Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

120 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 1:95
dore Herzl (1860-1904), the father of political Zionism. Herzl became convinced
that only mass emigration and resettlement in a territory of their own
could save Europe’s Jews. He devoted the rest of his life to the realization
of that goal. There was much that was problematic in Herzl’s thinking, but
his prescience concerning the impending doom of Europe’s Jews is
undeniable. 84
One of the earliest Christian responses to Herzl’s project was published
in the authoritative Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica four months
before the meeting of the First Zionist Conference in Basel, Switzerland,
August 29-31, 1897:
1827 years have passed since the prediction of Jesus of Nazareth was
fulfilled, namely that Jerusalem would be destroyed. . .that the Jews
would be led away to be slaves among all the nations, and that they
would remain in the dispersion till the end of the world. . .According to
Sacred Scriptures, the Jewish people must always live dispersed and wandering
among the other nations, so that they may render witness not only
by the Scriptures. . .but by their very existence. As for a rebuilt Jerusalem,
which would become the center of a reconstituted state of Israel, we
must add that this is contrary to the prediction of Christ Himself. 85
Civiltà Cattolica’s editorial is an important example of the witness
people myth. Pope Pius X expressed a similar sentiment in the audience he
granted Theodore Herzl on January 25, 1904. When Herzl requested the
Pope’s support for Zionism, the Pontiff replied:
We are unable to favor this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from
going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The ground of Jerusalem,
if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of
Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot answer you otherwise.
The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize
the Jewish people. 86
Much of this theology is shared by traditionally oriented Protestant and
Orthodox churches. Even ardently pro-Israel Evangelicals concur, although
84. Herzl, for example, sought a top-down solution to the Jewish problem, seeking,
for example, the support of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Sultan Abdul Hamid II, as
well as that of such Jewish notables as Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Moreover, he
offered no realistic assessment of the possible response of the Islamic world to the
establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
85. Civiltà Cattolica, May 1, 1897, cited by Minerbi, 96.
86. Theodore Herzl, The Diaries of Theodore Herzl, trans. and ed. Marvin Lowenthal
(New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1962), 428.