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DR. HERZL1,
by H.R. Lenz and G. Nilioff
Here
is the cast from the Yiddish Art Theatre
production of this play when it opened at the
Windsor Theatre in the Bronx, New York, on
February 25, 1946 (listed in alphabetical
order):
Isaac Arco, Boris
Auerbach, Morris Belavsky, Gustave Berger,
Izidore and Jenny Casher, Charles Cohan, Judel
Dubinsky, Isidore Elgard, Misha Fiszon, Berta
Gerstin, Betty Gisnet, Leon Gold, Charlotte
Goldstein, Michael Goldstein, Muriel Gruber,
Leib and Luba Kadison, Lillian Katz, Leib
Kenigsberg, Solomon Krause, Abraham Lax, Jacob
Levine, Goldie Lubritsky, Celia Pearson, Max
Rosen, Menachem Rubin, Meyer Scheer, Maurice
Schwartz, Herman Serotsky, Liza Silbert, Morris
Strassberg, Abraham Teitelbaum, Max Tennenbaum
and Isabel Wasserman.
Theodor Herzl (Maurice Schwartz), founder of
modern Zionism, whose life and work are the
subjects of this play, was by all standards one
of the few great men of modern times. Georges
Clemenceau, "Tiger of France," spoke of him "as
a meteor who threw light on a road to be traced
by others who came after him." In describing the
personality of Theodor Herzl, Clemenceau said:
"There was the breath of eternity in that man
Herzl. The Burning Bush and the Revolutionary
Sinai took shape in his appearance."
A statesman quite
of another school, Finance Minister Witte of
Czarist Russia, who had little sympathy for the
ideas of the great Jewish leader, was
nevertheless moved to admit that it was
difficult to withstand the profound sincerity of
Theodor Herzl's speaking voice or the hypnotic
powers of his eyes.
At the age of
thirty-one, Theodor Herzl was appointed Paris
Correspondent of the "Neue Freie Presse" of
Vienna, one of the most influential dailies in
Europe. It was in Paris, where he witnessed the
Dreyfus Affair at close range, covering it for
his paper, that he seemed to have undergone a
most profound transformation of soul and
outlook.
Theodor Herzl, who
until then had lived and worked with Christians
in Vienna and in Paris, saw a fellow Jew, Capt.
Alfred Dreyfus arrested, tried, convicted and
publicly degraded for a crime he never
committed. This single manifestation of
anti-Semitism in the otherwise highly civilized
France was the turning point in Herzl's life.
There and then he wrote his famed book, "Der
Judenstatt," in which he visualized the creation
of a Jewish people. From then on he is not only
a brilliant man of letters, he becomes a man of
brilliant and astonishing action.
Singlehandedly he
embarks on a campaign to convince the then
influential and affluent Jews of the necessity
and the feasibility of a Jewish State. He
presents his plan for political action before
the great Jewish philanthropist De Hirsch (Boris
Auerbach). He pleads for his ideas before Sir
Samuel Montefiore, Jacob H. Schiff and other
Jews of eminence in wealth and in social
service, only to be rebuffed or to be looked
upon as a dangerous adventurer.
Though grieved by
the lack of response among the rich and powerful
of his own people, he carries on with courage
and zeal. His goal is to obtain from the Ottoman
Empire an internationally secured Charter for
the colonization of Jewish people in their
ancient homeland Palestine, and the creation of
a Jewish State. For that purpose he also enlists
the aid and cooperation of Christians. He was
helped by his friends Baron and Baroness von
Suttner (Charlotte Goldstein). The Baroness
Bertha von Suttner obtains for him his first
interview with Baron De Hirsch, who had devoted
his heart and a large fortune to the
colonization of Jews in Argentina and was
indifferent to Palestine An English clergyman,
William Hechler (Misha Fiszon), one-time
Chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna,
becomes one of Herzl's most devoted and devout
followers. The Reverend Hechler has access to
high places in several countries of Europe
besides his own. He arranges an interview
between Theodor Herzl and the Grand Duke of
Baden, which subsequently leads to a meeting
between Herzl and Kaiser Wilhelm II (Gustave
Berger).
Meanwhile Herzl's
ideas reach the plain and poor Jewish people in
the countries of Eastern Europe, in the growing
Jewish communities of London's Whitechapel and
New York's East Side. Old groups of "Lovers of
Zion" (Choveve Zion), with nebulous ideas for
Jewish colonization and cultural aspirations for
Palestine, flock to his banner despite the
opposition of some of their leaders. In 1897
Herzl calls the first World Zionist Congress
which takes place in Basel, Switzerland. The
Congress is a great success despite the
opposition of the Jewish millionaires and other
dissenting groups.
Herzl is
encouraged. His employers, the publishers of the
newspaper, are totally opposed to his Zionist
activities, ignore his movement as if it did not
exist, but cannot bring themselves to discharge
the man whose fame is sweeping continents.
Theodor Herzl, meanwhile, establishes a Zionist
weekly, "Die Welt," financed by his father and
by his own modest savings from his work as a
playwright and journalist. He devotes all his
time and strength to the cause of which he is
now the unchallenged leader. He travels to many
capitals for meetings with rulers and statesmen,
and to spread the gospel of his movement. Of
necessity, he neglects his family. His wife,
Julia (Muriel Gruber), the mother of his three
children, is beginning to despair of his
prolonged and frequent absences from their home.
They are both still young, and she is beset by
pangs of jealousy because of the many women whom
he meets in many lands. She is particularly
mindful of the charms of Baroness von Suttner,
who had shown such devotion to the Jewish cause.
The movement led
by Dr. Herzl attracts many followers among
Jewish intellectuals in Western Europe. Max
Nordau (Abraham Teitelbaum), Israel Zangwill
(Leib Kadison) and the banker David Wolfsohn
(Menachem Rubin) assume positions of leadership
alongside Herzl. Kaiser Wilhelm grants Herzl an
audience to take place during the Kaiser's visit
to the Ottoman Domain. Their first informal
meeting takes place in the Yildiz Kiosk (Turkish
Court), and the Kaiser promises to intercede
with the Sultan (Morris Strassberg) and accord
German protection for a chartered Jewish company
for the settlement of Palestine. the formal
audience takes place two weeks later in
Jerusalem, and the German Kaiser refuses to keep
the promise made at Yildiz Kiosk. The
anti-Semitic Chancellor von Buelow (Michael
Goldstein) had meanwhile succeeded in changing
the Kaiser's mind.
While in Palestine
Theodor Herzl visits the Jewish colonies that
had been financed by Rothschild and miraculously
escapes the knife of an Arab assassin. In one of
the new colonies, whose pioneers are toiling to
rid the region of swamps, he contracts malaria
that weakens his overtaxed heart.
Herzl returns to
Vienna and finds greater opposition than ever.
But his ardor and his energies are undiminished.
He organizes the Jewish Colonial Trust, a
banking institution to finance the colonization
and development of Palestine. He is absorbed in
the work of building a National Home for the
Jewish people, and at the same time his personal
home is lost to him. His wife and children leave
him.
The second, third,
fourth and the fifth Zionist Congress see more
and more Jewish communities from many lands
represented by their delegates, but Theodor
Herzl is still to realize his dream of a Jewish
State in Palestine. His prodigious activities
and his deep concern for his people are
beginning to undermine his health.
The pogrom of
Kishinev in 1903 has a shattering effect upon
him. Theodor Herzl goes to Russia, where he
confers with the Czarist Prime Minister von
Plehve and the Finance Minister Witte. He visits
the Jewish city of Wilno, where he is received
as a modern Messiah. His concern for the Jewish
people is now greater than ever. He also had
conferred with the Sultan of Turkey and was even
decorated by him, but concluded that the Turkish
Government was only playing a vicious game with
him. While in Wilno, he receives a communication
from Joseph Chamberlain in the name of the
British Government, offering Uganda in Africa
for Jewish colonization.
At the Sixth
Zionist Congress he offers the Uganda plan as a
temporary expedient until the situation in
relation to Palestine is more favorable. The
delegates representing the "Lovers of Zion"
groups call him a traitor.
The Uganda plan is
carried, but by a small majority. Herzl feels
that it was an empty victory for him, because it
was contrary to his own dream of a Jewish State.
He is deserted by many of his followers, but
Nordau, Zangwill and Wolfsohn remain with him.
His weakened heart succumbs to the strain.
Despite his illness, he goes to the Vatican and
pleads with Pope Pius X for public support of
the Jews in their efforts to regain their
homeland. The Pope finds it impossible to make
the statement desired by Herzl unless the Jews
consider forsaking their religion. Herzl's heart
ailment is aggravated. From Rome he is taken to
a hospital in Edlach, Austria. But he does not
recover from his illness. He turns over his work
to David Wolfsohn, with the plea that the Jewish
people unite in an effort for the creation of a
National Home. During the last minutes of his
life he hears the Pioneers of a new Palestine
singing while they toil. At the age of
forty-four Theodor Herzl dies--literally--of a
broken heart. Like Moses he dies before seeing
his people returned to the Promised Land. David
Wolfsohn exclaims: "He is not dead. He will live
on in the hearts of the Jewish people to the end
of time." |
