Auction 103 Winner's Unlimited - Holy books, letters from Rabbis and Rebbes, Judaica, Maps, Periodicals, Postcards, banknotes, Eretz Israel
Nov 29, 2017
Israel
 3 Shatner Center 1st Floor Givat Shaul Jerusalem
The auction has ended

LOT 13:

HaGito HaChadash - A Play in Four Acts by Theodor Herzl - First Hebrew Edition. Warsaw 1898

catalog
  Previous item
Next item 
Start price:
$ 120
Estimated price:
$200 - $300
Auction house commission: 20%
VAT: 17% On commission only
Users from foreign countries may be exempted from tax payments, according to the relevant tax regulations

HaGito HaChadash - A Play in Four Acts by Theodor Herzl - First Hebrew Edition. Warsaw 1898

The New Ghetto (Das Neue Ghetto) by Theodor Herzl. A play in four acts, translated from German by Reuven Breinen. Published by "Achiasaf," Warsaw, 1898. First Edition.

The play was written under the influence of the Dreyfus trial, which Herzl covered as a journalist. Herzl wrote it at the speed of 17 days only! At the center of the plot is an assimilated Jewish lawyer who attempts to exit the societal ghetto which has been forced on Western Jews, but fails. At the end of the play, the lawyer is murdered by an antisemitic nobleman who damaged his honor as a Jew. As he is dying, the lawyer says in a weak voice: "Jews, my brothers, the day will come when they let you live - when you know how to die." In a loud voice and with his final strength he says: "Get out! Get out of the ghetto!"

Samuel's death is meant to serve as a warning that the Jews' staying in Europe is dangerous. The play expresses Herzl's national vision.

The play was presented over the years in over 20 places across Europe.

63 pages. 19.5 cm.

Cardboard binding. Stains. Fine condition.


catalog
  Previous item
Next item