HERZL, THEODOR. Der Idenshtat [Der Judenstaat]. Translated from German to Yiddish.

(ZIONISM).

Abba Katzenellenbogen

New York

(1917)

FIRST AMERICAN YIDDISH EDITION. On title, photograph of Herzl between American and Zionist flags.

THE FIRST AMERICAN YIDDISH EDITION. Herzl's seminal work, his vision of "The Jewish State," proposed as a contribution "toward a modern solution for the Jewish question," has unique classic status in the history of Jewish literature. Published in German in 1896, a "quick and dirty" Yiddish translation appeared in Kolomea the same year, as did translations into Hebrew, English, French, Russian, and Rumanian. Although greatly abridged, a superior Yiddish rendering followed in 1899, printed in Zhitomir, evidently satisfying interest for the next 18 years. This New York edition therefore, is not only the first American Yiddish translation but also the first full and literal Yiddish translation of the work produced anywhere. Not only translated anonymously, it lacks a year of printing, too. A note in the New York Publc Library's copy, however, records its acquisition on January 25, 1918, which would indicate that the book will have been printed only weeks or months earlier. No doubt the Balfour Declaration, issued on November 2, 1917, would undoubtedly have intensified interest in Zionism's foundational text.