The Old New Land
OCLC 38767535 | |
The Old New Land (
Plot introduction
The novel tells the story of Friedrich Löwenberg, a young
Löwenberg and Kingscourt spend the following twenty years on the island, cut off from civilization. As they stop over in Palestine on their way back to Europe in 1923, they are astonished to discover a land drastically transformed. A Jewish organization officially named the "New Society" has since risen as European Jews have rediscovered and re-inhabited their Altneuland, reclaiming their own destiny in the
Major themes
Herzl's novel depicts his vision for the realization of Jewish national emancipation, as put forward in his book
Rather than imagining the Jews in Altneuland as speaking mainly Hebrew, the society is multilingual. While the language question is not discussed in detail, it appears that Yiddish is the main vernacular language and German the main written language. European customs are reproduced, such as going to the opera and enjoying the theatre. While Jerusalem is the capital, with the seat of parliament ("Congress") and the Jewish Academy, the country's industrial center is the modern city of Haifa.
Herzl saw the potential of Haifa Bay for constructing a modern deep-water port. As envisioned by Herzl, "All the way from Acco to Mount Carmel stretched what seemed to be one great park".
Herzl's depiction of Jerusalem includes a rebuilt
The country envisioned in the book is not involved in any wars and does not maintain any armed forces. As explained in the book, the founders took care to get the consent of all European powers for their enterprise and not get entangled in any inter-power rivalry. As for the country's Arab inhabitants, the book's single Arab character, Rashid Bey, explains that the Arabs saw no reason to oppose the influx of Jews, who "developed the country and raised everybody's standard of living".
As noted in a lengthy flashback detailing, a Zionist Charter Company named "The New Society for the Colonization of Palestine" was able to get "autonomous rights to the regions which it was to colonize" in return for paying the Turkish Government £2,000,000 sterling in cash, plus £50,000 a year and one fourth of its net annual profits. In theory, "The ultimate sovereignty" remained "reserved to the Sultan"; in practice, however, the entire detailed description given in the book does not mention even the slightest vestige of an Ottoman administration or of any Ottoman influence in the life of the country.
The territorial extent of the envisioned Old New Land is clearly far greater than that of the actual Israel, even including its 1967 conquests.
Having obtained the general concession from the Ottoman government, "The New Society" set out to buy up the land from its private owners. As depicted in the book, the sum of £2,000,000 was set aside to pay the land owners. A single agent traveled the land and within a few months secured to "The New Society" ownership of virtually its entire land area, evidently encountering no opposition and no unwillingness to sell.
The lost tribe of Dan appears towards the end of Theodore Herzl's Altneuland, where the protagonist, Friedrich Löwenberg, and his friend Reschid Bey, discover a group of people who are descendants of the ancient tribe of Dan, living in isolation on a remote island in the Red Sea. The significance of this episode lies in its metaphorical representation of the renewal of the Jewish people, emphasizing the importance of preserving and building upon their rich historical legacy. The discovery of the lost tribe underscores Herzl's belief in the importance of Jewish self-determination and the need for a Jewish state in Palestine, based on a deep and abiding connection to Jewish history and culture. Overall, the episode with the lost tribe of Dan serves as a powerful symbol of Jewish identity and the enduring strength of the Jewish people.
Historical context
The novel was significant in the establishment of Zionist ideas as it was published in the time period of the First Aliyah. Altneuland also reflects Herzl's belief in the importance of technology and progress. The Jewish state in the novel is a highly advanced society, where scientific and technological innovation is celebrated and valued. This reflects Herzl's belief that the Jewish people needed to embrace modernity in order to succeed in the modern world.[4] Additionally, Altneuland also highlights Herzl's commitment to social equality and the idea of a multicultural Jewish society. The novel portrays a Jewish state where Jews and Arabs live together in harmony, reflecting Herzl's belief in the importance of coexistence and mutual respect between different communities.[5]
Altneuland, at the time of the rise of Zionism as a political movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, saw the emergence of a new form of Jewish nationalism that sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine began to prevail. The Zionist movement was fueled by a range of factors: the aggressive rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, the unifying sense of Jewish identity and solidarity that followed, and the desire for a homeland where Jews could live free from persecution and not be a minority in their society inspired a new wave of Zionism led by individuals like Theodore Hertzl.[6]
The novel directly reflected Herzl's political philosophy represented through a new form, literature. The novel presented a modern, democratic, and multicultural Jewish state, which was a departure from the traditional religious and cultural identity of the Jewish people.[7] Herzl emphasized the importance of Jewish self-determination and the need for a Jewish state to ensure the safety of the Jewish people. Herzl believed that the Jewish community was a nation and needed a state of its own to survive in the modern world. This idea became a pillar of Zionism and was later instrumental in the need for the establishment of the State of Israel.[8]
Legacy
The book was immediately translated into Hebrew by
Additionally, the first Hebrew edition of the Herzl biography that was written after 1948, and published by Alex Bein in 1960, reflected historical viewpoint changes based on the summary of The Old New Land. In the summary, the outline of Altneuland was significantly shorter than that of the previously published 1938 copy.[10] The shortened summary did not include details of the interaction between Herzl's Altneuland Palestine and the ruling Ottoman empire. However, it is important to note that many other references to Herzl's Altneuland Palestine following the establishment of a Jewish state do not include this information as well.
Herzl's friend Felix Salten visited Palestine in 1924 and saw how Herzl's dream was coming true. Next year, Salten gave his travel book the title Neue Menschen auf alter Erde (“New People on Old Soil”),[11] and both the title of this book and its contents allude to Herzl's Altneuland.[12]
Publication details
- 1902, Germany, Hermann Seemann Nachfolger, Leipzig, hardback (First edition) (as Altneuland in German)
- 1941, US, Bloch Publishing, hardback (translated by Lotta Levensohn)
- 1961, Israel, Haifa Publishing, paperback (as Altneuland in German)
- 1987, US, Random House (ISBN 0-910129-61-4), paperback
- 1997, US, Wiener (Markus) Publishing (ISBN 1-55876-160-8), paperback
References
- ^ "Altneuland" – First Yiddish Edition – Warsaw, 1902. Kedem Auction House, 2018
- ^ "Tel Aviv" – First Hebrew Translation of Theodor Herzl's "Altneuland". Kedem Auctions,2016
- ^ "1902: Theodor Herzl Finishes His Novel 'Old-New Land'" – via Haaretz.
- OCLC 1020298546.
- OCLC 842932838.
- JSTOR 4465995.
- ^ "Altneuland (Theodor Herzl)". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
- )
- ^ Avineri, Shlomo: Zionism According to Theodor Herzl. Haaretz (20 December 2002). "Altneuland is [...] a utopian novel written by [...] Theodor Herzl, in 1902. [...] The year it was published, the novel was translated into Hebrew by Nahum Sokolow, who gave it the poetic name ‘Tel Aviv’ (which combines the archaeological term tel and the word for the season of spring)."
- S2CID 154255752.
- LCCN 25023844.
- ISBN 978-1-57241-169-2.
External links
- Altneuland by Theodor Herzl, English translation at the Wayback Machine (archived December 6, 2008)
- Full text translation at Jewish Virtual Library
- Dreaming of Altneuland. The Economist, December 21, 2000.
- The Herzl Museum in Jerusalem