The journalist as a messiah: journalism, mass-circulation, and Theodor Herzl’s Zionist vision

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between Theodor Herzl’s journalistic career and his Zionist enterprise. Contrary to the received wisdom that Herzl’s post in the Neue Freie Presse had little to do with his Zionist vision, it is argued that his Zionist awakening sprang essentially from his experience as an influential journalist working in the early days of mass-circulation newspapers. It is further shown that once Herzl took up the Zionist cause he made a sophisticated use of mass-circulation newspapers and of his post in the Neue Freie Presse to bring about and propagate his Zionist plan. In the final analysis, it is suggested that Herzl’s position as a leading journalist working in the early days of mass-circulation played a key role in shaping his particular strand of political Zionism as well as in securing his initial leadership of the Zionist movement.