Theodor Herzl
Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist
Died when: 44 years 62 days (530 months)Star Sign: Taurus
Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern political Zionism.
Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state.Although he died before Israel's establishment, he is known in Hebrew as Chozeh HaMedinah (?????? ??????????), lit. 'Visionary of the State'.
Herzl is specifically mentioned in the Israeli Declaration of Independence and is officially referred to as "the spiritual father of the Jewish State", i.e. the 'visionary' who gave a concrete, practicable platform and framework to political Zionism.
However, he was not the first Zionist theoretician or activist; scholars, many of them religious such as rabbis Yehuda Bibas, Zvi Hirsch Kalischer and Judah Alkalai, promoted a range of proto-Zionist ideas before him.
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