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No. 33. | Vienna, 17 August 1900. | 4th Year

The Fourth Zionist Congress.

Dr. Herzl's Opening Address.

Honoured Members of the Congress!

The summoning of the Fourth Zionist Congress to London justifies itself. England is one of the last places of refuge in which there is as yet no naturalised hatred of the Jews. This one incontestable observation alone makes plain the sad present condition of the Jewish people. Over the wide earth one must search for a point upon which God's ancient people is not cursed and persecuted.

But from the fact that the Jews in glorious England enjoy full liberty and the rights of men, let no one draw false conclusions. He would be a bad friend both of the Jews here and of those abroad who should counsel the persecuted to flee hither. Our brethren here could rejoice in their happy position only with trembling, if it meant an enticement for our despairing ones. Such an immigration would be a danger for those settled here, but also for the newcomers. For these would unsuspectingly import in their wretched bundles the very thing from which they flee — I mean anti-Semitism. But it will surely be permitted us to pitch here for a few days the nomad tent of our discussions, because we wish to debate the solution of the Jewish question in public.

In the time from one Congress to another our opponents take the most zealous pains to overlay our intentions with a tangle of untruthful representations, so that at every meeting it must be our first task to clear away these rank growths with a few strokes of the axe and to lay the tree bare. And in doing so we have the joy of seeing that our tree is sound and that it is growing.

Zionism seeks for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured under public law! This programme we set up three years ago, for all time. It must have answered a very deep need, a very old longing of our people, otherwise it would not be explicable that it has had such an effect. I need no longer enumerate these effects to-day. Everyone knows them, everyone sees and hears them. Four years ago a man might have feared to make himself ridiculous if he spoke of the Jewish people. To-day he makes himself ridiculous who denies the existence of the Jewish people. A glance into this hall, where our people is represented by delegates from the whole world, suffices for the proof.

This fact, however, has a significance not only for us, but for others also. If it promises to the several countries a decent solution, worthy of human beings, of the grave Jewish question, it contains at the same time great perspectives for the Orient. Our reappearance in the land of our fathers, foretold by Holy Writ, sung by poets, longed for in tears by the poor of our people and laughed at by pitiful scoffers — our return is also a matter of the most actual political interest for the Powers that have something to seek in Asia.

Permit me to quote a few words from the opening address of the second Congress. In the year 1898 it was said at Basle: "The land (Palestine) is not only the home of the highest ideas and of the unhappiest people; by its geographical situation it is also of considerable importance for all Europe. There, in a time that cannot be far distant, a road of culture and commerce will lead to Asia. Asia is the diplomatic problem of the next decade."