Herzl was not a prophet in the biblical sense but please hear what he said in the first Zionist congress exactly 120 years ago and decide for yourselves:  “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word…it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today l would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it”.

Fifty years and three month later, precisely 70 years ago, on the 29th November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Israel;

In one of the first paragraphs of the Israeli Declaration of Independence 14.5.48 it is written: “In the year 1897, at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country”.

Twenty years after the First Zionist Congress and a hundred years ago, Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary wrote a statement in which the key is the opening sentence “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

For the first time, the Zionist movement received diplomatic support for the goal formulated in the Basel Program in 1897: Establishing a home  for the Jewish people in Palestine. During all his years of intensive international action, Theodor Herzl tried to achieve this in form of a charter from the Ottoman Government – and did not succeed. By the time World War I began, the World Zionist Organization had still made no progress with this goal.

Today, the path leading from the Balfour Declaration to the UN General Assembly resolution approving the establishment of Israel on 2th November 1947 seems like a natural progression, almost deterministic, but this was not the case. Much could have gone wrong during the upheavals of World War II and post war settlements.

It was only Weizmann’s determination which helped transform a unilateral British document, formulated in the midst of war, into a cornerstone of British rule in Palestine and of international law.

Leaders like Herzl, Weizmann, Ben-Gurion and many others were determined, driven by a historical conviction and totally dedicated to the realization of the dream of the re-establishment of Israel.

The vision of the first Zionist congress has been fulfilled. Jews have returned to Israel in their masses, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself. Israel became an inspiration to many countries with its vibrant democracy and innovative science and technologies.

One of the cornerstones of the new State is the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In addition to the other Jubilees we celebrate 100 years since the establishment of the Hebrew University. Many of the leaders in politics, business or science received their education in this Top Level University. It also stands in the forefront of the Israeli Innovation success. I have to confess that all my family graduated in the Hebrew University and my wife teaches there. I would like to wish the Hebrew University “Mazal Tov!” for its 100^th birthday and instead of wishing ”until 120”, I would like to wish many more hundreds of years of continued success and excellence.