Zionist Movement Beginnings

In the year 1895, there was an Jewish captain in the French army named Alfred Dreyfus. Once day it was discovered that someone in the army was spying for the enemy Germans. Only after Dreyfus was tried, convicted and sentenced to Devil's Island prison did the truth come out that Dreyfus was framed and completely innocent. Eventually, Dreyfus was acquitted and set free. But Alfred Dreyfus is only a small part of this story.

During and after the trial a young journalist sent to cover this "trial of the century" named Theodor Herzl noticed something very frightening. Mobs of angry French citizens stood outside the courthouse chanted "death to the Jews". Newspapers proclaimed Dreyfus "the Jew traitor".

Even though Dreyfus was a patriotic citizen of France, which was considered to be the most progressive country in the world; even though Dreyfus was actually innocent, French citizens were ready to lynch all Jews for the percieved actions of a single Jew.

To young Theodor Herzl, this was the turning point. Herzl had been interested in a Jewish movement called the Zionist movement. After the Dreyfus affair, Herzl and many other Jews joined the Zionists.

The idea of the Zionist movement comes from both negativity and positivity. From a negative perspective, Jews could no longer live as a minority in other people's countries. The Dreyfus affair proved that no matter what country or situation, there will always be non-Jews who hate Jews. Jews could no longer expect the non-Jewish governments to protect them. Living in constant fear of the next blood libel or pogrom was no longer bearable. Jews needed a country of their own to escape persecution.

From a positive point of view, Jews had a Biblical obligation to live in and populate the Land of Israel. Two thousand years ago we were exiled from our homeland and now was the time to return. Only in Israel could Jews achieve their full potential. Israel was the land of promise, the land of Jewish roots and religion. There was no reason not to return there and set up an independent state. Jews needed a country of their own to fulfill their national and religious aspirations.

By 1897 Theodor Herzl's book The Jewish State spread like wildfire throughout the Jewish world and Herzl became the most recognizable leader of the Zionist movement when he presided over the first international Zionist Congress.

But Theodor Herzl is just a small part of this story. Today, the dream of an independent sovereign Jewish country is a reality. This is something that should never be taken for granted. It is the result of years of struggle. The philosophy of one hundred years ago, which was really a philosophy of thousands of years ago, still applies. It is our obligation to continue to write chapters of this story, for our own sake, and for that of future generations.

For more information:

A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson, New York, Harper and Row, 1987

The Seige; The Saga of Israel and Zionism, by Coner Cruise O'Brien,
New York, Simon & Schuster, 1986

The Deed, by Gerold Frank, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1963.