Theodor Herzl
In 1897, the great Zionist writer Aḥad Ha’am argued that Jewish culture, not politics, was the best avenue to bring about a new Jewish state. This week’s podcast revisits his important ideas.
The Austrian capital redeemed.
“There are many people with bad manners, but the Jews stand out.”
During this summer’s riots, synagogues were vandalized and Parisians chanted “dirty Jews.”
We should appreciate Theodor Herzl’s lightning-storm emergence, even if we’ll never really know what caused it.
From the soil of tsarist autocracy, no Jewish political leaders could grow. Herzl, by contrast, exuded the spirit of modern, fin-de-siècle Europe.
What are Jews for?
Though he was blessed with extraordinary charisma, Herzl was filled with inner turmoil. In Zionism, he found a calling that stabilized his fragile persona.
A young secular Viennese writer had an experience 125 years ago that would lead him to change Jewish history forever. He could never explain it. Can anyone else?
Taking stock of a great Jewish leader.
Reading the Bible as a justification for liberty.
From Herzl to Daniel arap Moi.
Isaac Jacob Reines.
