Old-new Land

Published six years after Herzl's political pamphlet, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), utopian novel Old-New Land expanded on Herzl's vision for a Jewish return to the Land of Israel and has become one of Zionism's establishing texts. The novel depicts Herzl's blueprint for the realization of Jewish national emancipation. Both ideological and utopian, it presents a model society which was to adopt a liberal and egalitarian social model, resembling a modern welfare society. Herzl called his model "Mutualism" and it is based on a mixed economy, with public ownership of the land and natural resources, agricultural cooperatives, welfare, while at the same time encouraging private entrepreneurship. A true modernist, Herzl rejected the European class system, yet remained loyal to Europe's cultural heritage.