Table Of ContentThe Complete Diaries
of Theodor Herzl
The Complete Diaries of
T H E O D O R H E R Z L
Edited by
Raphael Patai
Translated by
HARRY ZOHN
VOLUME I
HERZL PRESS
AND
New York THOMAS YOSELOFF London
© 1960 by The Theodor Hcrzl Foundation, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-8594
Thomas Yoseloff, Publisher
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New York 16, N. Y.
Thomas Yoseloff Ltd.
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Printed in the United States of America
Preface
A hundred years after his birth, fifty-six years after his death, and twelve years
after the realization of his dream in the State of Israel, Theodor Herzl is univer
sally recognized in Jewish history, and, in fact, in world history, as the founder
of political Zionism and the father of the Jewish state. His Diaries, published here
in full for the first time, contain the fascinating record of the eight last years of
his life during which, practically single-handed and at the sacrifice of his fortune,
his career, his family and his very life, he created a world movement among the
Jews and made the rulers and governments of his day accept the idea that the
Jewish people must have a homeland of its own.
When Herzl began keeping his Diaries in 1895, he was a leading Viennese
feuilletonist and playwright. He was celebrated in his home town, and had achieved
some fame abroad as well. He was a recognized master of the pen who clad his
philosophical ideas, social criticism, and subtle satire in a sensitive, refined, and
polished style. In the Diaries, however, he consciously forewent any stylistic sparkle.
In them his language is generally simple, direct and straightforward, but sometimes
obscure. The entries were often written hastily, and occasionally even carelessly.
They were intended to be not literature but a frank account of his day-to-day
struggle for the movement, of his meetings, plans, and actions, and of the ideas and
ideals that motivated him. Herzl put his ideas down as they came to him, often
using expressions in French, English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Italian, Hungarian, Latin,
Greek, and Turkish, or falling back on the Viennese idiom.
To translate such a document into English was certainly not an easy undertaking.
In Professor Harry Zohn we found a translator fully equal to the task. Professor
Zohn achieved that happy medium between too close an adherence to the original
and too free a rendering which makes his translation read as if Herzl had written
in English instead of German.
The Diaries represent merely a part of Herzl’s literary output. He wrote many
feuilletons, short stories, sketches (some of them collected and edited in separate
volumes), some thirty plays, a book on the Jewish State, a novel (Altneuland),
Zionist addresses and other writings, and a great number of letters addressed to
hundreds of writers—artists, statesmen, scholars, Zionist leaders, etc.—scattered
in more than a dozen countries. While creating the Zionist movement, this writing
activity went on unceasingly, as did his work as literary editor of the Xeue Freie
Presse.
There can be no doubt as to Herzl’s exceptional talents in many fields and his
complete dedication to the Jewish cause. Yet his success among both the simple
people and in the courts of the high and mighty sprang from yet a third source.
This was his tremendous personal magnetism which made its impact on everyone
and which added weight to his arguments and power to his convictions. The
Diaries contain only occasional reflections of this unique personality, filled as they
are with details of his unceasing efforts to convince and convert, to motivate and
activate people as dissimilar as the mighty German Kaiser, the timid Chief Rabbi
v
PREFACE
VI
of Vienna, the shrewd Oriental expert Arminius Vâmliéry, and the hardheaded
scions of the Rothschild dynasty. Therefore it is recommended that these Diaries
be read together with at least one biography of Herzl, several of which are now
available in English.
Prior to the present edition, less than one third of the text of the Diaries was
published in English. Even the German edition, printed in the early iy2o’s in
Berlin, did not contain the entire text. Hundreds of passages, a number covering
several pages, were omitted because of political or personal considerations. Today,
more than half a century after the last entry was made, it is felt that everything
contained in the original manuscript of Herzl’s Diaries belongs to history and not
only can, but should, be made public. Thus the present edition—published at the
initiative of Dr. Emanuel Neumann, president of the Theodor Herzl Foundation
Inc.—contains for the first time every word Herzl entered in the eighteen copy
books he filled.
The editor has attempted to annotate this edition as fully as possible. The first
four volumes contain the text of the Diaries, the fifth the notes and the Index.
The notes are arranged alphabetically and cover practically all the names of per
sons, places, institutions, organizations mentioned by Herzl as well as supplying
additional details on many subjects. A special prefatory note to the fifth volume
will contain information on the nature of the annotations and their use, as well
as the acknowledgments to the dozens of individuals and institutions who helped
the editor in assembling them. Mention however must be made here of the Zionist
Central Archives of Jerusalem in whose safekeeping the original manuscript of
Herzl’s Diaries is deposited and whose director Dr. Alex Bein and staff filled
untiringly the innumerable requests called forth by this work.
New York Raphael Patai
March 16, i960
Translator’s Foreword
It is a rare privilege to be associated with the first complete and unabridged
publication in any language of the Herzl Diaries, surely one of the most significant
works of its kind in world literature.
It has been my aim to produce a very faithful translation and to beware of the
"translator’s itch" to dress up the material and endow it with a stylistic gloss which
the original, so striking in its immediacy and directness, does not possess.
It would never have been possible to finish this lengthy and arduous task in a
comparatively short period of time without the encouragement and cooperation of
a number of people. In particular I wish to express my gratitude to the associates
of the Theodor Herzl Institute, especially to Drs. Emanuel Neumann and Emil
Lehman, for their confidence in me. My warmest thanks also go to the Institute’s
Director of Research, Dr. Raphael Patai, who has proved the ideal editor, and to
his secretary, Pearl Silver. My Brandeis colleague Dr. John B. Wight has given
me invaluable stylistic advice, and Barbara Wight has assisted me with the trans
lations from the French.
I should like to dedicate this translation to the memory of Ludwig Lewisohn—
dynamic Jewish leader, brilliant man of letters, master translator from the German,
and fatherly friend.
Brandeis University Harry Zoiin
Waltham, Massachusetts
March, i960
Contents
Volume I
Page
Preface v
Translator’s Foreword vi
Book One
May-June 17, 1895 1
Book Two
June 23, 1895-April 21, 1896 185
Book Three
April 22-July 21, 1896 325
Book One
Of the Jewish Cause
Begun in Paris
Around Pentecost, 1895
