“At Basel, I founded the Jewish State”

— Theodor Herzl

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.

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Theodor Herzl11

Austro-Hungarian journalist and writer 1860–1904

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“At Basel, I founded the Jewish State”

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Theodor Herzl11

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