Benjamin Cox
World Civilization Since 1500
July 8, 2015
Writing Assignment 3 Unit 3
Zionism as an organized movement is considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl. Herzl first encountered the anti-Semitism that would shape his life and the fate of the Jews in the twentieth century while working as the Paris correspondent for the liberal Vienna newspaper. His degree of education was a Doctor of Law, but he enjoyed writing much better. Anti-Semitism always existed, but the court-martial of Alfred Dreyfus; a Jewish army officer woke Herzl up to the realization of just how much anti-Semitism was around him. In 1894, Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly accused of treason, mainly because of the anti-Semitic atmosphere. Herzl saw mobs shouting “Death to the Jews” in France, and decided that there was only one solution: the moving of Jews to a land that they could call Jewish land. Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the creators at the beginning of a political issue. Jews falsely accused of treason, faced false charges of planning threatening plots, and, in general, Jews became a label unpleasant inside and out character. Herzl argued that the core of the Jewish problem was not individual but national. Herzl realized that the situation cannot improve and will only get worse. The governments can no longer prevent this, even if they wanted to. Herzl devoted his thought and effort to the Jewish problem. At the time, he regarded the Jewish problem as a social issue, but by keeping a diary he realized the position of the Jews and formalized his understanding into a concept of a Jewish State.
During the last decade of the 19th century, Jews were prohibited from joining political parties, workers’ associations and other groups and found themselves stripped of any influence. Their exclusion was sometimes secretive and sometimes very clear. Some groups pass rules not allowing the admission of Jews while others held back from doing so officially while adopting unkind policies in practice. The public administration did not employ Jews; the courts refused them appointments, and Jewish army officers were not advanced. He declared that the Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they ceased being a national abnormality. The Jews are one people, he said, and their predicament could change to a positive action by the establishment of a Jewish state with the approval of the great powers. He saw the Jewish question as an international political question to deal with in the field of international politics. The stormy period with its political changes, economic crises, and social changes were a big part in the development of his plan. Nationalist tendencies, growing anti-Semitism, increasingly racist statements all played a part in his realization that the “Jewish problem” could be ended only through a major step – the establishment of an independent political entity in which the Jews could live in safety. Herzl proposed a practical program for collecting funds from Jews around the world by a company to own by stockholders, which would work toward the practical realization of this goal. He saw the future state as a model social state, basing his ideas on the European model of the time, of a modern enlightened society. It would be neutral and peace-seeking and of a secular nature. Herzl pictured the future Jewish state as a socialist utopia. He could see a new society that was to rise in the Land of Israel on a cooperative basis utilizing science and technology in the development of the Land. He included detailed ideas about how he saw the future state’s political structure, immigration, fundraising, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion and the state. Herzl's ideas were met with enthusiasm by the Jewish masses in Eastern
