Theodor Herzl's Zionist Journey – Exodus and Return

Mordechai (Motti) Friedman

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9783110729375
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

This book provides in-depth investigation into the secret of Theodor Herzl's success in changing the fate of the Jewish People. More than a biography, the book delves deep into Herzl's personality and physique, which left a deep impression on his followers and opposers alike. The book traces Herzl's transformation from a newspaper editor and playwright into a man of vision and action, the star in a drama he could never write for the stage.

Part 1: His Personality

Chapter 1 “Thine Eyes Shall See the King in His Beauty” (Isaiah 33:17)

The focal point of this book is Herzl's personal profile: his personality, his persuasive abilities and also his physical appearance, which so deeply impressed those who saw him. Some, as we shall see below, committed their thoughts to paper.

For the title of an essay about Herzl, the German Jewish artist Hermann Struck, one of several artists who sketched, painted, photographed and sculpted Herzl in his lifetime, chose a verse from the Book of Isaiah: “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty.” An ardent Zionist and lifelong admirer of Herzl, Struck wrote:

“What I wish to say about Herzl, our leader whose memory shall remain forever with us, I have already tried to express in some of my etchings, which attempt to portray his extraordinary appearance. I know very well that these efforts are far from perfect, as Herzl was a man endowed with divine beauty. And I must confess that it was this divine beauty – a gift from the heavens – that left the most enduring impression on me. His tall, slim figure, the marvelous harmony of every feature, his graceful movements – all came together to form an ideal paradigm of beauty. The monarchs he met presumably felt the same way. ‘Their eyes saw the king in his beauty.’ I believe he represented the ideal that everyone – Kaiser Wilhelm II, the king of Italy, Edward VII, Franz Josef, Alfonso of Spain – saw in their minds. Even the visions of the prophets pale in comparison. This nobility, difficult to put into words, combined with an almost princely generosity of spirit, instantly charmed his interlocutors.”¹

Struck does not discuss individual components of Herzl’s beauty, but speaks in general terms about the tremendous visual impact his looks had on those around him. Struck admits that his own artistic endeavors to capture this beauty succeeded only in part: Herzl’s charm and good looks were a gift of God and thus impossible to convey in a picture. But physical beauty was only one dimension. Struck goes on to talk Herzl’s aristocratic bearing and compassionate nature, which left anyone who had dealings with him enchanted and added to his charisma.

Ephraim Moshe Lilien was another artist who incorporated images of Herzl in his work. Like most of his colleagues in the Democratic Fraction,² he was a great admirer of Herzl even though the Fraction as a group battled Herzl fiercely on “kultura”³ and other matters. The famous photograph of Herzl leaning on the railing on the balcony of Hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel was taken by Lilien, and many of the biblical leaders that appear in his artwork, among them Moses, Aaron and Joshua, sport Herzl’s features. The stained-glass windows Lilien designed for the B’nei B’rith club in Hamburg, Germany depict Herzl as Moses.⁴

Herzl was the perfect foil for the stereotypical nineteenth-century East European Jew. Mordecai Ehrenpreis writes about Lilien's use of Herzl’s imposing features to represent the “authentic” Jew, the Jew of the olden days. In Herzl’s visage Lilien saw nobility, vitality, strength and charisma – all the traits ascribed to the Jews of antiquity in the Romantic novels of George Eliot and Benjamin Disraeli's Tancred. On Herzl’s wondrous melding of the physical and spiritual, Ehrenpreis says:

“He was majestic not because of his scheme to found a state but because majesty was an intrinsic part of him … He was a king from head to toe, regal in body and mind.”⁵

There were differences of opinion, however, on what exactly Struck and Lilien's portraits of Herzl conveyed. Comparing Lilien’s balcony photograph and Struck’s famous etching,⁶ Ehrenpreis agreed that Struck’s etching was important as a work of art, but he was disturbed by its “exilic” connotations: “This is the face of a deeply passionate man tortured and tormented by the labors of the mind … But it is a Galut-suffused grandeur existing more in the imagination of the masses than in reality.”⁷ Struck wished to transmit grandeur in his portrait, but what he depicted was exilic grandeur, which was alien to Herzl. He felt that Lilien’s rendering of Herzl was different:

“Here we have a calm face, soft and gentle, suffused with all the sorrow of the human race. Not bitterness or irritability … but the quiet melancholy of a lyrical soul. This Herzl has a harmonious face, the face of a man who knows how to dream, the face of a whole and healthy man free of worldly inhibitions, a symbol of Jewish refinement and breeding, neither enslaved nor submissive. His greatness lies in being the essence of an entire chapter of history, a composite of all the precious values of the national soul, a cross between a king and a dreamer. That is why the people followed him.”⁸

Karl Schwarz, an art critic and friend of Struck, disagreed with Ehrenpreis. In Struck’s etchings he sees greatness free of exilic association, and describes the symbolic importance of his work in mythic terms:

“The artist sought to portray Herzl as a paragon and prophet of Israel, and in this he succeeded. Struck has drawn the Theodor Herzl who lives in our hearts. His is the ultimate portrait of Herzl, a visionary deep in thought, his eyes gazing out into the future.”⁹

Despite these differing interpretations, the portraits of Struck and Lilien do share something: charisma. Both artists portray a man who exerts an involuntary influence on those around him, whose looks are irresistibly appealing and whose presence radiates brilliance, majesty and prophetic vision.

Other descriptions of Herzl hone in on specific physical traits, the harmony of his features and his majestic bearing. This is how the Austrian-Jewish novelist Stephan Zweig recalled his fir...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1: His Personality
• Part 2: Zionist Journey
• Part 3: Legend and Reality
• Subject Index
• Person Index