Altneuland

Altneuland (Hebrew: אַלְטְנוֹיְלַנְד), also known as The Old New Land, is Herzl’s novel of the Zionist utopia he wished to create in Erez Yisrael.The Novel was published in 1902. Theodor Herzl was the father of modern political Zionism.

When Herzl started the novel, he named it the New Zion. Later he deiced to change it to Altneuland.

In Altneuland, Herzl describes a modern, social-democratic pluralistic Jewish state in which Arabs and Jews have equal rights, and racist jingoistic sentiments are unpopular.

The projected Jewish state, the Zionist ideal, was the diametric opposite of the “Jewish-Exclusivist” state attributed to early Zionists by anti-Zionists. It gives the lie to the accusations that “Zionism is Racism,” or that Herzl or other leaders wanted to expel Arabs from Palestine.

In Herzl’s vision, the Temple will be rebuilt, but not on the site of the original Temple Mount, and it would be much more like a modern synagogue.

Herzl’s program for Zionism, The Jewish State, published in 1896, laid the framework of a state, but did not mention where this state might be. Altneuland located the state in the Land of Israel.

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