The First Zionist Congress

An Annotated Translation of the Proceedings

Michael J. Reimer, Michael J. Reimer

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781438473147
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

Finalist for the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the History category The First Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland, in August 1897, was arguably the most significant Jewish assembly since antiquity. Its delegates surveyed the situation of Jews at the end of the nineteenth century, analyzed cultural and economic issues facing them, defined the program of Zionism, created an organization for planning and decision-making, and coalesced in camaraderie and shared aspiration. Though Zionism experienced multiple conflicts and reversals, the Congress's goal was ultimately realized in the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in Palestine—the State of Israel—in 1948. As Theodor Herzl, the Congress's principal organizer, declared: "At Basel I founded the Jewish state." This volume presents, for the first time, a complete translation of the German proceedings into English. Michael J. Reimer's accessible translation includes explanatory annotations and a glossary of key terms, events, and personalities. A detailed introduction situates the First Zionist Congress in historical context and provides a summary of each day's events. The Congress's debates supply a case study in the history of nationalism: they feature imagery and tropes used by nationalists all over Europe, while appealing to the distinctive heritage of Judaism. The proceedings are also important for what they say—and omit—about the Ottoman state that ruled Palestine as well as the Palestinian Arab people living there. This is a foundational primary source in modern Jewish history.

Zionists’ Congress in Basel

August 29, 30, and 31, 1897

OFFICIAL RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Vienna 1898.
Erez-Israel Society Press.

[1] DAY ONE OF THE PROCEEDINGS

August 29, 1897

Morning Session

HONORARY PRESIDENT, DR. KARL LIPPE* (JASSY): About seventeen years ago I received a letter from a Hebrew litterateur by the name of Akiwa Chashmal,* in which he indicated to me that a certain Lazar Rokeah* had come to Romania from Safed in Palestine, in order to agitate for the formation of Jewish colonies in Palestine. Soon thereafter, in a humble room in a suburb in Jassy, I was commissioned to canvass for the same, orally and in writing. There soon arose twenty-seven committees in twenty-seven cities in the country and a central committee in Galata, to whose membership Herr Samuel Pineles* and I belonged. The first two colonies from Romania were the result of this propaganda, Zikhron Ya’akov* and Rosh Pina.* As these colonies were transferred into better hands, our committee ceased to exist. But Herr Pineles and I did not cease to be active in the cause. I was at the conference in Kattowitz,* among whose participants present here today were also, besides myself, Herr Jasinowski* and Herr Moses.*

While that assembly was foundational for Zionist efforts, it represented a mere fraction of Jewry. This Congress represents, on the contrary, the whole of Jewry.

What a mighty leap from that humble room in a Jassy suburb to this hall in Basel, what unanticipated progress from Chashmal and Rokeah to Herzl* and Nordau*!

This assembly of envoys of Jewish societies and of Jews filled with enthusiasm for the cause, is the first of its kind in the eighteen hundred years of the third exile. It is the expression of an international movement taking hold in all ranks of Israel, to bring to fruition a national idea which, during the long period of the exile, the Golus Edom,* has been locked up in the bosom of Jewry and struggled in vain toward realization. O what a great and beautiful day this day is in the history of Israel, truly!

[2] The object which is set before us for deliberation is nothing less than the return of the Jews to the land of their fathers, the Holy Land, which our God, the one true God, promised our forefather Abraham to be for us his descendants.1

For centuries we have been waiting in vain for a redemption from the hard Golus by means of divine, supernatural miracles, and now, tired of the long wait, pressed on all sides by enemies, we want to attempt our redemption in a natural way, in order to return to our ancient fatherland, like our forefathers in Mitzrayim* and Babylon.2 They also regained possession of the fatherland in the natural way of historical development. After the exodus from Egypt our fathers conquered the land of the patriarchs in the natural way of warfare under Moses, Joshua, the judges and kings. The exiles in Babylon returned on the basis of diplomatic negotiations with Cyrus,* king of the Persians, and an international treaty that is preserved verbatim in our holy scriptures.3 The prophet Zechariah did promise them a supernatural redemption, when he consoled them with these words: “Your king (the Messiah) will come to you, humbly riding on an ass.”4 But our ancestors did not bide their time waiting for the fulfillment of this promise, but used the first opportunity that offered itself and returned home. The prophet Isaiah did not find it unseemly to bestow the title of Messiah on the Persian king, a pagan Gentile.5

We too, like these our ancestors 2509 years ago, want no more to await the ass-rider of Babylon, the Messiah, but want likewise to return on the basis of an international treaty to Eretz Yisrael [the land of Israel].

Our Hasidim, who still await the ass-riding king, may wish to remain in Golus and wait for his arrival; but if they permit beggars, idlers, and doddering old men to settle down in the Holy Land and support them with alms, then we cannot be forbidden to dispatch vigorous young people eager to work, who through work and diligence will transform the desolate land into an Eden.6 And should the humble king really make an appearance in the end, our workers will prepare him a reception more dignified than those spongers.

But we are not at all concealing from ourselves that our position is far more difficult than that of the exiles of Babylon. At the time of the Babylonian exile, both Babylon and Palestine were provinces of the Persian Empire. Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah7 had only to secure the permission of the Persian government for the Jews to remove from one province of their state into another. The task of our immigrants is more difficult. [3] The latter come as foreign nationals requesting admission to a province within the Turkish domains. But in the well-known grace of the reigning Sultan,* convinced of the loyalty of his Jewish subjects, convinced that Jews bring blessings everywhere they settle, His Majesty the Sultan will not fail to incorporate into his empire a greater number of such diligent civilizing elements.

To the assimilated8 among us, who do not want to accompany us, who in perverse self-denial renounce the honorable title of “nation” for themselves, and who perceive in the Zionist movement a threat to their citizenship, and who see their salvation entirely in terms of their complete absorption into other nations, we address the words which the Jewish commander used to direct to his soldiers before battle: “Let everyone who is fearful or fainthearted remain at home.”9

A nation like Israel, which, for three thousand years, even without any compulsory education, tolerated no illiterates in its midst; a nation which even all the powers of hell over the course of millennia could not rob of its national consciousness, still possesses vigor enough to lead an independent national existence and cannot give up on itself.

As a nation, we have a history rich in great deeds and wide of influence; and the first struggle for freedom that world history can point to is the exodus of our fathers from Egypt, with which the history of nations really begins. But the history of Israel is the history of the world-conquering idea. The first well-ordered, humane code of law is the Jewish one.

Our ancient classical literature, known as the Bible, is translated into all civilized and semicivilized languages; it serves hundreds of millions of families as their household devotional book. The priests of all confessions make use of our songs (the Psalms). The Jewish nation lacks only its fatherland to be complete. It is precisely about this that we wish to deliberate. To us, the fear of the assimilated with regard to the colonization of Palestine is unintelligible. How can this colonization be injurious to those fellow tribesmen who remain behind in other nations? Hitherto there are thirty-two Jewish settlements in the Holy Land, and we have not been affected at all by these; the Palestine exhibition in Berlin, Cologne, and Breslau has caused just as little damage. The numerous other energetic and industrious Jewish immigrants to Jerusalem and other cities have done us just as little harm.

But the Congress, yea, the Congress! [4] This Congress is, apart from the specific object to which it addresses itself, nothing other than a public assembly of the nation, to protest against eighteen hundred years of persecution, oppression, and violence, like every minority whose rights have been impaired and injured. While our human rights are curtailed on all sides, shall we give up even that one right that remains to us, the right of complaint? In spite of unspeakable and never-ending injustice we have had to suffer, we Jews have not despaired of humanity, and in the hope that neither anti-Semitism nor misconceived and perversely practiced Christian love has extinguished the public conscience of Europe, we intend to appeal to this conscience. We must lodge our complaint against governments, peoples, and clergy.

For a long time we have believed that we would find our salvation in the Aryan civilization to which we have become attached. But it has betrayed us. As Jeremiah once lamented: “I called my familiar friends and they have betrayed me.”10

As our ancestors travelled from Egypt, many assimilated persons joined them. But they had not the courage to struggle against a hostile destiny and cried out at the first adversity that confronted them: “Let us appoint for ourselves a leader and return to Mitzrayim.”11 But we cry: “Let us appoint for ourselves a leader and return to Jerusalem.”12 We must escape the brutal and superior forces we face and return to our old homeland, and if our mission among the nations has not yet been fulfilled, we will retrieve whatever is lacking from there.13

“For from Zion* alone the teaching will go forth, and the word of God only from Jerusalem.”14 (Loud applause.)

The proposal of Dr. Lippe to dispatch a profession of loyalty and gratitude to the Sultan is accepted without debate by acclamation.15

HONORARY PRESIDENT: I yield the floor to Dr. Theodor Herzl for his speech of welcome.

DR. THEODOR HERZL (VIENNA): Honored members of the Congress! As one of the conveners of this Congress, the honor has fallen to me to offer you greetings. I will do it with just a few words, since each one of us should economize with the precious minutes of the Congress if we want to serve the cause. In three days we have much important business to transact. We wish to lay the cornerstone of the house in which the Jewish nation will one day find shelter. What we are about is something so great that we may speak of it only in the simplest terms. So far as can be judged at present, in these three days an overview of the present state of the Jewish question will be provided. A vast amount of material has been divided up amongst our rapporteurs.

We will listen to reports about the situation of Jews in various countries. [5] You all know, if perhaps only in a vague sort of way, that this situation is, with few exceptions, not encouraging. We would scarcely have come together were it otherwise. There has been a long hiatus in our sharing of a common destiny, although the scattered sections of Jewry have had everywhere to endure similar trials. But only in our day, through the miracles of modern communication, has there existed the possibility of understanding and association among those long separated. And in this era, which is otherwise so sublime, we see and feel ourselves everywhere surrounded by the old hatred. Anti-Semitism is the modern name of this movement, which is only too well known to you. The first reaction the Jews of today had to this movement was surprise, which then changed to pain and anger. Our enemies do not perhaps realize how deeply—touching our very souls—they wounded those among us, whom they quite possibly were not primarily seeking to harm. It was precisely modern, educated Jewry, which had outgrown the ghetto and lost the old habits of haggling, that was thrust through to the heart. We can talk about this today without emotion, without anyone suspecting that we are seeking tears of pity from our enemies. We have come to terms with our situation.

For ages, outsiders have been misinformed about us. The feeling of group solidarity, for which we have been so frequently and fiercely reproached, was in the process of complete dissolution when we were attacked by anti-Semitism. The latter has caused it to regain its strength. We have, so to speak, come home. Zionism means a returning home to Jewish identity before the return to the country of the Jews. We sons who have returned find many things in the ancestral home that cry out for improvement; in particular, we have brothers steeped in misery. Yet we have been welcomed in the ancient house because, as is known to all, we do not presume the right to subvert cherished institutions. This will become plain with the development of the Zionist program.

Zionism has already set in train something remarkable, which was thought to be impossible: the close association of the ultramodern and ultraconservative elements of Jewry. That this has occurred without undignified concessions being made, or a sacrifice of intellect being offered by either one or the other party, is further proof, if more proof were required, of the nationhood of the Jews. A union of this kind is possible only upon the basis of a real nationhood.

Disputes are sure to take place about an organization that everyone realizes is a necessity. The way things are organized is the proof of any movement’s rationality. But here is a point that cannot be made too clearly or energetically. We Zionists desire, for the solution of the Jewish question, not an international association but merely an international discussion. [6] This distinction is for us of the utmost importance, as I certainly need not explain to you. This fact has also lent legitimacy to the convening of our Congress. We will have nothing to do with intrigues, secret maneuvers, underhanded dealings; ours is a free discussion under the constant and rational scrutiny of public opinion. One of the first positive results of our movement, already discernible in broad outlines, is the conversion of the Jewish question into the Zion question.

A great popular national movement such as this has to be approached from every angle. The Congress will therefore concern itself as well with the intellectual means for the revival and cultivation of Jewish national self-consciousness. Even o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Proceedings
• Appendix
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover