The Jewish state

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The Jewish state . Title of the first edition dated February 14, 1896

The Jewish state. An attempt at a modern solution to the Jewish question is a book by Theodor Herzl , with which he attempted to provide a Jewish answer to what was then called the Jewish question . It was published in Leipzig and Vienna in1896by M. Breitenstein's Verlag-Buchhandlung after Cronbach in Berlin and Duncker & Humblot had rejected publication. Herzl wrote it under the impression of the Dreyfus affair ; he finished the manuscript on June 17, 1895.

Characteristic

The Jewish state is not a religious work; rather, it has significantly influenced modern Judaism politically by laying the foundation of political Zionism . For Herzl, a Jewish state was necessary on the one hand because of the anti-Semitism that existed around the world , and on the other hand because religion had lost its identity-creating and unifying character for Judaism through the consequences of the Enlightenment and emancipation .

Herzl did not see his work as a utopia , but as a pragmatic concept for the establishment and maintenance of a Jewish state , which answered the “Jewish question”.

content

After the introductory sentences, Herzl first defines the problem of the “Jewish question”. The nuances of hostility towards Jews are countless:

“In Russia, Jewish villages are being pillaged, in Romania a few people are killed, in Germany they are occasionally beaten, in Austria the anti-Semites terrorize all public life, in Algeria preachers appear, in Paris the so-called better society, the Cercles close themselves against the Jews. "

- Herzl : The Jewish State, General Part

Then he rejects the previous steps to solve the problem, in particular the attempt to settle Jews as farmers in other countries. One has to move with the times, the peasant class is dying out, attempts to return to old social structures are in vain.

He sees the reason for what he believes is growing anti-Semitism in the lack of social mobility that is caused by discrimination against Jews.

“The causa remota is the loss of our assimilability that occurred in the Middle Ages, the causa proxima our overproduction of middle intelligences that have no drainage downwards and no ascent upwards […]. We are being proletarianized downwards into subversive forces, forming the NCOs of all revolutionary parties, and at the same time our terrible monetary power is growing upwards. "

- The Jewish State, General Part

However , Herzl rejects total sociological assimilation , since the Jewish national personality is historically too famous and, despite all humiliations, too high. She is too valuable to be destroyed. Apart from that, assimilation is only possible if the Jews are left alone for two generations. But this would not happen, whereupon the pressure presses them against the old trunk again, the hatred of those around them makes them strangers again.

In the next chapters Herzl discusses the options Argentina or Palestine and goes into the organization of state formation. To this end, he wants to found a company, the Jewish Company, which will buy the countries it needs. He estimated an amount of 1 billion gold marks . He also mentions the construction of workers' housing, the introduction of labor services for unskilled workers and details such as the introduction of the 7-hour day in the form of a four-part 14-hour shift, where two 3.5 hours of concentrated work with the same time for recreation Alternate between family and further education. The "protection force" should be 10 percent of the male immigrants.

After discussing the difficult way of raising money, Herzl describes the character of the Jewish state. Herzl had a rather heterogeneous structure in mind, in which it should be possible for everyone to take with them the traditions and customs of their local group. This also makes the problem of integration into an unfamiliar environment easier to manage.

According to Herzl, the constitution of the state should be quite flexible and modern. The parliamentary monarchy and the aristocratic republic he held it in general on the best forms of government, but joined former shape due to lack of historical attachment options immediately as ridiculous. In his opinion, a kind of aristocracy is the best solution in a socially mobile society with many opportunities for advancement, but he rejects referenda as the basis for legislation, “because in politics there are no simple questions that can only be answered with yes and no . The masses are even more subject to false beliefs than the parliaments, and are inclined to every vigorous shouter. In front of the assembled people, you can neither make external nor internal politics. "

There was also the problem of different languages. Since most of the Jews Herzl had contact with were either German-speaking or at least had a connection to the German language through Yiddish , he believed that German could become the common language of the Jews as quickly and easily as possible.

“We can't talk Hebrew to each other. Who of us knows enough Hebrew to require a train ticket in this language? "

- Der Judenstaat, Society of Jews and Judenstaat

Another important point was the question of religion. Herzl did not want theocratic "velleities of our clergy" to arise. We will know how to keep them in their temples, just as we will keep our professional army in the barracks. ”So on this point, Herzl represented a secular position , with a strict separation of religion and state .

In his remarks, Herzl largely ignores the fact that in the course of the mass immigration of Jews into an Arab-inhabited country and the establishment of the State of Israel there could possibly be problems with the local Arab population. Regarding the coexistence with other peoples and religions, Herzl only explains: "And if it happens that people of different faiths and nationalities also live among us, we will grant them honorable protection and equality of rights."

Herzl also considered details such as the flag of the future state to be important as a symbol of identification. He had a white flag with seven gold stars that should represent the seven hours of work. "Because under the sign of work the Jews go to the new land."

expenditure

Translations

  • Yiddish: Löbel Taubes (1863–1933) published the Hebrew- Yiddish bi-monthly publication “Ha-Am” in Kolomea / Galicia since 1891 (edited by David Isaak Isaiah Silberbusch, born 1854, died 1936); in it he brought a Yiddish transcription of Herzl's “Jewish State” at the end of 1896; a Yiddish translation first appeared in Russia in 1899/1900 (translated by Samuel Bramberg)
  • Hebrew: by Michaël Berkovitz (first translation), then by Ascher Barasch (second translation)
  • English: by Sylvie d'Avigdor, Nutt, London, 1896
  • Russian: by Samuel (Lwowich) Klatschko (1851–1914)

Quote from Herzl 1903

“It is wonderful how little our much-condemned movement is to the enemy and the like. Indifferent is known. Who knows them - Jew or Christian - loves them. He would then be a person insensitive to anything higher.
My Jewish state is long out of date. I wrote it in Paris […] and didn't know much about Jewish then. I was alienated from Judaism, a tabloid. I'm not a rabbi now either, u. I only go to the temple in Basel on the Saturday of the Congress Week. There I also greet the God of my fathers more than my own. Because with my God I can also without a rabbi and the like. pervade prescribed prayers.
My Jewish state first brought me to the Zionists who were there before me and the like. that I didn't know At that time I was an isolated man. my words were unexperienced and irresponsible. You could learn better about the whole thing from my utopian novel Old New Land . I wrote it from 1899 to 1902, when I was the leader of the movement. This forced me to do some ménagements. Artistically, the book is not worth much, although it took me a lot of effort […] You see, I've been bothering myself like a dog for almost eight years, I've sacrificed a lot of money for it, and of course I also work for free, have mocked myself, etc. . let pelt with feces, u. I'm still as warm for the cause today as on the first day and continuously. "

Web links

Wikisource: The Jewish State  - Sources and Full Texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The Jewish State / General Part
  2. ↑ Der_Judenstaat / Die_Jewish_Company
  3. ↑ a b c d e Der Judenstaat / Society of Jews und Judenstaat
  4. ↑ Herzl's letter to Ernst Mezei (1851–1932, Hungarian publicist and politician, leading member of the Hungarian Independence Party) in Budapest, March 10, 1903, quoted from letters and diaries . 7 vols. Eds. By Alex Bein , Hermann Greive , Moshe Schaerf and Julius H. Schoeps . Propylaea, Frankfurt / M., Berlin 1983–1996. Vol. 7, p. 76.