Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) was an Austro-Hungarian journalist, playwright, and political thinker who became the founder of modern political Zionism. In response to widespread antisemitism in Europe, Herzl argued that Jewish people required a sovereign homeland to ensure their security and national self-determination. His pamphlet The Jewish State (1896) galvanized Jewish political activism and led to the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, where Herzl was elected president of the World Zionist Organization. Though he did not live to see its realization, Herzl's vision played a central role in the eventual establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.