Theodor Herzl: “A Solution to the Jewish Question”

About the Author

Theodor Herzl was one of the founders of the Zionist movement and convened the first World Zionist Congress in 1897. The ideas of Zionism existed well before he came into prominence, but his influence became seminal. Herzl was born in 1860 in Budapest, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but he was raised and educated in a secular German world. While Judaism played a role in his background, for much of his life he possessed only a cursory understanding of it. In 1878 Herzl's family moved to the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna, where Herzl attended the University of Vienna and obtain a doctorate in law in 1884.

After graduation, Herzl earned a living as a civil servant and a writer of plays, short stories, and articles. Eventually he secured a job as a journalist for the prestigious Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse (“New Free Press”), which stationed him in Paris as their correspondent. This was the transforming event of Herzl's life, as he would experience firsthand massive anti-Semitism when he covered the treason trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, for his newspaper. Earlier, in 1894, he had published a drama titled The Ghetto that he hoped would serve as a vehicle for discussion and a step toward harmony between Christians and Jews. Prior to the Dreyfus affair, Herzl was fully committed to assimilation into the culture of secular Europe, but the widespread anti-Semitism he witnessed during the Dreyfus affair convinced him that the only solution was a Jewish state. Toward that end, in 1896 he published a pamphlet titled Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”), which was ridiculed by many Jewish leaders who could not conceive it as reality. “The Solution to the Jewish Question” (also published in 1896) is a modified version of Der Judenstaat intended for a British audience.

Herzl's ideas found rapid acceptance among the general Jewish public, but the leaders of the Jewish Diaspora were skeptical as to whether it was feasible. Herzl eventually found sufficient support to call for a meeting of Jewish leaders in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. This was a significant step, for it was the first international meeting of major Jewish leaders. There the World Zionist Congress was formed with Herzl as its president.

As president, Herzl attempted to find a solution to the “Jewish question,” and he even traveled to the Ottoman Empire in 1898 to pursue his dream. Ultimately, his visit was a failure. He did not meet the Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid II, at that time, though he did eventually meet with him in 1901. Still, Ottoman officials informed him that the Ottomans were opposed to autonomous regions or self-rule. He also timed his 1898 visit so that he could meet with the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was visiting the Middle East. He finally met with Kaiser Wilhelm, hoping to recruit him as an ally in the Zionist effort, but the kaiser was dismissive of the idea. A trip to Britain resulted in a modest proposal of Uganda as a potential autonomous homeland. The fact that Herzl considered this as a temporary solution undermined his support in the World Zionist Congress. His death in 1904 ensured that the Uganda plan was forgotten.