Theodor Herzl, "Father of the Jewish State" was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1860. He was a talented journalist and author.

He was awarded a doctorate of law in 1884, and worked in Austria before going into the theatre.

In 1891, he became Paris correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse.

During the "Dreyfus Affair", which he covered for his newspaper, he learnt the extent of antisemitism and the distress of many Jews, and published his masterpiece Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in 1896.

Thereafter, he travelled around the world meeting the great and good to promote Zionism.

This was the first time that a worldwide economic and political solution had been put forward to the "Jewish problem".

Jews over the world enthusiastically joined Herzl, as he tirelessly promoted the cause, and organised the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897.

He founded the Jewish National Bank and the Jewish National Fund for purchasing land in Palestine.