Das Neue Ghetto: Schauspiel in 4 Acten. [The New Ghetto: A Play in 4 Acts].

HERZL, Theodor.

$35,000.00

Item Number: 143510

Wein: Verlag Der "Welt", 1897.

First edition of Herzl’s popular politically-charged drama, written several years before Der Judenstaat and praised by Max Nordau and Sigmund Freud. Octavo, original printed wrappers. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication opposite the title page, “Herrn Heinrich Steiner zur freundlichen Erinnerung Th. Herzl.” The recipient, Hungarian author and publisher Heinrich Elchanan York-Steiner was a prominent Zionist. He participated in all phases of early Zionist activity and was instrumental in convening the First Zionist Congress as well as conceptualizing and organizing the publication of Die Welt, the newspaper that became the official organ of the World Zionist Organization. At the First Zionist Congress (1897) he submitted, on behalf of the organization commission, the proposals for adapting the constitution of the World Zionist Movement to the legislative requirements of various countries. These proposals became the basis of the Statute of the Zionist Organization. After Herzl’s death York-Steiner fought for strict adherence to Herzl’s political Zionism and strongly opposed the gradual expansion of Zionist activities to other spheres in the Diaspora according to the Helsingfors Program (1906), as well as premature, unorganized settlement in Ereẓ Israel. When the practical Zionists attained the leadership of the movement in 1911, he left and later settled in Palestine. In very good condition with some professional restoration. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery.

The visionary father of modern political Zionism, Theodor Herzl was also a successful journalist, feuilletonist, and playwright. Das Neue Ghetto: a Play in Four Acts was written in 1894, but first staged in January of 1898. "The 'new ghetto' is Herzl's term for the condition of Jewish emancipation without assimilation. Written several years before Der Judenstaat, it is Herzl’s only play which contains Jewish characters and deals directly with the Jewish Question. It represents his earliest formal condemnation of assimilation as false and illusory, and as the estrangement of the Jews from their authentic selves. The play was praised by a diverse cross-section of Viennese society, from Herzl's fellow Zionist, Max Nordau, to Sigmund Freud, who attended the opening night and went on to cite the play's influence on him personally in his Interpretation of Dreams.