I think Theodor Herzl would be blown away by modern Israel. With its electric cities, nuclear power, mechanized agriculture and messy democracy I think he would recognize in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the Jordan river valley the utopia he had envisioned.

“Old New Land” is a true utopia; like Aldous Huxley’s “The Island” or Thomas More’s “Utopia” or Plato’s “Republic”. It is about how the Jews of Europe returned to their ancient land to build a modern state upon the same hills and valleys where David and Solomon walked. But unlike More and Plato and Huxley, Herzl’s vision came true. Even the criticisms. One of the most significant detractions of the book was that Herzl’s Palestine resembled Europe (Herzl was an Austrian Jew). But even that, given the fact that modern Israel really is a construct of the Jews of Europe after the Holocaust (and of America, where many of the Jews of Europe stopped over before embarking upon the creation of their epic utopia), turned out to be true. The atmosphere of modern Israel has been much more heavily influenced by American scientism than by Sephardic wanderings or Yemeni mysticism.

I think Herzl would be thrilled that Israel, after so short a time, has become such a remarkable place. The only thing that has not come true is the reconstruction of the Temple (the novel on purpose does not say where it was rebuilt) and the advent of world peace emanating from Jerusalem. Utopias often go overboard, and anybody who knows anything about the bubbling tensions in the Middle East that go back millenniums knows that is just a leap too far.