A Jewish revival calling for the return of the Jews in the Diaspora to their historic homeland is finding expression in Europe at about the same time.

The impulse and development of Zionism are almost exclusively the work of European Jews.

In 1897 Theodor Herzl had convened the First Zionist Congress at Basel, Switzerland, where the Zionist Organization was founded with the stated aim of creating "for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law."

As a result of Zionist efforts, the number of Jews in Palestine will rise dramatically to about eighty-five thousand, or twelve percent of the total population, by the start of the First World War.