Born Simon Maximilian Suedfeld in Hungary, Nordau became a physician and settled in Paris in 1880 where he pursued a career as an international journalist. He achieved fame as a thinker and controversial social critic of society, religion, government, art and literature. Among his most famous publications are The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization (1883); Paradoxes (1896); and Degeneration (1895).

Nordau became acquainted in 1895 with Theodor Herzl's idea of a Jewish state; with great enthusiasm he promoted the idea of political Zionism and the emigration of large numbers of Diaspora Jews to Eretz Israel. Nordau served as vice-president and then as president of several Zionist Congresses. He was co-founder of the World Zionist Organization. He died in Paris in 1923 and was re-interred in Tel Aviv in 1926.