A review of DUBNOW, HERZL
and AHAD HA-AM, by Josef
Fraenkel, Ararat Publishing So-
ciety, London, England.
DOM
A Tribute to the Author
and welcomed the World
Jewish Congress as "This
glorious moment when the
foundation stone was being
laid for the organization of
the people."
Ten years previously he still
had the privilege, in his Epi-
logue, to praise Zionist achieve-
ments in Palestine, but even
then he did not believe in the
emergence of a Jewish State
but rather in the growth of a
center for cultural activities as
envisaged by Ahad Ha'am. With
regret that neither man had
lived to see the creation of the
state of Israel, Fraenkel recalls
the Zionist triumph over these
conceptions.
Dubnow's treatment of Ahad
was based on a deep personal
friendship and on a strong ac-
centuation of the difference of
their conceptions. Fraenkel re-
minds us that this difference
is most emphatically expressed
in Ha'am's essay "Slavery in
Freedom" in which the author
concluded that the future of
Diaspora Jewry would be out-
wardly free and spiritually en-
slaved; and he saw the future
of Diaspora Jewry and in its
struggle for freedom.
He appears to have been car-
ried away by what Leon Simon,
Ahad Ha'am's faithful disciple,
in Fraenkel's quotation, char-
acterized as "jealousy (that) was
at the bottom of the opposition"
Recordings of Lubavitcher Chabad
Nigunim Win Highest Recognitions
Hassidism is noteworthy for
the joyous spirit of its followers.
It is marked by piety. There is
inherent in it a lofty spiritual-
ism.
Hassidic melodies distinguish
the movement, and the nigunim,
the songs they have created
have become symbols of a move-
ment to be reckoned with in
Jewry.
Even the mitnagdim, the op-
ponents of Hassidism, have
learned to cherish the melodies
that have been handed down by
Hassidic sects.
From the Chabad, the branch
of Hassidism that was founded
by Rabbi Shneour Zalman of
Ladi, himself a menagen of
note, have come some of the
especially impressive songs.
A series of recordings of
Nikhoakh Chabad Nigunim,
produced by the Lubavitcher
Hassidim and issued by the
Israeli Trade Co. of New
York (3 Allen St.), may well
be considered as having added
to the enrichment of Jewish
music.
A number of the ablest Has-
- I -
BY HENRY LEONARD
sidic singers and the choirs of
the Chabad movement were en-
listed in the making of these
recordings.
Melodies based on liturgical
selections, songs without words,
compilations of folk songs that
include Hebrew, Yiddish and
Russian, are among the nigunim,
the songs created by the Has-
sidim and handed down to us by
the various dynasties in the
movement.
In the Nikhoakh recordings
are included songs of the masses,
creations by Hassidic rabbis, a
song taught by the Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Men-
del Shneerson.
Included among the litur-
gical selections are songs that
would add spirit to any reli-
gious service, and it is sur-
prising that modern cantors
have not drawn upon them for
services in their synagogues.
Equally surprising is that the
Hassidic choirs and their solo-
ists are not utilized in explain-
ing Hassidic traditions and prac-
tces, as well as in illuminating
programs. They would provide
delight for any public function.
The set of recordings of Luba-
vitcher Chabad songs assures
many evenings of real enjoy-
ment in the home and can be
used for programming. It has
earned highest commendations
and endorsements.
—P.S.
Episcopal Church Body
Opposes Amendments
for Religion in Schools
.
"Now, repeat after met I hereby promise
. • I will faithfully attend
that in the future .
services .. .. every Friday night."
Doyeny Productions
cop,. .•
PHILADELPHIA, ( JTA )—The
legislative attempt to amend the
U.S. Constitution to permit
Bible reading and other religious
exercises in public schools was
viewed as being "a questionable
precedent that could alter our
basic charter of liberties danger-
ously," in a statement issued by
the Central Committee on
Christian Social Relations of the
five dioceses of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in Pennsyl-
vania.
The action was taken at a
meeting of the Central Commit-
tee following the adoption of a
memorial by the Pennsylvania
State Senate, urging such amend-
ment to the Federal Constitu-
tion. The position taken by the
Central Committee was made
known to its own constituency.
Best Wishes for a
Happy Passover
(to Herzl). This picture, how-
ever, does not emanate from
Dubnow's work; it is the result
of a blend of both, Dubnow's
rejection of Ahad Ha'amism
and of political Zionism of
which Fraenkel is an ardent
and faithful adherent.
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Frida y, March 27, 1 964
BY OSKAR K. RABINOWICZ
Josef Fraenkel has long been
known for his diligent studies
in Zionist history. There is
rarely an aspect of Zionist ac-
tivities, particularly in the
Herzl period, that had not been
dealt with by him in one or
the other of his writings.
His latest work is no excep-
tion. It was presented to him
on the occasion of his 60th
birthday by the World Jewish
Congress, as a token for his
untiring literary activities and
services for Congress.
The study consists of three
distinct parts. In the first
Fraenkel describes the impact
that the appearance of Dub-
now's History in German had
on Jewish studies in Central
Europe, of whom he was one,
and how the study of Jewish
history became an integral part
of Zionist education, leading to
a strengthening of Jewish con-
sciousness and to serious dis-
cussions pertaining to the es-
sence of Judaism and the future
of Jewry. At this point Fraenkel
notes rightly that, contrary to
the usual assumption, Zionists
in those years were narrow-
mindedly sectarian, but studied,
next to Boehm's Zionist History,
also the History of the anti- or
non - zionist Simon Dubnow.
They were seeking the - truth.
The remaining part of
Fraenkel's study constitutes
an analysis of Dubnow's de-
scription of Zionism and Zion-
ist Activities as it appears in
Volume X of this History.
Fraenkel divides this part
into two sections: the one
deals with political Zionism,
centered on Herzl, and the
second deals with those who
opposed political Zionism, in
the first place Dubnow him-
self, and Ahad Ha'am.
Among the political Zionists
Fraenkel included also those
forerunners of Herzl who had
advocated the re-establishment
of the Jewish nation through
political means, such as Mor-
decai Immanuel Noah, Moses
Hess, and Leon Pinsker. Dub-
now rejected all of them. Par-
ticularly the last, a Russian fel-
low-countryman, was dismissed
as a "menace to all our hopes
of civic equality and cultural
revival in a European spirit."
Dubnow was somewhat more
restrained when dealing with
the Hoveve Zion movement
which directly resulted from
Pinsker's iniative. He never
warmed up for the small colo-
nisation efforts of that group
in Palestine from which, he
thought, there could never
arise a Jewish independent
country.
Herzl, as the central figure
I of political Zionism, found only
a cool and reserved Dubnow,
who regarded political Zionism
as an "idea without any pros-
pect of fulfilment." Fraenkel
shows that in this negative at-
titude Dubnow was strongly in-
fluenced by Ahad Ha'am. In
this section (pp. 17-25) Fraen-
kel follows almost point by
point Dubnow's contentions
with regard to Herzl and politi-
cal Zionism, and submits his
contradictions which are based
on his comprehensive knowlege
of the facts. He is particularly
convincing in comparing the re-
sults of Herzl's endeavours, as
seen in retrospect today, with
Dubnow's (and for that matter
also with Ahad Ha'am's) pro-
phecies of their doom.
This leads to the third part
of Fraenkel's study. Dubnow,
in contrast to political Zion-
ism, did not believe in the
necessity or feasibility of a
Jewish state in Palestine. He
agreed with Zionism in ac-
cepting Jewry . as a nation-
ality, but believed that, with
sufficient cultural autonomy,
it could and would survive in
the Diaspora. Therefore he
became a strong believer in
Jewish national minority
rights, as Fraenkel points out,
37 -- THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Fraenkel's Book on Three Jewish Giants