Theodor Herzl

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Hermann Struck (Berlin, 1876 – Haïfa, 1944), Portrait de Theodor Herzl, Berlin, 1903

© Christophe Fouin, mahJ

The Hungarian lawyer, writer and journalist Theodor Herzl (Budapest, 1860 – Edlach, 1904) witnessed the public degradation of Captain Dreyfus to cries of “Death to the Jews!” in Paris on 5 January 1895. Faced with such widespread hatred, he became convinced that only the creation of a state guaranteed by international treaties could save European Jews from antisemitism. After publishing Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in 1896, he convened the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897, whose aim was to “establish a homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people, recognised and guaranteed by international law.” This vision became a reality with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.