The Hope: The Rebirth of Israel

Narrator: By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept as

we remembered Zion. For those who carried us away captive

asked of us a song, saying, "sing us one of the songs of

Zion!" how shall we sing the lord's song in a foreign land?

But now, thus says the lord; "Fear not, for I have redeemed

you; I have called you by your name; You are mine. For I am the

lord your god, the holy one of Israel. I have loved you;

therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.

I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you

from the west; I will say to the north, 'give them up!' And to

the south, 'do not keep them back!" Bring my sons from afar,

and my daughters from the ends of the earth."

Gordon: In 1893, a viennese journalist wrote, “when I think

of my son's future, I ask myself whether I have the right to make

life so difficult for him as it has become for me. That is why

we must baptize Jewish children while they can still feel

nothing, either for it or against it. We Jews must

submerge in the people.” priest: In nomine patris, et

filii, et spiritus sancti.

Gordon: It's not something you'd expect to hear from the man

known as the "father of zionism", but those words were

written by Theodor herzl, who spent his life trying to solve

what he called the "Jewish question." Herzl was born in

Budapest in 1860. At the time, the city was known as "judapest”

because of its large Jewish population. As a boy, he

attended a Christian high school that was open to Jews. And on

his 13th birthday, his parents held a confirmation ceremony,

instead of a bar mitzvah.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Theodor herzl was an assimilated Jew who

came from an assimilated family. He was not educated in the

Jewish sphere at all. He was very, very far from judaism.

Gordon: His family later moved to Vienna, where herzl earned a

law degree. But his real passion was writing, so he divided his

time between writing plays, working as a reporter, and

looking for a way to end anti-semitism.

Prof Gil Troy: You know, herzl is the one who sort of pulls it

together, but there are many: There are Christian ministers,

there are rabbis, there are all kinds of - there are presidents.

There are all kinds of people who are saying, "what a minute.

We've got this problem.” Gordon: At one point, herzl even

largest cathedral. He believed that if Jews adopted Christian

culture, they would finally be accepted by European society.

But Theodor herzl was about to get an assignment that would

change his mind.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: It was as a journalist for the top newspaper

in Vienna that he was sent to Paris to write about the

wonderful French experience. Herzl, who was a bon vivant, you

know, and was living in Paris and enjoying himself and going

to the theater three times a week, and all of a sudden he saw

the ugly face of anti-semitism. Gordon: Herzl was assigned to

cover the famous "Dreyfus affair” in which a French Jewish

captain was falsely convicted to spying for the Germans. Herzl

watched as Alfred Dreyfus was stripped of his medals, and

publically degraded at the military school in Paris.

Crowds filled the streets, shouting "death to the Jews."

Prof Gil Troy: People are inflamed and they're shouting,

not "down with Dreyfus,” not "down with the individual”; They

shout "down with the Jews." And Theodor herzl has his "aha"

moment. Gordon: Herzl realized that the

only solution to anti-semitism was for the Jews to have their

own state. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Wonderful

idea. How do you go about doing it? This is where the writer of

plays came in, you know? He was going to set the stage.

Gordon: Herzl shut himself in his apartment and wrote his

ideas down for five straight days. When a friend of his

visited, he was alarmed by herzl's disheveled appearance

and wild ideas. He suggested they get some fresh air. And as

they walked, he told herzl to get some medical help before

someone hauled him off to a madhouse. Herzl paid no

attention and the following year he published his most famous

work, the Jewish state. Prof Gil Troy: Theodor herzl in

his book the Jewish state dreams. And he talks about this

new nation-state being a beacon to humanity. He talks about it

being a model democracy. Gordon: Not everyone was

thrilled with herzl's ideas. Religious Jews thought it was

blasphemy to reestablish the nation of Israel without the

Messiah. Nevertheless, herzl worked tirelessly to realize his

vision. He even tried to buy the land of Palestine.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: He tried to create a situation where he will

be introduced to the sultan of Turkey, and he will buy the land

of Israel from him. Boy, that's going to cost a lot of money.

How is he going to pay for it? Well, he had a dream; He had an

idea. He says, “I'm going to take half of the riches of all

the rich Jews." Well, of course, there was absolutely no chance

that any of these people would do that. They did not want to

see zionism succeed, in fact. But he was convinced that that's

the way to do it. Gordon: In 1897, herzl gathered

Jewish delegates from around the world for the first world

zionist congress. For this historic meeting he chose the

city of basel in Switzerland. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: By the way,

do you know why it was in basel? It was supposed to be in Munich.

And in Munich there were Jews who called themselves Germans of

the faith of Moses. And they said to him, "we don't want this

Jewish riffraff coming from all over the world coming to

Munich.”

Gordon: In August, more than 200 delegates from 17 countries

arrived in basel. It was the first representative Jewish

assembly in nearly 2000 years, and the atmosphere was electric.

Behind the podium hung a white flag with two blue stripes and a

star of David, a version of the design that would be adopted by

the state of Israel 50 years later. Among the delegates was a

man herzl introduced as "the first Christian zionist." The

reverend William hechler was the British embassy chaplain in

Vienna. He was deeply interested in the return of the Jews to

Israel, so he helped herzl make some important political

connections, and the two became lifelong friends. As herzl

walked to the podium, people cheered and stomped their feet.

He opened the congress by announcing, "we are here to lay

the foundation stone of the house which is to shelter the

Jewish nation.” the applause was deafening. One english delegate

described the excitement of the crowd. "By the rivers of

Babylon, we sat down and wept as we remembered Zion. By the

rivers of basel, we sat down and resolved to weep no more."

Prof Gil Troy: The beautiful thing about Theodor herzl and

the beautiful thing about zionism, is that it doesn't just

stop with the negative. There is anti-semitism and there is

negativity, and there's a certain rejection on the part of

Europe. But what they also do is, I call it the "Jew jitsu"

move where you take the negative and you turn it into something

positive. Gordon: A few days later herzl

made a bold statement in his diary.

Theodor herzl: "At basel, I founded the Jewish state. If I

said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal

laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in 50, everyone

will know it." Gordon: Herzl's statement turned

out to be prophetic. Fifty years later the united nations

approved the plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and arab

states, and nine months later the state of Israel was born.

After the congress, herzl, who had never been religious,

started observing some Jewish traditions. That winter, instead

of having a Christmas tree, the herzl family celebrated their

first hanukah.

Despite growing health problems, herzl traveled

the globe, trying to get backers for the new state. He went first

to constantinople, then on to Jerusalem in hopes of asking the

ottoman sultan for land. Then, in the spring of 1903, the need

for a Jewish state became more urgent than ever, as the world

turned its focus on a small town in Russia.

Gordon: On easter Sunday, a group of Russian orthodox men

entered the Jewish quarter of the village of kishinev. Led by

their priests, they shouted "death to the Jews!" The same

cry herzl had heard in Paris during the Dreyfus affair almost

ten years earlier. Eyewitnesses described the bloody massacre

that followed. "Wives, along with their husbands were shot

down,

A synagogue worker was killed protecting the torah with

his body, children had their brains dashed out against the

walls, and even babes were snatched from the arms of

pleading mothers and hurled through windows.

At sunset, the streets were piled with

corpses.” after three days, more than 40 Jews were killed, 92

were injured, and more than 700 homes were looted and destroyed.

Gordon: Four months later the Jewish congress convened under

the shadow of the massacre, but that was just the beginning.

Herzl had good news and bad news for the crowd. The good news was

that Great Britain wanted to help the Jewish people - the bad

news was how they wanted to help. After the kishinev pogrom,

herzl had an emergency meeting with British politicians. He

Which were under British control. The plan was to rescue

the Jews from Russia, and still be close to Palestine. The

British refused, and offered them land in British east

Africa, now Uganda. With no other choice, herzl accepted the

offer and the British drew up a plan for a colony they called

"new Palestine.” in 1903, herzl presented the idea to the

zionist congress, with disastrous results.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: Zionism refers to Zion. And the plan was

eventually to have Zion as the homeland... nobody was giving

this up. But for now, we're going to get ourselves a place

to hide. Gordon: It was the delegates

from Russia, whom herzl was trying to protect, who took the

news the hardest. They stormed out of the concert hall in

protest. Among them was a young man who would become the first

President of the new state of Israel - Chaim weizmann.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: The zionists from Russia hated the idea. So

they basically mounted a revolution against him and broke

his heart, and he had been dealt such a tremendous shock that

everybody doesn't take his word for the gospel truth.

Gordon: Herzl closed the 6th zionist congress by raising his

right hand and reciting a verse from the psalms.

Gordon: These were the last words he would ever speak at the

podium in basel. Only his close friends and family knew that he

was suffering from heart failure, and over the next year

his health declined rapidly. On July 3rd he told his old

friend reverend hechler, "greet Palestine for me. I gave my

heart's blood for my people.”

He died the next day. And at his

funeral in Vienna, more than 6,000 people gathered to honor

the man they had called "king of the Jews."

Gordon: In 1949, the new government of Israel honored

herzl's dying request. They brought his remains from Vienna

and reburied them here, on a hill overlooking Jerusalem.

During his lifetime, herzl was called everything from a hero to

a dreamer to a heretic. But his influence on the Jewish people

is undeniable. In the last decade of his life he gave them

something they hadn't had in nearly 2,000 years: The hope of

going home. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: He was an

amazing man. He deserves a lot of credit. He had a dream and it

was a good dream. But you know, there's a distance between

dreaming and between bringing something to fruition. It took

pioneers; It took men of action, men of work. Herzl was, in the