THEODOR HERZL (1860-1904)
Few activists were as influential, controversial, and consequential as Theodor Herzl, whose life path took him from an affluent childhood in Budapest’s Jewish Quarter to becoming the father of modern political Zionism and inspiring the establishment of Israel decades after his death. The only son of a German-speaking secular-Jewish businessman, Herzl began his career as a journalist who initially supported the assimilation of Jews into European culture – but after covering the Dreyfus affair in Paris and witnessing the rampant anti-Semitism of the Belle Époque era, he decided that the only way for Judaism to survive would be the creation of a Jewish state, preferably in the religion’s historic homeland of Palestine. In 1896, Herzl published his ideas in The State of the Jews, which immediately garnered numerous supporters and detractors worldwide; to boost the movement, Herzl presented his plans to international leaders like German Emperor Wilhelm II and Turkey’s Sultan Abdulhamid II. After founding the World Zionist Organization, Herzl traveled widely to promote his proposal, but he died of heart disease aged only 44; nonetheless, his followers successfully carried on the cause. Today Herzl is mentioned in the Israeli Declaration of Independence, and the square before Budapest’s historic Dohány Street Synagogue bears his name.