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100th Anniversary of Birth of Ahad Ha-Am
Revives Interest • in His Spiritual Codes

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

(Copyright, 1956, JTA, Inc.

A call has been issued by the
Jewish Agency for the celebra-
tion, this autumn, of the 100th
anniversary of the birth of
Ahad Ha-Am, the philosopher

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more ardent must be the desire.
What Ahad Ha-Am charged is
that the Zionists assumed this
desire to exist, whereas he main-
tained that with the overwhelm-
ing majority of the Zionist rank
and file it was a conviction that
lacked feeling. What the philos-
opher of the Zionist ideal
charged was that where failure
met Zionist enterprises it was
because of the lack of desire and
the weakness in the feeling for
the national aspirations of the
Jewish people.

To the student of Zionism
Ahad Ha-Am was not an antag-
onist but one of the most con-
tributing forces in the national
homeland movement. In spite
of the pessimism of his pre-
dictions, the leaders of the
movement admitted the truths
he expounded, particularly when
he maintained that it is of no
avail to attempt to cure the na-
tional organisms with plasters
and drugs as long as the heart
of the nation was cold and
weak,
Ahad Ha-Am proposed a foun-
dation for. the Zionist structure
to make it strong and secure
and to transform it into a pow-
AHAD HA-AM
erful agency. He has set down
whose name is recorded in Jew- this maxim which is to this day
ish history as "the father of among the truth - giving ele-
ments in the Jewish national
spiritual Zionism."
movement:
In marking this important
"The concentration of the
anniversary, in tribute to Ahad Jews in Zion must be pre-
Ha-Am (Asher Ginsberg), who ceded by the concentration of
died on Jan. 2, 1927, Jewry the Jews in the love of Zion."
again pays tribute to the Phi-
In the long run, Ahad Ha-
losopher of the Zionist move-
ment who gave a soul and a Am's philosophic teachings and
cultural aspect to the movement ideals complemented the prac-
for Jewish national and cul- tical and political aspirations of
Dr. Herzl and Max Nordau.
tural rebirth.
Ahad Ha-Am demanded a
In the philosophy and teach- stronger foundation. He charged
ing of Ahad Ha-Am, every-
the Zionist malady to be of an
thing that was Jewish, all things internal spiritual nature and de-
Hebraic, every element in life manded the remedy to be made
affecting the Jew, found an ex- equally internal and spiritual.
ponent.
Zionism and Ahad Ha-Am both
To Ahad Ha-Am, the typical demanded the restoration of
product of Hebrew genius was Jewish life in Palestine. What
the prophetic, which is able to Ahad Ha-Am feared was that
enunciate moral laws based on Zionism would concentrate upon
spiritual truths. The spiritual the saving of the body of the
creations and cultural posses- Jewish people without heeding
sions of the Jewish people were the demands for the soul.
to him, therefore, the supreme
The spiritual Zionism of this
expressions of the Jewish exis-
tence, and the influence that his philosopher is one of the nec-
essary complements of practical
philosophy had on the rebuild-
Zionism. Ahad Ha-Am urged
. ing of Palestine has found root
that danger in the split and di-
in a system which affects the
growth of Jewish nationality, a vided Jewish ranks be averted
through the creation of a com-
system in which the prophetic
mon culture which should unite
plays the part on a par with
Jewish feeling and make of the
the diplomatic.
people one national entity. Pal-
estine as the center and Jewish
A Practical Man
Ahad Ha-Am was above all culture as the motivating force:
else a practical man. His good these were the aims of Ahad
business sense and powerful ad- Ha-Am's philosophy. A rebuilt
ministrative ability which he Zion will number among the
demonstrated in his own busi- greatest prophets of the re-
ness affairs, were reflected in demption the name of Ahad
his theories affecting his moral Ha-Am.
Zionism. He declared that the
To speak only of Ahad Ha-
Jew cannot be himself either in Am's Zionist philosophy is to do
the Ghetto or under conditions his memory injustice. He was
of emancipation, but that what a great interpreter of Jewish
is needed is a combination of life and Jewish law, of the con-
unadulterated Jewishness with flicts that concerned Jews
the freedom of modern life. To everywhere. His essay on Moses
make this possible he urged a is one of the very great mas-
fixed center for the Jew, a soil terpieces written in the past 50
of his own where the Jew could years. His attitude on assimila-
concentrate his national life. His tion is marked not only by his
conclusions were not dissimilar analytical comments but also by
from those of Theodor Hera sincere assertions of a proud
Asher Ginsberg, the philoso- Jewish spirit.
pher, who assumed the pen-
In his essay "Slavery in Free-
name Ahad Ha-Am—One of the
People—like Herzl, the diplo- dom" he upbraids the assimila-
mat, saw the only solution for tors who sell their soul and
their birthright. To quote from
the Jewish problem to be in
Palestine. That his theories this essay:
"Today, I try to give my weary
should become practical, the re- eyes
a rest from the scene of igno-
turn to Palestine was essential. rance, of degeneration, or unutterable
poverty that confronts me here in
Yet, in spite of his having Russia, and find comfort by looking
across the border, where
made Palestine the basis of his yonder
there are Jewish professors, Jewish
teachings, Ahad Ha-Am was one members of academies, Jewish offi-
cers in the army, Jewish civil ser-
of the most misunderstood men vants;
and when I see there, behind
in the movement for Palestine's the glory and grandeur of it all, a
two
-
fold
slavery, moral
regeneration as the center of slavery, and spiritual
intellectual slavery, and
Jewish life.
ask myself: Do I envy these fellow-

The - People's Will
•
Ahad Ha-Am worked on the
same principle as Herzl. He
maintained that where there is
a will there is a way, and that
the more difficult the way the

forced and unsatisfactory excuses. I
at least can remember Jerusalem at
other times than those of 'divine
service'. I can mourn for its loss in
public or in private, without being
asked what Zion is to me, or I to
Zion. I at least have no need to
exalt my people to heaven, to trum-
pet its superiority above all other
nations, in order to find a justifica-
tion for its existence. I at least
know why I remain a Jew — or,
rather, I can find no meaning in such
a question, any more than if I were
asked why I remain my father's son.
I at least can speak my mind con-
cerning the beliefs and the opinions
which I have inherited from my an-
cestors, without fearing to snap the
bond that unites me to my people.
I can even adopt that 'scientific
heresy which bears the name of
Darwin' without any danger to my
Judaism. In a word, I am my own,
and my opinions and feelings are my
own. I have no reason for concealing
or denying them, for deceiving oth-
ers or myself. And this spiritual
freedom—scoff who will! —I would
not exchange or barter for all the
emancipation in the world."

The Jewish Year in Sports

By HAROLD U. RIBALOW
Author of "The Jew in American Sports"

(Copyright, 1956, Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Inc.)

Some years ago, the noted
Jewish writer and thinker Mau-
rice Samuel suggested that the
love for sports is not "Jewish,"
and he introduced a theory con-
necting Christianity with games
and Jews with intellectual en-
deavors. Always a provocative
essayist, Mr. Samuel made an
interesting case against sports.
But he overlooked the very
alive fact that Jews, who, after
all, are people, only more so,
also like games—and that liking
has little to do with Jewishness
as such.
If any proof of this were
needed, we can turn to Israel,
where the Maccabiah, the Jew-
ish Olympic Games, win new
thousands of adherents each
Among his essays, "Moses" time the Games are played.
must be ranked among the most
In the United State s, the
important and most powerftil. status of the Jew can be gauged
Describing the greatness of the by his progress—or, sometimes,
"Lord of Our Prophets," he lack of it—in various sporting
wrote:
endeavors. For example, take
"When I read the Haggadah on the the sport of boxing. Some sea-
eve of Passover, and the spirit of
Moses, the son of Amram, that super- sons back, this writer shared a
most of heroes, who stands like a platform with Ruby Goldstein,
pillar of light on the threshhold of the noted referee, who once was
our history, hovers before me and
lifts me out of this nether world, I a hard-hitting lightweight con-
am quite oblivious of all the doubts tender for the championship.
and questions propounded by non-
Jewish critics. I care not whether Ruby was asked by a Jew in
this man Moses really existed; the audience why there weren't
whether his life and his activity
really correspond to our traditional more Jewish boxers now-a-days.
account of him; whether he was A rather eloquent man, Gold-
really the savior of Israel and gave
his people the law in the form in stein grew indignant, not at the
which it is preserved among us, and question which he recognized as
so forth. I have one short and simple
answer for all these conundrums. legitimate, but at the realiza-
This Moses, I say, this man of old tion that, in truth, there were
time, whose existence and character few good Jewish fighters today.
you are trying to elucidate, matters
"That's just the trouble,"
to nobody but scholars like you. We
have another Moses of our own,
Ruby said, in all sincerity.
whose image has been enshrined in
"Jews today have it good.
the hearts of the Jewish people for
generations, and whose influence on
They want their kids to get
our national life has never ceased
an education and they are un-
from ancient times till the present
day. The existence of this Moses, as
willing for the kids to take
a historical fact, depends in no way
a few tough punches."
on your investigations. For even if
It is quite accurate. In the
you succeed in demonstrating con-
clusively that the man Moses never 1920's, when Jews were immi-
existed, or that he was not such a
man as we supposed, you would not grants and were feeling their
thereby detract one jot from the his- way toward Americanization,
torical reality of the ideal Moses—
the Moses who has been our leader they produced Benny Leonards
for thousands of years in all the and Ruby Goldsteins and
wilderness in which we have wan-
Barney Rosses. At this writing,
dered since the Exodus.
there isn't an outstanding Jew-
"I take, therefore, a comprehensive
view of the whole range of tradition ish headliner, except for a new-
about Moses, and ask myself first of comer from Connecticut named
all: What essentially is Moses? In
other words, what manner of thing is Larry Boardman, who created a
the national idea which has its em- sensation a few months ago
bodiment in Moses. There are heroes
and heroes—heroes of war, heroes of in Madison Square Garden.
thought and so forth; and when we Fighting against third-ranking
examine an ideal picture we must light-weight F r a n k i e• Ryff,
first be clear as to the essential na-
ture of the ideal which the artist Boardman showed himself to be
had in Ms mind and attempted to a diamond in the rough as he
portray.
"And as I look at the figure of polished of Ryff. Taking a box-
Moses I go on to ask: Was he a ing lesson from the brilliant
military hero?
Ryff, Boardman pole-axed him
"No! The whole canvas betrays no
hint of physical force. We never in a late round and knocked
find Moses at the head of an army, Ryff out for the first time in his
performing feats of valor against an career. With that punch, Board-
enemy. Only once do we see hint
on the battlefield, in the battle with man catapulted himself into the
the , Amalek; and there he simply forefront of the lightweight di-
stands and watches the course of the
fighting, helping the army of Israel vision.
by his moral strength, but taking no
On the other hand, Jews are
part in the actual battle. •
emerging in areas where they
"Again: Was he a statesman?
"Again, no! When he had to con- seldom showed up well previ-
front Pharoah and discuss questions ously—mainly because they had
of politics with him, he was helpless had no opportunities. Tennis is
without his brother Aaron, his
one of those areas. Until a hand-
mouth-piece.
"Was he, then, a lawgiver?"
ful of seasons ago, a top-notch
"Once more, no! Every lawgiver Jewish tennis player was a
makes laws for his own age, with
a view to the particular needs of rarity. Then Dick Savitt and
that time and that place in which Herb Flam both hit the head-
he and his people live. But Moses lines. Savitt became Wimbledon
made laws for the future, for a gen-
eration that did not yet exist, and King and Flam went far in the
a country not yet conquered; and American finals. After a few
tradition has made no secret of the
fact that many laws attributed to years at the top, Savitt retired
Moses only come into force after from the regular tennis circuit,
several generations, while others
have never been put into practice but to this day is reckoned to
at all.
be perhaps the finest amateur
"What, then, was Moses?
in the United States, for when
"Tradition answers in the most he does manage to play in a
explicit terms: 'There arose not a
Prophet since in Israel like unto tournament, he usually battles
Moses.' This then, is what Moses his way into the finals against
was: A Prophet. But he was dif-

Jews of mine their emancipation, I
answer, in all truth and sincerity:
No! a thousand times NO! The privi-
leges are not worth the price! I
may not be emancipated, but at least
I have not sold my soul for emanci-
pation. I at least can proclaim from
the housetops that my kith and kin
are dear to me wherever they are,
without being constrained to find

ferent from the other Prophets,
whose appearance in our history, as
a specific type, dates only from the
period of monarchy. He was as later
generations learned to call him, 'the
lord of the Prophets,' that is the
ideal archtype of Hebrew prophecy
in the purest and most exalted sense
of the word."

As the years pass, and the
figure of Ahad Ha-Am — the
appropriate pseudonym mean-
ing "One of the People"—re-
cedes farther from our mem-
ory, his writings assume greater
importance. He was one of our
contemporary prophets and one
of the great contributors to Jew-
ish life of the last decades of
the nineteenth and the first
quarter of the twentieth centu-
ries. He was one of the very
great in Israel. As such we re-
member him on the 100th anni-
versary of his birth.

the present-day first-rankers
and, more often than not, wins
the championships! Flam, who
has been in the service of his
country and hasn't the hard
fighting condition that tourna-
ment tennis now requires, is
slowly winning his way back to
the top and made a good show-
ing at Wimbledon this y e a r,
losing to Vix Seixas, one of
America's best.
- Jews in Baseball
In baseball, Jews are playing
a smaller role at present than
they have in a decade.
When Hank Greenberg was
bashing down the fences with
home run s, there were also
Buddy Myer, of Washington,
Phil Weintroub of the Giants,
Morrie Arnovich, of the Phillies
and other good National and
American League players. The
minors were peppered with
some Jewish athletes with major
league potential.
But this year has been a com-
paratively poor one. Sid Gor-
don, for a decade a steady and
sometimes brilliant play e r,
reached the end of the line.
After good years with the New
York Giants, Sid was traded
about and came to the end
quietly and not very effectively.
His was an honorable career
and thousands of fans were
sorry to see it end. Joe Gins-
berg of the Kansas City A's
never showed real class as a
top catcher and is a fair player
with a mediocre club.
There remain three Jewish
ball players who are worthy of
more extended comment. The
first, of course, is Al Rosen of
the Cleveland Indians. It can
safely be stated that when Al
Rosen was named the Most
Valuable Player of the Ameri-
can League in 1953, he became
one of the finest Jewish dia-
mond stars in history.
The second Jewish name that
belongs in this discussion is Saul
Rogovin of the Philadelphia
Phillies. In 1951, he had the
best earned-run mark in the
Major Leagues, as he pitched
brilliantly for the Chicago
White Sox. The following year,
he had arm trouble, and this
ailment plagued him again in
1953. In 1955, he was one of the
more effective pitchers in the
League.
Which leads us to the final
member of the trio, young Sandy
Koufax of the Brooklyn
Dodgers. A bonus player, a fast-
throwing righthander, Koufax
was not expected to help the
Dodgers much in 1955 and, in-
deed, most of the year was just
another name on the roster.
But as the season reached its
climax and Brooklyn stars took
sick, Sandy was given a chance
to make good—and he pitched
two shutouts in a row! For the
rest of the year he was as help-
ful as the better-known Brook-
lyn twirlers who led the Dodgers
to a pennant and their first
World Series victory.
In 1956, Sandy was no longer
thought of as a kid on the bench.
Now and again, he won his
chance to start a game, and
when he did, more often than
not, he was impressive. Still a
very youthful lad, Sandy Kou-
fax has the speedball that all
scouts look for and the natural
ability to make the grade.

UJA'S New Year Request

The UJA in
5717 will say to
the Jews of
America — as it
has said for the
past two years
that the saving
of lives must go
on. Pictured
here are recent
immigrants
building their
first permanent
home in Israel,
with materials
supplied by the
Jewish Agency,
major benefi-
ciary of UJA.