on Notes from the Underground, Herzl, Nordau and some
No time for a lengthy post but it seems my readers are growing frustrated so here's what I've been up to:
Notes from the Underground -- now added to my list of favorites. Dostoevsky's writing is clever, witty and always entertaining. His biting humor adds poignancy to a tale of estrangement and its only companion: madness.
On the Zionism front: Just read Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau's addresses at the first Zionist Congress in 1897. Also read an essay by Leo Pinsker, and Herzl's "The Jewish State." Although there's much to take issue with in all these writings, their flaws lie only in their inadequacy as prophecies. It seems nobody, not Herzl, Pinsker or Nordau, despite recognizing the difficulties facing European Jewry and the desperate need for a solution, could foresee what lay in store for Jews in the Germany they all adored. It sends chills up my spine to read things like (and I praphrase, no time to get the text but this was in Herzl's piece) "nothing can be done to the Jews' money as it is locked away in banks" and "once having granted the jew emancipation, the modern state will not be able to retract the move."
More later.
Notes from the Underground -- now added to my list of favorites. Dostoevsky's writing is clever, witty and always entertaining. His biting humor adds poignancy to a tale of estrangement and its only companion: madness.
On the Zionism front: Just read Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau's addresses at the first Zionist Congress in 1897. Also read an essay by Leo Pinsker, and Herzl's "The Jewish State." Although there's much to take issue with in all these writings, their flaws lie only in their inadequacy as prophecies. It seems nobody, not Herzl, Pinsker or Nordau, despite recognizing the difficulties facing European Jewry and the desperate need for a solution, could foresee what lay in store for Jews in the Germany they all adored. It sends chills up my spine to read things like (and I praphrase, no time to get the text but this was in Herzl's piece) "nothing can be done to the Jews' money as it is locked away in banks" and "once having granted the jew emancipation, the modern state will not be able to retract the move."
More later.
posted by shoshana at 5:43 PM
3 Comments:
On Notes from the underground, I read it years ago and if recall correctly I never got around finishing it, all I remember it was quite depressing.
Talking about hertzel and Zionism, I’ll just quote from an interesting article I was reading lately about the origins of the Zionist movement and how it began at the time of the Dryfus affair.
“Many assimilated Jews became aware of their national identity and fragility amongst the nations. One such person who was shocked by the degree of miscarriage of justice, was a young reporter by the name of Theodore Hertzel. The loss of respect in his eyes for the seemly lawful and honorable society, became the birth pangs of modern Zionism.”
And from the same article:
“At this point, Emile Zola, the world famous writer, wrote an article to the President of the French Republic accusing the government of malicious libel. The article was published on the front page of L'Aurore, a popular newspaper under the caption "J'accuse!"
"The article made a tremendous impression upon the French public. Zola himself was found guilty of libel………”
9lives, r'u joking?
More talking about Herzl and Zionism - if Herzl was Zionism's head, Russian Jewry was its soul. There's an unforgettable passage in Chaim Weizmann's autobio when he descibes a young woman leaping onto the podium behind Herzl and tearing down a map of Uganda that had replaced the usual map of Palestine. Can you imagine how much worse the spiritual malaise in Israel today if we were stuck here!
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