30/08/2026
In August 1897, just over two hundred men met in a concert hall in Basel, in black tailcoats and white ties, and held a parliament for a people who had no country to hold one in.
It was supposed to be in Munich. The city's own Jewish community blocked it — German Jews called themselves Germans of the Mosaic faith and feared it would cast doubt on their patriotism. Vienna blocked it too. Basel was chosen less than two months before the date.
The delegate cards required black tails and white tie. Men who had travelled days by train from Eastern Europe spent their first morning in Basel renting evening clothes. Nordau refused to wear tails at ten in the morning; Herzl talked him round, on the grounds that formal dress "quickly creates a moderate tone of speech."
Seventeen women attended. They could not vote. The following year, they could — before women could vote in Britain or America.
The oldest delegate opened the proceedings. He had ten minutes. He spoke for thirty, and ignored four requests from Herzl to stop.
At the back of the room sat agents of the Tsar's secret police and of the Ottoman Sultan.
When it ended, the applause ran almost an hour. Men danced on the chairs.
Three days later, alone in his room, Herzl wrote in his diary: "At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it."
He was less than three months out.
