The Old New Land
The Old New Land (German: Altneuland; Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב Tel Aviv, "Mound of spring") is a utopian novel published by Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, in 1902. Outlining Herzl's vision for a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, Altneuland became one of Zionism's establishing texts. It was translated into Yiddish by Israel Isidor Elyashev. It was translated into Hebrew by Nahum Sokolow as Tel Aviv, which directly influenced the choice of the same name for the Jewish-Zionist Jaffa suburb founded in 1909 which was to become a major Israeli city.
Plot introduction
The novel tells the story of Friedrich Löwenberg, a young Jewish Viennese intellectual, who, tired with European decadence, joins an Americanized Prussian aristocrat named Kingscourt as they retire to a remote Pacific island (it is specifically mentioned as being part of the Cook Islands, near Raratonga) in 1902. Stopping in Jaffa on their way to the Pacific, they find Palestine a backward, destitute and sparsely populated land, as it appeared to Herzl on his visit in 1898.
Podcasts:
New Land
by: Eden's BridgeOn a hillside in the warm sun Granite shining like ice And the water sparkling, rushing Through the earth black as night Where the skylark sings above me And the sheep graze at ease In the silence, this new land Summons each, all, and me
I had not seen, I could not know What this new land could be I had heard a piece of Heaven Was waiting for me From the barren to the verdant From the crag to the dale Once I've stepped out in faith Then there's no turning away
I'll fly, fly, headlong and free Fly, fly, headlong and free Why grieve for the pains that have been? For the new land is calling to me For the new land is calling to me
Every autumn has its winter Every winter its spring Ages pass and every dying Means a new life begins In the passing from the old land There is sorrow and fear But the night at it's darkest Means the dawning is near