Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage (The Jewish State: an Attempt at a Modern Solution of the Jewish Question), Theodor Herzl, Leipzig and Vienna: M. Breitenstein, 1896

86 pages (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.; 240 x 160 mm). An exceptionally fine copy; very lightly soiled. Original wrappers; edges slightly frayed. Half morocco clamshell case with gilt titles.

 

 

The euphemistic "Jewish Question," concerning the perceived inability of Jews to integrate within Western Europe had occupied Theodor Herzl with increasing intensity since his days as a law student at the University of Vienna.  While the ideas which Herzl would later present in Der Judenstaat may have been germinating within him since his youth, the direct impetus behind the work may be traced to his days as Paris correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse between 1891 and 1895.  Witnessing the anti-Semitic hysteria aroused by the Dreyfus affair, he became convinced that assimilation of the Jews into European society was unrealistic and that what was needed was a separate Jewish territorial entity, a state of their own.  By mid-1895 Herzl had presented his ideas to the celebrated Jewish philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch in order to enlist his aid. Hirsch however, regarded the creation of a Jewish state as a fantasy and refused to proffer either material or financial support. Nevertheless, the notes that Herzl prepared in advance of and subsequent to his meeting with the Baron became the nucleus of Der Judenstaat.

In his diary, Herzl reveals that his next plan was to appeal to the wealthy members of the Rothschild family for assistance but that over the following weeks and months as he strove headlong into one obstacle after another he concluded that in order to further his plan, it was necessary to put it before the public. In January of 1896 the London Jewish Chronicle carried a synopsis of the pamphlet: "A Solution of the Jewish Question" by Dr. Theodor Herzl.  Subsequently Herzl met with an obscure Austrian publishing firm that agreed to publish the more complete work under the title Der Judenstaat.  Heymann writes "The precise terms are not known, but later accounts show that Herzl received no royalties and that income from sales barely covered the publisher's costs. By February the proofs were ready, but Herzl was clearly disappointed that only 3,000 copies would be printed."  

More than a century later, the book has been published in over 80 editions in nearly two dozen languages and it is abundantly clear that this pamphlet by a once obscure Viennese journalist has served to direct the course of Jewish history onto a path that would lead to the birth of political Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel.


LITERATURE:
Michael Heymann, "Theodor Herzl's Der Judenstaat published in Vienna," Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana:Treasures of Jewish Booklore, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, second edition, April 1996, p. 103.