The many stories and remarkable achievements of Theodor Herzl are a valuable part of modern Israel’s narratives and history.
But not every aspect of his history is so well documented.
William Henry Hechler became a friend of Theodor Herzl in the early days of the Zionist movement.
Hechler was an English clergyman, philosophical writer, crusader against antisemitism, promoter of Zionism and very valuable aide to Herzl.
At the time of the Russian pogroms in 1881, Hechler, who was living in London as secretary to the Evangelical Church Pastoral Society, noted the flood of Jewish refugees escaping the pogroms and settling in London.
He was deeply affected and wanted to help after hearing firsthand accounts of the atrocities.
He decided to travel to the cities of Kishinev, Mogilev and Odessa to evaluate the state of the Jews in Eastern Europe.
It left him with no doubt whatsoever that the Jews suffering from degradation and terrorism in Russia and Romania should be resettled in Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
“I believe God calls each of us to support the Jewish people.
I believe we live in a time when our support is vital to the survival of the Jewish state.”
While in Odessa, Hechler met Leon Pinsker who was active in the Zionist movement but shared a different view of the Jewish problem of survival.
Pinsker believed that the restoration of the Holy land of Israel wasn’t the only valid solution for his people.
His view was that Palestine should become the spiritual centre of Jewish religion and in another land, possibly Argentina, the cultural centre.
After witnessing the death and destruction the Jews of Russia and Eastern Europe were facing, it didn’t take Hechler long to make Pinsker reconsider his proposal.
Meeting Theodor Herzl
Near the end of the 19th century Hechler obtained a chaplaincy at the United Kingdom Embassy in Vienna.
But his proposal for a Jewish State was not taken seriously by the comfortable Jewish community in Vienna who had no interest whatsoever in moving to Palestine.
In 1896 Hechler obtained a copy of Herzl’s newly published book Der Judenstaat and read it with growing excitement and vowed to meet the author.
Just a few days after reading the book, Hechler surprised Herzl when he burst into his office in Vienna, totally unannounced.
They soon became fast friends.
Hechler was deeply impressed with Herzl’s modesty in stark contrast to the wealthy Jews he had met in Vienna.
Herzl was sincere in his appreciation of Hechler.
“This man Hechler is, at all events, a peculiar and complex person. There is much pedantry, exaggerated humility, pious
eye-rolling about him – but he also gives me excellent advice full of unmistakably
genuine good will. He is at once clever and mystical, cunning and naive. In his dealings with me so far, he has supported me almost miraculously. His counsel and his precepts have been excellent to date,
Hechler hoped Herzl would bring his biblical prophecies to fruition and threw himself into making the Viennese journalist’s dream of building political Zionism come true.
With his vast connections in aristocratic circles of Germany he placed them at Herzl’s disposal.
At the First Zionist Congress in 1897 at Basel, William Hechler attended as an observer.
Promoting the conference after its conclusion he wrote in Herzl’s Zionist paper, Die Welt:
“I believe as a Christian in this movement known as Zionism, since according to the Bible and its ancient prophets a Jewish State must arise in Palestine.”
And that is perhaps the most remarkable part of Hechler’s story.
At a time when many Jews dismissed Herzl’s vision as unrealistic – including some of the most comfortable and influential Jews in Europe – an English Christian clergyman not only believed him, but actually helped him.
And not merely with words.
Through his connections with European royalty, Hechler helped open doors for Herzl that otherwise might have remained firmly shut, including to the Grand Duke of Baden and, ultimately, Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Herzl is rightly remembered as the visionary of the Jewish state.
But standing beside him during some of Zionism’s formative years was William Henry Hechler: an eccentric English clergyman who saw the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland not as some impossible fantasy, but as history waiting to happen.
