possession of a land they can call their own: "[Zionism] made into an active, historical-practical focus a symbol that had laid dormant, passive though potent, in the Jewish religious tradition" (Avineri 13).
The predominant figure in the Western European Zionist tradition is the writer, thinker and orator Theodore Herzl, who convened the first Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in 1897. His writing offered cogent and insightful commentary into the nature of anti-Semitism, as well as tremendous focus on solving the problem of the Diaspora. He achieved a renown that enabled him to meet with celebrated and powerful people the world over, and, while many of his efforts to raise money or support were unsuccessful, he elevated the discourse to international prominence and set the agenda for many of the issues that needed to be addressed before the establishment of a Jewish homeland. He mobilized public opinion in an unprecedented fashion, a technique that served Zionists well when they needed support for the United Nations Resolution of 1947 calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine (Avineri 91).
Max Nordau, one of the most popular writers of turn-of-the-century Germany, also played a key role in the Western European Zionist movement. Nordau considered himself more a German than a Jew. Indeed, he changed his name from Sudfeld and considered Judaism "a mere memory, and since then I have always felt as a German, and as a German only" (Nordau, as cited in Avineri 101). Nordau offered keen analysis of Jewish Emancipation, particularly addressing himself to the following question:if the Jews live in an enlightened and liberal society, why is there anti-Semitism? By pointing out the disparity between political policy and social behavior, he pointed out that non-Jewish society was not yet ready to incorporate the Jewish people into its cultures as equal members. Furthermore, he framed Zionism as non-Messianic, that ...