Theodor Herzl בנימין זאב הרצל
founder of political Zionism
Theodor Herzl was born in Budapest in 5620, grew up in an assimilated family, trained as a lawyer and became the Paris correspondent of a Viennese paper. In 5654 he covered the Dreyfus trial and heard a crowd in the capital of liberty shout «death to the Jews». He drew the conclusion he had been approaching for years: antisemitism would not vanish through enlightenment, because the problem was not Jewish conduct but Jewish condition — a people without a country.
In 5656 he published «Der Judenstaat», not a dream but a plan, with a chartered company and a scheme of emigration. A year later he convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, creating a world movement with institutions and a flag. In his diary he wrote: «At Basel I founded the Jewish state. If I said it aloud today, it would be met with laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty, everyone will see it.» The state was declared fifty years and eight months later.