New images of Theodor Herzl the founder of political Zionism and Chaim Nachman Bialik, Israel’s poet laureate, were projected at a joint memorial for them sponsored by the American Zionist Federation here. Herzl died in 1904 and Bialik in 1934.
Rabbi Herschel Schacter, acting chairman of the National Board of the AZF, portrayed Herzl as a shrewd and knowing tactician who achieved his breakthroughs by using his political know-how. This is in contrast with the usual portrayal of Herzl as a visionary idealist.
Dr. Marnin Feinstein, director of public affairs of the United Zionists-Revisionists, pictured Bialik as a revolutionary ideologist who spurred European Jews to action. He took issue with contemporary Israeli scholars who view Bialik primarily as a lyric poet.
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