Herzl as a Leader
THE Zionist world mourns in bitter grief over the death of Dr. Herzl. We mourn not only because we have lost a devoted friend, a brilliant and able leader, but because we feel that his death was due in great measure to the labor and the cares and the trials in the furtherance of our movement, the re-establishment of the Jewish nation.
It is surprising to find that a man who had been so far away from Jewish influence as he, should have come to a conclusion so remote from the mode of thought of the class of Jews to which he belonged, and is to be explained only by the intense national feeling, the latent but strong love, commiseration and sympathy with his people.
At the time at which his pamphlet was being written, Herzl had known some Jews, but he did not know the Jewish people, nor did he understand their idealistic nature. His book soon brought him into close relation with classes of Jews who had until then been strangers to him, and who were in sympathy with his views, and through them he discovered that his Judenstaat was Palestine, and Palestine only; the land of our forefathers, the land where once before the Jewish nation had blossomed and borne fruit, the only land where once again the Jewish people can rise to greatness. The dream of 2,000 years, the constant prayer during the exile and dispersion, forged into history!
The "Judenstaat" of Herzl was not intrinsically new; the idea had been ex-
pressed by Pinsker and others, though Herzl owed the idea to no one. But it required a man of courage and of strength, a man ready to devote his entire energy to a single purpose, it required a man whom destiny produces at rare intervals to carry out a great idea, it required a Herzl, to organize and to lead a movement for the re-establishment of the Jewish nation.
The storm of opposition and abuse, of ridicule and calumny which he had to suffer at the hands of those who stood high in honor among the Jewish people, would have disheartened any one but Herzl. He weathered the storm; he steadily pursued his purpose; he won adherents and sympathizers; he secured the respect even of opponents; he built up a powerful organization, having its branches in every land where Jews dwell; and he was regarded by the greatest governments as the accredited leader of the Jewish people—all of which he accomplished in less than ten years.
It is difficult to describe the personality of Dr. Herzl without risking the charge of exaggerated statement. He was undoubtedly the handsomest man whom I have ever seen; tall and erect, his dark complexioned face crowned with a mass of coal-black hair and framed with a heavy jet-black beard, a lofty forehead and regular features, with eyes which now showed the gentleness of the friend of his people, then the strength of conviction, again the fire that flashed like lightning and held in a spell every eye that gazed upon him.