Autograph Manuscript of Theodor Herzl’s “The Family Affliction”

Autograph German original of Herzl’s famous Zionist essay “The Family Affliction,” first published in English in The American Hebrew.

Born in Budapest, the Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) emerged as the leading theorist and political organizer of modern political Zionism with his pamphlet Der Judenstaat (1896) and his convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basel (1897). His project was to recast the “Jewish question” as a political question and to secure an internationally recognized homeland where the Jews could live as a normal nation among nations.

Written in the wake of the early Zionist Congresses, this autograph manuscript preserves Theodor Herzl’s original German text of the essay published in English as “The Family Affliction” in the New York weekly The American Hebrew (13 January 1899). In this piece, Herzl reflects on the “thankless” and often misunderstood work of Zionist leadership, opening with the now‑famous observation that anyone who wants to work on behalf of the Jews must, “to use a homely phrase,” have a strong stomach.

Herzl responds to critics who accused him of developing the Zionist idea for personal gain by emphasizing that, in fact, his work has demanded constant self‑sacrifice. Drawing on Heinrich Heine’s poem describing Judaism as a “tausendjährige Familienübel” (“thousand‑year family affliction”), he portrays the Jewish people as a long‑suffering patient and the Zionists as “volunteer nurses” determined to restore them to health through a productive national life in their ancestral land. Replying to the caricatures of his manifesto Der Judenstaat, he insists that the movement’s leaders neither seek nor expect material advantage from their work but serve instead as a focal point for local Zionist groups who must be built up everywhere so that, when the political opportunity arises, they can “march forth with closed ranks.”

Despite its often biting language, “The Family Affliction” offers a vivid, personal account of Herzl’s sense of mission, his frustration with Jewish opposition, and his conviction that political Zionism will succeed if Jews stand together and reclaim dignity in their own land. The present manuscript of the original German is a significant witness to Herzl’s rhetorical style and inner arguments at a pivotal moment in his career.

5-page (11 3/8 x 9 in.; 288 x 228 mm.) autograph manuscript in ink on onionskin paper. Strikethroughs and corrections, page-2 with a cut quotation from an article pasted down in the text. Old fold lines and creasing, a few minor ink-smudges and pale spots, the final leaf with some water staining touching a few words of text but not obscuring them, some closed tears and losses mostly at the edges, touching a few letters on the first page but otherwise clear of the text, the leaves skillfully conserved and laid down on Japanese tissue. In a custom brown cloth clamshell case with gilt-lettered morocco spine labels, the letter stored in a cloth portfolio, with each leaf housed in its own archival folder.

Literature

"The Family Affliction," article published in The American Hebrew (New York: American Hebrew Publishing Company, January 13, 1899).

Elon, Amos. Herzl. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975

Shlomo Avineri, "Herzl, " Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, Jerusalem, 2007, (in Hebrew)

Theodor Herzl, "The Issue of the Jews: Diaries 1895-1904," Vol. I, Bialik Institute publishing house, Jerusalem, 1997, (in Hebrew).