Who Was Theodor Herzl? Israel: The Land and Its People Dr. Henry Abramson 

Now, this is what I call a great lecture: no beating around the bush, presenting facts, analizing backgrounds, clear & understandable at any given time. Simply awesome!

I absolutely love your lectures Dr Abramson.

"It might further be said that we ought not to create new distinctions between people; we ought not to raise fresh barriers, we should rather make the old disappear. But men who think in this way are amiable visionaries; and the idea of a native land will still flourish when the dust of their bones will have vanished tracelessly in the winds. Universal brotherhood is not even a beautiful dream. Antagonism is essential to man's greatest efforts." (Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State)

It was a revelation to hear the Herzl believed Dreyfuss to be guilty during the trial . Reminds me in many ways of the OJ Simpson trial where guilt or innocence was secondary to the reaction of real or precieved bigotry of populous at large.

As a non jewish person, i love to learn about jewish history

His father's family had migrated from Zemun (Belgrade) Serbia to Bohemia in 1739, where they were required to Germanize their family name Loebl (from Hebrew lev, "heart") to Herzl (diminutive of Ger. Herz; "little heart").

literature and history are hand in hand

Excellent lecture as usual; I enjoy your presentations, very informative. Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

I live in Melbourme Australia and thank you for all your efforts Dr Henry!. A quick things: 1/ Herzl idea for a Jewish home was a European assimilated Jewish homeland not necessarily locted in The Holy Land, is this true? 2/ I heard a story and wondered whether it is true---after the terrible argument between Herzl (he wanted to set up and accept Ugada as a Jewish homeland) whilst Weizmann and other Russian Jews wanted only The Land of Israel. This argument splintered the ZIonist movement and Herzl's health already frail suffered , his beard went prematurely white and he had a heart attack and passed away at a young age in his forties. The infant ZIonist movement wanted to give the Herzl family as a gift to help support them shares in Keren Kayemet Le'Israel, Herzl's widow and family decided to accept instead bonds from the AUstro Hungarian Empire. AFter World War 1 they were worthless 3/ Herzl thought the Arabs would gladly accept Jewish presence in Israel.

As always Awesome!!!!

My left ear really enjoyed this lecture

Recently I read another interesting book about Hertzl. "From Assimilation to Zionism" by Jacques Kornberg. The author explains how Hertzl passed from one solution(as Hertzl thought at the time about assimilation) to the other(the struggle for the creation of a Jewish state).

Palestinian protests on campus? And this video was 7 years ago. Tisk tisk. Currently didn't start October 7th.

Thank you Dr Henry, good upload.

wow

Interestingly the political cartoon has Dreyfuss as the seventh head of the dragon. This might be saying he is part of the dragon in the Book of Revelation (some sort of Anti Christian symbol) in the New Testament. Any thoughts on this kind of religious reaction to a very political situation?

.... still think waiting until a 13 yo is a 16 yo is a bit, erm dodgy! A girl (and she was a girl) from a very rich would have lived a cossetted life unlike working class kids who would have had to grow up and have responsibility from an early rate.

It is time for Israel to declare their king and proclaim HIS haShem since Herzl doesn't talk religion or kingdom given to any individuals. The time of messianic era shall arise. Baruch Ata YHWH BaruchHashem melch haolam שמואל א 8:7 (MHB) ויאמר יהוה אל שמואל שמע בקול העם לכל אשר יאמרו אליך כי לא אתך מאסו כי אתי מאסו ממלך עליהם׃

I love jewish history, could you recommend any book on very old jewish history, around 500 ce and before. Thanks

History is not just a collection of events, people, times, and places. It is also an interpretation of motivations and convergences that give rise to those events. I think Dr. Abramson glossed over, or omitted altogether very significant facts and factors that would have painted a more accurate picture of Herzl. 1. He, his wife, his three children and one grandchild, were all mentally ill. 2. Herzl was not just devoid of Judaism, he bitterly opposed religion and his agenda for the "Jewish State" was to isolate and marginalize religious practice so that it would be utterly powerless and of no influence. 3. Herzl himself, (perhaps because his wife was so frequently committed to mental institutions) used prostitutes and suffered from chronic gonorrhea. In his diary he details how he fashioned a leather pouch to collect his discharges. 4. Herzl's mind was so deranged that he initially proposed the solution to antisemitism was to have a mass conversion of all small Jewish children to Catholicism (as Dr. Abramson alluded to in passing) so that eventually Judaism would be exterminated. 5. Herzl was truly a prophet. He claimed the best help the Zionist movement could have is from ardent antisemites, and the more Jews encourage and press antisemitism to intensify, the better the chances of actualizing a "Jewish State".

Great lecture as always - thanks for it. Quick point - I am reading a book by Jane Almer on Sephardi history. She discusses Abraham Seneor. I think he'd be a great lecture in conjunction with Don Abravanel or guys like Abraham Saba & Cardoso

Because of Zionism & Judaism, Israel stands forever. 🙏❤️🇮🇱❤️🌟 Zechariah 8:2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; With great fervor I am zealous for her.’ 3“Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

Modern Zionism has its roots in a 17th century false Jewish messiah by the name of Sabbatai Zevi who claimed to be the promised savior of the Jews that has come to establish the Jewish kingdom in the promised land known then as Palestine. Zevi was a very controversal figure, he not only trashed the Talmud but said to do opposite what God said to do in the Talmud. "Sin" and "guilt" were no more and everything and anything was allowed; the commandments of God in the Torah were now null because according to him the messianic age has arrived and he was the one who was going to redeem them. As Jerry Rabow wrote in page 110 of his book "50 Jewish Messias" published by Gefen of Jerusalem, (source Barry Chamish): "Through all of this, Shabbatai Zevi continued to issue proclamations of the theological changes wrought by the coming of the messianic age. Shabbatai's new prayer was, 'Praised be He who permits the forbidden.' Since all things would be permitted in the age of the messiah, Shabbatai declared many of the old restrictions of the Torah no longer applicable. He abolished the laws concerning sexual relationships. He eventually declared that all of the thirty six major biblical sins were now permitted and instructed some of his followers that it was their duty to perform such sins in order to hasten the Redemption." Zevi or Zvi was a kabbalist and occultist who deceived most of the Jews of his time and those who came after him. He was born on Aug. 9, 1626, in Smyrna, Turkey. In 1666 he converted to Islam with some of his followers and took the name Aziz Mehemet. Most of the Jews were disappointed but he told them that he had to become Muslim in order to convert the Muslims to Judaism, and then he turned around and told the Turks and the Sultan that he was to keep in close contact with the Jews in order to convert the Jews to Islam. Thus he was free to go wherever he liked and do whatever he wanted. Zevi was betrayed to the Turks by another Jewish messiah from Poland. Zevi revealed to this Polish messiah the prophecy given by his close associate, Nathan Ghazzati the prophet, that Zevi was destined to become the ruler of the Ottomam Empire. Instead, Zevi was exiled to a small village in Albania were he died. But the followers of Shabbataism indeed became the real rulers of modern Turkey, albight in an invisible subtle way. Zevi's influence among the Jews did not die with his death, many still believed this wizard of deception who legitimized deception as a mean to achieve one's goals. Rebbe Berechiah, an extremist, succeded Zevi and took over his movement of Shabbataism. Barry Chamish, in his article "The Deutsch Devils," (December 31, 2003), posted in his web-site (barryChamish.com), says that "the Shabbatai followers continued their hidden life in the Turkish sect of the Donmeh, whose activities continue to this day, as reported extensively this year, even by the straid Jerusalem Post. One of the Donmeh followers was Jacob Frank (1726-1726), who would transform Europe and the world into a Shabbataian hell barely a century later." Jacob Frank succeeded Rebbe Berechiah and in eighteen century brought the Donmeh ideaology To Europe. He made an alliance near/in Frankfurt, Germany, with Jesuit Adam Weinhaupt (founder of the Illuminatti and the usurper of the Freemasonic lodges worldwide, specially that of England and Scotland) and the Rothschild empire. Barry Chamish, in his above mentioned article, mentions Rabbi Antelman saying in his book To Eliminate the Opiate: "A movement of complete evil now took hold. The Jesuits' goal was the destruction of the Protestant Reformation leading to a return of one pope sitting in judgement on all mankind. The Rothschilds goal was to control the wealth of the planet. And the Frankist vision was the destruction of Jewish ethics to be replaced by a religion based on the exact opposite of God's intentions [or high-class Satanism]. When these factions blended, a bloody war against humanity, with the Jews on the front lines, erupted." In the book "The Messianic Idea in Judaism" by the Jewish professor Gershon Scholem (1971 edition, page 126) the author writes about Jacob Frank: "In all his actions [he was] a truly corrupt and degenerate individual" and as "one of the most frightening phenomena in the whole of Jewish history." Jacob Frank considered himself to be another messiah. He claimed to be an incarnation of the the Jewish patriarch Jacob. He ordered his 13,000 followers to become Catholics and infiltrate the Catholic church. He referred to the Catholics as the "Esau," the brother of biblical Jacob while he and his followers were the biblical Jacob. To the Christian Catholics he told that it was time for a reconciliation between "Jacob" and "Esau." While he told his followers secretly that as Jacob deceived Esau in the story of the Bible, so by the way of deception we will establish a Jewish anti-christ kingdom in Palestine. Rabow, in page 130 of his book mentions: "The Frankists also become involved in international political intrigue, and sent secret emissaries to the Russian government and the Eastern Orthodox Church offering to help in the overthrow of Poland and the Catholic Church." Jerry Rabow gives more details in his "50 Jewish Messiahs" (source Barry): "He [Frank] extended the paradoxical teachings of Shabbati Zvi that the coming of the messianic age had transformed sexual prohibitions of the Bible into permissions and even obligations. According to Frank, engaging in sexual orgies now became the means to purify the soul from its sins. Debauchery became theraphy...Frank convinced his followers that the only way for their special form of Judaism to survive was for them to outwardly become Christians, just as the Donmeh had descended into the world of Islam...In February, 1759, the Frankists told the [Catholic] Church they were ready to be baptized." On page 121 of Rabow's book, it is mentioned: "The Donmeh now converted the Shabbatain Purim into an annual orgy, when members exchanged spouses for a ceremony called 'extinguishing the lights.' The Donmeh justified their Purim orgies, and their regular practise of sharing wives and engaging in other sexual activities, by citing biblical precedants." The Jewish Encyclopedias defines Donmeh as "the Turkish word for 'apostate' and refers to the Jews of the Near East who followed Sabbatai Zevi into Islam in 1666, but secretly remained Jews who continued practicing Jewish rituals but worshiped Sabbatai as the Messiah and incarnation of God." "It is essential that the sufferings of Jews. . . become worse. . .this will assist in realization of our plans. I have an excellent idea. . We shall induce anti-semites to liquidate Jewish wealth.The anti-semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-semites shall be our best friends". Diary of Theodor Herzl -Part 1 , p.16

Russian Jews the best people in the world