At the 1931 World Zionist Congress
Translations of the Hebrew Bible
olar Recalls the Tears of Ur. Chaim Weizmann
By BORIS SMOLAR
gress of 1931 caused him
(Editor-in-chief, Emeritus, - great pain and made him
JTA)
shed tears in the presence of
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
close friends.
Once and only once in my
Dr. Weizmann's rejection
life •did I see Dr. Chaim Weiz-
mann weep. I had witnessed at that Zionist Congress re-
many dramatic moments in sulted from a 'statement he
his public life, but had never had made to the Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency, which was
seen him in tears.
interpreted as meaning that
I had seen him testify at he favored a joint Jewish-
critical hearings before a Arab state in Palestine and
British parliamentary com- not a separate Jewish state.
mission in London. I, had seen
In that statement Dr. Weiz-
him during dramatic appear- mann called for parity in
ances before the Mandates Palestine for Jews and Arabs
CommisSion of the League of alike: "I have no sympathy
Nations in Geneva.
or understanding for the de-
I had seen him rise to de- mand for a Jewish majority
fend the Partition Plan in Palestine," he said. He
(which led to the creation of pointed out that Jews could
the state of Israel) before the be a majority and still not
United Nations when he was live in safety.
already almost blind. In my
This statement was made
eyes he had been the great- to Jacob Landau, director of
est Zionist leader since Dr. the Jewish Telegraphic Ag-
Herzl.
ency. When Landau brought
* * *
Dr. Weizmann's statement to
He • possessed homespun me to be released — I had
Yiddishkeit and aristocratic supervised the JTA office at
worldliness, wisdom and dig-, Zionist Congress headquar-
nity. He was, of course, also ters—I said that as the .editor
a great scientist on whom the of the JTA I would not re-
lease it.
"It's a powder keg," I
said. "It will create a revo-
lution at the Congress and.
cause ill-will against Weiz-
mann"
"But you can't suppress a
statement by Dr. Weizmann,"
Landau argued, "especially
if he took the initiative of
offering us the statement
himself."
BORIS SMOLAR
British government wished to —"That makes no differ-
bestow a high title for his ence," I retorted. "Later it
services in the cause of sci- will be said that we misquot-
ence. He declined to accept ed him. I won't release the
this honor in order not to re- statement unless Dr. Weiz-
/ lease the British government mann signs it. This would
from its obligation to help mean he's interested in hav-
him in pursuing the Jewish ing the statement published
and he'll then be solely re-
cause in Palestine.
sponsible for it."
I had seen Dr. Weizmann
I left the JTA office and
in the most dramatic moment
of his life at the sudden un- went over to the Congress
scheduled closing of the 1939 hall looking for Dr. Weiz-
Zionist Congress in Geneva, mann. I explained to him that.
which was suspended at the I was afraid the statement
outbreak of World War II. He would cause him unpleasant-
was at the podium bidding ness when released to the
farewell to the delegates, public: I asked him to read
who were hurrying -.home to the statement and sign it if
was still firm about re-
be with their families - in Po- he
leasing it.
land and other countries
Dr. Weizmann happened to
which the Nazis had just in-
like what I told him, but with
vaded.
a friendly smile he took my
His every word was filled= fountain pen and without too
with sadness. It was a fare- much thought appended his
well address which sounded signature.
like a speech at a funeral.
"Not bad," he said. "I
He ended by expressing the
know
what I believe. The ex-
-hope that we would all see
one another again after the tremists in the Zionist ranks
war. And then, with a heavy should know about it too. The
world should know
heart, he joined in the sing- whole
about
it!"
ing of Hatikva.
He later regretted it, even
* * *
before the Congress had
But I had seen him at even closed, but by then it was too
a more tragic moment for late. His statement had in the
him at the Zionist Congress meantime been released by
in Basel in July 1931, where the JTA and appeared in
he was sharply criticized by newspapers all over the
the opposition for his leader- world. It had caused an up-
ship policy. What depressed roar.
him then was the fact that
His political opponents used
he had not been /4-elected the statement - against him.
president of the World Zionist They demanded from him a
Organtzation after serving public explanation from the
14 years in that capacity.
Congress podium and when
Though he was re-elected his explanation was found to
to the post at a later Con- be unsatisfactory, a majority
gress, the 17th Zionist Con- of more than 300 delegates
-
•
*;-
-
A
44
4"--
Mostw
Cgarge
Dec V), 1974
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
elected another president.
Deeply grieved, he took the
news that he had not polled
enough votes for re-election
with tears in his eyes and
bade farewell to a group of
delegates who had supported
him. Some of the delegates
were also in tears at the
farewell scene. He felt deeply
hurt and left the Congress
even before it closed.
The 70-year-old Zionist
veteran Nahum Sokolow was
elected to succeed him. Soko-
low was an excellent Hebrew
publicist and editor, a scin-
tillating conversationalist, but
a very weak statesman. He
had served the Zionist move-
ment well but he was in no
way comparable to Dr. Weiz-
mann.
One of the latter's bitterest
opponents was Dr. Stephen
Wise, the head of the Amer-
ican delegation' to the Con-
gress. He spoke out sharply
against Dr. Weizmann and
accused him of following a
pro-British policy.
Louis Lip-sky, on the other
hand, another leader in the
American delegation, came
out strongly in favor of Dr.
Weizmann. He had been an
avowed follower of Dr. Weiz-
mann for many years of his
life. Lipsky's faith in Weiz-
mann was boundless.
Dr. Weizmanri's strongest
opponents at that historic
Congress were the Zionist-
Revisionists headed by Vladi-
mir Jabotinsky. But even
Jabotinsky had a good word
for Weizmann's accomplish-_
ments. The Radical Zionists,
a very small group, and a
considerable number of Gen-
eral Zionists and Mizrachi
delegates, came out against -
Dr. Weizmann after reading
his statement. And they were
also unhappy with his expla-
nation from the podium.
Four years later, in 1935,
Dr. Weizmann , was once
again elected president of the
World Zionist Organization.
In those four years he did not
remain on the sidelines of the
Zionist Movement, however.
He helped to strengthen the
movement both by appear-
ances at fund-raising events
in the United States and other
countries and by behind-the-
scenes political influence on
British government circles,
where he was highly respeot-
ed.
-
* *
- In- 1942
during World
War II--when Dr. Weizmann
was once again president of
the World Zionist Organiza-
tion, he chaired a large in-
ternational Zionist convention
in-New York City, which was
attended by delegates from
17 countries. Eastern Europe
was then in Nazi hands, but
600 delegates from other
parts of the world still man-
aged to come. It was like a
Zionist Congress.
The convention was held at
the Biltmore Hotel and closed
by issuing the statement
known in Jewish history as
the Biltmore Declaration.
This declaration was the first
public demand for a Jewish
commonwealth in post-war
Palestine, that is, an inde-
pendent Jewish state.
Even then the Hashomer
Hatzair in Palestine--a left-
wing group in the Zionist
movement—was still calling
for a Jewish-Arab bi-national
state, but Dr. Weizmann and
David Ben-Gurion coined the
term Jewish commonwealth
at this convention. And it was
the Biltmore Declaration that'
expressed' this proposal in
greater detail.
Both Britain, which still
had the mandate for Pales-
tine, and the Arab world,
knew what the convention
Meant by its demand for a
Jewish 'commonwealth. The
Arabs then believed that the
Nazi armies in the Middle
East would win anyway and
they were therefore not con-
cerned over the - Biltmore
Declaration.
The Mufti • of Jerusalem
was openly cooperating with
Hitler, even though Palestine
was under British adminis-
tration, and the Egyptians
expected General Rommel's
Panzer divisions to march in
any day from El-Alamein to
Egypt. The Arab world was
pro-Nazi and it therefore con-
sidered the Biltmore Declara-
tion to be nothing more than
a scrap of paper.
The British were complete-
ly in the dark on how the war
would end and what would
become of Palestine. They
therefore also paid scant at-
tention to the Biltmore Dec-
laration.
But Jews in Palestine were
fighting in the ranks of the
British army in the Middle
East. They had faith in a
victory for the democratic
countries, and their faith was
bolstered by a 'belief that
after the war the spirit of the
Biltmore Declaration would
be implemented and a Jewish
state would be founded in
Palestine.
* * *.
This dream 'was to come
true' after the war, despite
the opposition of some' Brit-
ish Cabinet members. Britain
relinquished its mandate to
the newly created United Na-
tions, withdrew its military
forces and left the Jews and
Arabs alone. To the latter
she also left her arsenals.
The state of Israel was
proclaimed and Dr. Weiz-
mann was elected its first
president. He died in the be-
lief that there would come a
time when Arabs would find
a way of making peace with
the state of Israel. The epi-
sode at the Zionist Congress
in Basel remained, however,
as a painful memory that he
never forgot.
By SOLOMON ZEITLIN
From the Jewish Quarterly
Review
The Hebrew Bible is trans-
lated into almost every lan-
guage of the human race.
This is due to the fact that
the Church adopted it in their
Bible.
The Church fathers in or-
der to prove that Jesus was
the true• Messiah substanti-
ated. that by using verses
from the prophets and pas-
sages in the Bible.
The Christians who tried to
proselytize the pagans had to
use the Hebrew Bible in or-
der to propagate the truth of
Christianity.
The missionaries utilize not
only the gospels but the He-
brew Bible as well. Thus they
had to translate the Hebrew
Bible into vernacular lan-
guages.
The first literary transla-
tion of the Bible was into
Greek and is known as the
SOLOMON ZEITLIN
Septuagint. From the letter
of Aristeas and from Jose-
phus, as well as from. the
Talmud, we may infer that.
they believed that the trans-
lators were divinely inspired.
Originally the sages praised
the translation. The Talmud
said that the beauty of Ja-
pheth i.e. the Greek transla-
tion shall rest in the tents of
Shem.
However when Christianity
adopted the Septuagint as the
true Bible, they accused the
Jews of deleting many pas-
-sages in their text. On the
other hand, the Jews claimed
that the Christians' added
many passages of Christolog-
ical tenor which were not in
the Hebrew Text.
Thus the Jews came to look
upon the Septuagint as a fal-
sification of the Bible.
Not all the books of the
Hebrew Bible were trans-
lated by the same group nor
were they translated at the
The Grand Tradition' Evaluates
Jewish Singers on Records
By JACK SIEGEL
J. B. Steane has put to-
gether an interesting com-
pendium of facts and evalu-
ations of singers whose rec-
ords encompass 70 years of
singing in his book "The
Grand Tradition" (Scrib-
ners).
While he downgrades some
of the singing, even allow-
ing for some technical im-
purties due to old records,
what is of interest is the
substantial amount of singers
who were Jewish.
Alma Gluck, Selma Kurz,
Richard Tauber, Alexander
Kipnis, Friedrich Schorr,
Beverly Sill s, Richard
Tucker, Robert . Merrill, and
Regina Resnik; were and
are Jewish singers.
The list is long and an
even longer list would in-
clude many singers of Jew-
ish origin and continued per-
suasion whose records were
perhaps destroyed in the
Holocaust or who, in emi-
gration, sought other ways
of life.
same _time. The Pentateuch
was translated in the time of
Ptolemy Philadelphus by 72
men according to Aristeas
and thus was called Septu-
gint.
The Prophetic books were
translated later, while the
Scriptures were translated
still later. The Greek transla-
tion was made for •those who
spoke Greek -and were not
well versed in Hebrew. There
were two translations in Ara-
m aic.
In the third century, Ori-
gen saw the many discrepan-
cies between the Hebrew text
and the Greek translations
and thus arranged them into
one book with •six c
the Hexapla.
The first column
-brew text: the set
transliteration of the Hebrew
text in Greek letters; the
third. Aquila's translation;
the fourth, Svmmachus' rem-
dering; the fifth, the Septua-
gint; and the sixth, Theodo-
tion's rendering.
In the fourth century, Je-
rome with the aid of his Jew-
ish teachers translated the
Bible into Latin, the Vulgate
which became the official
Bible of the Catholic Church.
When Islam conquered the
East, in the 10th century, a
translation of the Bible was
made in Arabic by Saadiah
Gaon.
A Persian translation was
made at the end of the 14th
and beginning of. the 15th
centuries. In 1422 a Spanish
translation was made.
In 1534 the Bible was trans-
lated into German and called
Luther's translation. In 1611
there was an authorized
translation in English known
as the King James Version.
There are many Jewish
translations of the Bible. In
each Jewish community
translations were made into
their vernacular language.
At the end of the 18th cen-
tury, the German Jews intro-
duced a German translation
of the Bible under the guid-
ance of Mendelssohn.
There were other transla-
tions of the Bible into Ger-
man, -and lately this was done
by Rosenzweig and- Buber. A
translation into the French
language was made by Calm
with the help of some other
scholars.
The most popular transla-
-tion of the Bible in the French
language was executed under
the leadership of the chief
Rabbi of France, Zadoc Ka-
han. There were also trans-
lations into the Italian- lan-
guage, the Hungarian lan-
guage, as well as parts of the
Bible being translated into
Dutch.
There was, furthermore, a
translation into Russian,
most notably by Mandelstam.
Lately, there was a verr4,4
into Yiddish rend ‘'t`
Yehoash.
In the United State
Lesser gave a new transla-
tion of the Bible based on the
King James Version. In 1917
there appeared a translation
of the Bible by the Jewish
Publication Society of Amer-
ica under the editorship of
Dr. Max Margolis.
In 1962 the Jewish Publica-
tion Society published a new
translation of the Torah. For
this purpose they organized
a committee of biblical scho-
lars, rabbis and intelligent
laity. The editor-and-chief
was Dr. Harry M. Orlinsky.