The Jewish State

By Theodor Herzl

"It depends on the Jews themselves whether this political pamphlet remains for the present a political romance. If the present generation is too dull to understand it rightly, a future, finer and better generation will arise to understand it. The Jews who wish for a State shall have it, and they will deserve to have it."—Preface
Theodor Herzl's passionate advocacy of the founding of a Jewish state grew out of his conviction that Jews would never be assimilated into the populations in which they lived. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1860, Herzl encountered anti-Semitism when he attended a scientific secondary school. Later, as a newspaper correspondent in Paris, he was shocked and dismayed by the anti-Semitic prejudice surrounding the notorious Dreyfus affair (Herzl said in later years that it was the Dreyfus affair that had made a Zionist out of him). Herzl concluded that the only solution for the majority of Jews would be organized emigration to a state of their own.
He discussed the political and historic rationale for such a homeland in this extraordinary and influential book, first published as a pamphlet, Der Judenstaat, in Vienna in 1896. The Jewish question, he wrote, was not a social or religious question but a national question that could be solved only by making it "a political world question to be discussed and settled by the civilized nations of the world in council." In 1897, at a world congress of Zionism, he declared, "We want to lay the foundation stone for the house which will become the refuge of the Jewish nation. Zionism is the return to Judaism even before the return to the land of Israel."
The present volume is a complete and unabridged republication of The Jewish State, reproduced from the edition published by the American Zionist Emergency Council, New York, 1946. Translated by Sylvie D'Avigdor, it includes an introduction by Louis Lipsky, and a biography of Herzl based on the work of Alex Bein. For Jews, scholars, historians, anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th century, The Jewish State is indispensable reading. This edition makes it widely available in an inexpensive high-quality format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Apr 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486119618

Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl, geboren 1860 in Budapest, gilt als Begründer des Zionismus als politische Bewegung. Seine Wahrnehmung des Antisemitismus brachte ihn zu der Überzeugung, dass nur ein eigener Staat eine Lösung der sog. Judenfrage herbeiführen könne. Mit seiner Schrift "Der Judenstaat" gab er dem Zionismus den Anstoß, der schließlich zur Gründung des Staates Israel führte.

Reviews for The Jewish State

[marjoriemeyer-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Spellbinding!

[Jackie H Mhitaryan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Magnificent and essential reading!

[sgtcat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is essential reading for anyone that's interested in understanding the causes of the problems in the modern Middle East. It is the first expression of Zionism and the ideas it expresses led directly to the founding of Israel. You can see the ideological roots of the Jewish Agency, Jewish National Fund and Histadrut in this text.

That being said, it's also one of the most poorly written works I've read, though the author admits the work is repetitious and not really that great in the conclusion. The main objective, he says, was to open a conversation about the Jewish question, which he most certainly did. So, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking to do casual reading.