Theodor Herzl: Biography from Answers.com Mobile

Theodor Herzl

(born May 2, 1860, Budapest, Hungary — died July 3, 1904, Edlach, Austria) Hungarian Zionist leader. Growing up Jewish in Hungary, he believed that assimilation was the best strategy to deal with the anti-Semitism he encountered. He became a Zionist while covering the Alfred Dreyfus affair as a journalist in Paris. In 1897 he organized a world congress of Zionism, which was attended by about 200 delegates, and he became the first president of the World Zionist Organization, established by the congress. Herzl's indefatigable organizing, propagandizing, and diplomacy had much to do with making Zionism a political movement of worldwide significance. Though he died more than 40 years before the establishment of the state of Israel, his remains were moved to Jerusalem in 1949 and entombed on a hill now known as Mount Herzl.

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