Tonight (Sunday), in the Stadcasino Hall in Basel, in a well-attended event and in the presence of President Yitzhak Herzog, the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, held in the summer of 1897, will be celebrated. Same hall, same date and even at the same time.
A historical landmark at the end of which Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl wrote in his diary the immortal sentence "In Basel I founded the Jewish state".
"Without exaggerating, this congress was one of the defining events in the history of the Jewish people, in the last five hundred years," the chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel, is convinced. on the Land of Israel'.
He created the atmosphere and the platform.
A character from whom you can learn that dreams can come true."
In order to understand how Herzl worked hard towards the realization of his dream, it is recommended to access the lists kept in the files of the Zionist office in Vienna, filed in the Central Zionist Archive.
The names of about a hundred donors are written there in handwritten form, and next to them is the amount of money they gave so that the first Congress would be able to survive.
Herzl, for example, donated 100 francs and Dr. Max Bodenheimer, who was the chairman of the German Zionist Association and the second chairman of KKL-Junk, donated 25 francs, while Isidore Shalit, who was a dentist, one of the leaders of Zionism in Austria and Herzl's personal secretary was amazed and pulled out 150 francs from his wallet.
The donation lists in Herzl's handwriting,
Herzl, who supervised the fundraising, wrote in his diary.
"The truth is that I only have an army of snitches at my disposal. I am nothing more than the leader of poor boys, beggars, and journalists. If success brightens our faces, perhaps this corps will be enough and it will quickly turn into a strong and orderly army."
Herzl must have been pleased to see the efficiency of the organization of the current event, August 2022. The Swiss government and the canton of Basel are funding the security cost which is little more than a few hundred francs.
The Canton Police Chief, Martin Roth, confirmed that the costs, which will include, in addition to large police forces, hundreds of soldiers and the stopping of the cruise on the Rhine River, will amount to 5.7 million Swiss francs (19.4 million shekels).
The heavy security came mainly because of a large protest that arose against the holding of the event.
The organizers were informed in advance of two demonstrations that were to take place in the city in the coming days, especially by pro-Palestinian organizations.
At the end of June, there were 70 bodies, including political organizations, academics, cultural figures, pro-Palestinian activists and also Jews who sent an open letter of protest to the Canton of Basel in which they wrote.
"Zionism is the ideological basis of the State of Israel, one of the last projects of the settler-colonials in the 21st century. Basel representatives ignore the existing reality in Israel, which established an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people as a continuation of the Zionist self-image, formulated in Basel in 1897."
"It wasn't easy this time either"
Five years ago, they tried to organize a similar event to mark the 120th anniversary of the First Congress, but were unsuccessful in their mission due to security coordination.
"This time, too, it was not easy," Haguel, the chairman of the World Zionist Organization, admits. "The Swiss government took on the security challenge and its economic aspects, and I'm talking about a cost of millions.
This event will be secured on a scale that is not seen in Europe too much."
Not only President Herzog will honor the ceremony with his presence, there will also be the former President of Switzerland, Guy Parmelen and dignitaries from Israel and the world, including the Minister of Diaspora, Dr. Nachman Shai, the Chief of Staff and the former Minister of Defense, Moshe (Bogi) Ya'alon, the former head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen , the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Maj. Gen. Doron Almog and the publisher of the Israel Hayom newspaper, Dr. Miriam Adelson.
Among the 1,200 present in the hall will also be 125 young Jewish entrepreneurs from all over the globe and Jewish leaders from 38 countries.
The organizers say that if they had space for 2,000 people, it would also be full, due to the huge demand.
Herzl speaks before the Congress, photo: none
Not only a ceremony is expected for those attending the event, but also discussions, including the 'Herzl Leadership Conference', which will focus on modern Zionism, in light of Herzl's vision, and a conference on socio-economic entrepreneurship.
Basel was excited for the event, which for her is also a milestone in the city's history.
The Stadkasino hall is a central site that was established in 1876 and serves, among other things, the local symphony orchestra and since 2016, for four years it was closed for a thorough renovation to bring it back to its glory days.
Tonight, the renovated hall will host the best sons and daughters of the State of Israel, which in the summer of 1897 had just appeared on the drawing board and was a distant dream.
"When the war broke out in Ukraine, the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and the state joined a rescue mission, which ended with 18,000 Jews immigrating to Israel," says Hagoel.
"I have never seen a country that mobilizes like this to save its people. This is the difference between today and 125 years ago, days when Israel did not exist and there was nowhere to run and there was no one to receive you."
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