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Apostasy of a Prince: Hans Herzl and the Boundaries of Jewish Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2018

Anne Perez*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
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Abstract

When Hans Herzl, son of Theodor Herzl, converted to Christianity in 1924 and committed suicide in 1930, he challenged the boundaries of the Zionist movement. Zionist responses to Hans's conversion and suicide reveal underlying and conflicting assumptions regarding the religious, cultural, and ethnic boundaries of Jewish nationalism, both in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as in future Israeli state policy. This article traces responses in the press and among leadership of the World Zionist Organization to Hans's conversion, as well as subsequent reactions to his suicide. To some, Hans's anomalous life threatened Jewish unity and the Zionist movement; to others, Hans deserved not only a biography but a meaningful place in Zionist discourse. These conflicting definitions and priorities of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s resurface within the legal and bureaucratic institutions of Israeli statehood, particularly in the 1962 Supreme Court case Rufeisen v. Ministry of the Interior.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 2018 

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References

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29. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 192.

30. Selig Brodetsky to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA.

31. Ibid.

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39. Hans Herzl to Cyril Piccioto, H1\2348, CZA.

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41. Day was a Jesuit missionary who wrote many articles and tracts, many of a somewhat unsavory character. (For instance, he openly calls himself a “Jew-baiter.”) Arthur Day's 1943 book Our Friends, the Jews: Or, the Confessions of a Proselytizer includes twelve topical chapters, none of which are about individuals, except the chapter devoted entirely to Hans Herzl.

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47. Ibid., 362.

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50. Leftwich, “Hans Herzl,” A72\4, CZA.

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52. Hans Herzl, “National Home for the Jews: An Expedient No Longer Needed,” The Universe, March 20, 1925, 6.  He makes similar points in a 1926 letter to Lucien Wolf, H1\2354, CZA.

53. Hans Herzl, “A Last Word,” H1\2365, CZA.  For more on Richard N. Koudenhove-Kalergi, see Anita Prettenhaler-Ziegerhofer, “Richard Nikolaus Koudenhove-Kalergi, Founder of the Pan-European Union, and the Birth of a ‘New’ Europe,” in Europe in Crisis: Intellectuals and the European Idea, 1917–1957, ed. Mark Hewitson and Matthew D'Auria (New York: Berghahn, 2012).

54. Hans Herzl to Lucien Wolf, H1/2353, CZA.

55. Hans Herzl to the Undersecretary of State, HO 144/5489, The National Archives of the UK (TNA).

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Hans Herzl to Lucien Wolf, A77\41, CZA.

59. Gerl-Falkovitz, Hanna-Barbara, “‘His Whole Life Consisted of a Search for Religious Truth’: Edith Stein in Conversation with John Henry Newman,” in Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. Berkman, Joyce Avrech (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), 156–57Google Scholar.

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61. In fact, her family insisted that she keep her conversion secret from her nieces and nephews.  They found out she converted only at the same time they discovered she was leaving to enter a convent.  See Ernst L. Biberstein, “Aunt Edith/St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross,” unpublished talk, August 10, 1999.  I thank Mr. Biberstein for sharing this talk with me via email. For Stein's autobiography, see Stein, Edith, Life in a Jewish Family, trans. Koeppel, Josephine, OCD (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies Publications, 1986)Google Scholar.

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71. Silverman, “Frontiers of Faith,” 376.

72. Hans Herzl to Pierre von Passen, H1\2346, CZA.

73. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 427.

74. Pawel, Labyrinth of Exile, 535.

75. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 355–56; Hans Herzl to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, H1\2373, CZA.

77. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 356.

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81. Ibid.

82. Unnamed to Hans Herzl, H1\2352, CZA.

83. Leftwich, “Hans Herzl,” A72\4, CZA; Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 369.

84. Hans Herzl to Leftwich, A330\226, CZA.

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91. Israel Zangwill to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, A330\153, CZA.  Zangwill also uses the fact that since “the proposed university [is] purely scientific” those like Hans cannot be excluded from the Jewish people.

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93. Richard Gottheil to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA; letters from Lucien Wolf to Hans Herzl, H1\2353, CZA.

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95. Ibid.; Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 418.

96. Leftwich, “Hans Herzl,” A72\4, CZA.

97. Marcel and Ilse Sternberger Family Papers, LIB 74.3, box 2761, the Magnes Collection.

98. Leftwich wedding invitation, H1\2374, CZA.

99. Selig Brodetsky to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA.

100. Hans Herzl to Arthur Day, H1\2373, CZA.

101. Hans Herzl to Pierre von Passen, H1\2346, CZA.

102. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 414.

103. Leftwich, “Hans Herzl,” A72\4, CZA.

104. Louis Zangwill to Trude Neumann (Herzl), H1\2404–36, CZA.

105. Stephen W. Wyatt to Trude Neumann (Herzl), H1\2404–27, CZA.

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107. Y. Dawnd to Trude Neumann (Herzl), H1\2404–38, CZA.

108. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 438.

109. This language evokes Shulamit Magnes's formulation of “good bad Jews,” or Jewish converts who were viewed as “good” versions of “bad” Jews because they intervened for the benefit of their former coreligionists.  See Magnes, “Good Bad Jews.”

110. Leftwich, “Hans Herzl,” A72\4, CZA; Stephen W. Wyatt to Joseph Leftwich, A330\140, CZA.

111. Selig Brodetsky to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA.

112. For more on Sternberger's interesting biography, see Marcel and Ilse Sternberger Family Papers, ephemera box 6, folder 22, LIB 74.3, box 2760, the Magnes Collection.

113. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 440.

114. Trude Neumann (Herzl) to Joseph Leftwich, A330\141, CZA; Leftwich, “Hans Herzl,” A72\4, CZA.

115. Sternberger, Princes without a Home, 441.

116. “Albert Einstein on the Tragedy of Theodor Herzl's Son,” September 8, 1932, accessed June 1, 2014, http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?einstein-on-jewish-identity-assimilation-and-herzl-son-conversion-and-suicide.

117. Edward E. Grusd to Joseph Leftwich, A330\140, CZA.

118. Ibid. Emphasis added.

119. Stephen Wise to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA.

120. Richard Gottheil to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA.

121. Selig Brodetsky to Marcel Sternberger, H1\2371, CZA.

122. Martin Buber Archive, ARC. Ms. Var. 350 008 779k, National Library of Israel.

123. Marcel and Ilse Sternberger Family Papers, folder 22, LIB 74.3, box 2760, the Magnes Collection.

124. Judith Weinshall Lieberman, My Life into Art: An Autobiography (Booklocker.com, 2007), 32, 215–16, accessed June 1, 2014, http://archive.org/stream/mylifeintoartau00libe/mylifeintoartau00libe_djvu.txt. See Weinshall, Jacob, ‘Anakim ba-midbar (Tel Aviv: Shalach, 1952)Google Scholar and Weinshall, Jacob, Parshiyot ‘alumot be-toldotenu (Tel Aviv: Avraham, 1973)Google Scholar.

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130. Ibid., 35.

131. Gad Barzilai, “Who Is a Jew? Categories, Boundaries, Communities, and Citizenship Law in Israel,” in Glenn and Sokoloff, Boundaries of Jewish Identity, 31.  For more on hybridity of Zionism and nationalism in the Zionist context, see Shenhav, “Modernity and Hybridization of Nationalism and Religion.”

132. Tec, Nechama, In the Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)Google Scholar, and Goldman, Shalom, “Apostasy and Citizenship: The Case of Brother Daniel (Oswald Rufeisen, 1922–1988),” in Jewish-Christian Difference and Modern Jewish Identity: Seven Twentieth-Century Converts (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015)Google Scholar.

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134. Oswald Rufeisen, “Ve-’eno ben dat ’aḥeret,” Politika, October 1987.

135. Goldman, Zeal for Zion, 135.  See also “Herzl's Children Buried alongside Their Father in Jerusalem,” Haaretz, September 20, 2006, accessed May 1, 2017, http://www.haaretz.com/news/herzl-s-children-buried-alongside-their-father-in-jerusalem-1.197723.