However, as Basel was the location of the First Zionist Congress, held almost 127 years ago now, there’s always a hint of something special in the air.

Photo: Herzl at the First Zionist Congress, Aug 29, 1897

Basel 2016

In November 2016, I traveled to Basel as a member of the Jewish Diplomatic Corps (JDCorps) of the World Jewish Congress (WJC). The JDCorps - now about 400 members strong from communities all over the world - undertakes diplomatic activities on behalf of Jewish communities worldwide. Almost nine years ago, we traveled to Basel for the first ever Global Summit of the JDCorps, the first time the entirety of the group was brought together, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the WJC and to get to know one another.

Though I’m not sure exactly how to describe the following, I suppose Basel in my mind was always more of a concept and less of an actual place. By that I mean that when I think of Basel, I think about a cause, a meeting, and a person: the foundation of a Jewish State, the first Zionist Congress, Theodore Herzl.

As an ardent, stubborn, and passionate Zionist, driving into Basel I thought about the line that Herzl wrote in his diary after the close of the First Zionist Congress:

Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word — which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly — it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it.

With that sentiment front of mind, I was driving into Basel as part of a massive contingency of young Jews representing not only Israel, but the worldwide Jewish community. Certainly, 50 years after Herzl wrote the above in his diary, the dream of a Jewish homeland was realized, but in 2016, 119 years later, a strong group of committed Jews was returning to Basel to reaffirm their commitment to Israel and worldwide Jewry.

That’s me there, 15th from the left, on the bottom balcony.

That being said, a tragic thing happened on the bus on the way into the city when the tour organizer made the following announcement: “Our security team has asked that for safety reasons, Israelis: please refrain from speaking Hebrew – actually, try not to be Israeli at all.”

This comment elicited an eruption of laughter from the bus since, well, it was funny and we all knew what he meant about Israelis being Israeli tourists. However, if you were thinking about it, there was a tragedy to the warning against speaking Hebrew i.e. being overtly Jewish, in a small Swiss city where the Jewish state was founded.

We drove in, likely, on those same roads that were used 119 years ago by the 200 delegates coming to attend the Zionist Congress from 17 different countries. Though not speaking Hebrew back then, many were speaking Yiddish, Russian or German, many overtly Jewish in their looks, many arriving by train, wagon or horseback. They were unafraid, unashamed, and arriving in Basel curious to see what Herzl was about to propose. This dichotomy of our arrival with theirs made me smile, because aside from the coach bus, our arrival was not all that different. However, the tragedy lay in being warned about displaying that which we were coming to Basel to celebrate.

Photo: My beard-growing-skills could use some work

Upon arriving, we disembarked at the Hotel Les Trois Rois (Three Kings Hotel), the famous inn on the banks of the Rhine where Herzl stayed during the First Zionist Congress. It was also at this hotel that during the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, Herzl was iconically photographed leaning on the balcony of room 117. We went up to the balcony, made the mandatory Herzl-esque poses, and stood for a group photo taken from the other side of the Rhine. There, we paid homage to the legacy of Herzl-the-dreamer. It was astounding to think about how the Zionist project has come since that first meeting.

Eurovision

Saturday night, the Eurovision song contest takes place in Basel and Yuval Refael will perform, having qualified for the finals.

The first Eurovision contest was held in May 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland. Since then, it has taken place all over Europe - and Israel - and Israel has won on four occasions:

Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta won in Paris in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Ba

Milk and Honey won in Jerusalem in 1979 with Hallelujah

Dana International won in Birmingham in 1998 with Diva; and

Neta Barzilai won in Lisbon in 2018 with Toy.

Last year, Eden Golan gave an exceptional performance in Malmo of her song Hurricane, dedicated to the events of 10/7/23 (though she was forced to change the name of the song, October Rain and the lyrics, viewed as too political).

What most of us recall from last year however, was Golan’s security situation.

In an interview last week, Golan said that she “didn’t know what to expect, from death threats to the extreme booing.” She recalled, after the first rehearsal, that they got off the stage, and the dancers were crying. The whole Israeli delegation was crying, including the PR manager. The boos were too loud. There was just so much hate surrounding the Israeli delegation. She worked hard to improve her outlook at the second rehearsal, and turned the hate into passion, but she remained terrified nonetheless.

She said that there was “insane security,” which included eight bodyguards and helicopters for her. There were death threats against her, “saying they’d blow me up and make me a target…I had images in my head of standing on stage, singing, and being shot.” She said that out of 37 countries, maybe four representatives were “nice” to her. On the day of the final, the organizers even kicked the Israeli delegation out of the artists’ area, to an isolated area.

OK, so that was in Sweden.

Basel 2025

At this year’s contest, Israel’s representative is Yuval Raphael.

Let’s say that if there was any sympathy for Israel in May 2024 when Golan performed, that sentiment has vanished 19 months later. Israel is Goliath versus David. Israel is “perpetrating a genocide.” The Eurovision participants have made it loud and clear: Israel is not welcome in Basel.

Despite months of protest by several European countries to bar Israel’s participation in the song contest, Israel remains a participant, and Raphael will be singing “New Day Will Rise” on Saturday night.

The Eurovision audience is likely the least of Raphael’s concerns. She is, after all, a 24-year-old survivor of the 10/7 massacre at the Nova music festival. She is one of 11 survivors of a group of 50 people who took shelter in a roadside bomb shelter, hiding under a pile of dead bodies for eight hours until she was rescued. Her singing career began after her harrowing experience that fateful day, and she will now represent her country on this global stage.

Like Golan, Raphael is preparing herself for the worst, security-wise, in Basel. She said she has “practiced being booed,” already. But that is the least of her concerns. She has had her media time limited, to limit her exposure to the public. The group "Basel 4 Palestine" (real original guys) has already announced that they wish to “turn the turquoise carpet Palestinian” and called for protestors to come to the event to “refuse to let the Zionist apartheid state use [Eurovision] to spread its genocidal propaganda and artwash its crimes.”

During the opening parade, a man in a keffiyeh made a throat-slitting gesture at Raphael, and spat at other delegates. Drones have been outlawed above Basel citing security concerns, and there are significant number of Shin Bet personnel on the ground there.

Despite all of this, Bookkeepers have her reaching 4th place in the finals. We can all wish her a b’hatzlacha - good luck. We are cheering for you, and are proud of you.

In Basel, I founded the Jewish State

The song contest is being held in an arena called St. Jakobshalle in Basel.

It is just 5km from the Stadtcasino, where on August 29, 1897, Theodor Herzl kicked off the First Zionist Congress.

There, he declared that after 2000 years, the Jewish people would be seeking to re-establish their independence in their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. It would be a refuge for Jews from around the world, a place where they could grow, unafraid, and responsible for their own futures.

Today, almost 128 years later, citizens of that very country, the State of Israel, have returned to Basel. But, they have returned as a singer - a survivor of a massacre perpetrated in the country intended to be a safe-haven for all Jews - who has practiced being booed all for the crime of being a victim of a Palestinian Arab terror attack.

They return as undercover Shin Bet officers, seeking to ensure the safety of the singer, and of her fans.

They return as a PR team, incapable of finding more than one or two friendly nations out of 37 teams of performers, who will sit alone, in isolation, throughout the contest. The singer from Azerbaijan standing tall with Israel, but of course, he is Jewish.

They return as spectators, fans, and those trying to celebrate music and culture, who have been warned by Israel’s National Security Council, in no uncertain terms: if you travel to Basel, do not display Jewish or Israeli symbols in public spaces, avoid posting on social media, refrain from discussing military service or the war against Hamas, avoid demonstrations, and avoid gatherings with other Israelis.

Simply put: fade into the background. Be ignored. Your safety is at risk, in civilized Europe, if someone realizes who you are, and where you come from.

This is the tragedy of Basel 2025. A place our history books fete as the place where the modern Jewish State was conceived. A place where today, Jews cannot be Israeli. They probably can’t be Jews, either. Where they cannot speak Hebrew safely, wave their flags safely, or be members of the international community, safely.

It is a tragedy, but it is the reality.

Vigilance is our new watchword. Antisemitism lies in the lurch. But our people shine brighter than ever.