Benjamin

Nancy Benjamin
Professor McKeever
English 1020
July 11, 2016
Theodor Herzl:
The Accidental Zionist
Researching my topic, The Birth of Israel, Theodor Herzl was always given
tribute as the Father of the Modern Zionist Movement and creator of the first Zionist
Congress in 1897. He is credited for bringing influential Jews together to start the march
for freedom. But aside from the honor given him for his role in helping to bring forth
Israel, little else was said about him personally. His struggles, his mindset, what was the
impetus that set him off on this history altering course, almost singlehandedly at the
beginning. There was a void of information waiting to be unearthed, and what I found
was not the typical hero of American type movies. Herzel was a writer, poet and a
dreamer, intelligent and arrogant, but most of all he was a man very conflicted man with
his own Jewish identity.
Born May 2, 1860 in Budapest, Hungary, Theodor Herzl, was the only son of an
affluent merchant and banker, Jacob, and a social mother, Jeanette. He had one older
sister, Pauline, who was his closest playmate for many years. Both children were adored
by their parents and received every advantage their financial position afforded. Tutors
were hired to prepare the children for their formal education at a very early age. The pair
was attractive, bright and showed brilliant promise. Herzl learned to read within two
weeks of instruction and spoke German as well as Hungarian. His tutor described him as

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a precocious and unusually appealing child who was pampered by his parents.
(Greenfeld 17) He relished being at the center of attention in and outside of the family
circle and the family truly enjoyed a very close, loving, warm home life.
Greenfeld theorizes that his pampered upbringing may account for the selfconfidence and arrogance that frequently characterized his behavior during his childhood
and adolescence. Cultured, intelligent and snobbish he aspired to be a writer and a poet
from an early age. In Amos Elons biography, Herzl, a fellow Hungarian student
remembered him from his high school days as a dark, slim boy, always elegantly dressed.
He was always in a good moodbut mostly acting superior, ironic, even sarcastic. (22)
The adult Herzl was described as strikingly handsome, his voice as beautiful as his
features, his eyes were magnetic. (Bein 62)
His mother, Jeannette, had come from a more sophisticated, assimilated and
secular family and was a social and cultural snob. ( 23) Her own love for all things
German had a strong influence on her son, which led him to his infatuation with the
Austro-Germanic culture. Her education had been German through and through. (Bein
p ) German was the choice language spoken at home and German classics and theater
were actively pursued and enjoyed. This indoctrination into the Austro-German culture
led Herzl to be a Germanophile and hold the Germans as the most advanced society in
Europe.
Due to his mothers more secular views, Herzls family did not practice Orthodox
Judaism, but instead Theodor and his father alone, would attend Sabbath services at the
local Reformed Temple along with observance of the High Holy Days until the time of
his Bar Mitzha. But actually, Herzl claimed to be an atheist in his published diaries.

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During this time, the age of the German Reformation and Enlightenment had
begun and Herzl saw the flinging off of the strict Catholic Church doctrines as a sign of
acceptance and liberty for all people. It also bred a feeling of distain for orthodox
Judaism within him. In Jacques Kornbergs study of Herzls Zionist conversion, he
relates Herzls feelings towards Jews as inferior, cowardly, unmanly, preoccupied with
money, berefit of idealism. (Kornberg 2,15) But Herzl could not completely turn away
from his heritage, he was a Jew and nothing could change that. As Kornberg also noted
Herzl identified with their history of victimization and admired their steadfastness in the
face of persecution. (Kornberg, 2)
This conflict within himself intensified his argument for assimilation by the
Jewish people. They would greatly benefit themselves by blending into and disappearing
into the surrounding culture. Herzl saw this as a means of Emancipation for the Jew.
Freeing them from the restraints of the long held stereotype, which kept the Jewish
people from participating in many governing roles and careers within the community.
All the while Herzl continued to write poetry and short plays with the view to one
day earning a living and a name. He especially enjoyed hearing his stories read and
admired; which led to his starting a literary society at school. The society consisted of a
small group of 5-6 boys who would write and critique each others work for the purpose
of founding of an association dedicated to enriching our knowledge by writing short
stories or fairy tales which would enhance our mastery of the language.
As it turned out the group only lasted two months, since the dedication to this
society took too much time from their formal studies and the President, who was Herzl,
was deemed to be too dominating. The group was disbanded. But Herzls calling in life,

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being a writer was established. (Greenfeld 21) His love of writing and his boldness
would ultimately be the means by which Herzl would play his part in the history of Israel.
Upon the sudden tragic death of his beloved sister Pauline at the age of 19 of
typhoid, his parents decided to move to Vienna. This was a perfect setting for the
worldly Herzl, who cut a very cosmopolitan figure in his circles. Even though he
suffered from the loss of his beloved sister, the new city enticed and inspired him. He
took on the look and tastes of the German bureaucracy. Now enrolled at the University
of Vienna for the study of Law, he was more interested in the cafes theatre and music.
The study of law was his parents wishes. They wanted Herzl to have a real
career to fall back on if his writing was not able to support him. Herzl loved his parents
and respected and honored them. He gave into their wishes but he was not suited to the
tedious chores of a law clerk; he left the practice of law after a short time. He wrote in
his diary:
I spend the mornings filling out forms at the
Handelsgericht, but my afternoons are beautiful, yes, beautiful. I
read, I dream, I smoke, I write. So day flows into day, and one day
I shall be old without ever having known youth. But come what
may, we shall always burn with activity. (Bein, 46)
The thought of taking years to be successful as a lawyer was too much for him.
He wanted success, standing, reputation and he wanted them quickly. (Bein 48) It was
then in the year 1885 that Herzl turned to become a full time writer.
He traveled and made connections and contributed articles to important
newspapers, making a name for himself in some circles. He continued to write plays and

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push for their production. But in all this frenzy of work and striving for signifiance,
Herzl hid his loneliness and insecurity when the plays were rejected and most of all he
longed for love; for which he was never to truly obtain even though he married.
Herzel only had two true friends after his sister, Heinrich Kana and Oswald
Boxer. His dearest friend Heinrich Kana, also a playwright, committed suicide in 1891.
This event and the unhappiness of his marriage to Julie Naschauer (Bein 62) drove Herzl
into a period of restless wandering thru Europe.
In his travels, Herzl noted the plight of his fellow Jews. The undercurrent of antiSemitism throughout Europe was not lost on the observant Herzl. In writing his
observations on seeing the Ghetto in Rome. With what base and persistent hatred these
unfortunates have been persecuted for the sole crime of faithfulness to their religion.
Weve travelled a long way since those times: nowadays the Jew is despised only for
having a crooked nose, or for being a plutocrat even when he happens to be a pauper.
(_____)
By 1892, Herzl had achieved a level of success as a dramatist and a journalist, and
an appointment to the staff of the Neue Freie Presse, one of the most distinguished papers
on the continent. (Bein 28) From the Neue Freie Presse offices of Vienna, Herzl was
promoted to be correspondent for the Paris office of Neue Freie Presse. It was in this
position that he was asked to report on The Dreyfus Case. This would be the defining
moment in Herzls life that would forever alter his views on Jewish assimilation and
create the political activist for the State of Israel.
The infamous French Dreyfus Case in 1894 was the trial of a French Jewish
Army Captain, Alfred Dreyfus, arrested for high treason, was the last straw for Herzl.

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Herzl, covering the case for his newspaper initially believed Dreyfus was guilty, but by
the end of the trial he had changed his view. Dreyfus was a wealthy Jew from a
prominent family with a spotless record. The whole affair was a deliberate frame-up by
anti-Semites.
But what was more disturbing to Herzl was that when Dreyfus was given the
guilty verdict, crowds chanted Down with the Jews, instead of Down with Dreyfus
(Elon, Amos, Herzl 126) The nation had identified the crime of Dreyfuss treason
wholesale with all Jews. It was the last straw for Herzl, the clear realization that Jewish
people could not count on their dedication and success to the host society in which they
lived to return equal loyalty. The fact that Jews could not be assimilated into their
surrounding culture, not for a lack of trying on their part, was now too evident and
devastating to Herzl.
Writer Amos Elon sees it this way: To Herzl, the degraded innocent man
symbolized the Jew in modern society, conforming to its ways, speaking its language,
thinking its though, sewing its insignia onto his shoulders only to have them violently
torn off on a gray winter morning to the ominous sound of drums. Dreyfus represented
a stronghold, for which European Jews had fought, and were still fighting, but which
let us not delude ourselvesis a lost one. (128)
For a man who spent his whole life freeing himself of all Jewish restraint and
mannerisms, this must have hit hard. How could he ever be looked upon other than
merely a Jew, instead of a successful writer and playwright. He had been an anti-Semite
in his own soul, even if he did not realize it. Even though he did not publically voice his
opinion against his own people, he viewed their materialism and strict religious practices

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with distain. He thought of himself as an enlighten Jew, one of the privileged few. It was
said, he regarded Jewry with some arrogance and even a little disdain. (Elon, 22) .
Thus began Herzls impassioned argument and long fight for the Creation of the Jewish
Nation.
Herzls magatisim and elegant speech, as well as his arrogant sense of self
-importance served him well in the arena of World Politics. He sought out benefactors of
great wealth, the Rothschild Family; leaders of Nations, the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, of
Turkey and numerous high level Politician to hear his pleas and plans for this new nation
to settle once and for all The Jewish Problem. Thus becoming the first Jew to actually
start the implantation of Zionism as a worldwide movement.
He published two books on his campaign for the national homeland, The Jewish
State and Old New Land translated into Hebrew is Tel Aviv.
Many Historians put significant stock in his manifesto The Jewish State, as
being the impetus for arousing the Jewish consciousness out of slumber into the fight for
the return to Palestine. Although there had been other Zionist activists before Theodor
Herzl, who had similarity called for the return to Palestine, Herzl is the man who brought
the question out on the international stage.
Yet Herzl was never to live to see his Piece de resistance. He died in 1904, 50
years before the United Nations officially recognized the State of Israel. But Herzls
contribution to this monumental event is not forgotten.
This profile does not go into much of Theodor Herzls personal life as an adult.
He was married, unhappily, and had three children, who he was devoted to, Paulina, Hans
and Margarethe (Trude). Sadly, all three died without ever stepping foot in the land of

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Israel or embracing the Zionist position. His eldest daughter having a mental illness died
of a heroin overdose in 1930. Her brother Hans, committed suicide the day after his
sisters burial. The youngest daughter Margarethe, passed away in a Nazi concentration
camp with her husband, Richard Neumann. Their one son, Stephen Theodor Neumann,
was sent away to England before the war. He grew up in England and served in the
military there. He eventually immigrated to the United States and was the only surviving
family member to ever see the Israel. But upon finally learning of the fate of his parents,
and feeling helpless to help the plight of Jewish people Languishing in the European
Camps, he committed suicide by jumping off the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge in
Washington D.C. on November 26, 1946.
Theodor Herzl, his children and grandson, with the exception of Margarath, are
now all buried on Mt. Herzl in Israel. (Elon. 404)

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Works Cited
Bein, Alex, Theodore Herzl. Canada, McClelland and Stewart Ltd. 1941, print.
Elon, Amos, Herzl. Canada, Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited, 1975, print.
Greenfeld, Howard, A Promise Fulfilled: Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weismann, and David
Ben-Gurion, and the Creation of the State of Israel. New York, 2005, print.
Kornberg, Jacques, Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism. Bloominton, Indiana
University Press, 1993. Print.