Finding Herzl in Hungary
Nathan Jeffay travels back to the beginnings of the Jewish state – to Budapest
Acentury ago this August, the First World Zionist Congress took place, where the political movement that created the Jewish state was born. So where better to travel this summer, than on the trail of the man behind this remarkable historic event, Theodor Herzl?
And to discover more about the founder of political Zionism, whose legacy is likely to be on everyone’s lips next month, the ideal place is the city that he came from — Budapest.
Visitors can still see the building where he was born on Dohany Street, marked with a smart black plaque with gold lettering. But more interesting is the four-year-old Theodor Herzl Centre, which takes you back through to history in a creative high-tech way, investigating how Herzl’s life has helped to shape today.
From his early childhood through to his assimilated adulthood, the exhibition moves to the encounter with antisemitism that sparked his Zionism. A video explores what Zionism means today, explaining that Herzl wanted the movement to work for the bettering of the Jewish state once it was established.
The picture of David Ben Gurion declaring Israel’s independence with a huge portrait of Herzl behind him, drives home exactly how important he has proved to be.
While the Zionist centenary may be a good spur to visit the city, Budapest is packed with Jewish history beyond Herzl with a community here since at least the 13th century. It tells a story of a long struggle for Jewish emancipation, and the tragedy that emancipation came was so quickly followed by the deportations of the Holocaust.
Today it is a city of moving and remarkable Jewish sites, including