Celebrating Herzl on the Occasion of his 150th Birthday
Department for Zionist Activities, World Zionist Organization
Drive and Souvenir Sheet - The Zionist Shekel
It was Herzl's way of inviting the entire Jewish world to express support for the Zionist idea, and enabling all who wished to take an active role in the Zionist enterprise to do so. In honor of his 150th birthday, we will be issuing a limited edition, beautifully designed Zionist Shekel note capturing the excitement of the early days of the movement as well as the challenges that Herzl's legacy demands we still meet.
Mission of Solidarity with the Zionist Cause - A Journey with Herzl in Pursuit of the Zionist Idea
As a journalist, statesman, and visionary, Herzl criss-crossed Europe and the Middle East in a tireless effort to realize his dream of a Jewish state. A century later, we will revisit some of the most important destinations in his travels, reflecting on the momentous impact of his life's journey and the circumstances and events that shaped the man and his vision. Top leadership of the National Institutions as well as Members of Knesset and prominent figures in Israeli society will be participating in the journey, along with activists from the Zionist movement and Jewish organizations around the world. Minister of Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein will be spending Shabbat with the group in Budapest. Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency, and Hagai Meirom, WZO and JAFI Treasurer, will be among those opening the event in Paris. Others who have endorsed this mission and who will be involved in it are Efi Stenzler, Chairman of KKL-JNF, His Excellency Ambassador Avi Pazner, Chairman of Keren Hayesod, and Ami Mehl, Director of the Department for Jewish Communities of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The journey will begin in Paris, continue through Basle, Vienna and Budapest, and culminate in Israel with the celebration of Independence Day at the official ceremony on Mt. Herzl – just a few days before Herzl's 150th birthday. In each of the cities visited, there will be a major event with the Jewish community planned in cooperation with the local Zionist Federation and with the participation of public figures. This high profile journey is intended to raise public consciousness about the positive meaning of Zionism today, as well as providing participants with an exhilarating opportunity to celebrate all that the Zionist enterprise has achieved while delving seriously into all that it has yet to accomplish. The mission will take place between April 14-20, 2010. Further details may be found on this flyer.
Educational Activity - On Herzl's Mind
Never content to focus only on the immediate urgencies of the Zionist movement, Herzl was always imagining as well what the Jewish State he dreamed of would one day look like. This interactive educational kit includes a full-size color poster graphically illustrating the profusion of Herzl's ideas, a set of cards with images capturing those ideas, a complementary set of excerpts from his writings, and background material intended for the workshop's facilitator. In the activity itself, half the group is given a card with one of the images emanating from Herzl’s extraordinary imagination and the other half a card with a quotation from his utopian novel, Altneuland. They then set off to match one with the other, learning about Herzl and his vision in the process. Publication date: March 2010.
Film and Activity - If you will it... The Dream, the Reality, the Challenge
The Herzl Center is a celebration of the visionary of the Jewish State and the Zionist enterprise he brought into being. Through this 14-minute film, taken from the Herzl Museum, viewers are given the opportunity to wander through today's Israel with its founding father and reflect on his dreams, the realities of today, and the distance between them. Then, through the study of texts excerpted from Herzl's writings, they are challenged to imagine the sort of Israel they would like to see come into being, to consider what role they might have in bringing that about, and to examine the personal meaning of Jewish statehood in their own lives. Publication date: February 2010.
Publication: Neue Welt – Special International Edition
Die Welt is the newspaper Herzl founded in 1897 as an organ for disseminating the Zionist idea. Neue Welt, the heir to Herzl's original publication, continues to appear in Vienna today, a conscious effort to carry on the tradition of encouraging debate over issues on the agenda of the Jewish people from a Zionist perspective in an intellectually open atmosphere. In celebration of Herzl's 150th birthday, the Department for Zionist Activities will be sponsoring a special international anniversary edition of the paper in a number of languages, welcoming contributions from around the world.
Audio Tours and Informal Educational Activities - Walking and Talking with Herzl
Mt. Herzl is comprised of three sections: the Zionist area, with Herzl's tomb at its center and the graves of his family, colleagues and leaders of the Zionist movement nearby; the National Cemetery, where great leaders of the nation are buried; and the Military Cemetery, where thousands of Israel's fallen have found their final resting place. It should be no surprise, then, that in Israel this site is also know as "the mountain of memory." But whose memory is it and what meaning does it have for us – as individuals and as a collective?
Sixty years after Herzl's re-interment here, we have produced four self-guided audio tours of the site, complete with recordings and accompanying guides, all available at the entrance to Mt. Herzl, enabling visitors to explore a variety of themes on their own: Herzl, his Family, and his Contemporaries; Heroism and Sacrifice; Zionism Then and Now – The Dream and its Fulfillment; The Meaning of the Mount. A program kit Walking and Talking with Herzl with activities suitable for informal educational frameworks for ages 16 and up is also available from the Department, presently in Hebrew only.
Traveling Exhibition - Herzl: Up Close and Personal
I truly believe that even after we possess our land, Zionism will not cease to be an ideal. For Zionism includes not only the yearning for a plot of promised land legally acquired for our weary people, but also the yearning for ethical and spiritual fulfillment.
Now, 150 years after Herzl was born, it is up to a new generation to embrace this visionary’s legacy and make it its own. This exhibition, rich in archival visuals and thought-provoking text, was produced with that objective in mind. It is not only about Herzl; it is about how contemporary Jews might shape their personal relationship to Israel and the Jewish people. Consisting of 28 easily assembled panels, and accompanying educational materials, it is ideal for display and use in schools, synagogues, community centers, conferences and in-service training programs.
Registration Form
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Department for Zionist Activities, World Zionist Organization
