives on in

the many hundreds and thousands.

Whenever foes oppressed us,

whenever we were begrudged
our rights to live

in our depressed hearts
we remembered Zion.

This is the land of our fathers.

It cries out for its people.

No man's rights or religious feelings

are threatened by our idea.

Herzl fully
expected the Kaiser

to respond as enthusiastically
as he did in Constantinople.

Wilhelm the second proceeded
to make small talk,

discussing Palestine's water,

and agricultural needs for a few minutes.

He then stood up and ended the meeting.

As Herzl was ushered out of the royal tent

he could not believe what was happening.

The Kaiser had changed his mind.

The Zionist leader was in shock,

and did not utter a word on
the way back to the hotel.

The next day he

and the delegation
abruptly left Palestine.

Upon returning to Vienna Herzl went back

to his job at the Neue Freie Presse.

He had not reported one
word about his trip.

He had just met with the Kaiser,

something no Jew had ever done,

yet it did not merit a
story in his own newspaper.

On the personal front

the pressures of family and finances

were greater than ever
on the Zionist leader.

Julie insisted that the family move

to an even grander home in one of

Vienna's most opulent neighborhoods

where the children were
looked after by governesses,

and educated by private tutors

despite the fact that more than

half of Julie's dowry was gone,

and much of what she'd inherited

from her father's estate
had also been spent.

Financing Die Welt had cost Herzl

more than 50,000 gilden,

and there was no telling how much

of his own funds had gone to

cover his travels for the movement.

In frail health for
years all of the strain

in his professional and personal life

were starting to take its toll.

He fainted and collapsed
on a number of occasions.

In a diary entry he wrote on

the occasion of his 41st
birthday May the 2nd, 1901

he commented on how difficult
the struggle had been.

The wind
blows through the stubble.

I must my pace redouble.

It is almost six years since
I started this movement

which has made me old, tired, and poor.

Yet Hertz was convinced

that he had made the right decision

in devoting himself to the cause.

Zionism has
been the Sabbath of my life.

Despite his failing health

over the next 18 months he made three more

unsuccessful trips to Constantinople

unable to strike a deal with
the Sultan for Palestine.

He traveled back and forth

across Europe from Vienna to London

looking to raise money for the movement,

but wherever he went, the rich Jews

continued to close their doors to him.

Only the poor supported him financially.

In order to escape the
constant stress of his life

Herzl turned to writing, in this case,

a novel entitled Altneuland,

or Old New Land.

- In this novel he envisages

the new Palestine which has been settled

and developed by Jews

as being at the hub

of a revived,

commercially advanced Middle East

which has connections
with the whole world.

Altneuland took an

idealistic position on the future

of relations with the Arabs.

Herzl believed that the
Jews coming to Palestine

would not only enrich their own lives,

but those of the Arabs
living there as well.

The book became a best
seller around the world,

and Herzl considered it his best

work after The Jewish State.

Not long after its publication
in the spring of 1902

Herzl's beloved father Jakob died

suddenly of a massive stroke.

My dear,
my good, my golden one.

How greatly I remain in his debt.

I owe him everything.

He stood by my side like a tree.

Now that tree is gone.

Jakob Herzl was buried

in a temporary grave in Vienna.

His son refused to buy a family vault

sure that his father's remains would

be transported to Palestine when

the rest of the family moved there.

After the mourning period ended

Herzl turned his sights on England.

Even though it had almost no influence

over the Ottoman Turks
the British government

had adopted a sympathetic view of Zionism.

He now began meeting regularly with

Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain

and several other officials.

During one of those meetings
the colonial secretary,

and father of the future Prime Minister

Neville Chamberlain, proposed an idea.

There was a British territory
he could offer to Herzl

where the Jews could move to immediately.

Uganda.

The Zionist leader was not interested.

But then on April 19th,
1903 anti-Jewish violence

broke out in the Russian town of Kishinev.

Some 50 Jews were murdered,

over 600 seriously wounded,

thousands of shops and homes destroyed.

The news reached Herzl as he was in London

for another round of
meetings with Chamberlain.

He decided to accept the

colonial secretary's offer of Uganda.

- Herzl was driven by the thought

there was not much time left.

This is a man who almost
has a prophetic sense

that the ground is literally burning

under the feet of the Jewish people,

and if they don't get it in time

a catastrophe will occur.

That's why he grabbed the Uganda offer

which would have been, hopefully,

a temporary solution

for

the Jews of Russia in particular.

David Lloyd George,

a prominent lawyer and a future
Prime Minister of England

was engaged to draft a Jewish land chart

for Uganda in time for Herzl to present it

at the upcoming sixth Zionist Congress.

As this was unfolding Herzl

made one of his boldest moves yet.

He approached Tsarist Russia

for a meeting to convince it
to allow its Jews to leave,

and to exert pressure on the Turks

to allow some form of Jewish
autonomy in Palestine.

The Russians had been harshly criticized

around the world for the Kishinev pogrom,

and the Tsarist government
agreed to the meeting

hoping that it would
help repair its image.

Herzl arrived in St.
Petersburg in early August 1903

meeting with Count Wenzel von Plehve

the Tsar's Minister of the Interior.

Russian Zionists who
viewed Count von Plehve

as the butcher of Kishinev were furious.

Von Plehve made no secret about

how he viewed the Jewish people.

The Jews are an
alien element in our society.

We are justified to suppress them.

The Count explained that

he was eager to see a
Jewish state established

so that Russia could get rid of its Jews.

After almost a week of meetings

Herzl was given a letter from the Tsar

formally pledging the Russian government's

support for the Zionist
cause on one condition.

That the movement must encourage Jews

to move from Russia to Palestine

as soon as the homeland is established.

Herzl departed from St. Petersburg

stopping overnight in Vilna

a city renowned for its Talmudic scholars

known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania.

Hundreds of Jews converged

upon its train station
crying Herzl, Herzl,

and long live the King.

Vilna's aged Chief Rabbi hailed him

as the greatest son of the Jewish people.

Herzl was then taken to a private dinner

in a small village almost an hour away.

Young Zionists walked all the way

from Vilna just to be near him.

When he returned to the
city later that night,

despite a heavy rain,
crowds lined the streets

to cheer him from the
balconies as he passed by.

Less than a week later the sixth

Zionist Congress opened in Basel.

There were now almost 600 delegates.

A testament to the huge
growth of the movement

since the first congress in 1897.

Those assembled were shocked
at Herzl's physical appearance.

The strain of the last year was

evident on his lined
face, his bent posture,

and his predominantly gray hair and beard.

The stress would only increase for Herzl

as the Uganda plan was
announced to the congress.

The British government

is fully aware of our movement's
ultimate aims in Palestine.

Uganda will never be Zion.

It will serve as a provisional
site for colonization.

Russian Zionists
who were already angry

about his meeting with Count von Plehve

threatened a hunger strike if
the Uganda proposal passed.

Cries of traitor could
be heard in the hall.

One of the strongest protests
came from Chaim Weizmann

the young chemist who had become

a leader in the Russian faction.

Herzl was devastated.

A diary entry during the
congress was full of despair.

My heart is
palpitating from fatigue.

Not for a single moment did it occur

to any of them that for these

greatest of all accomplishments to date

I deserve a word of
thanks, or even a smile.

Max Nordau rallied the forces

behind the Zionist leader convincing many

that Uganda could be a useful way station,

and could help save Jewish lives.

In the end a watered down proposal

calling only for the dispatching of

an expedition of experts to
investigate Uganda was passed.

In his closing speech Herzl

acknowledged the controversy over Uganda.

I proposed
an expedient to you

and having learned to know your hearts

I also want to offer you
a word of consolation

which is at once a pledge on my part.

He then
raised his right hand,

and proclaimed--

If I forget
thee, oh Jerusalem,

may my right hand lose its cunning.

Following the congress

Herzl traveled to Italy to meet with,

and garner the support of,
King Victor Emmanuel the third.

He was also granted an audience at the

Vatican with Pope Pius the tenth.

Speaking in halting Italian Herzl

asked for the Pope's good will.

The Pope responded that the Church

could not approve of Zionism.

We cannot prevent the

Hebrews from going to Jerusalem,

but we could never sanction it.

The Hebrews have not recognized our Lord

therefore we cannot
recognize the Hebrew people.

If you come to Palestine

and settle your people
there we shall keep churches

and priests ready to baptize all of them.

Returning to Vienna,

Herzl's health began
to deteriorate rapidly.

To a friend he remarked that
his days might be numbered.

It was my
mistake that I began too late.

If you knew how much I suffer

at the thought of the lost years

that I did not approach my task sooner.

If my health were as good as
my will all would be well,

but one cannot buy back lost years.

By May, not
long after his 44th birthday,

his condition had become so critical

that his doctors ordered him
to a sanitarium in Bohemia.

During his stay he wrote
a letter to his wife

with whom he had made
peace during the last year.

I know well that I

will not find a better one than you

dear, brave mother of
my precious children.

I wish, dear one, that we
were both in better health.

A month later his doctors

transferred him to a clinic in Austria

not far from where he
and Julie were married.

His wife sat with him day and night.

His friend,

and former nemesis, Herman Bahr

arrived and took him for
walks on the terrace.

The Reverend Hechler also came to visit

sitting at his bedside promising Herzl

that he would once again go to Palestine

and see Jerusalem from
the Mount of Olives.

Young Zionists had
assembled outside the clinic

standing guard over their leader.

Noticing them he commented.

They're
marvelous, good people.

My compatriots.

You shall see they shall enter
the promised land one day.

The end, when it came on

July 3rd, 1904 was sudden.

Herzl groaned and his head fell back.

He was dead just two months
after his 44th birthday.

The news of Theodor Herzl's death

created a shockwave around the world.

Herzl's passing was major news

in both mainstream and Jewish newspapers.

He was hailed as one of the
greatest figures of the century.

The Neue Freie Presse, for whom Herzl

had toiled for almost 20 years,

devoted its front page to an obituary

that went into detail about
his literary achievements,

and his work as a foreign correspondent.

It reduced his Zionist activities

to just two small sentences at the end.

Tens of thousands of letters and telegrams

expressing condolences arrived
at his home and office.

Chaim Weizmann who less
than a year earlier

was criticizing Herzl from the

podium at the Zionist Congress

wrote to his wife Vera about
what the loss meant to him.

At this moment all the

differences between us have disappeared,

and I only have the image of a great,

creative worker in front of my eyes.

And in the shtetl of Plonsk,

an 18 year old David Grun,

who would soon leave for Palestine,

was grief stricken but
resolute at the same time.

What a loss.

Nevertheless, today, more than ever

I believe we shall succeed.

I know the day will come.

It is not far.

When we will return to the wonderful land.

Thousands converged

upon Vienna for the funeral.

It was one of the biggest
the city had ever seen.

Herzl had written that he
wanted a poor man's ceremony.

No flowers or speeches,

but that was not to be the case.

Some 6,000 people walked
behind the hearse.

The funeral services
lasted for several hours.

Herzl's 13 year old son
Hans read the Kaddish,

the Jewish memorial
prayer, at his open grave.

The Zionist leader asked to
be buried next to his father

until the day when the Jewish people

transfer my remains to Palestine.

Theodor Herzl's request
was finally carried out

on August the 16th, 1949.

His remains were taken from
Vienna's Dobling cemetery,

and flown, not to Palestine,
but to the state of Israel

declared on May the 14th, 1948.

A little more than 50 years after

the Zionist leader's prediction

in the diary entry he wrote upon

concluding the first Zionist Congress.

Signing the executive order for the

transfer and reburial of the remains

on the newly named Mount
Herzl was David Ben-Gurion

formerly known as David Grun.

The little boy from Plonsk had

become Israel's first Prime Minister.

Also officiating at the
ceremony was the former chemist

and Russian Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann.

He'd become Israel's first President.

Much had happened in the four

and a half decades since
Herzl's untimely passing.

Tragedy had struck his family as

his wife died in 1907, his mother in 1911,

and two of his children,

and his only grandchild were lost

to suicide in 1930,

1931,

and 1946.

His youngest child, Trude,

was murdered by the Nazis in

Theresien during the Holocaust.

In 1917 the Zionist movement's

former lawyer in Great Britain,

Prime Minister David Lloyd George,

approved the Balfour Declaration.

It called for the establishment of a

Jewish national home in Palestine

for which the British were given a

League of Nations mandate
after World War One in 1919.

But bowing to pressure from the Arab world

the British never fulfilled their promise

to create a Jewish national home,

and placed strict limits
on the amount of Jews

allowed to immigrate to Palestine.

Many would later ask would six million

European Jewish men, women,

and children who perished
during the Shoah,

which Herzl had long feared,

been saved had the doors
to Palestine been opened?

- The great Jewish people

that are living in their spa

began to justify their spa.

And Herzl says no.

They didn't like the idea.

It wasn't only religious.

The problem is that the spa created

a, I suppose, spirit before we can say so

and Herzl says no.

You can be Kings, you can be independent,

you can be our own state.

Since the Holocaust they looked
upon Israel as a shelter.

As a place where the Jewish
people can feel safer.

Time has come now to look upon Israel

not as a shelter but as a magnet.

And there are great things in Israel.

The land without water,

without territory, without
any natural resources

becomes such a great
success in agriculture.

We are a superpower in hiding,

and this country, every day,
is changing for the better.

Jews without miracles
will never be a miracle.

Certainly there are more miracles,

and he was the carrier of the dream.

= When the prophet Jeremiah

was imprisoned for having prophesized

the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Babylonians,

and the fall of the city had begun

a vision came to him that he would be

approached by a relative
to buy land there,

and that he should immediately agree.

In the vision the God
of Israel promised him

houses, fields, and vineyards will

yet be aught in this land.

There will again be heard in this place

in the cities of Judah,

and in the streets of
Jerusalem, the sound of joy,

the sound of gladness,
the sound of the groom

and the sound of the bride will

again be heard in this place.

In those days I will administer justice

and righteousness in the land.

At the end of the Jewish state

Theodor Herzl envisioned what his dream

would bring not only to the Jewish people,

but to the world.

What glory awaits those

who fight unselfishly for the cause?

I believe that a wondrous
generation of Jews

will spring into existence.

We shall live as free men on our own soil,

and die peacefully in our own homes,

and whatever we attempt to accomplish

for our own welfare will react powerfully

and beneficially for the good of humanity.

The world will be freed by our liberty,

enriched by our wealth,

magnified by our greatness.