Herzl’s Vision: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State by Shlomo Avineri

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In this biography, Shlomo Avineri portraits Theodor Herzl’s intellectual and spiritual odyssey from a private and marginal individual into a Jewish political leader and shows how it was the political crisis of the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Empire, torn apart by contending national movements, which convinced Herzl of the need for a Jewish polity. Drawing extensively on Herzl’s diaries as well as his published works, Avineri tells the story of how Herzl became, with the Zionist movement that he founded, a player in international politics, and how he harnessed the power of the word to his goals as no other statesman before him had done. Combining a visionary idea with practical action, Theodor Herzl fashioned the policies and institutions that paved the way for the Jewish state.

Source: Jewish Book Council