t
to fear the consequences of an international movement to demand their
national freedom. Thereafter, with freedom, they were to speak of a
Zionist Congress, of national funds, of national schools, of a flag
and a national anthem, and the redemption of their land. Their spirits
were liberated and in thought they no longer lived in ghettos. Herzl
taught them not to hide in corners. At the First Congress he said, "We
have nothing to do with conspiracy, secret intervention or indirect
methods. We wish to put the question in the arena and under the
control of free public opinion." The Jews were to be active factors in
their emancipation and, if they wished it, what was described in "The
Jewish State" would not be a dream but a reality.

* * * * *

The beginnings of the Jewish renaissance preceded the appearance of
"The Jewish State" by several decades. In every section of Russian
Jewry and extending to wherever the Jews clung to their Hebraic
heritage, there was an active Zionist life. The reborn Hebrew was
becoming an all-pervading influence. There were scores of Hebrew
schools and academies. Hebrew journals of superior quality had a wide
circulation. Ever since the pogroms of 1881, the ideas of Pinsker and
Smolenskin and Gordon were discussed with great interest and deep
understanding. There were many Zionist societies in Russia, in Poland,
in Rumania, in Galicia and even in the United States. In "The Jewish
State" Herzl alludes to the language of The Jewish State and passes
Hebrew by as a manifestation of no great significance. He has a poorer
opinion of Yiddish, the common language of Jews, which he regards as
"the furtive language of prisoners." This was obviously an oversight.
With the advent of Herzl, however, Zionism was no more a matter of
domestic concern only. It was no longer internal Jewish problem only,
not a theme for discussion only at Zionist meetings, not a problem to
heat the spirits of Jewish writers. The problem of Jewish exile now
occupied a place on the agenda of international affairs.

* * * * *

Herzl was not so distant from his people as many of the Russian
Zionists at first surmised. He was familiar with the social
anti-Semitism of Austria and Germany. He knew of the disabilities of
the Jews in Russia. There are many references in his feuilletons to
matters of Jewish interest. He had read an anti-Semitic book written
by Eugen Duehr