THEODOR HERZL
1.Genesis of Political Zionism
In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly accused of treason, mainly because of the prevailing anti-Semitic atmosphere and the only one solution for this is immigrating to a land for their own Jewish people. Thus, the Dreyfus Case became one of the deciding factorsfor the establishment of Political Zionism.
Despite the ridicule from Jewish leaders, Herzl studied the idea of Jewish sovereignty and published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State, 1896). “The Jews are one people, he said, and their plight could be transformed into a positive force by the establishment of a Jewish state with the consent of the great powers. He saw the Jewish question as an international political question to be dealt with in the arena of international politics”.
2. The Altneuland (Old New Land , 1902)
In the Zionist novel, Altneuland (Old New Land) published in1902, Herzl pictured the Jewish state’s future as a utopia socialist where a new society rise in the land of Israel “on a cooperative basis utilizing science and technology in the development of the Land”.This book landed great impact on the Jews at that time and became a one of symbols of the Zionist vision in Israel * Plot introduction
The Old New Land is a story about young Jewish Viennese intellectual Friedrich Löwenberg who was joined Kingscourt - an Americanized Prussian aristocrat when they retired to a Pacific island (near Raratonga) . Then, on the way to the Pacific, after stopping in Jaffa they found Palestine a poor and sparsely populated land, as it appeared to Herzl on his visit in 1898. Löwenberg and Kingscourt ,then, spend the next twenty years on that island, cut off from civilization. While they go through Palestine on their way back to Europe, they discover another land which is drastically transformed, open with a thriving cooperative industry based on state of the art technology.In two decades, European Jews have rediscovered and as well as developed their Altneuland
3.A Movement Is Started
Herzl's ideas were welcomed by the almost Jewish in Eastern Europe, however, Jewish’s leaders were less cooperative. Beside that, Herzlalso appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron Rothschild, to join the national Zionist movement, but failed. He then rose his voice to the people, finally the result was the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Switzerland, on August, 1897.
4.Uganda
Herzl soon realize that he need the encouragement of great powers of the aims of the Jewish people.Thus, he traveled to the Israel and Istanbul in 1898 to meet Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Contrary to his expectations, the meeting with Wilhelm was a failure –“the monarch dismissed Herzl’s political entreaties with snide anti-Semitic remarks”. When these efforts proved fruitless, he turned to Great Britainand met with Joseph Chamberlain who are the British colonial secretary. “The only concrete offer he received from the British was the proposal of a Jewish autonomous region in east Africa, in Uganda”.
The Kishinev pogrom and the difficult state of Russian Jewry in 1903, was witnessed by Herzl during his time in Russia not only left a strong affection on him but also lead to his decision: he requested the Russian government assist the Zionist Movement to transfer Jews from Russia to EretzYisrael.
At the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903, Herzl proposed the British Uganda Program as to provide shelter for Jews in times of danger. While Herzl ensured and confirmed that this program would not affect the ultimate aim of Zionism,a Jewish entity in the Land of Israel encountered strong opposition in the Zionist movement. Finally the Uganda Program was rejected by the Zionist movement at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905.
5. Legacy
After Theodor Herzl died in Vienna in 1904 because of over working for Zionism ,the movement had regconizedon the world political map.
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Herzl’s books such as Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) and Altneuland (Old New Land), plays and articles have been published and translated into many languages (Yiddish by Israel IsidorElyashev or Hebrew by Nahum Sokolow). “His name has been commemorated in the Herzl Forests at Ben Shemen and Hulda, the world's first Hebrew gymnasium — “Herzliya” — which was established in Tel Aviv, the town of Herzliya in the Sharon and neighborhoods and streets in many Israeli towns and cities.”
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References

Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl. (n.d.). Retrieved August 2014, from Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Herzl.html

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