Max Nordau: Difference between revisions
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Max Nordau was born in Hungary. From his rabbi, he learned Hebrew and | '''Max Nordau''' was one of the founder of the modern [[Zionist movement]]. He was born in Hungary. From his rabbi, he learned Hebrew and Ladino from his father and received the Hanoch Masari, and studied medicine at the University of Budapest. At the age of eighteen, Nordau began publishing articles in newspapers, mainly in German, and later became a prolific writer and author of novels, plays, criticism books, biographies, and children’s fairy tales. His books that criticize society and its institutions, including “[https://ia804505.us.archive.org/21/items/conventionallies840nord/conventionallies840nord.pdf Conventional Lies of our Civilization],” “[https://archive.org/details/cu31924026313118/page/n1/mode/2up The Malady of the Century],” and “[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Paradoxes/gipcAAAAMAAJ?hl=en Paradoxes],” were very successful. | ||
== Nordau and Zionism == | == Nordau and Zionism == | ||
Nordau, who was far from Judaism, became interested in the Jewish problem when hatred of | Nordau, who was far from Judaism, became interested in the Jewish problem when hatred of Jews (anti-Semitism) increased in Europe in the late 19th century. During the [[Dreyfus trial]], he worked as a clerk in Paris, and like his friend [[Herzl]], he saw anti-Semitism in its rampant form. Nordau was also among the first to read the manuscript of Herzl’s “The Jewish State.” Nordau was enthusiastic about Herzl’s ideas and devoted himself to the service of the Zionist movement. He drafted the “Basel Plan” at the First Zionist Congress (1897), and from then until his death was one of the central figures of the Zionist movement. He sided with [[political Zionism]] and demanded full political rights over the Land of Israel for the Jewish people. However, in 1903 he supported the [[Uganda Plan]], which Herzl had put forward. After Herzl’s death, Nordau did not agree to succeed him as president of the Zionist movement (partly because he was married to a Christian woman) and supported the position of David Wolfson. Nordau served as Wolfson’s political advisor, just as he had been Herzl’s advisor. | ||
After World War I, [[Ḥaim Weizmann]] (then serving as president of the World Zionist Organization) invited Nordau to come to London and serve as his political advisor. However, after a while, Nordau left this position because he opposed the official position of the Zionist leadership. He demanded that half a million Jews be immediately brought to Israel, to settle them on the land and integrate them into the economy of the country (which was already under British Mandate rule), and thus “to conquer Israel for the people of Israel.” In this way, he hoped to advance the great danger that, in his opinion, hung over the Jews in Europe. However, the Zionist leadership saw Nordau’s plan as an unfulfilled dream and his position was undermined. He died in Paris, and according to his will, his remains were transferred to the old cemetery in Tel Aviv, on Trumpeldor Street. Towns, institutions and streets in Israel bear his name. | After World War I, [[Ḥaim Weizmann]] (then serving as president of the World Zionist Organization) invited Nordau to come to London and serve as his political advisor. However, after a while, Nordau left this position because he opposed the official position of the Zionist leadership. He demanded that half a million Jews be immediately brought to Israel, to settle them on the land and integrate them into the economy of the country (which was already under British Mandate rule), and thus “to conquer Israel for the people of Israel.” In this way, he hoped to advance the great danger that, in his opinion, hung over the Jews in Europe. However, the Zionist leadership saw Nordau’s plan as an unfulfilled dream and his position was undermined. He died in Paris, and according to his will, his remains were transferred to the old cemetery in Tel Aviv, on Trumpeldor Street. Towns, institutions and streets in Israel bear his name. | ||
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* A great people cannot live without an ideal. | * A great people cannot live without an ideal. | ||
** Max Nordau in a 1915 address delivered in Madrid, Spain. | ** Max Nordau in a 1915 address delivered in Madrid, Spain. Quoted in ''A Treasury of Jewish Quotations'', p. 194. | ||
* A day will come when Zionism will be needed by you, proud Germans [German Jews], as much as by those wretched Ostjuden. ... A day will come when you will beg for asylum in the land you now scorn. | * A day will come when Zionism will be needed by you, proud Germans [German Jews], as much as by those wretched Ostjuden. ... A day will come when you will beg for asylum in the land you now scorn. | ||
** Speech, Berlin, Jan. 23, 1899. | ** Speech, Berlin, Jan. 23, 1899. Quoted in ''A Treasury of Jewish Quotations'', p. 141. | ||
* Judaism is Zionism, and Zionism is Judaism. | * Judaism is Zionism, and Zionism is Judaism. | ||
** [https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/3476254 Address, II Zionist Congress], Aug. 28, 1898. | ** [https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/3476254 Address, II Zionist Congress], Aug. 28, 1898. Quoted in The North American Review, p. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_North_American_Review/AgoZAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Judaism+is+Zionism,+and+Zionism+is+Judaism%22&pg=PA626&printsec=frontcover 626]. | ||
* Judaism will be Zionist, or Judaism will not be. | * Judaism will be Zionist, or Judaism will not be. | ||
** Address, Amsterdam, April 1899. | ** Address, Amsterdam, April 1899. Quoted in ''A Treasury of Jewish Quotations'', p. 565. | ||
*Our people had a Herzl, but Herzl never had a people. | |||
**In the [https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/periodical/titleinfo/3476268 seventh Zionist congress] | |||
[[Category:Zionist leaders and thinkers]] |