THEODOR HERZL

33. THEODOR HERZL (1860-1904). Hungarian-born Austrian Zionist leader. As a journalist covering the Alfred Dreyfus affair in 1894, he determined that the solution to anti-Semitism was the establishment of a Jewish national state. In the pamphlet Judenstaat, (1896), he called for a world council to discuss the question of a homeland for the Jews and convened the first Zionist Congress at Basel (1897). TLS, "Herzl" in German, 1p, 8½"x11", Jun 6, 1903. Following the horrific Easter Sunday massacre of Jews in Kishinev, Russia, Herzl writes an urgent appeal to raise funds for the Sixth Zionist Congress to be held in August. In full: "According to section 33 of our Organization, the account books on the Congress are due to close June 30th. We urgently ask that you send your dues in today, that we might cover the money already paid out. Without your money, the Congress' accounts for 1902/1903 will be out of balance and in arrears - and this is not the picture of our movement that we wish to present..." Very faintly speckled with age spots; some show-through from a bold violet annotation on verso. It was at this Aug 1903 Congress that Herzl, in response to the pogroms in Russia, proposed that Zionists consider establishing a homeland in Uganda - a plan much decried and soon disavowed. MB: $1000

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