In 1897, at the First Zionist Congress, the Jewish writer and lawyer Theodor Herzl recorded in his diary, "I founded the Jewish state." Indeed, Herzl predicted the founding of such a state, and his work on behalf of Jews in a time of unsettling anti-Semitism does give him claim to the title of father of modern Israel. Though, like many professional-class German Jews, Herzl felt assimilated into Germano-Austrian culture, he realized that a strong current of anti-Semitism lurked in the modern world, and that many poor Jews, particularly in eastern Europe, faced daunting discrimination, and even violence. His work would eventually lead to decisive British support for the idea of a Jewish homeland.

1. An article that puts Herzl into his historical context and that contains a clickable glossary is available at
   http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Herzl.html
2. Read the English translation of Herzl's influential book, The Jewish State, of 1896, at
   http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6640/zion/judenstaadt.html
3. A scholarly article on Herzl's diaries, analyzing them as a Bildundsroman (coming of age story) is available at
   http://iupjournals.org/jss/jss5-3.html
4. A student at Vassar College has posted an informative essay on nineteenth-century anti-Semitism, whose virulence is well depicted in excerpts from written and visual primary sources, at
   http://iberia.vassar.edu/1896/antisemitism.html