A bibliophile’s narrow window on the founding of the State of Israel - Leon Fine
- Leon Fine
- Mar 26
- 13 min read
Updated: Apr 1
On the collection of books, book collectors and bibliophiles
Most of the readers of this article will have many books in their homes and offices. These are often found in studies, living rooms, bathrooms, kitchens and unlikely places where they rest on shelves or counter tops undisturbed. Typically, such collections span the relatively wide range of interests of the owner but not always. I have found that a useful way to get to know about someone when first visiting their home, is to take a peek at the spines of the books on their shelves. This surreptitious act yields much insight. These individuals I call “collectors of books”.
In contrast to this, I would define an alternative species; the “book-collector” or “bibliophile. This is, indeed, a well-defined species with a characteristic behavior pattern. The relationship to books goes way beyond the casual. “Bibliophile” implies a “lover of books”, a designation which is only one part of the syndrome. Typically, such collectors have a well-defined and narrow area of collecting, the “primary collection”, but the urge to collect is not easily controlled, so “side-collections” often spring up.
Surprisingly, to those who have not come across them, book-collectors do not necessarily read their books. They treasure them for rarity, antiquarian, artistic, or design attributes. They are collectible objects. Such collectors, in the eyes of their spouses or partners, spend far too much money on books, which could be put to far better purposes. There is clearly a strong obsessive element in their collecting behavior; they not only “want” a particular book for their collection, the must have it! They will squirm their way to justifying a purchase.
Such bibliophiles feel most comfortable when surrounded by like-minded collectors. They belong to bibliophilic clubs and societies, in which members get together to talk about and display items in their collections. There is an unspoken competitiveness between such members, whose collections are usually a reflection of their incomes. From the online Zoom creation of the COVID years, there emerged “communities” of such collectors, so the dialog and opportunities for their sharing of enthusiasms increased rather than diminishing during those trying years.
From the foregoing it will be evident that I am a member of the unfortunate “must-have“ phenotype. My primary collection is book arts, fine printing, typography, and private press books. I also collect post-war and contemporary art. One of my “side collections” is the history of Zionism relevant to the creation of the State of Israel and it is this collection which I display here.
This article is not about people or ideas. It is about published materials. It is about the books and the documents and the historical insights which they provide. The rather selective items described and illustrated below are from my personal collection and are all first editions.
1. Theodor Herzl Der Judenstaat, 1896
This slim 86-page book (pamphlet) in paper wrappers, appeared in Breitenstein’s book shop in Vienna in 1896. The first draft was completed by Herzl in preparation for his meeting with Baron de Hirsch in 1895, when he hoped to obtain ideas and support for his plan. The script evolved from Rede an die Rothschilds to Rede an die
Jude until he made contacts in London and Paris. He continued to work on a draft of the book from summer 1895 to winter 1896 but received no support for its publication from Siegfried Cronbach, publisher of a Jewish weekly paper in Berlin. Similarly, Dunker and Humblot in Leipzig, who had previously published Herzl’s Palais Bourbon, did not feel the “Jewish Question” to be of fundamental interest.
In January 1896, the London Jewish Chronicle carried a synopsis of the pamphlet Herzl had completed under the title “A solution to the Jewish question”. This led him to a relatively unknown Viennese publisher, Breitenstein, with whom he discussed the title of the book and there Der Judenstaat was born. It was hoped that sales of the book would at least cover the costs of publication.
3000 copies were planned to be published in four “auflage” meaning “issues” or “editions”. (Since there were no textual changes planned from one to the next, I prefer the designation “issues”). The sole designation other than a sticker on the paper wrapper designating to which issue a given volume belonged, was a flower vignette on the last page. The image for the first issue of only 300 copies, is a flower leaning to the left as shown below. The first issue is thus exceedingly rare. (The subsequent 3000 copies each for issues 2 and 3, had the flower pointing the other way).
My copy of the first issue is in pristine condition. It lacks the original wrappers and is rebound in a blue cloth binding with the title embossed in gold on the front cover. There is a previous owner’s inscription from father to son on a front blank page and a printed 1974 auction listing of the book on the front paste down.
Considering that there were about 200 delegates to the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, I cannot but help wondering if at least one of them could have owned my copy. Wishful thinking! There is no evidence that this was the case.
Reactions to Der Judenstaat were mixed. The Neue Freie Press remained silent, and the remaining liberal press rejected the central idea. However, Zionist groups in Berlin and Sofia lauded it, as did the Viennese Jewish community. The immediate result of the publication was that it heralded the emergence of a leader of Zionism and a practical solution to the Jewish Question
2. Medinat Hayehudim 1896
The first translation of Der Judenstaat into Hebrew was published in the same year as the German Edition.
It is here that the collector indulges in minutiae, so here it is without apology.
As is evident in the image, pasted to the title page by a previous owner is a green Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund) label. Indeed, it is label, and not a postage stamp, which was given to donors in recognition of their generosity. This one, Keren Kayemet 2, was printed in Cologne, Germany in 1907.
As may be seen, additional labels deriving from other cities in which Keren Kayemet had offices, were pasted to the front paste down. The endpaper labels show scenes from Palestine and were printed in The Hague and Amsterdam in 1915. The one showing the Zionist leader Max Nordau, was printed in 1917. An Image of Herzl in a long black coat is affixed to the front paste down.
The quality of the paper on which the Hebrew was printed by letterpress, is extremely poor and the book is now very brittle and browned. Accordingly, the book is now housed in a snug box.
An interesting feature of my copy of the book is a one-line inscription in Russian carrying the date 1897 on the verso of the title page. This can only mean that, although the book was published in 1896, it could not have been on sale until the following year. At the time of publication, roughly half of Poland, including Warsaw where the book was published, was part of the Russian Empire. All published literature required the approval of the tsarist censors. Although the font in the Russian inscription looks similar to the printed text, it had been firmly pressed into the paper and is in a different font and ink, so it is clearly a stamp inserted by the censors allowing for its distribution the year after the publication date.
My copy must thus have laid dormant for at least a year before being released. Since there exist copies which lack the inscription, they must have been smuggled out of Poland! Indeed, Central European Jews had begun smuggling copies of the book into the Pale, where Herzl’s name and legend grew.
As Chaim Weizmann recalled in his autobiography: “It was an utterance which came like a bolt from the blue…Fundamentally The Jewish State contained not a single new idea for us…not the ideas, but the personality which stood behind them, appealed to us. Here was daring, clarity, and energy. The very fact that the Westerner came to us unencumbered by our own preconceptions, had its appeal. We were right in our instinctive appreciation that what had emerged from the Judenstaat, was less a concept than a historic personality”
3. Zionisten-Congress in Basel 1898
These are the extremely rare minutes of the First Zionist Congress, where Theodor Herzl was elected Chairman with Max Nordau and Samuel Pineles elected as Vice Chairmen. The book contains 192 pages followed by a list of delegates by country and city. Pages 4-38 are occupied by Herzl’s opening address. The paper wrappers enclosing the booklet are extremely brittle with the inner edges of front and back covers fragmented. The paper is poor, brittle and browned.
Herzl welcomes the congress delegates with the following opening words: “You all know, although perhaps only in an indefinite way, that this situation, with few exceptions is not a pleasant one. We would hardly get together if it were different. The commonality of our destinies has suffered a long interruption, although the scattered parts of the Jewish people have suffered similar hardships everywhere. Only in our time is the possibility of communication and connection between those separated due to the above-mentioned miracle of communication being possible and, in these times, which are otherwise so high, we see and feel that the old hatred surrounds us everywhere. Antisemitism is the modern name of the movement you know all too well. The first impression that the Jews of today had of this was surprise, which turned into pain and anger. Our opponents may not even realize how deep down they have hurt those of us who might not have wanted to hit them in the first place”.
4. The Zionist Congress by Dr Theodor Herzl.1897
This is a very small, fragile pamphlet of 16 pages. My copy lacks the picture and signature.
Herzl opens with his reason for publishing this pamphlet: “In the first 3 days of the month of Elul there was a meeting in Basel, which both supporters and opponents knew how to appreciate - the Zionist Congress. The name Zionism was almost unknown previously to the large audience in Basel. Zionism was consolidated before an audience that was not Bnei Brith and from the debates, everyone learned about the goal which this movement aspired to…..
This is a very sad matter; our movement was born on the knees of poverty, the poverty of the Jews in all parts of the earth. But before I say any more, I will clarify the concept of Zionism for all those readers who may not have heard anything about it to date. I already explained the concept in my book the “Jewish State” a year and a half ago. The Basel Congress agreed with my words and would make them law. “Zionism aspires to find a happy resting place for the Jews, upheld by the agreement of governments and the laws of nations, so they do not become assimilated in their countries of relevance”.
5. Signed Letter from Theodor Herzl to “Ahad Ha’am”
“10 February, 1902Dear Honorable Sir!
In possession of your esteemed letter from the 4th of this month and in notification of the following, it has been asked by the congress whether you are a payer of the shekel, but that a decision on this matter was not reached at the Congress. The validity of your choice is conditioned upon you having paid the shekel continuously. Your choice is, therefore, an unconditional one. We therefore hope that you accept the vote upon this clarification and that you will use your proven power in the service of our cause and that of the Culture Commission.
With most respect,
Rubber stamped: The Action Committee
Secretary: (signature).
Chairman: Herzl signature
(To) Esteemed Mr. U. Ginsburg, Odessa”
This is a key letter of rapprochement from Herzl to his ideological antagonist, Ahad Ha’am.
The Zionist Congress had established as its instrument, a permanent Zionist Organization; the executive organ of the Zionist organization would be the General Council. to be known as the Greater Action Committee and composed of representatives of the various national Zionist federations and the Central Executive Committee, a smaller action committee whose members all lived in Vienna. Membership in the organization was to be conferred on everyone who subscribed to the Basel program and who paid the annual fee of a “shekel”, an ancient Hebrew coin deemed the equivalent of a single Austrian shilling. It was intended that Ahad Ha’am would become a member of the cultural commission.
On Feb 4th 1902, Ahad Ha’am wrote the following to the Executive of the Zionist Congress:
“In your letter of 27th January, I find no mention of something I have learned from the press – that my election by Congress to the Culture Commission was conditional on my subscribing to the Zionist credo by an annual payment of the shekel. If that is so, I must, to my regret, call my eligibility in question. I am not a regular shekel payer, by which I mean that in principle I am neither for the shekel nor against it. I do not regard payment of the shekel as a sign of adherence to Zionism, because, on the one hand, I sacrificed much more than the shekel for Zionism before the shekel became an institution, and on the other hand, I know many shekel payers whom I cannot regard as Zionists. Hence, I pay the shekel only when a collector asks me to do so; and though I used to be asked in the earlier years, I have not been asked recently. From this you will understand that I am bound to decline to serve on the Commission until you yourselves decide whether in the circumstances, my election is valid”.
In Herzl’s signed response letter shown above, he brushes aside the allegation that, because the esteemed delegate from Odessa had not paid his dues to the Zionist organization, he should not be on the Cultural Commission. Herzl assures him that his membership on the Cultural Commission is unconditional (i.e., is not dependent on paying the shekel) and encourages him to apply his energy to supporting the common cause and to becoming active in the Commission.
6. “Thesaurus Totius Hebraitatis et Veteris et Recentioris. (Milon ha-Lashon ha-Ivrit). Gesamtwörtenbuch der alt- und neuebr. Sprache von Elieser Ben Jehuda. Langenscheidt. Berlin. 1908. (Volume 1)
This volume of the Ben-Jehuda Dictionary, published in 1908, was the first of a total of 17 volumes, most of which were published long after his death in 1922. The dictionary includes words devised by Ben-Yehuda himself, to describe new objects and ideas.
In 1882 Ben-Yehudah wrote: “There has been no period for Israel, since the day of its departure from its land, more in need of unity than today. A great and weighty matter lies before us this time, which cannot be done by the strength of one man, nor by the strength of a thousand men, but only by the strength of the entire people. But this will not happen unless one language is spoken, and no other language besides its ancestral language will give him this unity”.
The words in the dictionary are arranged alphabetically, which distinguishes it from other dictionaries in which entries were entries according to the root letters of words. Ben-Yehuda chose not to adopt this approach since, he reasoned, that few people knew the roots of words in use. In addition to defining the meaning of each word he included a translation into 3 languages: German, French, and English as shown on the title page. This made the dictionary the very first to both define and to translate its entries. Ben-Yehuda believed that this was needed since many people did not know the Hebrew well enough to understand explanations on their own and believed that adding the translations would clarify the precise meaning of the words
The completion of the dictionary took many years since it was initiated by Ben-Yehuda alone. He pushed aside claims that a dictionary should be written by a panel of experts and not by one individual and concluded that a personal approach would improve the quality of the dictionary. Unfortunately, the immense pressure and time required to complete this monumental task had an adverse effect on his daily life.
Although completed earlier, publication of Volume 1 of the dictionary shown here, occurred in 1908; financial difficulties had delayed its publication. Baron Rothschild supported Ben-Yehuda financially for most of his work on the dictionary. By the year of his death in 1922, four additional volumes had been published. Subsequent volumes were published by “The Association for completing Eliezer Ben -Yehudah's Hebrew Language Dictionary”, including the raising of funds to finance the publication of the missing volumes
7. Public Notice. Printing Press of the Syrian Orphanage
The first Jew in 2000 years to govern the historic Land of Israel
This narrow poster, signed by Herbert Samuel, High Commissioner for Palestine, was likely displayed on the streets of Mandate Palestine, notifying the people that the importation of sporting guns and of ammunition for the same, was no longer prohibited for those in possession of a valid license.
Herbert Louis Samuel was a British liberal politician who was the first nominally-practicing Jew to begin serving as a British cabinet minister in 1909, subsequently to become the leader of a major political party. He had begun promoting Zionism beginning with his 1915 memorandum entitled “The Future of Palestine”. His ideas influenced the Balfour Declaration. In 1920 he was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine in charge of the administration of the territory. His appointment was made before the Council of the League of Nations approved a British Mandate for Palestine. The mandate was granted 2 years later by the League of Nations.
Samuel served as High Commissioner until 1925 and recognized Hebrew as one of the three official languages of the territory. The poster shown here was printed in the three official languages and illustrates the effort of the British to instill some order in Palestine at the beginning of their mandate rule.
Samuel was the first Jew to govern the historic land of Israel in 2000 years. His appointment was warmly welcomed by the Zionist movement.
8. First Publication of the full declaration of the Independent State of Israel
This publication simultaneously rescinded the British White Paper of 1939 which had previously restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine and controlled the sale of land. With the names of all the signatories, headed by David Ben Gurion, this document heralded the end of British involvement in Palestine and the start of unrestricted immigration into the new Jewish state.
It published, for the very first time, the full declaration as read by Ben-Gurion at 4 pm on Friday 14 May 1948 in the Tel Aviv Museum (which became Independence Hall). It announced that the National Council was to become the Provisional Government of Israel until a Constituent Assembly was formed on 1 October 1948.
Iton Rishmi continued to record all the decrees, ordinances and notices of the Israel government as well as the appointments of all government officials.
The third paragraph, printed in bold type reads: “Accordingly we, members of the People's Council, representatives of the Jewish community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historical right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel to be known as the State of Israel”.
Conclusion.
There is something very moving in handling historical documents which can be traced to the background of one’s own life events and experiences. I can almost imagine someone handling them at the time of their appearance, the way I do now. I was 5 years old, living in Cape Town, when the State of Israel was born
by Leon G. Fine
Acknowledgement.
All the items depicted in the images displayed in this article, are in the personal collection of Leon G Fine.
