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✡ Foundations Herzl Hechler Partnership 15

It was an unlikely combination: a secular Jewish journalist from Hungary

and an eccentric Anglican clergyman from India. But these two formed

a partnership which brought Zionism to world attention.

Jerry Klinger tells the story

Herzl, Hechler and the

birth of modern Israel

illiam Henry Hechler was born on 10 January 1845, in the Hindu
‘holy’ city of Benares, India, to a German Anglican missionary
Wfather, Dietrich Hechler, and his English wife, Catherine Clive
Palmer. William’s conservative education exposed him to evangelical Resto-
rationism, a central belief of which was that the ‘Second Coming of Jesus’
would occur only after the Jews were restored to Palestine. Hechler’s faith
did not mandate that the Jews had to convert before Restoration, but it did
lead him to a sincere interest in the welfare of Jews, Jewish concerns and in
Palestine. In 1893, Hechler self-published his own broadsheet, ‘The Resto-
ration of the Jews to Palestine according to Prophecy’.
Theodor Herzl was born in Buda- was convicted because he was a Jew and
pest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian the French Army did not want the tinge
Empire, on 2 May 1860. He grew up in of scandal to further darken its honour.
an assimilated Jewish household that France was divided into two camps,
had very little to do with Jewish life. He pro- and anti-Dreyfus. The first be-
was Jewish only to the extent that he lieved in the French principles of ‘Lib-
was identified as a Jew by others. Mov- erté, Égalité, Fraternité’. They fought
ing to Vienna, Herzl earned a Doctor of for justice for Dreyfus. The second
Law degree. He was never happy, nor devolved into convicting the Jew to “Palestine is our unforgettable
successful as a lawyer. Changing the di- protect the sullied honour of the French historic Homeland. . . Let me
rection of his life, he became a modestly Army and French society. repeat once more my opening
successful playwright and a featured col- In the event, Dreyfus was sent to
umnist for the largest, most influential, Devil’s Island off the coast of French words: The Jews who will it
widely read and liberal newspaper in Guyana. He would not regain his in- shall achieve their State. We
Austria, the Neue Freie Presse. nocence and honour until 1906 when shall live at last as free men
Jews had been emancipated in he returned to the French Army. on our own soil, and in our
Austria since 1867, yet anti-Semitism The battle for justice split France own homes peacefully die.
was still a reality that Herzl faced and and became a worldwide sensational
struggled with how to overcome it. scandal. Herzl was sent to cover the The world will be liberated
Herzl believed that assimilation and story for his newspaper. At first, Herzl by our freedom, enriched by
liberalism was the solution. Like many, believed that Dreyfus may have been our wealth, magnified by our
he perceived France to be the shining guilty, but he soon observed the truth. greatness. And whatever we
star of Jewish toleration and accept- Whatever the evidence was, Dreyfus attempt there for our own
ance as equals but then, late in 1894, a was convicted for the crime of being
French Army Captain, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew. benefit will redound mightily
was convicted by a military court of Covering such a sensational story and beneficially to the good
treasonously sending military secrets shattered Herzl’s illusions that Jewish of all mankind.”
to the Germans. Very quickly evidence liberation would come through liberal-
emerged that in fact Dreyfus had been a ism. In a period of weeks, writing in a Theodor Herzl
scapegoat for another’s crimes. Dreyfus frenzy of inspiration and revelation,