Theodor Herzl Quotes

Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl , also known in Hebrew as חוֹזֵה הַמְדִינָה‎, Chozeh HaMedinah was an Austro-Hungarian journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was one of the fathers of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the World Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish migration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state. Though he died long before its establishment, he is generally considered a father of the State of Israel, formed in 1948.

While Herzl is often referred to as the first major Zionist activist, scholars such as Yehuda Bibas, Zvi Hirsch Kalischer and Judah Alkalai were promoting Zionist ideas before him.

Herzl is specifically mentioned in the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

✵ 2. May 1860 – 3. July 1904
Theodor Herzl photo

Works

The Old New Land
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl: 11   quotes 7   likes

Famous Theodor Herzl Quotes

Theodor Herzl quote: “If you will it, it is no dream.”

“At Basel, I founded the Jewish State”

Herzl Diary entry (3 September 1897), a few days after the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, as quoted in 'Nonstate Nations in International Politics: Comparative System Analyses (1977) by Judy S. Bertelsen, p. 37
:Note: 50 years after writing this in his diary, the state of Israel was established
Context: Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word — which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly — it would be this: 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, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.

“All people's actions were once a dream”

Postfix to Altneuland (1902)
Context: ... but if you will, it may very well be only a legend dreamed up by myself, and will always be so. I had in mind to write a story with a point. There will be those who say, more story than point. After three years we must part, my beloved book. Now you go on your trail of tears. You will have to go through a maze of antagonism and misunderstanding, like through a dark forest. But if you are lucky and meet good people, please send them your father's blessings. He believes that dreams too can be a way to fill the days that man must spend on the face of the earth. The dream is not that far from action as most tend to think. All people's actions were once a dream and all peoples actions will someday be a dream.

“If you will, it is no legend…”

Prefix to Altneuland, (1902)
Originally in German: Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen... which was intended to have the double meaning of a strong will shall eventually be realized, and as part of a paragraph ending as a postfix to the book, that this book perhaps will be seen as a true story, but even if not...
The Israeli rightist movement "Im Tirzu" (Literally: 'If you will') is named after this quote.

“…When we sink, we become a revolutionary proletariat, but when we rise, there rises also our terrible power of the purse.”

Herzl about the way the Jews are perceived by antisemites when they do not have a country of their own
Der Judenstaat [The Jewish State] (1896)

Theodor Herzl Quotes about people

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