Gisela’s 1929 Gymnasium Thesis, “Zionism and its developments so far” (Translated to English from the original German)

The idea of a return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland of Palestine has existed since the expulsion some 2000 years ago. The Jews, who have been scattered all over the world since then, evoked the return home in almost every prayer. The greeting "Next year in Jerusalem" has been passed down from generation to generation. 

Even in the bleakest times of the Jews, persecutions in the Middle Ages, they did not lose hope of returning, but it seemed such an unrealizable ideal to them that they believed that only the Messiah, the eagerly awaited Son of God, could return them to the Promised Land. 

They had no initiative of their own. Persecuted and suffering, but tenacious in their faith and traditions, the people lived faithfully in the ghetto, held together first and foremost by their common enemy, anti-Semitism, and by the communal obedience to all laws. Almost the only profession left to Jews in the ghetto was that of merchant or scholar, keen intellect and the good sense of business are still a characteristic of Jews today, even though the ghettos have been abolished.

The time of the emancipation of Judaism followed, and the highest ambition of the Jew was to finally be not singled out, to be equal and recognized. 

In this ambition to assimilate, the Jew tries wherever he can to achieve something, to serve the fatherland in which he lives - and achieves this through his ingenuity, his diligence and his tenacity. But the hoped-for assimilation fails to materialize. As with every successful person, people are envious, especially of those who belong to a minority and remain a foreign body, and who also differ in many ways through the centuries of segregation. As soon as the Jews become more numerous and powerful, anti-Semitism worsens. 

- This is how Theodor Herzl sees the history of the Jewish people in broad outline. 

Theodor Herzl, originally a Viennese journalist, was actually first made aware of the Jewish problem, as he himself recounts, by the anti-Semitism that caught his eye again in a particular case, the Dreyfus Affair. He says: "Until now, most of us had believed that the solution to the Jewish question could only be expected from the gradual development of mankind. For the Jews, however, there is no other help than to return to their own nation and settle on their own land. And in a pamphlet entitled "The Jewish State", published in 1895, he awakens the dormant national feeling and claims that only the possession of their own land, namely Palestine, can now revitalize the degenerated people (of the Diaspora). 

I would like to reproduce some of the content, because I think it is interesting to compare the original plan with the later realization of the Zionist idea. Herzl seeks to explain anti-Semitism, shows that assimilation is unfeasible and demands that the Jewish question be solved as a national one. To show that this goal is achievable, he presents an elaborate, practical plan. For a moral person, the subject of rights outside the sphere of private property, is the Society of Jews. Next to it is the legal entity of the Jewish Company, which is a commercial entity. The former is supposed to represent the social community, the state-forming power, the latter the state as an acting organization in the Diaspora (all countries except Palestine). Even if he had preferred Palestine, he would have been content with Argentina at the beginning. (In which charity settlements were being established in 1895).

But soon after the publication of the book, he ended up only believing in Palestine after seeing the magnetic power of the sacred, historical soil. But whichever country it is, it should be done ONLY on the basis of secured sovereignty. 

This pamphlet excites the Jews of the whole world. Among the poor oppressed it is received with a fire of enthusiasm, among those who are better off and more assimilated - it was rejected as an unrealizable, not even to be desired, ideal.

-- "We are a religious confession, not a nation" - say Herzl's opponents. "A nation is a historical group of people of recognizable unity, held together by the common enemy" - replies Herzl - "The land in which we and many of our ancestors were born - that is our homeland" - retort the opponents. Herzl: “The best proof that you have not succeeded in assimilating, and never will, is that you are still not recognized as equals by your fellow citizens.” - "Anti-Semitism will be provoked more," said the opponents, "if we in the diaspora see ourselves as Jews and not as Germans or English." 

Herzl now pulls out all the stops to organize a Zionist World Congress. He wanted everything to be said in public. In August 1897, the first Zionist congress (the 16th had been held 14 days ago) met in Basel amid great difficulties. The goals of Zionism are summarized in the Basel Programme: "The creation of a home for the Jewish people secured by public law". Herzl works tirelessly to implement the program. He negotiated with the Sultan and hoped that he could obtain Palestine in return for payment, as the Turkish Empire was in financial difficulties. But this did not materialize, as the Sultan was only willing to hand over small, completely disjointed territories. Herzl founds a national fund to secure capital for land purchases. He negotiates with England about the Sinai Peninsula. The terms seem very favorable, but then the Egyptian government declares that it cannot spare so much Nile water for the irrigation of the area. England suddenly offers Herzl Uganda. Herzl could not say “no” to the English people, who were trying so hard to protect Jewish interests. He considered Uganda suitable as a transitional stage to Palestine, and he was lured by the promise of a real Jewish state. This provoked a wave of indignation. Many Zionists even turned away from Herzl because they believed he had given up on Palestine. So the Uganda project had to be dropped. 

Even though Herzl died in June 1904 without having experienced the fulfillment of his ideals, he died in the firm belief that his ideal of Zionism lived on in the Jewry and was definitely heading towards its realization. 

- Nordau, Wolffsohn and Prof. Otto Warburg followed Herzl as presidents of the Zionist Organization. Even though they have no tangible successes to count, they ensured that the idea penetrated ever deeper into the Jewish people and they prepared everything for its realization. 

Then came the World War, and through it, strangely enough, the partial fulfillment of the Zionist idea. Palestine was taken from the Turks and became an English Mandate State. England was looking for a new base near the Suez Canal to secure its connection to India as a permanent defense against the Arabs, as a strong independence movement had started after the war. In 1917, the current president of the Zionist Organization, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, achieved the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, excluding Transjordan, in the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration is formulated as follows: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".

In addition to the Balfour Declaration, there were now two other significant factors that tended to speed up its realization. The Balfour Declaration, the rise of anti-Semitism in many countries - especially Russia, Poland and Romania - and the immigration ban in America, which had already taken in 4.5 million Jews.

Thousands of poor Romanian, Polish and Russian Jews flocked to Palestine and began to work in swampy, malaria-infested areas. 

With the greatest energy, they succeeded in reclaiming land that had been abandoned by the inhabiting tribes due to its hopeless barrenness. 

Despite great hardship, constantly under the threat of death from disease or attack by wild Arab tribes, they are happy in their long-awaited freedom. They work and live in dedication to a great ideal that broadens their vision, makes their lives worth living and their work fruitful for the Jewish people beyond their own lives. They work without being tormented by hatred and envy as a despised minority, work not only for themselves, but for their entire people.

And this gives them satisfaction and strength for the hardest labor one can imagine.

Inspired by the idea of a new Zionist empire, the Jews, for the most part ignorant of agriculture, came to Palestine and tried to work the land in various ways. The communist form, which they usually chose at the beginning and in particularly difficult areas, then a more individualistic form, and finally that of a private enterprise with only buying and selling done jointly. 

Almost all immigrants are poor and so they receive the most necessary means from the fund of the Zionist Organization. The National Fund, founded by Herzl, is divided into the Keren Kayemeth for land purchases and the Keren Hayesod for support of the settlers. The fund receives its money through donations from all over the world. The land, the Zionist Organization, is national property and is given to the settler in leasehold. It cannot be sold and must be returned to the Organization if the colonist no longer needs the land. This is to prevent the land from falling back into non-Jewish hands. 

In addition to the colonies of the Zionist Organization, there are also those of Baron Rothschild, some of which were founded long before the founding of the Zionist colonies in the stricter sense. 

There are also a few that were founded entirely from their own resources. 

In addition to grapes, tobacco, bananas and olives, the cultivation of oranges, for which Palestine is particularly suited, early reached a high level, which makes its products influence the international fruit market. 

Palestine has neither iron nor coal, and hardly any other natural resources of value. Industry is still quite insignificant. The Rutenberg power station should be mentioned. Both the Jordan and a tributary, the Yarmuk, have been cut off shortly after Lake Tiberias, where they form particularly large wetlands, and diverted into a reservoir in a new bed, engineered so that the water falls 27 meters from back into the Jordan river. A large power station has been built at this point, which will supply the whole of Palestine with electricity. 

A company has now been formed to exploit the salinity of the Dead Sea and extract potash.

An excellently managed cement factory is located in Haifa. Of great importance is that the Zionist Organization has bought the Bay of Haifa, where a large port is now being built. Long pipelines are planned to transport the oil from the hinterland to the port. A textile, soap and match factories and a few others already exist, which, although still small, have already achieved great things in relation to their short existence. The industrial sector has already been able to organize an exhibition in Tel Aviv this year. Tel Aviv is a modern city inhabited almost exclusively by Jews, originally the ghetto of Jaffa, it has developed in the last 10 years into a European city of 45,000 inhabitants, which is given a special cultural touch by the presence of a Hebrew theater, the Habimah, a touring company which, after years of performing all over the world, is known to have settled there for good. 

Palestine had an unemployment crisis 2 years ago, as there was no restriction on the number of immigrants, and the lack of money to buy land worsened with the increase of immigrants. The crisis seems to have been resolved since the new law of limited immigration. 

Good education for the colonists is provided by well-equipped schools. Agricultural schools and economic research institutes teach the pioneers what will grow best on his land. The technical center in Haifa and the Hebrew university (because Hebrew is the only language spoken by Palestinian Jews) enable education in other fields that also benefit the Arab population. 

A new type of human being is created in Palestine. The brain and body are both developed. After his usual work, the colonist turns to other areas of interest, tries to maintain his familiarity with the spiritual currents of Europe through creative continued education. 

In Palestine people are striving to find a unity in everything, between everyday life and faith, between the economy and science. It is the struggle against dualism in life, the struggle for harmony! 

The realization of the Zionist ideal is proceeding, albeit in many ways differently than Herzl had planned. Today's Palestine is not a national Jewish state, but a British Mandate state, and to this day the Jews only make up 20% of the population. Financially, it has also turned out differently than Herzl thought, as Palestine is still largely financed by the Jews in the Diaspora, which Herzl was so opposed to. Even space-wise, it would be impossible to gather all Jews in Palestine, as the country could not hold more than 2,000,000, and the total number of Jews amounted to 14 million. Herzl's goal of a national Jewish state has changed in the course of its realization into a national home for all rootless, oppressed Jews and a place for the preservation and renewal of Hebrew culture, so that the financial sponsorship and preservation of Zionist Palestine would become the foremost task of all Jews living in the Diaspora. A task that means far more than being a mere act of charity - it means building a cultural backbone for all Jews. 

What has been done so far on a small scale must also be done on a larger scale in the future. Major economic, political and psychological problems must be solved. It is necessary to promote contact with the Arabs, the English and the Jews outside Palestine, and to protect the Jews in Palestine from the threat of fragmentation. 

 However, while there were frequent clashes between the inherently good-natured but easily incensed Arabs, the majority of their educated class soon became convinced of the absolute peacefulness of the immigrants and the advantage that immigration brought to their own standard of living. It is to be expected that the uneducated class will also gradually come to share this opinion. 

Important for the further development is the behavior of England. Since, as already mentioned at the beginning, the Zionist idea owes its realization to England for political reasons, it is probable that England will only change her benevolent attitude if the British Empire is threatened by the excessive growth of Jewish power. 

The most important problem on the solution of which the development of Zionism rests is the way to ensure the continued participation and cooperation of the Diaspora Jews. Jews can be divided into 4 groups in their attitude towards Zionism: 1) The organized Zionists , whose goal is the realization of a national homeland, with an emphasis on the national, which again break down into several parties; 2) the non-organized Zionists, or pro-Palestinians, who actively participate in the realization of colonization, but reject the purely nationalist idea, 3) the antagonists, the strictly Orthodox, who have no interest in tackling the Jewish problem in a national-political way - they consider the return to Palestine without the Messiah and the use of Hebrew as an everyday language to be sacrilege. 4) Finally, the indifferent, for whom Jewishness has no inner meaning and who have never dealt with this question. 

Of course, only the first two groups are important for the development of Palestine. In the last few months, a basis was found on which the Zionists could reach an agreement with the pro-Palestinians, whereby the pro-Palestinians were granted the required influence on the administration. 

The Jewish Agency was founded, which will take over the management in place of the Zionist Organization, while the Zionist Organization will remain only as a party. This almost draws a parallel with Herzl's Society Of Jews and the Jewish Congress. 

A great danger, which is still pushed into the background by economic and political concerns, is the mental attitude of the Palestinian Jews, but this too must be overcome by the greatness of the unifying basic idea. 

I hope and believe that the almost superhuman strength that has guided and inspired the Jews to this day will continue to lead them beyond the difficulties towards realization.