February 14, 1896: Theodor Herzl Publishes "Der Judenstaat"

February 14, 1896: Theodor Herzl publishes his pamphlet Der Judenstaat, meaning The Jewish State, in Leipzig, Germany.

Born on May 2, 1860 in Pest, in the Austrian Empire -- now the east bank of the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary -- Herzl had a brief legal career in the Austrian capital of Vienna. He became the Paris correspondent for the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Press (The New Free Press). Confronted with anti-Semitic 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.

The term "Zionism" had been coined by Austrian journalist Nathan Birnbaum in 1890, to mean the struggle for a secure homeland for the Jewish people. Ironically, later in life, Birnbaum became an Orthodox Jew, and a fervent anti-Zionist. It would be Herzl who popularized the term.

In Der Judenstaat, Herzl elaborated his visions of a Jewish homeland. He envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state at some point during the coming 20th Century, thinking it the best way to avoid anti-Semitism in Europe. He encouraged Jews to purchase land in the land then known as Palestine, the historic homeland of the Jews, then controlled by the Ottoman Empire. His ideas attracted international attention, and rapidly established him as a major figure in the Jewish world.

The book was published while the Dreyfus Affair was ongoing in France. So Herzl was being direct when he wrote:

The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries -- see, for instance, France -- so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level.

He concluded the book as follows:

Therefore I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The Maccabeans will rise again.

Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it.

We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes.

The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness.

And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for the good of humanity.

Herzl planned to deliver his pamphlet as a speech to the Rothschild family, well-known throughout the world as bankers and among world's the best-known Jews, then based in Boulogne, France. But, though himself a Zionist, Baron Edmond de Rothschild rejected Herzl's plan, feeling that it threatened Jews in the Diaspora. He also thought it would put his own settlements in Palestine at risk.

In 1897, Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress at the Stadtcasino 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 Kaiser Wilhelm II and Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

He sought out seemingly friendly ears in the South American nation of Argentina and the African nation of Uganda -- which will sound ironic to people familiar with the former's welcome of Nazi war criminals after World War II and the latter's dictatorship of Idi Amin and his alliance with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Neither country was willing to listen.

On January 26, 1904, Herzl visited Rome, and met with Pope Pius X. The Pope received Herzl with respect, but declined to help. Herzl was soon diagnosed with a heart ailment, and died on July 3, only 44 years old. In Reichenau an der Rax, Austria. He was buried in Vienna.

Further Zionist attempts to negotiate with the Ottoman authorities failed, but with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, and the subsequent creation of Mandatory Palestine under the control of Britain, the Zionists gained success: Britain issued the Balfour Declaration that supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

In 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine ran out, and the State of Israel was declared. Ever since, "Zionism" has meant the protection of what that country already had, and the repatriation of formerly Jewish lands nearby, which was satisfied with the Six-Day War of 1967. In 1949, Herzl's remains were taken to Israel, and reinterred on a location renamed Mount Herzl.

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February 14, 1896 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball barely existed. But there was 1 notable hockey game played: The Winnipeg Victorias beat the Montreal Victorias, 2-0 at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, and won the Stanley Cup.