Demographers of doom did not deter Theodore Herzl

At a time when demographers-of-doom attempt to frighten Israel into retreat from the mountain ridges of Judea & Samaria into the 9-15 mile wide sliver along the Mediterranean, it would be instructive to examine the demographic pressure on the Founding Father of Zionism, Theodore Herzl.



Shimon Dubnov, a leading Jewish demographer/historian

(researched by Yakov Faitelson, expert on Jewish-Arab demography)



Public Letters on Ancient and Modern Judaism (1897-1907)


Sixth Letter (March 1898), http://bit.ly/VuCPJE

"Let's examine the impact of new and detached dreams on the establishment of a political base for the Jewish People… (p. 161)

"What a gap between the construction of a few modest settlements in Palestine and the realization of the vision of an autonomous Jewish center there… Fifteen additional settlements were erected during 1882-1898, and the Jewish population of Palestine grew by 15,000. However, a great gap exists between the settlement of a few tens of thousands of Jews in Palestine on one hand, and the political resurrection of the ten million exiled Jewish People on the other hand… How far is reality from the dream?! (p. 162).


"If the Basel Congress were non-political, then it would reach a resolution that Judaism is a nationality, which should not be advanced by messianic means in Zion, but by a credible struggle for realistic Jewish interests in the Diaspora… (p. 165).

"Zionists hope to retrieve the lost [enlightened] son via a Jewish State in Palestine. However, such an idea preconditions an attainable goal upon an unattainable tactic. The establishment of a Zukunftstaat constitutes a nice dream – a messianic utopia… (p. 167).

"The reconstruction of the Jewish State – with a sizeable Jewish population- in Palestine, is impossible, politically, socially and economically… (p. 169).

"17 years of intense effort, increased migration and huge resources, has yielded 3,600 Jewish settlers – 211 annually. Let us assume that the Zionist committees shall expedite their effort, and will therefore manage to settle 1,000 settlers per year. Then in one hundred years [by 2000] the total in Palestine will reach100,000. Let us multiply it by five – which would account for natural increase – then we shall get 500,000 Jews in Palestine in 100 years: slightly higher than the population of Kiev… (p. 171).


"Obviously, all of us wish to see half a million of our brethren in our ancient homeland at the outset of the 21st century. But, will that solve the problem of ten million Jews, who are scattered in the Diaspora…? How would you view such an original solution, which condemns a whole People to death on the altar of saving five percent of that People…? Therefore, political Zionism is utopian by three: the dream to establish a Jewish State supported by international law, the dream to achieve the migration of a substantial element of the Jewish People to that State, and the dream to solve the problem of the entire Jewish People through the establishment of a Jewish State… (p. 171).

"Political liberation in Palestine constitutes a beautiful messianic dream…” (p. 180)…”


The 2013 demographic reality (6.25 million Jews in Israel - a 66% majority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel)) refutes Dubnov's demography-of-doom (500,000 Jews).