Journey of an Idea – From Rabbi Bibas to Herzl

The concept of the Jewish people’s revival in its ancient homeland shuttled between a disintegrating Ottoman Empire and Balkan countries aspiring to independence. The journey of an idea

1. Inspiration from Corfu

Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas

Descended from Judeo-Spanish exiles, Bibas was born in Gibraltar and therefore enjoyed British citizenship. After studying Talmud in Livorno, he arrived on the British-ruled Greek island of Corfu in 1831 to serve as rabbi of its Italian Jewish community., Greece’s successful battle for independence from the Ottoman Empire ten years earlier inspired Bibas to suggest that the Jews return to the land of Israel and even conquer it from the Ottomans.

2. Meeting in Bucharest

In 1839, Rabbi Bibas traveled around Europe urging a return to Zion. Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai met him in Bucharest, Romania and later described their meeting as the source of his own proto-Zionism. In 1877, Romania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, but Romanian Jews were denied citizenship. They therefore remained Ottoman subjects, enabling them to purchase real estate in the land of Israel despite laws banning land sales to anyone outside the sultan’s jurisdiction. Thus, in the late 19th century, these Jews formed the first wave of Zionist immigration, establishing the colonies of Zikhron Yaakov and Rosh Pina. 

3. Community Sandwich 

Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai

Born to a Sephardic family in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Alkalai grew up in a country influenced by both east and west, dominated by the Ottoman Empire but bordering the European powers, particularly the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Most residents of Sarajevo were Muslim, and it had been founded as an Ottoman city. In Semlin, however, Rabbi Alkalai presided over an officially Sephardic community that included Ashkenazim, and the town was part of Christian Serbia.

4. To the Hapsburg Empire

From Alkalai to Herzl

One regular at Rabbi Alkalai’s synagogue was Theodor Herzl’s paternal grandfather. Shimon Leib Herzl was well-known for blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashana and leading prayers on Yom Kippur. Shimon’s son Jacob moved from Semlin to Pest (western Budapest), then to Vienna, but stayed in contact with his father’s community and often visited on festivals. Theodor Herzl may have heard some of Alkalai’s radical ideas of a return to Zion from his grandfather, although Jacob’s famous son never mentions the rabbi in his writings.