'-1-644 Friday, October 27, 1918

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

A Biographical Tribute to Dr. Max Nordau

(Editor's note: This ar-
ticle continues the biog-
raphy of Zionist leader
Max Nordau. It is written
by his daughter, Maxa,
and began in the Oct. 13
• Jewish News.)

Tribune of Zionisn

favor. Once freed, Louban ported on the negotia- in Constantinople for
threw himself on his knees tions with Turkey, which Jews and even thought of had another opportunity to tragedy in verse, whicl
before his defender, crying had given no result. a French protectorate in discuss the question with never published.
Pichon at a dinner given by
All this did not ha
bitterly upon what he might Palestine was under Palestine.
"L'Independance Belge," an his family life. His dev
have committed.
Turkish rule and from
He explained his views to
In 1904, Herzl fell very the very start, Herzl had some French politicians, to important newspaper. But to his wife was total an
ill. Max Nordau became tried to obtain from the Aristide Briand, to Anatole the heavy clouds of war al- the children, he al
By MAXA NORDAU
aware of his grave condi- Sultan a charter which de Monzie, to Paul Painleve, ready obscured the horizon. found time for convers
tion.
In June, he received would have ensured the in private conversations. In The world of those negotia- for an explanation, a vi
A strife also started be-
tions was at an end.
a museum, a journ
tween the "political" and a short note from his position of the Jews. He November 1913, together
During all these years show them old French
friend's
own
hand
—
then
could never induce the with Prof. Tschlenow, he devoted to Zionism, Max
the "practical" Zionists,
Turkish government to appealed officially to the Nordau had not been able, and foreign countries.
mostly Russians who were came the fatal news.
Besides, every im
Nordau was crushed with grant it, whatever the then minister of foreign af-
not used to world politics
nor willing to interrupt his tant visitor to Paris
grief.
Yet
the
movement
conditions he offered.
and sustained the opinion
fairs, Stephen Pichon, numerous and exhausting
a visit. They
Under the pressure of the whose ministry unfortu- activities. He had to make a him
that the first thing to do was must go on and no tragedy
scholars, artists, p:
should
stop
it.
People
came
to infiltrate into Palestine
living for himself and his men, musicians like
without waiting for any to him to ask him to assume
family.
He was the corre- senthal or Wanda LE
legal support. Dr. Weiz- the leadership. On July 9,
spondent in Paris of the owska, or the great tl
Dr.
Weizmann
visited
him.
mann was one of the out-
Vossische Zeitung, not ter director and creL
standing figures in that Then came Wolfsohn, Kre-
without misunderstandings Max . Reinhardt and
"faction," against Herzl. menetzki of Vienna and
between the leadership of chief Cirinipo'ser Holl
Again, the two concepts Jacobus Kann. Wolfsohn
that
Berlin paper and him- der. How Nordau co
ought to have been evisaged came again in December.
self.
fit all those duties into
Nordau
was
as
ever
ready
together, had there been no
timetable
remains a
He
practiced
as
a
to
do
his
utmost,
except
re-
personal rivalries.
physician and once a tery.
nounce
his
personal
liberty.
The Sixth Congress was
He lived in a little ho
week he gave a free con-
that of the Uganda Project. He never accepted any offi-
sultation to the poor who with a garden in the
cial
position.
Joseph Chamberlain, in the
needed his science. It is heart of Paris and his h
The Seventh. Congress
name of the British gov-
hard to describe how was a meeting place of
was
the
only
one
over
which
ernment, offered that col-
much suffering and mis- world. The house still e
ony to L.J. Greenberg, the Nordau presided. His sor-
ery applied to him and and even the garden,
row
was
immense
and
the
editor of the Jewish
how he managed to cure though part of it has b
gap
created
by
the
disap-
Chronicle, as Herzl's repre-
materially and morally built up.
sentative. It was Herzl's pearance of his greatest
The war of 1914 br(
those who called to him
friend,
of
the
heroic
cham-
opinion that the offer should
for help: victims of pog- out. It was the end of a c
pion
of
the
Jewish
cause,
not be rejected in order not
roms, poor refugees, each tury, of a great period
to discourage the protection was never filled. The ora-
with an appalling story to civilization. For Max N
tion
which
Max
Nordau
de-
by the Great Powers and
tell. Also insane men and dau, it was the destruct
also that a number of vic- livered has remained in his-
women, whom he some- of his whole way of life
tory.
tims of persecutions might
times had to send to an deadly cleavage, the bru
He ended it with the
be saved.
asylum.
tearing down of his hoi
words:
"Our
people
has
Nordau's opinion was
for progress. He never
He
also
had
patients
in
the exact opposite. He had, a Herzl, but Herzl
A portrait of Max Nordau, painted by his daughter higher circles; he was for covered completely from I
foresaw a failure like that never had a people. That Maxa.
some years the private shock.
does
not
depreciate
him,
of Baron de Hirsch's
Nordau had lost. 1
physician
of the German
Argentine colonization. but it casts a slur on us .. . new party of the "Young nately fell just before the
Austro-Hungarian citizE
ambassador,
Prince
Rado-
He knew that the only Herzl was a model and an Turks," it seemed that Tur- meeting.
ship but had not be
possible solution was the educator. He key would become more lib-
The conversation was lin.
naturalized as a Fren,
He
believed
in
aid
return to Palestine, the straightened the back of eral, but all hopes were de- friendly. It ran on the lan-
citizen. It seems incredil
a broken people. He gave ceived; the Turks would guage, the need for learning through work; this was not in our times of passpor
Land of the Covenant.
always
successful.
Dr.
only
admit
a
limited
immi-
He first refused to support them hope, he showed
French beside Hebrew, the
and documents that
the Uganda idea. However, them means. The seed gration, if the Jews adopted wish for French aid against Marmorek brought one day ministrative formaliti
a
"tailor."
Max
Nordau
the
Turkish
nationality,
will
sprout,
and
his
on Herzl's insistence and on
the Turkish refusal to let
appeared unnecessary. Oi
account of his absoluet people will garner the which was unacceptable, Jews buy land in Palestine. needed a pair of trousers could travel freely, live in
and
ordered
them
from
that
and did not peimit the Jews Also, how to counteract
sense of duty and discipline, harvest."
man. The latter threw a town without being regi
he accepted to plead in its
German influence.
Wolfsohn was elected to buy land.
knowning
look at him and tered and labeled.
favor at the Sixth Congress, president of the Zionist
He wrote of Tschlenow: "I
The Congress of 1911, in
Attacks were launch€
took
no
measurements.
So
in 1903, in Base. After the Organization and held the Basel, was the last Nordau thanked him for the admis-
against Nordau by his a3
Nordau
admired
the
skill
of
wave of despair and indig- position until his death dur- attended. The conflict be- sion of 8,000 Moroccan Jews
tagonists, who availE
nation which the interven- ing the First World War. tween the two praties, the to the French protectorate those Jewish artisans who themselves of the prevai
tion causes, he said to his Herzl had called him "gold "political" and the "practi- . . . To sum up, I told him could_ gauge a man at a
wife: "This is a tragic • mo- in the nugget" and Nordau cal" seemed irreconcilable.
that the purpose of my visit glance.
k?.
A few days later, the
ment in my life."
was
three fold:
remarked on different occa-
Needless to say that dur-
"I. To protest against the trousers were ready . ; but
As is well known, the sions how he grew with his ing all those years of strug-
Congress, against its own task.
slander
that we are German when Nordau wanted to try
gle, Nordau never limited
inclination, voted for
agents
.
. . and to offer proof them on, he could not even
In August 1906, Nordau his Zionist activities to con-
Uganda, which Max Nor- attended the annual confer- gresses or even meetings in that we intend to be Jews wiggle into them. He got
dau had qualified as a ence. The opposition was led . different countries. He and Jews only in Palestine. angry and asked the man:
"night-asylum." It was in by Ussishkin, Weizmann wrote articles, met leaders ;
"II. To show that we "How did you manage? Are
fact a rejection and for many and Tschlenow. Nordau delivered speeches in Paris, were much aware of the you not a tailor?" — "no,"
moral and practical rea- fenced for political Zionism encouraged the movement state of the European was the innocent answer, "I
sons, the project failed, to against the "practical" in that city, which very few checkerboard in respect am a capmaker!"
Nordau's relief. Yet it al- • Zionism of that period. The French Jews had joined; to the future political de-
Nordau did not stop
most cost him his life.
bank which Herzl had most of its members were stiny of Palestine and writing either. He pub-
At a Zionist ball in Paris , founded in face of so many immigrants. Two outstand- entirely conscious of the lished novels: "The
arranged by the society hamperings persisted, ing exceptions were the role which, negligible as Drones Must Die" and
Mebassereth Zion, a fanati- under Levontin's manage- writer and poet Andre we may seem today, we "Morganatic"; a drama:
Anna and Max Norda
cal and somewhat insane ment.
Spire, who had attended the would be called upon at "Dr. Kohn," discussing
young Russian student fired
At the Eighth Congress in Congress of 1911, and the right moment, to play the clash between assimi- in their Paris garden.
at him. Dr. Marmorek, who the Hague, Nordau re- Alfred Valensi, a Tunisian with some skill and much lated, converted Jews
stood near Nordau, seized peated the fundamental lawyer, who was later mar- frankness and loyalty.
and those who had re- ing hysterical atmosp
the would-be murderer's principle of the Zionist tyred by the Nazis.
mained
faithful to their to take a low revenge. H
"III. To solicit his good
left France and took refu
arm and twisted it so that movement in a few burning
Nordau was of the will and that of the French kin.
in Spain. As soon as he wa
the gun was wrenched phrases.
Several essays and short
opinion that political government for our im-
away. The student, Louban,
The year 1900 ended Zionism ought to seek the mediate interests in Pales- stories were written, as well gone, persecutions began.
was arrested and at his trial with the Congress at support of France. He fa- tine and for Zionism in gen- as a unique book for his lit- All his belongings were con-
Max Nordau pleaded in his Hamburg. Nordau re- vored French influence eral."
tle daughter: "Fairy Tales fiscated, venomous articles
The answer was: "You for Maxa," where he im- appeared in the press. H
have had my sympathies for agined wonderful stories for was accused of being an
long. What you have told children, which contained enemy of France, which was
me will necessarily increase at the same time a deep a lie, and in Germany, o
them. Your brilliant exposi- moral teaching and the being too mush on the Al-
tion has interested me im- flowering of his constant lied side. He could not de-
himself in the turmoil
mensely. Evidences of it and thwarted dream, fend
of the war.
poetry.
will remain in our archives
so that my successor, who-
"The Interpretation of
(To be continued ...
ever he be, will not fail to History" was a very original Published in cooperation
have it."
philosophical work. Then with the Jewish National
In March 1914, Nordau came "Rahab," a biblical Fund of America.)

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