Mae's Real Stories

Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), sometimes called Theo, is a very famous man. He lived in the cities of Budapest, Vienna, and Paris, in Europe. Herzl was a writer of plays, novels, and newspaper articles. At the time he lived, there was no country called Israel, and Jewish people lived in many places all over the world. But he had an amazing idea.

Herzl's idea was that Jews could go back to the place where they had lived thousands of years earlier, during the time of the Bible, and could have a country of their own. He wrote about his idea, and he told people about it. He had a lot of practical ways for making his dream into a reality, and people became very excited about what he said. He was a great leader, and he influenced people to form organizations to work for a Jewish country.

About 50 years later, his dream did become a reality. Since 1948, there has been a real country named Israel where many Jewish people live. Of course some Jewish people still live in American cities as well, but they can visit Israel, as we did last year.

A city is named in honor of Herzl: Herzlia, Israel.