Page Eight

THE JEWISH NEWS

Modern Trends in Jewish Literature

Great Creative Works of Chernichowsky,
Ahad Ila'aux Mark Cultural Ascent

By DR. NOAH E. ARONSTAM

With the appearance of the national movement on the historical horizon, the pendulum
of Jewish culture swung in the ascent. With the conception of a national homeland, cul-
tural values took on different aspects. Jewish art, literature and learning were inspired
by the new idea of national rejuvenation. The Hebrew language became a living tongue
and lent itself not only to cultural, but also to technical expressions.
Of the few outstanding exponents of these renewed tendencies may be mentioned the

Friday, December 12, 1947

Off the Record

By NATHAN ZIPRIN

(Copyright, 1947, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate)

Hanukah Notes

There are Jewish communities where it is customary to light
Hanukah candles in the synagogues and public institutions early
in the morning . . . Observance of the Hanukah "mitzvah" is so
urgent that when one has only enough money to buy either wine
for "kiddush" or oil for the Hanukah lamp precedence must be
given to the oil . . . Women are obligated to light Hanukah candles.
. . . It is customary to light the Hanukah candles from right to left,
but one great rabbi reversed the order so as to comply with the
Talmudic dictum "wheresoever thou turnest, thou must turn only
to the right" . . . The "Rock of Ages" hymn was composed either
in the 12th or 13th century . . . The "maggid" of Trisk, it is said,
had a Hanukah menorah of pure silver weighing several hundred
pounds and having winding stairs and a jute box on the top . . .
After the rabbi lit the menorah the jute box would play the "Rock
of Ages" hymn . . . The origin of the card-playing custom on Hanu-
kah is obscure . . . Some say it began among German Jews during
the Black Plague as a diversion from fear . . Later it spread to
Italy and other Jewish communities . . . At Bologna Jewish leaders
once issued a decree banning card-playing . . . No one was admitted
to community membership without pledging himself not to indulge
in card games, not even with Christians .. . At Venice a rabbi, who
in his youth crusaded against card playing and who issued a number
of brochures warning of the consequences of the evil, himself became
addicted to the evil .. . When the rabbinate issued an excommuni-
cation decree against card players the rabbi fought to avoid it, but
without success . .. One of the "Yeshivas" in Italy had a rule that
"none of the yeshiva students shall play cards under any circum-
stances, not with others nor alone, except during the interim days
between a given holiday (chal hamoed), on Hanukah, Purim and
on circumcision and wedding days" . . . Card playing and the
"dreidel," a sort of put-and-take contrivance, seemingly have their
origin in the gambling instinct.

late Eliezer Ben Jehudah, who
labored valiantly and persistent-
and by common woe and zeal. culture, the spiritual center of
ly for the revival of the spoken
Hebrew. . He steadily occupied On the other hand, Judaism is the Jewish people."
His Universal Culture
himself with the coinage of new the syndrome or complex of all
words and enlarged the Hebrew the spiritual aspirations which
Asher Ginsberg, whose nom-
vocabulary according to modern the Jewish national genius has de-plume was Ahad Ha'am, mean-
needs. His lexicon is a veritable continually evolved through the
Thesaurus of the dispersed wealth ages. In the countries of the dia- ing "one of the people," was born
in 1856 in Skiriva, in the province
of the Hebrew, from the vast
spora, Ahad Ha'am contends, the
literature throughout the ages.
needs of Jewry as a people are of Kiev, Russia. Lucid thinker
Dubnow's Influence
great, but far greater are the and brilliant stylist, he wrote in
Another mind who shaped needs of Judaism and the striv- purest Hebrew, that possessed
Jewish thought in the form of ings of the Jewish soul that loses both the . qualities of scholarship
and French elegance. I empha-
cultural nationalism was Simon
itself in strange surroundings and
size this in order-to establish the
Dubnow in his "Die Grundlagen
cannot aspire to the heights of
der Juedischen Nationalitaet" original creation; and this need fact that he was originally a
("Foundations of Jewish Na- of Judaism, this. spiritual poverty EUropean writer, perhaps the
tionalism."). The far-reaching in- must above all be removed be- first Jewish European who, in
fluence of this work cannot be fore the Jewish genius is allowed spite of his Europeanism, never
over-estimated. The effect of his to perpetuate itself unhampered. sacrificed an iota of his Jewish- ly metabolizes them, and creates strike us as a man, but as an
ness. Well conversant with He- something entirely new.
historical philosophy was readily
"The Law"—As of Yore
Aryan with a penchant for bodily
manifest in the writings of the
Take, for . instance, his attitude
He adhered to the view that it brew literature in all its ramifica-
modern advocate of cultural was not the material but the tions, he also mastered the litera- towards Nietzsche. In 1902, when strength and beauty, which con-
stitute the ideal of a type. Were
Zionism—Ahad Ha'am or Ascher spiritual
-
needs of the Jewish ture of the German, French and the wave of Nietzscheism threat-
Ginsberg, with whom this article people that gave birth to the na- English languages. These quali- ened to engulf Jewish literary the same Nietzsche to possess
will largely concern itself, to- tional movement, the purpose and ties that furnished a link be- circles, he published an essay in Jewish proclivities or leanings,
gether with an expose of two goal of which, therefore, is to tween modern culture and his- his journal "Hashiloach" about then the characteristics of his
great Jewish poets of modern create for the Jewish people a torical Judaism, enabled him to Nietzsche's doctrine of the super- superman would perhaps appear
times.
spiritual domicile or center in transcend narrow confines and man. In most convincing clarity strangely different."
European anti-Semitism desig- Palestine. Zion shall once more enter the unlimited domains of he sets forth the essence of such
Ahad Ha'am wrote 40, perhaps
nates Ahad Ha'am as "A Wise be the shrine wherefrom "the law universal culture.
philosophy and confronts it with 50 essays altogether, the work of
Man of Zion." Was Ahad Ha'am
Ahad Ha'am does not in a the doctrines of Jewish ethics, a lifetime, the creations of a'
shall go forth" as of yore; a fertile
a wise man of Zion? I answer in
soil that shall bear the fruit of sense .condemn assimilation per and thence points to the line of great thinker—the greatest think-
the affirmative: he was a wise a new Jewish culture ;
a Jewish se, but he senses in it. only imi- demarcation, where these two er of the age. These essays are
man who loved and cared for renaissance.
tativeness and mimicry, which he doctrines meet. Ahad Ha'am dis- collected in one volume, called
Zion. He was neither a rabbi, as
Ahad Ha'am's Zionism is not of detests from the bottom of his tinguishes in Nietzsche's philoso- "Al parashath-derachim" (At the
some contend, nor was he a a national-economical or social- heart. In a wonderful article en- phy two basic thoughts: one a.
Cross-Roads). They contain any-
scholar in the fullest meaning of political nature, but rests upon a titled "Imitation and Assimila- purely human and one a specific
thing and everything from "Welt
the word, as Western Jewry con- historical - philosophical founda- tion," he elaborates on their ad- Aryan. The Aryan principle ex- Anschaung" to theoretical specu-
ceives it; nor was he a journalist tion. His nationalism does not vantages and disadvantages, re- presses itself in the form of the lations on the idea of Zionism
in the accepted sense of the term. want to solve the question of spectively. He contends that imi- "Blond Beast"; in the latter Nietz- and practical suggestions as to
He was a cultural Zionist who Jewry but that of the Jewish con- tation is something natural; that sche sees the ultimate epitome the colonization of Palestine.
labored devotedly for his ideal sciousness. The quintessence of there is inherent in every human of a most desirable and higher Subtle, aesthetic, and most pro-
or idea as he conceived it, and his theories might be formulated being a desire to imitate others. human type. "It is apparent," found contributions, they are ap-
worked for it indefatigably with into the following. maxim: "Zion
Ahad Ha'am absorbs foreign Ahad Ha'am remarks, "that the pealing to the thinker as well as
word and pen.
must become the home of Jewish elements and thoughts, spiritual- philosopher Nietzsche does not
(Continued on Page 23)
Such appellations as eminent
journalist, brilliant essayist, clear
thinker, profound scholar, and all
the attributes that have been ap-
pended to his name in order to
appraise his real value, fall short
of the mark. One of his friends
and disciples sees in him a na-
The Maccabaean valor is reflected in the heroism of the Jewish
tional political writer. A famous
historian, who wrote a history of
pioneers in Zion who have established the foundation for the
Jewish philosophy, regards him
as the greatest Jewish religious
modern
Judea.
philosopher.
Birth of Cultural Zionism
His outstanding importance ex-
We greet the Jewish community in the spirit of the
presses itself in the fact that he
first conceived' and created the
newly-won freedom. May liberty prevail and may
idea of cultural nationalism. The
bigotry and discrimination vanish from the earth.
most unique and strange thing
that stands out in Jewish history
without analogy or parallel is this
cultural Zionism, which was most
poignantly brought out in a single
newspaper article. In the winter
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Acme Paper Co.
of 1889 there appeared in the
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St. Petersburg Daily Hebrew
News, "Hamelitz," an article en-
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titled "This Is Not the •Way,"
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that bore the signature of Ahad
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Ha'am. And in that hour wherein
this most wonderfully lucid and
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logical essay, so perfect in style
and diction, left the press, cul-
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tural Zionism, or our modern
Renaissance, was born.
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This essay spoke more in its
Backman & Chodoroff
simplicity and brevity than all
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15500 Woodrow Wilson
the heavy tomes and volumes of
an abstract or academic nature.
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Whatever he might have written
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later in order to enlarge and
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7043 .E. Palmer
dilate upon this idea, the basic
thought remained unchanged and
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fixed as enunciated in this first
T. M. Curtis & John Sender
epoch-making issue. This basic
3906 Joy Road
idea of Ahad Ha'am reduced to
its final principles expresses it-
Castaloy Corp.
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self in just two words, "cultural
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center." According to him, Zion-
1551 Caniff
ism should have no other func-
tions, ideals and aspirations than
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Modell Iron & Metal Co.
the creation of a Jewish cultural
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center in Palestine. He sharply
6378 Marcus
differentiates between Judaism on
one hand and Jewry on the
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other, and rigidly stresses the
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difference between the two.
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The Jewish people or Jewry,
to him is an aggregation of per-
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Trucking, Inc.
sons or individuals, who have
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P. 0. Box 87
been cemented together by com-
mon historical events, by com-
mon sufferings and necessities

THE HANUKAH SPIRIT PREVAILS