The family of the future harbinger of the Jewish state lived in Budapest, respected Jewish traditions; however, it was a deeply assimilated family that raised children in the spirit of German education of those times. Father Jacob was a wealthy merchant and banker; he achieved assimilation through economic success and formalization of relations with Judaism. Mother Jeanette, the daughter of a successful merchant, received a good education. A strong-willed woman directed the upbringing of her children in the stream of aesthetic and humanistic European tradition: she nurtured a love for German, French, English languages, European literature and art. Young Theodore easily and naturally adopted the tastes of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy.

At the insistence of his parents, Theodore received his university education at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna (the family moved to Vienna in 1878, after the death of his eldest daughter Paulina). However, the young man’s legal career did not work out: for a year he worked in the courts of Vienna and Salzburg and was faced with the fact that as a Jew he could not apply for the position of judge. Without hesitation, the ambitious Theodore left law and plunged headlong into literary work, to which he had had a natural inclination since childhood. Thus, in his youth, T. Herzl encountered anti-Semitic manifestations, however, he considered them almost a relic of ill-mannered behavior and sincerely believed that it was the final integration of Jews into Christian society and the general cultural progress of humanity that would become reliable safeguards against anti-Semitism.

However, real life turned all the ideological constructions of the European cosmopolitan intellectual upside down. Journalistic work contributed to Theodore's involvement in various spheres of public life, and his natural observation and analytical abilities allowed him to form his own picture of the world. Gradually, he realized that it was assimilation that contributed to the development of anti-Semitism in European countries – and hence the pessimistic conclusion about its futility. As a correspondent for the Austrian liberal newspaper Neue Freie Presse (“New Free Press”) in Paris, T. Herzl witnessed many political events. The growth of anti-Semitism in one of the most developed liberal states in Europe forced Herzl to think about solving the Jewish problem. Theodore himself considered the “point of no return” in the transformation of his own views to be the unfolding of the struggle of the “Dreyfusards” against the “anti-Dreyfusards” in French society, as well as his personal presence at the “civil execution” procedure of officer A. Dreyfus on the Champ de Mars in Paris. That is, already in 1895, the former champion of assimilation finally transformed into an ideologist of the “new Exodus.”

Theoretically, Herzl set out the ideas of the position of the Jewish nation in the modern world and the justification for the restoration of statehood in the book "The Jewish State" (1896). The ideas he expressed were received ambiguously. Many Jews in Western countries were mostly wary of innovation: they say, Jews have a mission to live among other peoples, to bring them the light of monotheism and high ethical standards; the announcement of the Zionist idea could harm their perception in the countries of residence and cause an anti-Semitic reaction. In contrast, the Jews of the Russian Empire, who constantly faced restrictions on their rights, and during pogroms – even direct physical violence, showed much more interest.

In August 1897, T. Herzl managed to convene the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. Its most important results were the adoption of the Basel Program and the establishment of the World Zionist Organization, which Herzl headed. At the same time, the leader of the Zionist movement initiated multi-vector diplomatic activity to achieve an international consensus regarding the territory that could be settled by Jews. The matter was progressing very difficult. The most realistic proposal was submitted by the British Colonization Department. It was ready to provide the Jews with a territory in central Africa (areas of modern Kenya) under its protectorate – the proposal went down in history as the “Uganda Project”. However, its presentation by Herzl and discussion by Zionist activists caused a fierce conflict in the organization and revealed the attachment of most Zionists to the idea of ​​returning to Palestine, the historical cradle of the Jewish people. Therefore, the discussion of what is acceptable and unacceptable allowed us to specify the goal – to establish a state center that would not only provide Jews with full civil rights but also restore the connection with Jewish history and tradition, which would entail the revival of Hebrew. It was based on the implementation of this understanding of the future that settlement farms (moshavim, kibbutzim) arose in Eretz Israel, urban life developed, and Hebrew-speaking culture.

The intense work associated with acute political conflicts undermined Herzl's health. His family life was unsuccessful – his wife, Julia Nashauer, did not share his husband's Zionist ideas, so he spent a lot of time away from the family. In adulthood, despite a significant ideological evolution, Theodor continued to rely on the authority of his mother, cherished the memory of his younger sister, regularly visiting her grave. Perhaps this also contributed to the cooling of relations with his wife.

His heart stopped in an Austrian medical center on July 3, 1904. T. Herzl's last will was fulfilled: he was buried next to his father in the Jewish cemetery in Vienna, and on August 14, 1949, after the proclamation of the State of Israel, the ashes of its forerunner were transferred to Jerusalem and buried on a mountain named in his honor.

The fate of Theodor's family was tragic. Three years after his death, his widow, J. Nashauer, died (1907); the eldest daughter, Paulina, took her own life (1930) and was buried in Bordeaux (France); the son, Hans, who was baptized two years after his father's death, shot himself on his sister's grave (1930); the youngest daughter, Margaret, was killed by the Nazis in the Terezin concentration camp (1943).

Olena Ishchenko