ABSTRACT
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, with the birth of a Jewish national organisation called the Zionist movement, the London Society began to follow the development of events. Already in June 1897 the society journal made a reference to the Zionist Congress, which was to take place in Basle two months later. After the session of the First Zionist Congress, the journal devoted special attention to the proceedings of the conference. In the October 1897 issue, the editor published the opening address and full speech of Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) and from then on, month after month, additional speeches were printed. The speech of Max Nordau (1849-1923) was printed in the November issue, a selection of articles from the world press in the December issue, and, in the following years, extensive reports were given of the Zionist congresses that were held. This novel phenomenon of Jewish national revival was received by the society leaders with great enthusiasm. A few months after the First Congress, in an article entitled ‘Zionism’, the editor of the journal gave a profile of the Zionist leader-‘The best known name
in the Jewish world today is that of Dr Theodor Herzl’—and listed the main points he made in his book, The Jewish State. In the course of the article the editor expressed the attitude of the London Society to Herzl’s ideas:
This idea, however, has grown and received considerable impulse at the Basle Congress last August, and is now known as ‘Zionism.’ It is of a political nature rather than a religious character. Whatever we may think of Dr. Herzl’s scheme, whether we consider it Utopian or practical, a likely contingency or a mere dream, it is, at any rate, great and imposing, and we cannot help admiring the creative genius of the man.2
