st
words uttered by Herzl were: "We are here to lay the foundation stone
of the house which is to shelter the Jewish nation." "We Zionists," he
stressed, "seek for the solution of the Jewish question, not an
international society, but an international discussion.... We have
nothing to do with conspiracy, secret intervention or indirect
methods. We wish to place the question under the control of free
public opinion."

His First Congress address contained the ideas which he had already
expressed in previous speeches and articles, but there was a great
difference between the views in "The Jewish State" and the address
delivered at the first session of the Zionist Congress. The latter is
the carefully considered public statement of one who knew he
represented tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of
followers. His words were not those of a seer, but of a statesman.
Almost as profound was the effect produced. It was at this Congress
that the Basle Program was adopted.... "Zionism seeks to secure for
the Jewish people a publicly recognized, legally secured home (or
homeland) in Palestine."

The second important task of the First Congress was the creation of an
organization. The Congress was declared to be "the chief organ of the
Zionist movement." The basis of electoral right was to be the payment
of a shekel, which at that time was equivalent to twenty-five cents.
There was to be an Executive Committee with its permanent seat in
Vienna. Everything which was to unfold later in Zionism, both in the
way of affirmative forces and inner contradictions, was already
visible or latent in the first Congress. There was discussion of a
bank, of a land redemption fund to be called The National Fund, the
creation of a Hebrew University, and the clashes between practical and
political Zionism.

On his return to Vienna, Herzl made the following entry in his diary:
"If I were to sum up the Basle Congress in a single phrase I would
say: In Basle I created the Jewish State. Were I to say this aloud I
would be greeted by universal laughter. But perhaps five years hence,
in any case, certainly fifty years hence, everyone will perceive it.
The state exists as essence in the will-to-the-state of a people, yes,
even in that will in a single powerful person.... The territory is
only the concrete basis, and the state itself, with a territory
beneath it, is still in the nature of an abstract thing ... In Basle I
created the abstracti