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HERZL, Theodor (1860-1904). Der Judenstaat. Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage. Leipzig and Vienna: M. Breitenstein, 1896.
8o (235 x 155 mm). Early 20th-century marbled boards, original printed front wrapper bound in at end.
FIRST EDITION OF HERZL'S PROPOSAL FOR A JEWISH STATE. Herzl, the founder of the political form of Zionism, proposed that the Jewish question was a political, and not religious, matter and should be settled by a world council of nations. "It was Herzl's book which really crystallized the idea of a national home for the Jews. Two conceptions had prevailed hitherto: either that of the ghetto, presupposing an unbridgeable gulf between Jews and Gentiles, or that of assimilation, which meant a complete acceptance by the Jews of their environment leading eventually to their becoming part of the people among whom they lived. Herzl took a different view. By his work he transformed the Jewish people from a passive community into a positive political force" (PMM). Reception of the ideas expressed in Der Judenstaat allowed Herzl to organize a world congress at Basel, Switzerland in August 1897. He became the first president of the World Zionist Organization, the movement to establish a Jewish state. "That a Jewish State was created in Palestine within fifty years of his death was due to the vision and practical methods of Herzl, expressed in his manifesto of 1896" (PMM 381).
8o (235 x 155 mm). Early 20th-century marbled boards, original printed front wrapper bound in at end.
FIRST EDITION OF HERZL'S PROPOSAL FOR A JEWISH STATE. Herzl, the founder of the political form of Zionism, proposed that the Jewish question was a political, and not religious, matter and should be settled by a world council of nations. "It was Herzl's book which really crystallized the idea of a national home for the Jews. Two conceptions had prevailed hitherto: either that of the ghetto, presupposing an unbridgeable gulf between Jews and Gentiles, or that of assimilation, which meant a complete acceptance by the Jews of their environment leading eventually to their becoming part of the people among whom they lived. Herzl took a different view. By his work he transformed the Jewish people from a passive community into a positive political force" (PMM). Reception of the ideas expressed in Der Judenstaat allowed Herzl to organize a world congress at Basel, Switzerland in August 1897. He became the first president of the World Zionist Organization, the movement to establish a Jewish state. "That a Jewish State was created in Palestine within fifty years of his death was due to the vision and practical methods of Herzl, expressed in his manifesto of 1896" (PMM 381).