The city of Basel in Switzerland is hosting a unique event this week. Led by the World Zionist Organization, delegates from around the Jewish world are expected to arrive to mark the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress – held in the Swiss city in 1897 – which paved the way for the future State of Israel.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
"I wish I could have heard Herzl speak at the first congress," Moshe Luna, who has recently published his debut novel about the legendary Zionist leader, told Israel Hayom.
Bold and original, "The Triple Voyage" offers an alternative narrative to Herzl's story and dives into untold chronicles of Early Zionism.
Luna continued, "I wish there were inventions like video or Facebook in Herzl's time. I would like to have heard him. Many of the Zionist founders were smart and good people, but none like Herzl. He was endowed with a unique flight. Only someone with his way of thinking could lead both practical and spiritual people."
Luna's book pays homage to the man that at the end of August 1897 stood at the center of an event hall in Basil and outlined the path that eventually led to the establishment of the Jewish state.
"Herzl is an exceptional figure both in Jewish and world history," Luna notes. "Everyone can relate to him in a way, because we all have the desire to do something right and good, only that with Herzl it was on a massive scale, so much so one could have thought he was disconnected from reality. He knew that his vision was not easy to comprehend. No wonder he said the now-famous quote 'If you will it, it is no dream.'
"My profession is actually high-tech, not writing, and originally I thought to write an old-time adventure book. And yet, those who read 'The Triple Voyage' in depth will notice other layers, which go beyond the rules of the genre of adventure and suspense. I tried to bring to the fore the feelings of the person who created such a significant turning point in the life of the Jewish people.
In Luna's book, Herzl becomes Dr. Henrik Selig Bauman and switches his profession from journalism to psychiatry and neurology and his place of residence from Vienna to Hamburg. But essentially, the protagonist remains the same Herzl we know from history, an educated European Jew with a somewhat assimilated background and tormented soul, who rises to change the future of the Jewish people forever and free them from 2,000 years of life in exile.
Luna said, "I have always been very curious about this period, the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. During this period, there were far-reaching changes in all respects, and certainly from a technological point of view. The world saw the invention of the radio and the telephone, but in addition, the changes permeated all areas of life, at least as far as European cities are concerned. At the same time, there were processes of secularization and a transition to modern concepts. A sense of liberation was created and of breaking through horizons, and a kind of expectation that very soon the breakthroughs will overflow into matters between man and man and good social arrangements."
Q: Would you say that was fertile ground for the emergence of the idea of political Zionism?
"Absolutely. I have often wondered how the entire Zionist story began. And yet, even with all the changes that the end of the 19th century brought, the Zionist revolution is unfathomable. We live on ethos and narratives, and I tried to dig a little beyond them, to understand the inner forces that could motivate the heroes of the Zionist play.
"And I use the plural because I constructed a story based on my imagination, or more precisely, three stories that are connected: three unusual journeys – the journey of Herzl's character to Basel, the journey of the children of the first aliyah to pre-state Israel, and the journey of the character Herzl himself created for his book 'Altneuland' to America.
"The events in 'The Triple Voyage' correspond to historical events, but my journey, in particular, follows the psychological and personal motives of the heroes, of which they themselves are sometimes unaware. There's a person behind every narrative, and I wanted to show that."
Q: Is it possible though to truly understand those motivations from 125 years ago?
"Although over the years technology has changed, interpersonal communication has changed and human behavior has changed, I believe that human nature remains human nature. In all of us, in addition to views and beliefs, there is a bit of selfishness, a bit of greed – for each of us at different levels, of course.
"You won't usually read about these motives, which stem from a person's soul, in history books. A state is not built from this material, even though without them its visionaries and founders might not have devoted themselves to a vision that seemed impossible to make a reality and even to define clearly at first.
"I admire Herzl's leadership abilities, to stand in a hall in front of a thousand distinguished people and lead them on a primordial path into the unknown... As someone who always had difficulty presenting work in front of several dozen listeners during my university days, I really admire this quality."
Q: Some say Herzl achieved what he achieved due to him being from Central Europe, something Jews from eastern or Western Europe couldn't have. Would you agree?
"Perhaps. Let's not forget that in Western Europe, following the emancipation, the Jews had already gained most of the rights and began to move in the direction of integration into the majority of society and assimilation, while in the Russian Empire, where most of the Jews of Europe lived, they were mired in poverty, despair, and danger. Herzl, on the other hand, is a product of Central Europe, a place where the Jewish trends met with the peaks of the technological advancement of those days."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
In Luna's book, Bauman/Herzl is a complex and contradictory character. An atheist who cannot explain the world without God, caught between pathetic speeches full of pathos and suicidal thoughts, devoted to the idea to the point of compulsiveness, sure of his righteousness and convinced that a higher power has chosen him for a historical role – and yet anxious to the point of paranoia that he might fail.
"Herzl also had a problematic relationship with his family members, wife, and children. He truly invested his entire being into public work, and there was nothing left for his family, and one cannot help but wonder how these two opposing aspects occupied one soul."
