Theodor Herzl (May 2, 1860 – July 3, 1904), the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.
Herzl was not the first Zionist or even modern Zionist. Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Kalischer published his Derishat Tziyon veHevrat Erez Noshevet calling for the colonization of Palestine, the admissibility of sacrifices in Palestine, and self-help as a the means of hastening redemption in 1862, when Herzl was still nursing. Kalischer set up a agricultural school in 1870. Herzl popularized Zionism and got great press from the left, but he created no new idea. “Seeking Zion” was written a generation before “The Jewish State”