Description

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Few books have changed human history as did Theodor Herzl's 1896 tract advocating the founding-even the inevitability-of a Jewish state. The new edition from Quid Pro Books adds a 2014 Foreword by Jerold S. Auerbach, Professor Emeritus of History at Wellesley College and recognized as a leading scholar in the U.S. on Judaism in America and Israeli history. Auerbach's extensive introduction brings home the importance and complexities of this historic work, of this visionary man. Founder of the World Zionist Organization and an Austrian intellectual, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) recognized that Jews would never be truly assimilated in any country they settled in, even over the course of centuries, and could only find a home in their own nation. More than that, creating a new Jewish state would provide the opportunity to evolve it under advanced Western democratic ideals and structures. "The earth resounds with outcries against the Jews," Herzl wrote, "and these outcries have awakened the slumbering idea." The idea was a "very old one: the restoration of the Jewish State." But it was given a new voice and Utopian contours by Herzl. Translated to English in this 1904 version (from the 1896 original, "Der Judenstaat") and supplemented further with notes and a preface by Jacob De Haas in 1917, this version recounts steps that Herzl and others had taken after 1896 toward persuading world leaders of the necessity of creating a Jewish homeland in what is present-day Israel. Adding the 2014 introductory essay by Professor Auerbach, the Quid Pro Books edition is a modern, professional presentation with accurate republication of an early and accepted translation of this historic work. This version features proper formatting and close proofreading from the original text, unlike many such reprint editions available today. It is library quality, as well as very readable to the modern reader. Part of the History & Heroes Series from Quid Pro Books.