“The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes. The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt here to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for the good of humanity” - Herzl, Der Judenstaat
HERZL, THEODOR. Der Judenstaat
Leipzig & Vienna: Breitenstein, 1896
Contemporary quarter cloth, marbled boards. Foot of front joint neatly restored. A near fine copy. Half morocco case.
FIRST EDITION of the manifesto of Zionism. More than any other work, Herzl Der Judenstaat (the Jewish State) represents the foundation of the modern state of Israel.
“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. . . . That a Jewish State was created in Palestine within fifty years of his death was due to the vision and the practical methods of Herzl, expressed in his manifesto of 1896” (PMM).
In November 1894, Herzl went to Paris as a journalist to cover the Dreyfus trial. Witnessing the virulent anti-Semitism surrounding the trial, Herzl became convinced that the establishment of a Jewish homeland was necessary. The first draft of this work, titled “Address to the Rothschilds,” was to be a private communication not intended for publication. Herzl planned to show the Rothschilds that their wealth was “an ever-rising tower that was bound to collapse unless the base upon which it rested was proportionately widened . . . The Rothschilds’ wealth, he argued, should be sanctified by the goal it serves. It should provide the financial basis of a vast program of migration and settlement, which Herzl set out to describe in detail” (Encyclopedia Judaica). When his friends suggested that he had lost his mind, Herzl set about transforming the “Address” into a broader work to convince the world of the need for a Jewish state. The result was Der Judenstaat.
Printing and the Mind of Man 381. NYPL Books of the Century 154.
Please inquire