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Theodor Herzl er blitt kalt for den politiske sionismens far, og i Staten Israels uavhengighetserklæring fra 1948 blir han kalt for den jødiske statens åndelige far.
Theodor Herzl var en jødisk journalist som ble opprørt over den antisemittismen som han bevitnet i Paris og andre steder i Europa på slutten av 1800-tallet. Herzl hadde tidligere trodd at når jødene blir assimilert, ville det føre til at antisemittismen ville forsvinne.
Men da han ble rystet av antisemittiske utbrudd, skrev han boka "Der Judenstaat", "Den jødiske staten", der han argumenterte med at løsningen på problemet med antisemittisme må være at jødene får sin egen stat. Det var denne boka som ble startskuddet for en prosess der Sionistorganisasjonen ble dannet året etterpå med Herzl som leder. Denne organisasjonen jobbet så utrettelig for å opprette en jødisk stat inntil dette ble en virkelighet i mai 1948.
I anledning Staten Israels 70-års jubileum i 2018 blir denne boka nå utgitt på norsk. I boka finnes det blant annet en kort biografi om Theodor Herzl, og en kronologi over Herzls liv og tjeneste.
About the author
Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 - 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and political activist who was the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state.Herzl was born in Pest, Kingdom of Hungary to a prosperous Neolog Jewish family. After a brief legal career in Vienna, he became the Paris correspondent for the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse. Confronted with antisemitic events in Vienna, he reached the conclusion that anti-Jewish sentiment would make Jewish assimilation impossible, and that the only solution for Jews was the establishment of a Jewish state. In 1896, Herzl published the pamphlet Der Judenstaat, in which he elaborated his visions of a Jewish homeland. His ideas attracted international attention and rapidly established Herzl as a major figure in the Jewish world.In 1897, Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, and was elected president of the Zionist Organization. He began a series of diplomatic initiatives to build support for a Jewish state, appealing unsuccessfully to German emperor Wilhelm II and Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II. At the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903, Herzl presented the Uganda Scheme, endorsed by Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain on behalf of the British government. The proposal, which sought to create a temporary refuge for the Jews in British East Africa following the Kishinev pogrom, was met with strong opposition and ultimately rejected. Herzl died of a heart ailment in 1904 at the age of 44, and was buried in Vienna. In 1949, his remains were brought to Israel and reinterred on Mount Herzl.
