Theodore Herzl
Theodore Herzl was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1860. He was raised in an assimilated Jewish family that celebrated Christmas. He moved to Vienna, Austria, where he studied for the bar exam and later in 1884 was awarded a doctorate of law from the University of Vienna. However, instead of practicing law, he chose the dual career of journalist and playwright. His Judaism was not much of a factor in his life.
In 1894, when Herzl was 34, an earth-shattering event in France transformed his life forever. He was sent there to cover the trial of Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a French Jewish Army captain accused of treason, for selling military secrets to Germany. It soon became obvious to Herzl that the charges against Dreyfus were erroneous and that he was innocent. As a Jew, Dreyfus had become the scapegoat for the frustrations of the people of France, which had just suffered defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The Dreyfus trial had unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism in France.
Herzl, whose Jewish connections were weak, nonetheless saw in the Dreyfus affair a harsh reminder of the poisonous persistence of anti-Semitism. He concluded that Jews could never be integrated fully into their adopted countries. They would always be considered outsiders. They could never feel safe from persecution except in a land that they could claim as their own.
Hundreds of other Jews also saw the Dreyfus affair as evidence of incurable, widespread anti-Semitism. Yet, few, like Herzl, believed that we needed a special Jewish homeland.
Soon, thereafter, Herzl wrote his first major book, Der Judenstaat- The Jewish State. Here he outlined his program of political Zionism. He wrote that the solution to ...
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...pt for the extreme fanatics among them, had accepted Zionism shortly after the turn of the century.
After the Six Day War in 1967, Reform Jews finally accepted the Zionist idea. In fact, today, there is even an official Reform Zionist organization, called ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America.
It took the Holocaust and other monumental events of recent Jewish history, to convince Reform Jews that we needed a Jewish state. Had there been a place of escape for victims of Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, countless numbers of Jews could have been saved from Hitler's executioners.
Theodore Herzl dedicated his life to the Zionist cause and lost his life fighting to obtain a Jewish state. His efforts, although at first were unappreciated, and looked to be unnecessary, were later understood and found to be a great necessity for the Jews of today.
As soon as Jewish immigration increased, so did the tension between the two groups because each felt like they deserved the Palestine land. Zionism began early in the history of Judiasm and it was the movement for the Jews to establish a home in Palestine, and return to their holy land. During the Holocaust, six million Jews were killed and the deep-seeded hatre against them increased
Late into the 19th century, Zionism (a biblical name for Jerusalem) started to rise when Theodor Herzl published an article that concluded Jewish assimilation and emancipation could not work in Europe. It was this that started plans for the creation of a Jewish statehood. During this time, the population of Jews were spread out across different countries, and in each of these countries, they had represented a minority. Throughout this period, they had longed for a state in which they called Eretz Israel, the land of Israel. Herzl’s proposed solution was for the revival of a Jewish homeland where they could set up a state belonging to themselves. Following his publishings, the First Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland. The program state that “The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine secure by public law”. Much of the Jewish community at this point held mixed views about this movement but it was this time period of the late 19th ce...
There are many heroic individuals in history that have shown greatness during a time of suffering ,as well as remorse when greatness is needed, but one individual stood out to me above them all. He served as a hero among all he knew and all who knew him. This individual, Simon Wiesenthal, deserves praise for his dedication to his heroic work tracking and prosecuting Nazi war criminals that caused thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other victims of the Holocaust to suffer and perish.
"Demonological anti-Semitism, of the virulent racial variety, was the common structure of the perpetrators' cognit...
In 1944, the German Nazis occupied Sighet, Transylvania where they started to issue several decrees for the jews. An act of deportation was issued to remove all foreign jews--Wiesel’s teacher Moshe the Beadle was part of the deportation. Moshe the Beadle later escaped and returned to the town to tell the people what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. Nobody believed him. The Wiesel family was exterminated from
Wiesel recounts the cramped living conditions, the Jewish life and the design and purpose of the Sighet ghettos from its conception to its liquidation. His recount demonstrates the hardships and the dehumanization experienced by the Jewish people starting with their isolation and containment within the
Dr. Seuss Throughout Dr. Seuss’s life, he has written dozens of books with over one hundred million copies sold, and still being produced to this day. Theodor Seuss Geisel is a well-known author that had many inspirations for his works that are still read by millions today, such as Yertle the Turtle, The Sneeches, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His inevitable fame and fortune came with a lot of pressure; pressure of his readers as well as pressure of his producers. Dr. Seuss was born in Springfield, MA on March 2, 1904 as Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss At Work). He attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
“He’s the man who’s lived through hell without every hating. Who’s been exposed to the most depraved aspects of human nature but still manages to find love, to believe in God, to experience joy.” This was a quote said by Oprah Winfrey during her interview with Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor. No person who has not experienced the Holocaust and all its horrors could ever relate to Elie Wiesel. He endured massive amounts of torture, physically, mentally, and emotionally just because he was a Jew.
...one of the darkest periods of history, filled with madness and murder. Following the war many people asked why the Jews succumbed to the Nazis like “Lamb at the slaughter”. One cannot forget or ignore the many shows of resistance amongst the Jews such as the Jews who fought in the forest of Eastern Europe and also the Jews who started the uprising in ghettos and in concentration camps. One result of the Holocaust is that the state of Israel was no doubt established because of the Holocaust. As a result of the great catastrophe which occurred to the Jewish people many nations realized that establishing a state was a necessary step for the protection of Jews. With the end of the war and the unconditional surrender, international courts were set up for the quick trials and sentencing of the Nazis for their war crimes against the Jewish people and against all humanity.
Anti-Semitism has been changed into countless forms and each of them mean something different but none of them take away any part of the cruelty that was placed on Jewish people. “In 1879, German journalist Wilhelm Marr originated the term antisemitism, denoting the hatred of Jews, and hatred of various liberal, cosmopolitan, and international political trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often associated with Jews (Anti-Semitism).” “Anti-Zionism” is the hatred of Jews and “Anti Semitism” is discrimination of Israel and Zionism is racism (Lipset). Theses two terms can often be misused or misunderstood but the...
...f society. The second point of view held that Jews were inherently bad and can never be salvaged despite any and all efforts made by Christians to assimilate them. These Christians felt that there was absolutely no possibility of Jews having and holding productive positions in society. All the aforementioned occurrences lead to the transformation of traditional Jewish communities, and paved the way for Jewish existence, as it is known today. It is apparent, even through the examination of recent history that there are reoccurring themes in Jewish history. The most profound and obvious theme is the question of whether Jews can be productive members of their country and at the same time remain loyal to their religion. This question was an issue that once again emerged in Nazi Germany, undoubtedly, and unfortunately, it is not the last time that question will be asked.
For a Jew arriving in America from Europe starting anew marked a defining point. After losing six million Jews in the Holocaust, the United States of America served as one of the most secure havens for reestablishing a strong Jewish presence ...
Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. His father worked in the family brewery, Kuhlmbach & Geisel, which locals pronounced, "come back and guzzle” until prohibition. His mother’s maiden name was Seuss. She was the daughter of a baker in Springfield. Seuss had an older sister named Marnie (Kibler, 1987).
His exposure to the criminal acts of his oppressors changed his whole personality. All he cared about was protecting the other Jews from experiencing the same things he did.
When the infamous Hitler began his reign in Germany in 1933, 530,000 Jews were settled in his land. In a matter of years the amount of Jews greatly decreased. After World War II, only 15,000 Jews remained. This small population of Jews was a result of inhumane killings and also the fleeing of Jews to surrounding nations for refuge. After the war, emaciated concentration camp inmates and slave laborers turned up in their previous homes.1 Those who had survived had escaped death from epidemics, starvation, sadistic camp guards, and mass murder plants. Others withstood racial persecution while hiding underground or living illegally under assumed identities and were now free to come forth. Among all the survivors, most wished not to return to Germany because the memories were too strong. Also, some become loyal to the new country they had entered. Others feared the Nazis would rise again to power, or that they would not be treated as an equal in their own land. There were a few, though, who felt a duty to return to their home land, Germany, to find closure and to face the reality of the recent years. 2 They felt they could not run anymore. Those survivors wanted to rejoin their national community, and show others who had persecuted them that they could succeed.