Uri Avnery, in the Tel Aviv weekly Ha'ir, wrote on July 12 about Theodor Herzl's "secret love" for the music of Richard Wagner, and claimed that the book "The Jewish State" "would not have been written and the Zionist movement would not have arisen the way it did were it not for Wagner's music," which elevated and strengthened Herzl's spirit as he was writing. However, Herzl also stalked out of the students' organization to which he belonged because at a memorial it held for Wagner, anti-Semitic speeches were delivered. That is, Herzl - whom no one can accuse of not having been a Zionist - was well aware of Wagner's anti-Semitism, yet the composer's music was a source of inspiration for him.

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