THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 20, 1979 25
Theodor Herzl: The Man Intertwined With a Great Legend
By SHALOM
BEN-CHORIN
World Zionist Organization
(Editor's note: July 15
was the 75th anniversary
of the death of Theodor
Herzl.)
Ahad Ha'am, one of
Herzl's outspoken critics,
said that the Jewish people
transferred upon Herzl
their faith in the Messiah,
and foretold that the dead
leader would perhaps have
an even more powerful
influence than that exerted
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by the living one. The im-
agination of the people
would see him as a hero
freed from all earthly frail-
ties and limitations.
Eighteen years after
Herzl's _premature death at
the age of 44, in 1904, when
through the Balfour Dec-
laration Herzl's vision of the
"Charter" had become true,
another giant in Zionism,
Nahum Sokolow, told the
'12th Zionist Congress in
1921: "Herzl's great shadow
is still our secret leader."
It is a fact that both in
Israel's Knesset and in
every major Zionist gather-
ing, all over the world,
Herzl's picture looks down
severely at the speakers.
Zangwill had cabled to
Vienna after Herzl's
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gress? He said the ladies
death: He did not die
would be honored guests of
since he is immortal." No
the Congress without par-
Jewish leader after
ticipating in the voting. One
Moses has so deeply
year later the position was
entered the conscious-
reversed.
ness of the Jewish people
The Zionist.Congress was
as Herzl.
one of the very first parlia-
It is well known that the
ments of the world-- and
Hebrew writer Ben Ami,
certainly the first one in
when seeing Herzl on the
Europe — in which women
platform of the First Zionist
enjoyed full equality of
Congress, exclaimed,
rights. Herzl knew to turn
"Yechi Hamelech" (Long
what might be regarded as a
Live the King). Yet nobody
personal defeat into prop-
laughed.
aganda for the Zionist
- Likewise, a young work-
THEODOR HERZL
organization.
man on the occasion of
In "this respect he had
Herzl's voyage to Russia of- the title "Malki be'Zion"
fered a toast to "Melech (My King in Zion). And fi- become "the first servant
Herzl." Enthusiasts carried nally the characteristic of the Jewish state." In
away by the inspiration of a anecdote quoted by Nus- this sense one may
moment? But what about senblatt in his "Contem- understand a sentence in
the note in the diary of Dr. poraries about Herzl": Herzl's letter to H.
Max Bodenheimer, a The Frankfurt 'protest Teweles of June 6, 1895:
thoroughly rational lawyer rabbi' Horbwitz re- "I believe that for me life
of critical disposition, proached a colleague for has ceased and history
entered after Herzl's first his enthusiastic words begun."
meeting with Kaiser about Herzl: "How can
Bodenheimer was un-
Wilhelm II in Constan- you, an Orthodox rabbi, doubtedly right in stating
tinople:
speak in such glowing that Herzl always wanted to
When Herzl was leaving terms about a Jew who is deal personally with every-
the hotel, all of us were eating treif and does not thing of importance. This
under the impression which observe the Shabat?" approach made co-operation
was frequently recurring: a "That is only to the with him difficult. He al-
princely appearance, a born good," was the reply "if ways demanded of his adhe-
ruler. If we attain our aim he were also leading a rents to be prepared and
(the Jewish state) before kosher life, I should have ready — but to wait in the
long, then the establish- to regard him as the Mes- background, as it were, as
reserves, until he would
ment of • an autocratic siah."
* * *
give the signal for action.
monarchy is not out of the
question; it would be suita-
As late as 1895, IIerzl He was easily misun-
ble to the temperament and wrote a very critical article derstood and his col-
character of Herzl (who has against the feminists end- laborators were bound to
the desire and the ability-to ing with the words, "I do not tire.
Herzl, on the other hand,
do alone what is necessary want to hear and know any-
and important)." -
thing about the emancipa- called the Actions Commit-
tee the "In-Action Commit-
Small wonder, again, tion of Woman."
that the Hebrew writer
By August 1897 he was tee" and wrote to his friend
Vardi edited his collec- president of the Zionist David Wolffsohn: "Our
tion of reports of con- Congress in Basle and the people are looking on with
temporaries on Herzl's question arose: will women great interest from the bal-
visit to Eretz Israel under have voting rights in Con- cony while I am working"
-
(Oct. 1, 1897)
The Herzl legend is not
correct in regard to his atti-
tude to journalism in gen-
eral and to his paper and his
boss in particular. It is not
widely known that two
well-to-do Jews, Mr. Cowen
of London and Mr. Kre-
mentzky of Vienna (the lat-
ter was the first organizer of
the JNF) had offered Herzl a
substantial salary to leave
the Neue Freie Presse and
serve the Zionist Movement
exclusively.
Herzl refused the offer
— in order to remain fi-
nancially independent of
the movement as the
legend has it. But there
was also another reason.
Herzl loved his profes-
sion of journalist and he
knew that the status he
had acquired in the
Jewish and in the non-
Jewish world was to a
large degree due to his
being a representative of
the press, of the Neue
Freie Presse, a highly
respected newspaper of
world renown; even Sul-
tan Abdul Harold II as-
sured Herzl that he read
it regularly and with
great attention.
Journalist and king of
the people, a child of the
19th Century and a figure of
biblical grandeur, aristo-
crat and democrat, realist
and visionary — these are
only a few of the numerous
and often contradictory
facets of Herzl's brilliant
personality. No wonder it
cast its spell over his con-
temporaries and still fasci-
nates and inspires 75 years
later. -
Singer's Views on Literature, Life
During the three-day
period of March_15-18, 1970,
Isaac Bashevis Singer, who
eight years -- later was
awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature, was interviewed
by Prof. Paiil Rosenblatt,
dean of the College of Lib-
eral Arts at the University
of Arizona, and Prof. Gene
Koppel of the University of
Arizona English literature
department. The interview
was published in 1971. It is
now reprinted as a 40-page
paperback by the Univer-
sity of Arizona Press, Tuc-
son, Ariz., under the title
"Isaac Bashevis Singer on
Literature and Life."
In this year of Singer's
glory this small book has an
important effect on the
interest in the Yiddish
writer who won the most
important award in litera-
ture.
The prefatory pages are
both a tribute to Singer and
an evaluation of his literary
achievements. _
A variety of subjects re-
lating to the author and
his skill as a writer make
this a book of general
interest. There was one
particular question on
Yiddish which has spe-
cial merit. The query and
the reply are:
"Rosenblatt: Do you
think that the writer of
Yiddish by himself will
create the demand on the
part of young people for
studying Yiddish?
"Singer: There are very
few writers of Yiddish now-
adays. There are very few
young ones. I don't build all
my hopes on them, but_ I
think that the writer gener-
ally, the Jewish writer,
even though lie may have
mistaken theories, sooner
or later will come — litera-
ture itself will compel him
to come — to the conclusion
that assimilation is poison
from every point of view. It
is certainly poison from the
point of view of art, because
art and assimilation are the
very opposites.
"An artist is a person who
is rooted in his milieu; he
does not deny his parents
and grandparents. In a way,
art is clannish, but I mean
in a positive way, not in a
negative way. The person
who wants to be cosmopoli-
tan is never an artist. There
isn't such a thing as a cos-
mopolitan novel. If it is
cosmopolitan, it is' not a
_novel and it is not a drama.
"The real dramas of the
world always take place
among certain nations,
certain people, in certain
places and at certain
times — they are very
much concrete. From an
artistic point of view, as-
similation is a great mis-
fortune, and the reason
why Jewish-American
literature hasn't reached
more than it has reached
is that this generation is
still the victim of assimi-
lation."
Singer's comments on the
Bible, on his personal likes
and dislikes in literature,
and the personal equations
combine to make this an in-
teresting brochure.
Help for Elderly Top of UAHC Volume
NEW YORK — Although movement --titled "So
nearly one-third of all Teach Us to Number Our
American Jewish house- Days."
holds are headed by persons
The UAHC manual pro-
60 years old or older, few vides information on federal
synagogues have responded legislation affecting the el-
to the needs of the pro- derly; chapters written by
gressively older Jewish experts on social and legal
population in the U.S. ac- services for the elderly, with
cording to Rabbi Sanford specific suggestions on the
Seltzer of the Union of role synagogues can play in
American Hebrew-Congre- these areas.
gations.
A special section of the
Rabbi Seltzer, director of manual is devoted to
gerontology programming synagogue programming
for the UAHC, has edited on behalf of the older
and compiled a 90-page person. It includes
manual on aging for guidelines on organizing
synagogue use — just pub- an "aging awareness
lished by the Reform Jewish program" and gives
examples of service pro-
grams conducted by var-
ious Reform congrega-
tions throughout the
country.
"So Teach Us to Number
Our Days" is the first of a
series of UAHC publica-
tions on the elderly. It is
available for a charge from
Rabbi Seltzer, 1300
Boylston St., Chestnut Hill,
Mass. 02167.
New Synagogue
PARIS (JTA) — A new
Liberal synagogue will . be
built in the center of Paris,
where many of the area's
Liberals live.