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28

September 19, 1941

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle

Grand Rapids, Michigan Extends Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

HE HAD FAITH IN JEWS

A Memorial Tribute to Ahad Haam

By HAROLD URIEL RIBALOW

Editor's Note: . On Aug. 18, 1856, Asher Ginsberg, later to be
known as Ahad Haam, was born in Skvira, in the Ukraine. His
first training was in the Chassidic tradition to which his family
adhered; later he schooled himself in Jewish medieval philosophy
and in the thought of the period of emancipation. Roused to a
desire for a secular education, he studied in Odessa, then in Ger-
man and Austrian universities. His first Zionist association was
with the Hovevei Zion, whom he joined in 1887. His first literary
excursion into Hebrew cultural philosophy was in 1889. He died
in 1927.

The history of Zionism is peo-
pled with great personalities.
The comingling of nationalistic
fervor and dreamy ecstasy has
produced Jewish • leaders like
Theodor Herzl and Ahad Haam.
Herzl, the debonair Viennese
journalist,• was awakened by the
Dreyfus affair, became intensely
Jewish, and created political

Zionism from an imaginative
teeming, daring brain. Ahad
Haam, kindred to Herzl in spirit,
though his most potent adversary

on' the question of political Zion-
ism, was a Russian Jew, steeped

in Jewish tradition and culture,
devoted to reason rather than
to illusions, always caught in the
web of Jewish problems.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

GRAND ENAMELING WORKS

FRED W. ENGLISH

33 SMITH COURT .
PHONE 3-1183
Grand Rapids, Mich.

SEASON'S GREETINGS

ASSOCIATE? TRUCK LINES, Inc.

Fred G. Timmer

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Rosh Hashonah Greetings -and Best Wishes

INTERSTATE MOTOR FREIGHT

239 GRANDVILLE, S. W.

STAR TRANSFER LINE

134 GRANDVILLE, S. W.

PHONE 6-5351

Grand Rapids, Mich.

A Happy New Year and Best Wishes to Our
)

Guests, Friends and Neighbors. We Trust „

That with the Ushering in of the

New Year You Will Have a Full

Measure of Health, Happiness

and Prosperity

•

Pantlind Hotel

Somewhere between Herzl and
Ahad Haam present-day Zionism
can find itself. The sweep, imag-
ination and drive of Herzl has,
somehow, blended with the spir-
itual and Judaic traditions
espoused by Ahad Haam, so that

America's Largest Manufacturers of

Fine Furniture

Over 70 Years
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

"Lo Zeh Kfiderech!"

To Jews everyqtere, spiritual
force has always been an active
symbol. Whet} the Hovevei Zion,
led by the aggressive Dr. Leo
Pinsker, author of the passionate
pamphlet "Auto - Emancipation",
began to think o f Palestinian
colonization, the Jewish culture
as Ahad Ham understood. it
faded in the background of the
mounting enthusiasm. The collec-
tion of funds for Palestine, the
detailed matters not within the
realm of Judaism, but belonging
in that category which stands for
everyday survival, were, to• Ahad
Haam, the false path for the
Jewish people. The fundamentals
of Judaism came first to him.
Colonization should follow only
after the Jewish people were se-

Best Wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

GEORGE B. READER

Wholesale and Retail Fish

1046 OTTAWA, N. W.
PHONE 6-1561
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

SEASON'S GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES TO ALL!

Walter Clark Veneer Co.

cure in their faith.
In his first essay, Ahad Haam
startled the Jewish world with
his cry: "Lo Zeh Haderech !
(This Is Not the Path !)" As the
problems of Zionism mounted,
Ahad Haam continued to write. As
his articles appeared, each one
a gem of Hebrew prose, one

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

A Happy New Year to All Our Jewish Friends

thing was immediately evident :
this was a mature man who had
become a leader all at once. He
wrote only because he had some-
thing to say. The Jews were ready

SIMPSON GRANITE WORKS

ELTON SIMPSON, Mgr.

to listen to him, for - they were
feeling the stirrings of the mir-
acle which was to come years

later: the miracle of Zionism.
Ahad Haam, unlike Herzl,
was a quiet man, studious, ra-
tional, cautious. Not in the cor-
ridors of Parliaments did he
convince statesmen of the worth
of his Cause. He did not bicker
with politicians. Instead, he sat
in his study and penned essays
which appealed to the reason
and, consequently, he conquered
the greatest Jews of his era.
Men like Weizmann and Ussish-
kin followed Abaci Haam. The
common people followed them.

1358 Leonard, N. W.
Grand Rapids, Mich.

Phone 7-1739

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Grand Rapids Creamery Co.

WM. H. FUDGE, President

305 SCRIBNER, N. W.
Grand Rapids, Mid).

DIAL 9-3476

A Prophetic Passage

Ahad Haam, who sought the
central idea in all things, be-
lieved that Judaism, being a na-
tional entity, had created in
three thousand years of Jewish
history a definite spiritual life.
It is this spirit, this culture, this
tradition which separates Juda-
ism from all other faiths, and
which differentiates Jews from
other peoples. There is a danger
that the Jews, being scattered
all over the world, may break
up into various types of Jews
and nto different sorts of Jew-
ries. The way to strengthen the
Jewish people is to concentrate
its culture and its spirit. Only
a love for Judaism can make
successful this coneentratien.
Thus the need for a spiritual
center.
In a prophetic passage Ahad
Harm says:
"Palestine will some time be
the spiritual center for the Jew-
ish people, a center endeared to
the whole nation and uniting it,
a center . for Torah, scieLce, lit-
erature, for physical work and
spiritual purity; a genuine
microcosm of the Jewish nation
as it ought to be. And every
Visitor to Palestine, returning
from there, will then realize how
great everything is that is being
created there, and what tremen-
doua power it will exercise to
strengthen our national position
and existence in all countries of
our exile."
Realizing that Palestine would
not be large enough for all the
Jews of the world, Ahad Haam
advocated that a successful edu-
cational awakening would give

See AHAD HAAM—Page

Bast Wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

„(,

/1/i ill fit/ ;.y/

Pontiac—Pontiac Laundry
Flint—Trojan Laundry
Gd. Rapids—Baxter Laundry
Muskegon—Baxter Laundry
Kalamazoo—Baxter Laundry
Lansing — Lansing Laundry

Heartiest Rosh Hashanah Greetings to All

KROGER STORES

Complete Modern Food Markets

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Heartiest Rosh Hashanah Greetings to All

•io

Ball Park Floral Co.

Joseph M. Stank

BLACKMER PUMP CO.

1809 Century, S. W.

8 VALLEY. N. W.

Phone 9-3409

Grand Rapids. Mich.

//

BAXTER LAUNDRIES CORP.

29

Season's Greetings!

GRAND RAPIDS. MICH.

ROBERT W. IRWIN

the synthesis has been the Zion-
ism we know tody.

THE BEST IN THE SERVICE OF LIVING

"An Entire City Block of Hospitality"

Best Wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Grand Rapids, Mich.

