Not everybody knows that Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl, "the Visionary of the Jewish State," was a famous playwright whose plays were produced in Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. He wrote - alone or in collaboration with others - around 15 plays, primarily light-hearted comedies.

We are now presenting a staged reading of The New Ghetto, Herzl's only play on a Jewish subject, which has, surprisingly enough, has not yet been performed in Israel.

Herzl wrote The New Ghetto in 1894, in a fantastic 17-day burst of creativity, and it seems that the writing of the play and not the Dreyfus trial - as is commonly thought - is what changed Herzl's perception and evaluation of the Jewish problem.

In 1894 Herzl still felt that the solution to the Jewish problem lies in the assimilation of Jews within their surrounding societies. However, immediately after completing The New Ghetto, Herzl wrote his pamphlet "The State of the Jews," proposing the revolutionary idea of Jews  ​​returning to their historical homeland.

It seems that the play's writing acted on Herzl as a kind of psychodramatic process, allowing him to conclude that assimilation is not the solution, but instead that Jews should become masters of their fate by returning to their homeland and creating a Jewish State.

The staged reading of the play is part of a Reading Theatre Program operating for four years now at the Mikro Theatre within the Jerusalem Theatre complex.