Theodor Herzl – the man behind Israel documentary review: A deep dive into a man you probably don’t know that much about - The Jewish Chronicle

How much do you know about Theodor Herzl? Apart from the basics of where he was from and his legacy as the founding father of Zionism, the answer may well be, not that much.

Aside from my brief encounters with him in cheder and at a Jewish school I went to for about five minutes, the figure of Herzl is one that despite looming large over much of my politics, I actually knew very little about. That was until I watched Theodor Herzl - The Man Behind Israel - a new documentary featuring David Baddiel and Stephen Fry. The film, which is still searching for a UK distributor, follows a remarkably dishevelled Baddiel across the European haunts of Herzl in his early adulthood, everywhere from the Budapest of his youth (with a comically tiny tribute to him) to Paris where he witnessed the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a moment that radicalised him and is often credited with inspiring his zeal for Zionism.

For a man who is idolised and vilified in equal measure, the portrait the film paints of Herzl is remarkably nuanced. It’s a serious historical look, attempting to flesh out a man who many of us encounter early in our lives and then never again. I found myself engrossed in the story of how Herzl organised and rallied Jews across Europe to his cause. Helped by events such as the 1903 Kishinev pogrom, Herzl’s plans gave a voice to millions of Jews who no longer saw their future in Europe and looked to the Holy Land after alternatives such as Madagascar proved too unpopular to rally around.

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The film is at its best when it’s dealing with Herzl the man. Baddiel, who some may consider a slightly odd choice given his reluctance to publicly embrace Zionism, is nevertheless an entertaining guide to this journey through Herzl’s life. Popping up all over Europe and walking in his footsteps gives the film a depth that goes beyond using archive footage and talking heads. You see, for example, where the first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, effectively setting the world on a path that led to the founding of Israel and everything that’s happened since.

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The film’s strengths lie largely in its historical storytelling, when we’re walking in Herzl’s Vienna, overlaid with charming illustrations voiced by Stephen Fry. During these segments, we hear from a broad chorus of historians, all vying to present their views of a figure that they clearly have a deep knowledge and respect of, even if they tell his stories in slightly different ways.

But towards the end of the film, it takes something of a turn away from history and catches us up to the current day. Here’s where I felt the documentary slightly slipped away from its central point. Clearly, you can’t address Herzl’s impact on the world without looking at the last 78 years of Israel’s existence. It would be like studying the Mayflower and ignoring America, but the lightness of touch and seriousness of the history seem to evaporate as soon as the film focuses on life after Herzl.

It rushes through so much history in such a short amount of time that it risks telling a reductive and unnuanced story about one of the most complicated countries on the face of the Earth. Certain viewers getting to this part may wince at the inclusion of certain academics, including Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, who has drawn controversy for suggesting Mossad bombed Iraqi Jews in the 50s to encourage their migration to Israel and Ghada Karmi, a Palestinian author who wrote a Substack decrying the film for not focusing on the Palestinians enough. I think its important to feature Palestinian voices in this kind of work and I’m glad that there were people willing to challenge some of the views on Herzl. For example, it was fascinating to learn of the disdain he felt towards the Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem on his only visit to the Holy Land in the 1890s. But there were also parts that felt unnecessary. When the director of Harvard’s Jewish Studies department, Derek Penslar, confidently suggests that Herzl would have been disturbed by the modern manifestation of Israel, it’s not history; it’s projection. Whatever you think of Israel, the level of development that the country has enjoyed in less than a century is more akin to Singapore than many of its neighbouring countries. Yet you wouldn’t know that from this.

In these times, while there is an active war in Gaza, it’s easy to feel some sympathy for those who made this film. It feels like a work that is trying to tiptoe across a minefield, careful not to upset either side of the culture war that bubbles up every time anyone talks about Israel. But is that even possible? Anything you say about Israel or Palestinians in the last two years has been subject to frankly insane levels of scrutiny, which, while understandable, must make it very difficult to just make a film. The frustration that some may feel towards The Man Behind Israel is that it feels like a film that’s 90% of the way there, so close to being something that would educate and entertain about a man we love to quote but don’t really know. It’s just a shame they couldn’t get all the way there.

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