section of East Africa. Herzl thought it would be politically sensible to accept the offer. He viewed Great Britain’s proposal to be an official endorsement of the Zionist cause. He thought that Britain would eventually come around to accepting the idea of the land of Israel as the Jewish homeland. However, the Zionist masses, especially those in Eastern Europe roundly rejected the Uganda Plan, and Herzl had to abandon it. He continued to appeal to political dignitaries for support, yet most of them were not encouraging. Herzl soon decided that all his efforts must be directed toward securing the land of Israel as the Jewish national homeland and that no other country would be acceptable. After visiting the Holy Land, Herzl wrote his second major work, a novel in German, called, “Altneuland- The Old New Land.”Many stresses caused Theodore Herzl’s health to deteriorate. In 1904, at the age of 44, Herzl succumbed to a fatal heart attack. He was buried in Vienna. In 1949, a year after the State of Israel was established, his remains were brought to Jerusalem to Mount Herzl, the site of Israel’s military cemetery, for reburial. Herzl came to understand that the Zionist idea was probably too revolutionary for its time. Yet he predicted that, within 50 years, it would be widely accepted. After the 1897 Zionist Congress, he wrote in his diary: “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word- which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly- it would be this: ‘At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.’” His prediction came true. Almost 50 years after the First Zionist Congress, as he forecasted, the State of Israel was established, thus ending 2000 years of Jewish homelessness. During those first 50 years, more and more of the world Jewish community h...
