by Alexandra Maximoff
I have in my hand a copy of "A Jewish State", the 1904 edition of an 1899 publication.
In it Theodor Herzl proposes that the dispersed and hounded Jewish population relocate to a common homeland, and discusses how the move and nation could be financed and governed. (He wasn't the first to describe this, but he didn't know about the other guys: Pinsker, Hess, Eisler.)
He puts question marks after Argentina or Palestine as home, and suggests prospecting: offering the skill sets of the Jews to the governments of other countries in exchange for land to live on. Beginning in the 1800's many Jews did emigrate to Argentina and founded colonies there.
In 1903, Herzl brought the proposal of Uganda as homeland to the Sixth Zionist Congress.
Uganda had been "offered" by the British as a temporary home for Russian and European Jews. The Russian delegation to the Congress angrily refused this offer, walked out of the convention and threatened they wouldn't return for the Seventh Congress unless this plan was abandoned.
Many of the Zionists of this era were socialists, although Jewish history.org writes that the communists called the Jews capitalists and the capitalists claimed Jews were communists.
Herzl proposed two frameworks for the new country; a company wealthy Jews could invest in, and a professional civil government.
Reprinted from Oregon Socialist Summer, 2005.
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