The Modern World
1840-1940
76. [Moses Montefiore]. Translation of a Letter Addressed by
Sir Moses Montefiore . . . to the Jewish Congregations in the Holy Land. London:
Wertheimer, Lea and Co., 1874.
Montefiore, a financier and philanthropist who devoted much of his life to aiding oppressed
Jewish communities around the world, was one of the most prominent English Jews of the
nineteenth century. Although greatly concerned with the growth of the Jewish community in the
Holy Land, he did not regard that settlement as the sole solution to the Jewish question. But he
did want to help develop the agriculture and industry there. In an open letter to the native Jewish
community, he asked how this might be done. That letter and the responses he received appear
in this pamphlet.
77. John C. Gawler. Letter . . . to Sir Moses Montefiore . . . on
the Subject of the Promotion of Agriculture in the Holy Land. London: Wertheimer, Lea and
Co., 1874.
Gawler, a Christian, inherited his interest in Jewish settlement of the Holy Land from his father.
Both thought a Jewish State was the answer to the problems of the newly emancipated Jews of
Europe, and both outlined plans by which this goal might be accomplished. In this letter,
addressed to Montefiore, Gawler stated his main recommendations on the question of
developing the Holy Land and proposed the establishment of a society which would concern
itself with the advancement of agriculture and the utilization of natural resources.
78. L'Alliance israélite universelle. Paris: La
Société, 1885.
Despite the still existing problems of anti-Semitism and poverty, cooperation among major
Jewish communities declined during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In 1860
in France, the Alliance Israélite universelle, the first modern international Jewish
organization, was formed. It sought to assist emigrants, promote Jewish education, and aid
oppressed Jews through diplomatic channels. The Alliance marked its twenty-fifth
anniversary with this volume describing the society and its accomplishments.
79. Adolphe Crémieux. Persécutions contre les
juifs de Damas ... recueil des documents. Paris: Bureau de l'observateur des tribunaux,
1840.
In 1840, when a Capuchin friar and his servant disappeared in Damascus, several Jews were
forced to confess to ritual murder. The accusations shocked world Jewry and sparked a revival
of anti-Semitism in Europe. The French attorney Adolphe Crémieux accompanied several
other prominent Jews to Damascus to intercede on behalf of the accused. His
Persécutions contre les juifs de Damas gives details of the case as well as a
refutation of the whole concept of ritual murder.
80. Adolphe Crémieux. Autograph letter signed. Bordeaux,
January 29, 1871. 1 page.
In addition to his many activities supporting the Jewish community, Crémieux was the
outstanding Jewish participant in French public affairs during the nineteenth century. Early in
life he became well known as an attorney and went on to defend a number of liberal causes. He
served as minister of justice during the Second Republic and again during the Third Republic.
During his second tenure in office, he wrote this letter acknowledging a private contribution to
the defense of France during the Franco-Prussian War.
81. [Joseph Ritter von Wertheimer]. Die Juden in Oesterreich.
Leipzig: Mayer and Wigand, 1842. 2 volumes in 1.
Wertheimer was a central figure in the struggle for emancipation in Austria. A merchant and
philanthropist who worked tirelessly for the rights and welfare of the Jewish community in
Austria, he wrote Die Juden in Oesterreich as a call for Jewish equality. Although it was
published anonymously, since such works were prohibited at the time, his efforts on behalf of
the Jews were recognized twenty-six years later by the emperor with a title of nobility.
82. Ludwig Bamberger. Deutschthum und Judenthum.
Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1880.
While anti-Semitism had always been present in Germany, in modern German intellectual
circles it was considered a vulgar prejudice. Then in 1879 the Prussian historian Heinrich van
Treitschke published an article attacking the Jews as an alien element in society, justifying
anti-Semitic agitation, and coining the slogan "the Jews are our misfortune." This attempt to
legitimize anti-Semitism among intellectuals provoked many responses, including The
German Nation and the Jewish People, a defense of the Jews written by Reichstag member
Ludwig Bamberger.
83. Moritz Frühling. Biographiches Handbuch der in der
K. und K. Oesterr-Ungar. Armee und Kriegsmarine . . . Offiziere . . . jüdischen Stammes.
Vienna, 1911.
Attitude toward military service presented one of the surest indications of national loyalty, since
in time of war Jews could be called upon to kill Jews of other nations. Austria opened the ranks
of its army to Jews in the late eighteenth century, and the response was so positive that by 1893
they formed eight percent of the officer corps. Prefaced with a strong affirmation of loyalty, this
catalogue of famous Jewish members of the Austro-Hungarian military demonstrated to the Jews
themselves and to the outside world the extent to which they had been assimilated.
84. Bruno Frei. Jüdisches Elend in Wien. Vienna
and Berlin: R. Lowit, 1920.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large numbers of Jews migrated to Vienna
from Bohemia, Galicia, and other provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between 1854 and
1923, the Jewish population of Vienna rose from fifteen thousand to two hundred thousand. Like
other migrants, these Jews were attracted by hopes of a better life in an economically expanding
city; however, many of them, uneducated and unskilled, remained in extreme poverty.
Describing the state of the Jews, Frei's Jewish Poverty was written to criticize the
prejudices directed at them.
85. Lewis B. Namier. The Jews. London: Macmillan.
Offprint.
Born in Galicia, educated at Oxford, and eventually professor of history at the University of
Manchester, Namier was acutely aware of his Jewish background and always considered himself
an outsider. In this essay, reprinted from Conflicts: Studies in Contemporary History
(London, 1942), these personal feelings color his analysis of the situation of all Jews.
Namier asserted that assimilation was ultimately impossible, that no matter what a Jew did he
would always be seen as different, and that the only place a Jew could lead a normal life would
be in a Jewish State.
86. Max Vorobeichic. Ein Ghetto im Osten (Wilna).
Zurich and Leipzig: Orell Fussli, 1931.
Called the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," Vilna was a major center of Jewish culture in Europe from
the early seventeenth century to the early twentieth century. Especially known for its Hebrew
printing presses and talmudic scholarship, the city became a center of the haskalah
("enlightenment") and of modern Jewish literature in Yiddish and Hebrew. By the late
nineteenth century, it had also become a center of Jewish socialism and Zionism. Ein Ghetto
im Osten (Wilna) is a photographic essay of lewish life in Vilna made just a decade before
the Jews of Vilna were obliterated in the Nazi holocaust.
87. Sigmund Freud. Autograph letter signed to Isaac Landman.
Berchtesgaden, August 1, 1929. 1 page.
Freud encountered anti-Semitism as a medical student in Vienna. Nevertheless, while not
considering himself a religious believer, he persisted in identifying himself as a Jew, and later in
life became a loyal member of the Vienna B'nai B'rith. In this letter, Freud reveals his
ambivalent feelings about his Jewish background. When asked to contribute to a special edition
of the periodical The American Hebrew, he responded that he could really send nothing
more than a friendly greeting since he had no firm attachment to Judaism.
88. Albert Einstein. Typewritten letter signed to Harry Deutsch.
Pasadena, February 24, 1933. 1 page.
Einstein was an ardent Zionist and much of his time not devoted to science went to the support
of Jewish causes. He perceived Jewish problems in terms of the larger question of human
dignity–a theme developed in this letter. Written during the Nazi rise to power, it
expresses skepticism about politics and asserts that the highest pursuits–art among
them–are those which enable man through indirect means. For Einstein, the real worth of
any endeavor lay in the striving and not in the results.
89. Gustav Mahler. Autograph letter signed to Dr. Fritz
Löhr. [Hamburg, 18957].4 pages.
As the last great representative of the symphonic tradition of central Europe and an experimenter
with new musical techniques, Mahler stands at a major turning point in the history of music. In
this letter he complains that his Jewish religion bars him from a conducting position but
consoles himself by reflecting on the moribund state of contemporary culture. Mahler later
converted to Catholicism in order to become director of the Vienna court opera.
90. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Die heilige Familie.
Frankfurt am Main:
Literarische Anstalt (J. Rutten), 1845. First edition.
Some Jews rejected any attempt to solve the problems of emancipation in Jewish terms; for
them, the problems of the Jews were part bf a larger social issue. Karl Marx is the most famous
representative of this position. Denying the importance of religion and ethnicity, he attempted to
develop an empirical and scientific approach to social questions. Die heilige Familie,
written with the help of Engels, is a youthful attack on the Hegelian philosopher Bruno
Bauer and his "holy family" of followers. The work contains the earliest statement of Marxist
communism.
91. Karl Marx. Das Kapital. Hamburg: Otto Meissner,
1867. Volume 1. First edition.
Das Kapital, the exposition of Marx's mature system, is the fundamental work of modern
socialism. It is here that Marx develops his economic arguments in support of his sociological
analysis and his evolutionary theory of history. Marx had planned, but did not live to complete,
three additional volumes treating the circulation, movement, and history of capital. The work
was later completed by Engels from Marx's papers.
92. Ferdinand Lassalle. Die indirecte Steuer und die Lage der
arbeitenden Klassen. Chicago[?]: Charles Ahrens, 1872.
Lassalle's efforts on behalf of the German working-man covered only a few short years, but his
accomplishments established him as one of the founders of German socialism. Believing that the
working classes were oppressed because their new freedom as individuals had destroyed their
solidarity as a group, he advocated the formation of workers' associations and universal suffrage.
The Indirect Tax and the Situation of the Working Classes is the transcript of a trial in
which Lassalle was accused of inciting the lower classes to violence by maintaining that indirect
taxes were regressive in nature.
93. Rosa Luxemburg. Die Akkumulation des Kapitals.
Berlin: Paul Singer, 1913. First edition.
As a founder of the Social Democratic party of Poland and Lithuania and a major figure in the
German Social Democratic party, Rosa Luxemburg is one of the most important women in the
history of socialism. Her political activities were complemented by extensive research and
writing, and her Die Akkumulation des Kapitals forms a major contribution to Marxist
thought. A strict economic determinist, she wrote that the insufficiency of home markets would
make expansion and imperialism the guiding principle of capitalist foreign policy.
94. Victor Adler. Schwurgerichtsverhandlung gegen Dr. Viktor
Adler. Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1905.
Adler received a medical education but gave up the practice of medicine to become one of the
early leaders of the Austrian Social Democratic party. The government attempted to obstruct his
early political activities, bringing him to trial several times. The stenographic report of the most
famous of these trials, during which he was acquitted of disturbing the peace through political
agitation, is presented in this pamphlet. It was published in the same year that Adler began his
struggle for what one year later was to be his greatest political victory–the institution of
universal suffrage in Austria.
95. Gustav Landauer. Autograph letter signed to Julius Bab.
Krumbach (Swabia), June 1, 1917. 3 pages.
Landauer's concern for society was matched by an interest in literature and philosophy, the
insights of which colored his socialist theory. He broke with the Marxism which dominated
central European socialism and proposed a new cooperative society based on individual action.
Landauer differed from many German Jewish socialists, too, in finally regarding Judaism
favorably. His thoughts on literature and drama form the body of this letter, written two years
before his murder at the hands of soldiers in the military suppression of the Bavarian
Republic.
96. Kurt Eisner. Typewritten letter signed to Kommerzienrat J.
Mayer. Munich, November 10, 1918. 1 page.
Eisner was a left-wing-socialist journalist who in November of 1918 led an uprising which
established the Republic of Bavaria. He became prime minister of the republic, continuing in
that office until his assassination. His indifference to Jewish sentiments in the pursuit of his
political ideals is clearly shown in this letter, where he maintains that suggestions that he resign
from office come from anxious Jews who are afraid of repercussions, and where he insists that it
is his duty to remain as the living symbol of republican freedom.
97. Leon Trotsky. Typewritten letter signed to Herr Boris.
Buyukada, January 6, 1931. 1 page.
Trotsky's leading role in the Russian Revolution is attributable to his intellectual brilliance and
his administrative skills. He stood on the left wing of the Revolution, propounding a theory of
"permanent revolution." Like other socialists of Jewish origin, he considered Jewish problems
part of larger class issues; but with the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s he became willing to
consider the idea of special solutions to the problem. In this letter, the exiled Trotsky discusses
some minor details relating to the publication of his masterful History of the Russian
Revolution.
98. August Rohling. Der Talmudjude. Münster:
Adolph Russel, 1871. First edition.
Rohling's Der Talmudjude is one of the seminal works of modern anti-Semitic literature.
A priest and university professor, Rohling compiled his attack on the Talmud from corrupted
quotations, forgeries, and fanciful assertions. Challenged on a number of occasions, he was
finally discredited in a libel suit which he attempted to bring against one of his detractors, Dr.
Joseph Bloch of Vienna. Nevertheless, Der Talmudjude remained popular, later
becoming a central source book for Nazi propaganda.
99. Ernest Renan. Le judaisme comme race et comme
réligion. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1883.
Renan, who spent his life studying ancient Near Eastern languages and history, wrote a
five-volume history of the ancient Jews which asserted that the monotheism of the Semitic
peoples was inherent in their character. However, disturbed by anti-Semitic attacks which held
the Jews to be an alien race, he responded in Le judaisme that although the Jews had
once formed a distinct racial group, in modern times they encompassed a multiplicity of races
and constituted a valuable part of the population in modern European states.
100. Edouard Drumont. La France juive. Paris: C.
Marpon & E. Flammarion. 2 volumes.
Although originally a left-wing journalist, Drumont became one of the leaders of the
anti-Semitic movement in France. La France juive, which appeared in over one hundred
editions, is a sharp attack on the Jews, claiming that they control modern French social, political,
cultural, and economic life. Drumont went on to edit the rabidly anti-Semitic daily Libre
parole and later became a member of the Chamber of Deputies.
101. Outrages upon the Jews in Russia: Report of the Public
Meeting at the Mansion House.... London: Council of the Anglo-Jewish-Association,
1882.
When in March of 1881 Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, the government, in its anti-liberal
reaction, applied discriminatory policies to the Jews and tried to direct popular discontent
against them. A number of anti-Semitic riots, or pogroms, then erupted, their brutality shocking
the world and sparking widespread protest. Outrages upon the Jews in Russia contains
the minutes of a meeting convened by the lord mayor of London to denounce the events in
Russia, and also includes the several statements of concern submitted by major political and
cultural figures of England at the time.
102. Der Process van Tisza-Eszlar. Stuttgart: Levy
& Muller, 1883.
Tisza-Eszlar, a village in Hungary, was the scene of a ritual-murder accusation which formed a
major event in the rise of Hungarian anti-Semitism. Following the disappearance of a Christian
girl_proven later to have been a case of suicide–a Jewish youth was tricked into
confessing that he had seen her murdered in the synagogue. Although the acquittal of all the
Jews charged was upheld by the Supreme Court, anti-Semitism was raised to a feverish pitch,
setting off anti-Jewish riots. Der Process van Tisza-Eszlar gives a pro-Jewish account of
the trial and the events surrounding it.
103. Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Die Grundlagen des
Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Munich: F. Bruckmann, 1899. 2 volumes. First edition.
The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century served as a key work in the formation of
Nazi racial theories about the Jews. Chamberlain, an English Germanophile and son-in-law of
Richard Wagner, here summarized nineteenth-century thought and culture and expounded his
concept of "Germanism": the Germans constituted a superior race destined to rule the world,
while the Jews were a mongrel race and the corruptors of German culture. Chamberlain's ideas
marked the inception of the virulent type of modem anti-Semitism whose logical outcome was
the extermination of all Jews.
104. Thomas G. Masaryk. Die Nothwendigkeit der Revision
des Polnaer Processes. Vienna: "Die Zeit," 1899.
The publication of Masaryk's Die Nothwendigkeit was a major event in the Polna, or
Hilsner, case–a major ritual-murder incident in Bohemia. This pamphlet points out that
like other accusations of ritual murder, the Polna case was based on scanty and inconsistent
evidence and that a proper reexamination of the facts would help to eradicate this superstition.
At the time, Masaryk met stiff opposition from government circles. But the calumnious nature of
the charges was eventually exposed, and his moral stand as a true liberal was enhanced.
105. Emile Zola. "J'Accuse. . . !'' L'Aurore, Paris, January
13, 1898.
In 1894 a Jewish French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was accused of espionage. Thus began
one of the most famous anti-Semitic episodes in modern history. Dreyfus was actually innocent,
but the prosecution was carried forward by reactionary army officers with political motives.
"J'Accuse" was an open letter from the novelist Emile Zola to the president of France which
charged the army and the government of suppressing the evidence. Zola's attack was
instrumental in the eventual exoneration of Dreyfus in an affair that was to mark a major turning
point in the history of the Third Republic.
106. Moritz Steinschneider. Jüdische Schriften zur
Geographie Palästina's. Jerusalem: A. M..Luncz, 1892. One of fifty copies. .
Throughout the centuries of exile and dispersion, Eretz Israel, "the Land of Israel,"
remained deeply ingrained in the Jewish consciousness. While largescale repatriation seemed
beyond reach, the Jews nevertheless maintained a keen interest in their historic homeland, as
evidenced by this bibliography of Jewish writings concerning Palestine. Compiled by Moritz
Steinschneider, an exponent of the "science of Judaism" and one of the most important
bibliographers of Judaica, the work lists and characterizes travelers' accounts and geographical
descriptions by Jewish authors from the ninth through the nineteenth centuries.
107. Moses Hess. Rom und Jerusalem Leipzig: Eduard
Wengler, 1862. First edition.
A thoroughly assimilated Jewish socialist and close associate of Marx, Hess reasserted his
Jewish identity later in life, calling for the reestablishment of a Jewish State in the Holy Land.
His Rom und Jerusalem is a classic of Zionist literature which sets forth his concept of
Jewish nationhood and sketches the outline of a Jewish State based on socialist principles.
Although the work attracted little attention when first published, it later influenced Herzl, who
described Hess as "the greatest Jewish spirit since Spinoza."
108. [Leon Pinsker]. "Autoemancipation!" Mahnruf an seine
Stammesgenossen von einem russischen Juden. Berlin: W. Issleib, 1882. First edition.
Until the Russian pogroms of 1881, Pinsker, a physician and leader of the Odessa Jewish
community, had been a firm believer in the assimilation of the Jews into Russian society. This
outburst of violent antiSemitism, however, forced him to reconsider his position, and
"Autoemancipation!" argued for a separate Jewish national home. Pinsker
reasoned that the Jews were persecuted because their separate ethnic identity caused them to be
perceived throughout the world as aliens. "Autoemancipation!" made an immediate,
major impact in Jewish circles, establishing Pinsker as a leader of the young Zionist
movement.
109. Theodor Herzl. Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen
Lösung der Judenfrage. Leipzig and Vienna: M. Breitenstein, 1896. First
edition.
Herzl gave up the practice of law for joumalism, and his coverage of the Dreyfus trial in Paris
led him to two conclusions: Jewish assimilation was impossible and the Jewish question
required a political solution. Originally he had hoped to influence the Rothschild family to
support the building of a Jewish State, but when this plan failed he turned to the general public.
Der Judenstaat, an elaboration of his Address to the Rothschilds, sets forth his
proposal for a Jewish State. Although critically received by assimilated and Orthodox Jews, the
work made Herzl the undisputed leader of the Zionist movement.
110. Theotor Herzl. Altneuland. Leipzig: Hermann
Seemann, [1902]. First edition.
Herzl's trip to Palestine in 1898 inspired him to write Altneuland, a Zionist novel giving
expression to the yearning of the Jews for their historical homeland. The novel attempted to
predict what could be accomplished in the next twenty years and stressed both the use of
science and technology in developing the country internally and the need for toleration among
all peoples in the area. The motto of Altneuland became the watchword of the Zionist
movement_"If you will it, it is no fairytale."
111. Ludwig Ernst. Kein Judenstaat sonders
Gewissenfreiheit. Leipzig and Vienna: Literarische Anstalt, 1896.
Herzl's scheme was clearly at odds with the dominant liberal doctrines of emancipation and
assimilation. Thus it is not surprising that Der Judenstaat aroused a good deal of hostile
criticism. Ernst's No Jewish State–Rather Freedom of Conscience is an example
of the debates within Jewish communities that Zionist ideas evoked. Ernst maintained that since
the Jews were an integral part of Europe, their primary duty was to unite and fight for their rights
and for universal justice, rather than to abandon the struggle and concentrate their efforts in the
Zionist cause.
112. Zionisten-Congress in Basel . . . Officielles Protocoll.
Vienna: Verein Erez Israel, 1898. First edition.
Herzl created the Zionist Congress, which was to serve as the highest authority of the movement.
At the first meeting of the congress, in Basel in 1897, the eastern and western European Zionist
movements became united and adopted a common program. emphasizing large-scale migration
and international assistance. This volume records the minutes of that important meeting. Herzl,
who served as president of the congress until his death, summed up the first session in his diary
when he wrote, "At Basel I founded the Jewish State."
113. [Marlin Buber, Berthold Feiwel, and Chaim Weizmann].
Eine jüdische Hochschule. Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1902.
Herzl's political endeavors on behalf of the Zionist movement were complemented by the
activities of another group concentrating on cultural affairs. Among this group were Martin
Buber, Berthold Feiwel, and Chaim Weizmann, who in Eine jüdische Hochschule
proposed the founding of a Jewish university. To be located preferably in Palestine, the
school was to be free of the quotas of European universities and was to educate Jewish youth in
both Jewish and general subjects. This plan was presented in 1901 to the Zionist Congress,
where it was favorably received, and on July 24, 1918, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was
founded.
114. Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf Munich: Franz Eher,
1925-27. 2 volumes. First edition.
Written during his imprisonment in 1924, Hitler's Mein Kampf eventually sold ten
million copies, making the author both famous and rich. Autobiographical and visionary, the
work contains Hitler's theory of anti-Semitism and his personal sentiments about the Jews. He
depicts the Jews as a corrupt race and the mortal enemy of the superior Aryans, and he conceives
of them with a pathological fear and hatred as infectious organisms which should be quarantined
from German society.
115. Die Nürnberger Gesetze. Reichsbürgergesetz . . .
1. Verordnung.... Nuremberg: Reichsausschutz für Volksgesund Heitsdienst,
November 14, 1935.
The Nuremberg Laws, publicized in this poster, were the most sweeping pieces of Nazi
anti-Jewish legislation. Officially promulgated during the National Socialist party convention in
1935, they clearly bear the imprint of Hitler's views as set forth in Mein Kampf.
Considered incapable of being citizens of the Reich and as dangerous sources of
contamination, Jews were to be isolated from "true" Germans. A key aim of the "Nuremberg
Laws" was thus the prohibition of marriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews.
These laws of 1935 were later supplemented by others whose cumulative effect was to exclude
Jews totally from German society.
116. Elvira Bauer. Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid
und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid! Nürnberg: Stürmer, 1936.
The task of whipping up anti-Semitic passions among the German masses belonged to an
emotionally disturbed Swabian school teacher named Julius Streicher. As editor of the weekly
Der Stürmer, he pursued his goal with a ferocity that often offended even high
Nazi officials. This collection of anti-Semitic poems and cartoons, published under the auspices
of Der Stürmer, epitomizes the type of propaganda in which Streicher dealt.
Don't Trust a Fox in a Green Meadow or a Jew on His Oath! depicts the Jews as devils,
racial inferiors, enemies of humanity, and defilers of the Aryan race.
117. Hermann Cohen. Briefe. Berlin: Schocken,
1939.
Although much of the existing structure of Jewish community life was suppressed after 1933,
the imposed isolation turned the German Jews inward to reexamine their own history and
heritage. The Bücherei des Schocken Verlags, devoted to the heritage of German-
Jewish literature, published a voluminous number of books, of which this collection of letters by
the philosopher Cohen was one of the last.
118. Gemeinschaftsarbeit der jüdischen Jugend. Berlin:
Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland, 1937.
Attracted by the youth movements which were so popular in the early decades of this century,
the Jews in Germany also formed their own groups. The Jewish youth movement saw itself as an
integral part of German society, but the rise of the Nazis slowly cut the Jews off from the
non-Jewish world. Gemeinschaftsarbeit der jüdischen Jugend describes the
activity of Jewish youth during the early years of the Nazi regime. Although the tone of the
report is calm, the admission that for the first time help was required from the outside world
reveals the pressures under which the movement was laboring.
119. Jüdisches Museum in Berlin. Gedenkausstellung
Don Jizchaq Abravanel and Akiba Eger Ausstellung. Berlin: M. Lessmann,
Chanukka and June, 1937. 2 volumes.
Despite the sophistication of the city's inhabitants, the Jewish community of Berlinúthe
largest in Germany_suffered the fate of all German Jews. Excluded from business and
professions and faced with a number of other restrictions, the Jews of Berlin experienced a
remarkable upsurge in cultural and religious life. These catalogues from two Jewish
Museum-exhibits, part of this development, honor the philosopher Isaac Abravanel and the
talmudic scholar Akiba Eger, who as representative of the worldly leader on the one hand and
the spiritual leader on the other symbolized for the Jews two alternative strands of Judaic
life.
120. Joseph Jacobsen and Erwin Jospe. Hawa
naschira! (Auf! lasst uns singen!). Leipzig and Hamburg: Anton
J. Benjamin, 1935. Image
Singing and music were means by which scattered Jewish communities found a measure of
solidarity and comfort. Intended for use in the school, club, and home, this songbook brings
together religious and secular material primarily from traditional and folk sources. German,
Yiddish, and Hebrew songs are represented, with German translations provided where necessary,
and several melodies from various holiday services are also included.
121. Werkleute Bund jüdischer Jugend. Vom Werden
des Kreises. Berlin: H. M. Dobrin and Son, 1934.
The Werkleute Bund was a Zionist youth organization encouraging Jewish
self-assurance and promoting aliyah, "emigration to Palestine." This 1934 report, On
the Origin of the Group, includes articles and letters reissued from earlier publications
which discuss the status and obligations of the German Jew. The last correspondence, dated
April 1933, is fully cognizant of the ominous change in Germany, considering aliyah no
more a question of "whether" but one of "how."
122. Fur unsere Auswanderer. Die Arbeit des Hilfsvereins der
Juden in Deutschland. Berlin, 1937.
The Relief Organization of German Jews, founded in 1901 along the lines of the French
L'Alliance Israélite universelle, had by the 1930s almost three hundred
chapters throughout Germany. Its original efforts were directed toward Jewish victims of
pogroms in the East, but after Hitler came to power, it turned its attentions to helping Jews
emigrate from Germany. As conditions worsened, relief efforts were increased. Between
1933 and 1941, more than ninety thousand persons were assisted in leaving Germany under the
organization's auspices. This annual report concludes by emphasizing the obligations of all Jews
throughout the world to support the activities of the Hilfsverein.
123. Abraham Joshua Heschel. Don Jizchak Abravanel.
Berlin: E. Reiss, 1937.
One of the most respected Jewish theologians and religious scholars in the United States, Rabbi
Heschel was continually active in New York Jewish affairs until his death in 1972. Born in
Warsaw, he received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1933, and shortly thereafter
published three works of Jewish interest, including this study of Abravanel. In 1937 Heschel
became an instructor at a Jewish school in Frankfurt under the directorship of Martin Buber, and
fled Germany one year later.
124. Zu Martin Bubers 60. Geburtstag. [Berlin:
Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland, 1938.]
In 1933 the philosopher Martin Buber was expelled by the Nazis from his professorship in
religion at the University of Frankfurt. During the following years, he traveled widely throughout
Germany, lecturing, teaching, and encouraging his fellow Jews, creating a spiritual resistance to
Nazism with which many Christians empathized, if only in secret. On his sixtieth birthday, in the
same year he emigrated to Palestine, Martin Buber was presented by Leo Baeck and others with
this small remembrance volume honoring his work, his dedication, and his travail.
125. Michael Cardinal Faulhaber. Judentum, Christentum,
Germanentum. Munich: A Huber, [1934].
An outspoken critic of the doctrine of racial exclusiveness and a bitter opponent of the
anti-Semitic brutalities of the Third Reich, Cardinal Faulhaber was one of the few German
Catholic prelates to speak out against Hitler. His sermons, delivered to overflowing crowds in St.
Michael's Church in Munich are collected in this volume. A firm believer in the validity of
Catholic doctrine, Faulhaber decries the rise of a new paganism and stresses the continuum
between the Old and New Testaments.
126. Julius Ludwig Israel Seligsohn. Die Einwanderung nach
U.S.A. Berlin: Jüdischer Kulturbund in Deutschland, 1940.
By 1940 Germany was at war and the conditions for those Jews left behind became critical.
Deportations of German Jews had already begun, as had mass executions of Eastern European
Jews in the newly conquered territories. This emigration handbook is the last legal Jewish
publication out of Nazi Germany. Its author, having struggled in a tightening net to help his
people escape, eventually returned from America to aid in the efforts of the final days and
perished in the concentration camp at Oranienburg.