Should the Jews Have Taken Uganda?

“If you will it, it is no dream.” In this quote Theodor Herzl made it his goal, to live up to his statement. The British offered an area in Eastern Uganda to the Jews as a temporary refuge so they could be safe from the anti-Semitism and pogroms in Europe; there is a dispute as to whether it was the right decision to refuse such an offer, but the Seventh Zionist congress made the correct choice for declining Uganda as a Jewish refuge.

In the late 1800’s many Jews in Europe were exposed to events regarding anti-Semitism. In the Papal State, the Christians wanted to convert the Jews. If they refused, death was the punishment. They were taxed heavily, and put in ghettos so that they were contained- like cattle. Herzl states “Wherever they (Jews) live in perceptible numbers, they are more or less persecuted. Their equality before the law, granted statute, has practically a dead letter.” (The Jewish State, 21)

In the Russian Empire, things were not so pleasant either. The Kishinev Pogroms erupted in April 1903, killing hundreds of Jews. This resulted in tens of thousands of Jews leaving there home and finding safer places to live. Kishinev was not the only place to have pogroms; there were places all over Europe that had pogroms and strong anti-Semitism.

The Dreyfus Affair in France started in 1894. Alfred Dreyfus was a secular Jew who convicted of treason against France by giving information to the Germans. Theodor Herzl was an Austrian journalist who was sent to cover world affairs in France. During the trial there was news of Dreyfus’ Jewish heritage. This created a lot of commotion from the public wanting Dreyfus to suffer a much as possible. “Death to the Jew” people would scream “Death to the Jew” over and over again. As ...

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...other reason why the Uganda proposal is so important is because it is so prevalent. Herzl talked not only his present, but ours as well when he said. “And attempts are made to thrust them out of business also: “Don’t buy from the Jews!”” (21). Many people want to boycott Israel now and not buy anything made from Jews. This is one way to try and hinder the Jewish community. But what the Holocaust showed, the pogroms showed, Metzrayim showed, was that no matter how much hatred there is, Jews will always persevere. And that is the message that I wanted to express and Herzl di everything in his power to help out his nation. Uganda was not right for a refuge because it was simply not Israel. What holds the Jews together and makes us so strong, are the things we have in common- we don’t have anything in common with Uganda, but Israel is a special part of all our lives.