Michael J. Reimer - The First Zionist Congress

An Annotated Translation of the Proceedings

M ICHAEL J. R EIMER

Cover image: The Zionist Congress in session, 1897 or 1898. Wikimedia Commons/National Photo Collection of Israel.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2019 State University of New York

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Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Reimer, Michael J., translator.

Title: The first Zionist Congress : an annotated translation of the proceedings / translated and with an introduction by Michael J. Reimer.

Description: Albany, New York : State University of New York, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018015533 | ISBN 9781438473130 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438473147 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Zionist Congress (1st : 1897 : Basel, Switzerland)

Classification: LCC DS149 .F4955 2019 | DDC 320.54095694dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015533

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CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURES

TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have worked on this translation for eight years and have accumulated debts of gratitude to many persons. I extend my appreciation to them all, with sincere apologies to those not mentioned here by name.

I am thankful to God that I have had the health and resources necessary to bring this project to completion.

When I began my work, Yoav Alon supplied me with a copy of the proceedings, as well as giving encouragement and counsel in my teaching and research on Zionism. A summer grant from the Research Grants program of the American University in Cairo (AUC) allowed me to launch this work by employing Heba Khalil as a research assistant. By working on preliminary translations of some important speeches, and by her enthusiasm, she contributed substantively and inspirationally to the present work. Malak Makar reviewed several sections of the translation, alerting me to mistakes in verb tenses. Nareman Amin compiled data vital to making the glossary. I am grateful to all of them for their dedicated labors.

The aforenamed students took a course titled Zionism and Modern Judaism. The course was designed by my colleague, Mark Sedgwick; I inherited it from him when he left AUC. Teaching the course led to the discovery that the 1897 Congress proceedings had never been translated into English. I register here my respect and appreciation for Mark and for the many students who have taken the course, whose questions and comments have made me a better scholar and also made me believe that this work was worth doing. Also, abundant thanks go to all my department colleagues, but most of all to our marvelous staff, Sherine Emad and Nevien Samir, for their help with a variety of special tasks related to this work, which they have carried out cheerfully, in addition to their normal duties.

I also wish to thank AUCs Faculty Grants Program for additional support of this project, through the approval of a sabbatical leave in 2012 and a grant in 2018 to help with the cost of indexing.

Another group of persons I can acknowledge only by listing their online names (even this list is partial): dude, noli, Hecuba-UK, Werner, igm, Kai, Reinhard W., CD (DE), MiMo, Philipp, Raudona, Braunbrin, Gibson, no me br, Selima, manni3, Bob C., wor, HappyWarrior, stonehenge, SD3, Dave7, Erste_Schicht, erasmus, captain flint, Teddy-Toe, her man, AndreasS, Qual der Wal, cassandra, Martin--cal, mad, Nicki (DE), wupperwolf, codero, penguin, Claus, Yora Unfug, Rodos, mikefm, hm--us, Todd, macpet, wienergriessler, mbshu, hereami, Himalia, ludicrous, H.B., Spinatwachtel, California81, Woody 1, Mercury3, Mr Chekov (DE), tigger, isabelll, judex, Andreas_10, Helmi (U.S.), C3PO. They are registered users of the German-English translation forum maintained by LEO (www.leo.org, an online service of LEO GmbH). I submitted hundreds of translation problems to LEO, and I received thoughtful responses from these and other contributors: I express here my sincere appreciation for their guidance. I could not have done this work without the cadre of competent translators regularly answering questions within the LEO forums. Scholars wishing to engage the original text and controversies over the best way to translate certain passages, are advised to consult the archived queries.

Ashby Locke, Assistant University Archivist at George Washington University Library, supplied me with a copy of an early English translation of selected speeches given at the Congress, published by The Jewish Chronicle of London and then by Philip Cowen of New York. While this work could not form the basis of the present translation on account of its many deficiencies, access to this text was essential as a point of departure. Of course, its rendering of the German was taken into account where appropriate.

Michael Berkowitz, of University College London, gave encouragement to the present project, answered questions by correspondence, and affirmed the value of this project on several occasions. I thank him for his reassurance that the work was moving on the right track. Mark Muelhauesler, a gifted member of AUCs superb library staff, was helpful in answering questions, as one who moves effortlessly between German and English, among many other languages. He assisted me by obtaining obscure materials and, in particular, overseeing the OCRing of the existing online text, to make it searchable; thanks go to AUCs computer services unit, UACT, for its help in this labor as well. German-speaking colleagues at AUC helped in discussions of the connotations of various expressions; these included Mate Toki, Julia Seibert, Nicholas Hopkins, and Steffen Stelzer. Thanks to Natalia Suit for help with the Polish and Russian. Thanks also to Dr. Lyumir Georgiev, the head of the Manuscript, Documentary, and Heritage Division, Bulgarian National Library, for help with several Bulgarian expressions and newspaper titles. David Speicher, my colleague in AUCs History Department, assisted by formatting the tables and suggesting changes while proofing and editing several parts of this work. Donald Reid and Steven Glazer commented critically on the introduction; I have benefitted from Professor Glazers insights in other ways as well, indicated in the Notes; and I am thankful for our longstanding friendship.

A section of a work that appeared previously has been reused: The good Dr Lippe and Herzl in Basel, 1897: A translation and analysis of the Zionist Congresss opening speech, Journal of Israeli History 34 (2015):1, 121. Reuse is by permission of Taylor & Francis (the journal website is http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjih20). I wish also to express my appreciation to: the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, for several photographs from the Lenkin Family Collection, with permission for their reproduction herein; and the Trustees of the Rothschild Archive, London, for a photograph of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, with permission for its reproduction.