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By Seth Lipsky
(MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2022 / NY SUN) Congratulations are in order for Donald Trump with the news that the Zionist Organization of America will bestow on the former president its medal named for Theodor Herzl. The honor was announced before Mr. Trump expressed frustration with the lack of appreciation American Jews have shown of his support for Israel. There is no more distinguished prize than that which America’s oldest Zionist organization bestows in the Herzl medal.
The ZOA was founded in 1897, the year Herzl convened at Basel the first Zionist Congress. The Herzl medal is more than merited by Mr. Trump. Previous winners include some of the most decorated figures in the Zionist epic — Lord Balfour, Winston Churchill, David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, and another president who once complained about the Jews only to stand by them, Harry Truman.
At first glance, the real estate mogul turned president appears to have little in common with the Viennese newspaperman who dreamed of a Jewish state. Herzl, who died in 1904, was a product of a Habsburg milieu that featured cultural summits but also antisemitism. Mr. Trump arose from Queens and cut his teeth doing deals at Midtown. The dreamer of Zion and the visionary of skylines would seem to be an unlikely pair.
Then again, too, it turns out that Herzl’s dream of a Jewish state was rooted in an understanding of the importance of the land. In 1901, Herzl founded a real estate holding company — the Jewish National Fund — to begin purchasing large tracts in pre-state Israel. That was a generation before President Trump’s father founded, in 1926, the real estate company that bears their name.
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