Writer Remembers Author of First Theodor Herzl Biography

By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)

Amos Elon has written a
biography of Theodor Herzl,
which Marie Syrkin review-
ing in the New Republic
calls a fascinating book. I
can well believe it. Herzl
was a fascinating subject
and Elon is a good writer.
I knew the author of the
first biography by Herzl —
Jacob De Haas. I can re-
member as a boy in Atlanta,
Ga., hearing De Haas speak.
He was an English Jew and
he was very eloquent,I
thought. In some connec-
tion, he quoted Disraeli's
phrase of one "being inebri-
ated by the exuberance of
his own verbosity" and .I
thought maybe De Haas
was too. Anyway, his ver-
bosity inebriated me.

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Herzl had sent De Haas to
America to bring American
Jewry into the Zionist pic-
ture. The Zionist organiza-
tion then like most Zionists
at the time was very poor.
Its office was located in an
upper story of an East Side
building. In those days,
there were many shops lo-
cated on second floors.
"Walk up and save on your
furniture or your clothes,"
they advertised. The Zion-
ist organization could have
put up a sign: "Walk up a
flight and save the Jewish
people.
If the Zionists were
poor, they still had gran-
diose dreams. When the
Young Turkish Revolution
overthrew the sultan,
some Zionists thought a
deal might be made with
them to buy Palestine. De
Haas was one of those said
to have been involved in
the idea. But the idea was
basically fantastic at the
time. The Zionist organi-
zation didn't have the
money for stationery.

The great achievement of
De Haas was bringing Bran-
deis in the Zionist fold and
De Haas subsequently be-

came a kind of official voice
of whatever Brandeis
wished to communicate to
American Zionists. Sitting
on the Supreme Court
bench, Brandeis, of course,
had to operate from behind
the scenes.
Herzl had passed away
before he could point to any
practical achievement. But
he was confident. "This day
I created the Jewish na-
tion," he wrote in his diary.
He didn't see the birth of
the Jewish state or any of
the sequences, but in his
mind's eye he had seen it all
to the happy ending.
As a boy, De Haas tells
us, Herzl dreamed that he
might build the Panama
Canal and in his dreams of
Zion, he has engineering
too. He foresaw the
"drop" in the Dead Sea
area used to bring enor-
mous irrigation possibili-
ties. Israel would become
the special center of new
industries by reason of its
climatic condition. The
land would be national-
ized, so home rent would
be cheap and the savings
on rent would be utilized
for increased production
and employment.

RICHARD H. LOVE, C.L.U.

WE WISH YOU HAPPINESS

The historic drama of the Exodus is an epic of Jewish liberation depicting
the pilgrimage from. slavery to freedom under law.

• We are aware of the many significant meanings of this happy time synt z
bolizing as it does, deliverance from all forms of . suffering.

As life insurance people, we rejoice, with" deep humility, in the fact they
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we pledge ourselves anew to the service. of our friends and clients.

Al this time we extend a sincere wish for a. happy Passover to one and all.

Herzl was very friendly to
the land reformer, Fran
Oppenheimer and seems
also to have been conversant
with the ideas of Henry
George, whose economics
were then just blossoming
forth.
Anti-Semitism, Herzl
prophesied, would disap-
pear and Herzl looked for-
ward to the solution of the
Jewish question also leading
to a similar redemption for
the blacks.

Fanciful as that picture
may look, the whole picture
of the Zionist movement as
one looks back seems stran-
ger than fiction. Here was a
writer of feuilletons with
little knowledge of Jewish
things suddenly rising to an
almost biblical stature.
There were others- be-
fore him, seemingly better
equipped with Jewish
knowledge, like Leo Pin-
sker who had written
about Zionism in perhaps
a deeper way, but this
stranger as it were, was
the man who put the idea
across.
Herzl created the Jewish
state but he also did some-
thing for me and the mil-
lions of Jews who do not re-
side in the Jewish state. I
think the state of Israel has
achieved two principal
things for Jews outside of
Israel. It has exposed the
falsity of two charges
against Jews.
First, it was said, Jews
couldn't be farmers. The
state of Israel proved this
was not so. Second, Jews
were always accused of
being cowardly. They
couldn't fight — and that's
the cardinal sin in the eyes

Miami Celebrates
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According to one rabbi,
the mass -Bat Mitzva cere-
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been performed in Florida.
The ceremony marked the
first time that older women
have been able to become
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the opportunity in their
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Jewish Day School
Sabbath Declared

NEW YORK — The Sab-
bath of March 29 has been
proclaimed as Hebrew Day
School Education Sabbath
by rabbinical' and syn-
agogue organizations in
North America.
Initiated by Torah Ume-
sorah, the National Society
for Hebrew Day Schools,
the Day School Sabbath is
part of a month-long cooper-
ative effort sponsored by
rabbinical and synagogue
groups and local Hebrew
Day School leaders to call
attention to the importance
of Hebrew Day Schools.

and if that were irrigated
there would be a clamor for
more people. Weizmann
hoped for Jewish and Arab
cooperation. The basic inter-
ests of both are the same.
Who knows but that the
story may have the happy
future Herzl foretold.

of the world. Even Jews be-
lieved it. I recall visiting Pa-
lestine some 40 years ago
and the United Press corre-
spondent, a young Jew, as
we were passing the British
barracks said, if it weren't
for them, the Jews would
have to leave. Yet 15 years
later, 600,000 Jews fought
off a population many times
their size and no one now
says Jews can't put up as
good a defense as any other
people.
The future we cannot
tell. It's a new ballgame,
maybe. There is Arab oil
and the Western nations
are as much involved in
the Middle East as Israel.
There is also the conflict of
the superpowers.
If we cannot be sure of
good, neither is there reason
for despair. Saudi Arabia is
almost as big as Alaska and
Texas combined. The Arabs
have enormous territory

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