Herzl was
one of the greatest leaders of the Jewish People: the one
leader who knew how to initiate and energise a sense of
Jewish-political-sovereignty; the leader who succeeded in
transforming Zionism into a substantial political factor,
and thus marched the Jewish People forward - towards the
obtaining of its state.
Herzl was
bom on May 2nd 1860 in Pest (Budapest - Hungary),
on Dohany Street, nearby the great liberal synagogue.
He attended the local Jewish elementary school, and was
drawn from early boyhood to writing stories and poems. At
school he even formed and led a literary association called
"Wir" (We). In 1878. following the death of his only sister,
his family moved to Vienna, the Capital of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1884,
after he finished his law doctorate, he decided to dedicate
his time to literary, dramaturgic and journalistic writing.
In 1889 he married Julie Naschauer, and the couple bore
three children: Pauline, Hans and Trude.
During the
years 1891-1895, he served in Paris as the foreign
correspondent of the prestigious Viennese newspaper - Neue
Freie Presse (New Free Press - NFP).
There,
after a prolonged process of pondering at the
Jewish-Question, his Zionist-political concept gradually
consolidated, and reached its climax in the wake of the
Dreyfus Affaire as well as the expansion of anti-Semitism in
Vienna. The Jewish-Question, which until then he considered
as a religious or social question, became now, in his eyes,
a pressing national problem.
In July
1895, Herzl returned to Vienna and took the important
position of literary-editor at the NFP, which he held up to
his death.
In
February 1896, he published his pamphlet - The Jewish State.
In it he outlined his Zionist-political programme, according
to which the solution to the Jewish People's distress
throughout the world was - the establishment of The Jewish
State, anchored in international pacts.
On 29th
of August 1897 he assembled in Basel the first World Zionist
Congress – the National Assembly of the Jewish People.
At the
Congress, the governing bodies of the Zionist Movement were
founded in a pattern resembling the structure of a
democratic state. Also, the Movement's official platform –
The Basel Program - was formulated and adopted. It stated:
"Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish People in
Palestine [Eretz-Israel], secured under public law." Herzl,
the now elected leader of the Zionist Movement, invested
endless efforts to implement his plan. He set-up the World
Zionist Organisation, with all its functional and financial
institutions: The Bank - Jewish Colonial Trust and its
subsidiary - Anglo Palestine Company (APC), in Jaffa; The
Keren Kayemeth Leisrael (KKL or JNF - Jewish National Fund)
and the Movement's organ - "Die Welt" (The World).
Herzl
negotiated with various rulers, governments and ministers,
attempting to obtain consent of the Great Powers to the
creation of a Jewish-political entity in Eretz-Israel. This
initially was the cause of his arrival in Eretz-Israel, in
October 1898, his one and only visit to the Land, where he
met with the German Kaiser.
Although
this meeting turned into a failure, the actual encounter
with the land and its inhabitants left a profound impression
on him, which he fully expressed afterwards in his novel
Altneuland (Old-New-Land, 1902). In this book he portrayed
the democratic and pluralistic features of the
Future-Society in Eretz-Israel, when the Zionist enterprise
is fully realised. As a motto for the book he inscribed: "If
you will, it is no fairy tale."
His
diplomatic activity also included an appointment with the
Turkish Sultan (1901), in the hope that the Ottoman Empire
then the ruler of Eretz-Israel, would grant him a Jewish
autonomy there, against full reimbursement of its enormous
foreign debt. Likewise he negotiated-with the heads of Great
Britain and Russia, as well as with the King of Italy and
with the Pope. He also considered various interim plans,
such as the El-Arish (1902) and the Uganda (1903) Projects.
Herzl
died in Ediach, Austria, on July 3rd 1904, at the age of 44.
After his death, the Zionist Movement continued to grow and
develop on the solid foundations that his leadership
provided as long as he lived.
Fifty
years after the First Zionist Congress - about which Herzl
wrote in his diary: "In Basel I founded the Jewish State! If
I were to say this out loud today, everybody would laugh at
me. In 5 years, but certainly in 50, everybody will agree!"
- the Jewish State was realised in the State of Israel.
In August
1949, Herzl's remains were brought from Vienna to Israel, in
accordance with his will, and reburied in Jerusalem, at the
top of Mount Herzl.
Zionism,
for Herzl, was a network of challenges above and beyond the
initial goal of obtaining a State for the Jews. He aspired
to create through it - a model-society, which would develop
a new and supreme moral and spiritual ethos as a constant
and 'endless ideal'.
Description of the Stamp:
The stamp
shows an etching of Herzl's portrait, from 1903, by the
Zionist artist Hermann Struck (b. Berlin 1876; d. Haifa
1944).
Photograph - by the courtesy of Micky Bernstein, Tel Aviv.
The stamp also shows the book- title - The Jewish State - in
Hebrew, German and Hungarian, and its tab bears Altneuland's
motto - "If you will, it is no fairy tale" - in Herzl's own
hand-writing in German, and also in Hebrew, English and
Hungarian.
