The founder of the Modern Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl was born in Budapest in 1860. After witnessing severe antisemitism, he concluded that the Jews needed a state of their own. In 1896, Herzl published "The Jewish State," which asserted that the Jewish people must establish a Jewish State if they are to survive. He proposed to enlist the support of Jews around the world to raise money to increase the Jewish presence in mandatory Palestine (as there had been a Jewish presence in the land since the earliest efforts at expulsion) and to build global support for such a state. Eventually this led to the establishment of key institutions that led the effort, including the Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund.
In 1897, Herzl convened the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, a milestone in setting the Zionist movement on its course. At the conclusion of the gathering, he wrote in his diary, "At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it." His forecast was almost exactly right: Fifty years later, the UN voted to establish a Jewish state
Herzl died in 1904, and did not see the success of the movement he had created. By the sheer force of his unique personality, he launched a movement that unified not only the splintered Zionist groups but much of the Jewish people, overcoming opposition from many quarters. He got the secular, socialist, capitalist, and religious Zionists to sit together in one hall and to bind themselves together into a single organization for a common purpose. Herzl laid the foundation for a Jewish state and has since become the symbol of Zionism.
