Theodor Herzl - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages He did this by organizing meetings meant to ensure the unity of the Jews. He also met leaders from Europe to try and negotiate the Jewish resettlement. Herzl also wrote articles to try to pass out information to the Jews and the European leaders about his Zionist beliefs. Herzl did not gather much support, but the resettlement of the Jews in their land could be accredited to his struggles. This paper discusses the works of Theodor Herzl to bring out his significance in the Zionist culture. Discussion It is important to note here that Theodor Herzl was first opposed to Zionism; he had accepted assimilation. Then what changed his mind? It was the prosecution of Dreyfus in 1894 that led Theodor Herzl to change his mind and support Zionism. Dreyfus was convicted of treason in France, and without any evidence, he was condemned to death. Theodor Herzl believed that Dreyfus was sentenced to death unfairly just because he was a Jew. Following the conviction of Dreyfus, several anti-semantic rallies were organized in Europe. This made Herzl discover that the Jews were greatly discriminated. This was just one Jew who had been unfairly convicted. Herzl concluded that the rights of the Jews were not respected in their land of domicile. Theodor Herzl wanted the Jews to live in a culture where they enjoyed equal human rights and got on well with other societies. Due to the events that were occurring, he believed that this could not be achieved through assimilation. He observed that the Jews were willing to be assimilated, but it is the majority societies who were not willing to assimilate them. The other countries treated Jews as being anti-social, in connection to which Herzl claimed the anti-social nature of the Jews was due to several years of oppression. The achievements of the Jews in science and commerce were not recognized. He claimed intermarriage would not be a solution because the citizens of majority society would not accept to marry the people they regarded as anti-social. The Jews would not also have an opportunity to rule because they would not be voted in. He opposed the view that hostility towards the Jews would reduce; in fact, he said it would increase. He said the more the Jews stayed in foreign lands, the more they would be oppressed. If they could not assimilate them, then, he believed, they should have formed their own state that had its own cultures. In his writings, Theodor Herzl brought out a plan for the exodus of Jews to the Holy Land. He projected the social structure of this land. He advocated for formation of nationwide cooperatives whose productive processes would be commonly owned; abolition of competition; and removal of the state and invention of new modes of production (Zilbersheid 83). This, he believed, would ensure that the welfare of the Jews was taken care of. The only way to achieve this was through the resettlement of the Jews in their own land. His writings are significant here because it raised a spirit of liberation for the Jews. By forecasting how their land’s culture would be, more and more Jews were expected to accept Zionism as their only liberation. Theodor Herzl was very passionate in his works and put them in a way that led people to accept Zionism. One example is when he went to the Jews tycoons (Edmund de Rothschild and Maurice de Hirsch) to seek aid for the Jewish people; he portrayed himself as a beggar humbly seeking aid for the Jewish citizens. He always sought financial aid from the rich ...Download file to see next pagesRead More