Alfred dreyfus conversion8/9/2023 ![]() The film is narrated by Ben Kingsley with Herzl’s words read by Christoph Waltz. Just don’t expect a lot of era film footage, which considering the time period is not surprising. The film’s title comes from a line in one of his books, "If you will it, it is no dream."ĭirected and co-written by Richard Trank, the film has a Ken Burns’ look to it, complete with talking heads, including Israeli president Shimon Peres, period photographs and a massive amount of research. To say he was determined is a vast understatement. The remainder of the film follows Herzl on this quest. Seeing that assimilation was not the answer to the Jewish question, Herzl advocated instead the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, the biblical land of his ancestors. Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, where Herzl was working at the time as a foreign correspondent for an Austrian newspaper.ĭreyfus, who had been falsely accused of treason, became a lightning rod for anti-Semitic sentiment with French crowds yelling "Death to the Jew!" He also initially advocated the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity as a solution to the growing anti-Semitism in Europe.Īll that changed when Herzl witnessed the trial of Capt. How "assimilated"? He wasn’t bar mitzvahed. The movie thus serves as an educational tool and, for those familiar with Herzl, it provides an insightful examination of a fascinating man.īorn in Budapest in 1860, Herzl was raised in a traditional yet assimilated Jewish family in Vienna. The film’s press notes call him "the father of the modern state of Israel." Herzl, for the uninformed such as myself, is considered, depending on the source you cite, the founder of political Zionism. I am going to plead ignorance (readers can insert snide comment here) and confess that I had no idea who Theodor Herzl was before I saw "It Is No Dream," a documentary about his life. ![]()
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