Online Document Assignment 23

THEODOR HERZL

The “Jewish Question”

As was the case with Europeans in general, by the late nineteenth century Jews had come to identify strongly with the nation-states to which they belonged. Moreover, steady progress toward Jewish emancipation after 1848 encouraged many Jews to believe that conditions had never been more promising for their assimilation and acceptance. Such hopes were undermined by the virulent anti-Semitism that infected popular nationalism in the last decades of the nineteenth century. In the eyes of an increasing number of anti-Semitic nationalists, not only was Jewish inclusion in national communities impossible, but Jews were the single greatest threat to the achievement of national aspirations. For such individuals, the resolution of the “Jewish Question” could only be achieved through persecution, exclusion, and isolation.

It was against this backdrop that Theodor Herzl offered his own solution to the “Jewish Question,” the foundation of an independent Jewish state. His solution was predicated on two basic beliefs: that the Jews were one people, wherever they resided, and that Jews living outside of their own country would never be left in peace. As you read the documents relating to the “Jewish Question,” pay particular attention to the way popular nationalism shaped the views of each writer. What larger trends in European political culture do they reflect?

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