Herzl wrote his renowned book “The Jewish State” during a two-month stay in Paris, while waves of antisemitism were erupting all around him – from the Dreyfus Affair to the pogroms in Eastern Europe. The book is the most formative historical document in the history of political Zionism. In his book, Herzl argued that the solution to the “insoluble antisemitism” in Europe lay in the vision of establishing a sovereign Jewish state, a vision he outlined in meticulous detail, including the working hours in the future state. He believed that if an international Jewish movement would organize, such a state could arise based on diplomatic agreements with the powers. Herzl, who clung to his vision and refused to surrender to the prevailing narrative, wrote: “No rich man or powerful man can transfer an entire people from one place to another. Only an idea can do that. The idea of the state certainly has such power. The Jews have dreamed this dream throughout the long exile. Our age-old slogan is ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ Now we must show that this distant dream can be translated into a clear and brilliant idea” (The Jewish State).Herzl wrote the initial draft of the book in June 1895 within five days, from which his book The Jewish State would develop. In his words: “I wrote while walking, standing, lying down. I wrote in the street, at the table, at night, when the idea startled me from my sleep.” Years later Herzl wrote: “When I finished writing my book, I gave the manuscript to one of my oldest and dearest friends, so that he might read it. And while he was reading, he suddenly began to cry. His emotion was understandable to me – after all, this friend too was a Jew; and I myself had sometimes cried while writing parts of the book. But to my great astonishment, my friend gave a different reason for his tears. He thought I had lost my mind…”.
A lesser-known fact is that Herzl presented his vision to the public even before the publication of “The Jewish” State, through a series of articles that appeared consecutively in the pages of the newspaper “HaTzfirah”. The articles were published over the course of about two weeks, between January 12 and January 28, 1896 (Issues 11–24), shortly before the book appeared in print (in parallel with the publication of excerpts from the manuscript in the “Jewish Chronicle” in London on January 17). HaTzfirah, edited by Nahum Sokolow, was one of the most important Hebrew newspapers published in the Pale of Settlement beginning in the second half of the 19th century. Some believe that it was Nahum Sokolow who translated the excerpts from The Jewish State into Hebrew. In the newspaper issues, the excerpts were published under the title: “The Solution to the Jewish Question.” In the first issue, the newspaper’s editor prefaced the excerpts by stating that although opinions were divided regarding Herzl’s vision, the paper had chosen to present his words as they were, due to the significance of Herzl himself: “Dr. Herzl is a prominent and well-known writer in the Viennese press. He has never been among the dreamers, but rather among the men of action, and his pen is planted in the rich soil of the Viennese Neue Freie Presse, where he is counted among the leading voices in matters of state and economy,” he wrote. Herzl himself prefaced the excerpts published in the paper, writing: “I was asked by those who seek my opinion to reveal my thoughts in this journal in a few articles. And now I will attempt to do so, although it is possible that a few readers may misinterpret my words, since I cannot fully explain all my ideas in a short article… I know our ways and our customs—to mock one another’s words… Therefore, in my first remarks I address the free-thinking and strong-minded Jews. Let them be the first to listen to my words… We Jews have dreamt this dream throughout the long night, the night of the Middle Ages. Now dawn has broken, and we must simply rub the sleep from our eyes and turn this dream into a concrete reality… Although I am neither a prophet nor a visionary, I openly admit that I hope—and my heart is nearly firm and confident – that the people of Israel are destined to return to their stronghold and to become a people in their own land and their own state…”.
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At the opening of his remarks in the HaTzfirah issue of January 14, 1896, Herzl addressed the voices of opposition that had attacked him personally rather than engaging with the idea itself: “It is not an easy task to bring understanding to those devoid of knowledge, and I shall not burden myself with that labor. I will merely join shoulder to shoulder with all those who are working and laboring in this cause. This cause does not concern me personally, and I do not wish for my name to be attached to it. This cause is a national matter, and the entire public must engage in it. Who knows if we, who are alive today, will merit to see this idea put into action? Yet it is enough—more than enough—if we begin the first steps, and that shall be our reward: to witness a new era, with a dawn whose emergence is firm. We shall plant and sow for the next generation, just as our ancestors preserved the tradition of their fathers and the inheritance of their forebears for our sake. Indeed, our lives are but one link in the chain of our people’s entire history.”Later, he rejected the idea of assimilation as a solution to the problem of antisemitism and laid out, in detail, the path by which the Jews would depart in an organized manner for their longed-for homeland.As Herzl well knew—and even referenced in these articles—the book caused an enormous stir the moment it was published. Most public figures, both Jewish and non-Jewish, regarded it as nonsense, and many harshly criticized it. “No one in Vienna,” claimed the writer Stefan Zweig, “was mocked as much as Herzl.” Despite the background noise, the publication of the book led to swift practical outcomes, most notably the establishment of the First Zionist Congress roughly a year after it appeared. Herzl transformed from a private writer-journalist into the leader of the most influential global movement in Jewish history in that century—choosing to publish the foundational seed of what would eventually become the Hebrew state specifically in the Hebrew newspaper HaTzfirah. see also here.
