History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 3 [of 3]: From the Accession of Nicholas II until the Present Day — John Shaqi
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 3 [of 3]: From the Accession of Nicholas II until the Present DayDubnow, Simon
History
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 3 [of 3]: From the Accession of Nicholas II until the Present Day
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
At that juncture, the air of Europe resounded with the clarion tones
of Theodor Herzl's appeal to the Jews to establish a "Jewish State."
The appeal came from Western Europe, from the circles in which the
sufferings of their "Eastern brethren" had hitherto been viewed
entirely from the philanthropic point of view. It came from a young
Viennese journalist who had been aroused by the orgy of anti-Semitism
in the capital of Austria (the agitation of Burgomaster Lueger, and
others), and by the exciting anti-Jewish scenes enacted in the capital
of France, where, as a correspondent of the Viennese daily "_Die Neu
Freie Presse_," he followed the Dreyfus affair in its first early
stages. Herzl became suddenly conscious of the acute pain of the Jewish
misery. He saw the anti-Semitism of Western Europe closing ranks with
the Judæophobia of Eastern Europe. He saw the ideal of assimilation
crumbling to pieces, and he made up his mind to hoist the flag of
Jewish nationalism, scarcely aware of the fact that it had already
been hoisted in the East.[18] His pamphlet ("The Jewish State"),
which appeared in the beginning of 1896, was in its fundamental
premises a repetition of the old appeal of Pinsker. The author of the
new publication was convinced, like his predecessor, that the only
relief from the Jewish misery lay in the concentration of the Jewish
people upon a separate territory, without determining the question
whether that territory should be Palestine or Argentina. But, in
contradistinction to Pinsker, Herzl was not satisfied with formulating
the problem theoretically; he offered at the same time a plan of
political and economic organization by means of which the problem was
to be solved: the creation of special representative bodies which were
to enter into negotiations with rulers and Governments concerning the
cession of an appropriate territory to the Jews under an international
protectorate, and were also to obtain huge funds to carry out the
transplantation and resettlement of vast Jewish masses. Representing a
combination of theoretic enthusiasm and practical Utopias, the "Jewish
State" of Herzl revived the nearly smothered political hopes which had
been cherished by the _Hobebe Zion_ circles in Russia. The Russian
Jews, groaning under the yoke of an Egyptian bondage, flocked to the
new Moses who announced the glad tidings of the Exodus, and Herzl,
beholding the ready hosts in the shape of the _Hobebe Zion_ societies,
was quick to adjust his territorialistic scheme to the existing
Palestinian movement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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