Chaim Zhitlowsky
Encyclopedia
Chaim Zhitlowsky (April 19, 1865 - May 6, 1943) was a Jewish socialist, philosopher, social and political thinker, writer and literary critic born in the Russian Empire
(present-day Vitsebsk Voblast
, Belarus
).
He was a founding member and theoretician of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in Russia, an ideologist of Yiddishism and Jewish Diaspora nationalism
, which influenced the Jewish territorialist and nationalist movements. He was an advocate of Yiddish language
and culture. Chaim Zhitlowsky was also a vice-president of the important conference on the Yiddish language
held in Chernivtsi
, 1908.
The entire Jewish world is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the distinguished Jewish thinker and writer, Dr. Chaim (Khayim) Zhitlowsky. Chaim Zhitlowsky was born in the year 1865, in the small town of Ushachy, in the province of Vitebsk
, Russia
. When he was five years old, his parents moved to Vitebsk, the capital of the province.
On his mother’s side he was descended from artisans and merchants, on his father’s—from an aristocratic and well-educated family. His father, Joseph, studied in the famous Yeshiva
of Volozhin, to be a rabbi, but preferred to become a merchant. Though an ardent Chassid
of the Lubavich sect he was well versed in “Haskola” (enlightenment) literature, and often recited satiric “Haskola” tales and poems in Yiddish and Hebrew at family gatherings.
Fate was kind to Joseph and his business prospered. He moved to a richer, more exclusive section of the city. He kept an open house. A tutor of the Russian language was engaged for Chaim, but he continued his elementary religious studies at the kheyder.
Soon Chaim became friendly with high school students of his neighborhood. He began to read Russian literature. He made his first literary attempt, turning the Yiddish version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin into Hebrew.
On his thirteenth birthday (his Bar-Mitzvah) Chaim made the acquaintance of Shloyme Rappaport, who was later to become S. Ansky
, the famous author of The Dybuk. A warm life-long friendship developed between Zhitlowsky and Ansky, who had a weakness in common-writing. For a short time they issued a hand-written holographic magazine called Vitebsk Bells.
On entering the third grade of the Russian Gymnasium in 1879, Zhitlowsky came into contact with Revolutionary circles, and, for the time being was estranged from Yiddish and other matters of Jewish interest as a result. He was sobered, however, by the pogroms of the early 1880’s, and his naive cosmopolitanism was quickly dissipated. He left the Gymnasium, went to Tula
in 1881 and there was engaged in spreading Socialist Revolutionary propaganda. Shocked by the view of some members of that party, that pogroms were a step toward the liberation of the Russian people, he left the party. When he returned to Vitebsk he was caught in the current of the then rising Palestine movement. He was inspired by the vision of the Jewish colonies and a Jewish peasantry, but the religious character of that Palestinism did not appeal to him. He sought to publish a magazine to propagandize “his idea”—a synthesis of Jewish nationalism and socialism. At first his father was willing to finance this enterprise, but was talked out of it by an ardent Palestinian friend.
In 1885 Zhitlowsky tried to found a Jewish section of the illegal Narodnya Volya party, but the Jews in the central committee of the Narodnya Volya who believed in cosmopolitanism and assimilation defeated the Zhitlowsky project. This was a severe blow for the young Jewish revolutionary. His grandfather consoled him, pointing out the revolutionary character of the prophets, and of the great Jewish intellects of the later times. This quickened Zhitlowsky’s interest in Jewish history. At the St. Petersburg Imperial Library he found books he so badly needed, and soon he established contact with a St. Petersburg group of the Narodnaya Volya.
His first work, a treatise in Russian entitled Thought of the Historical Fate of the Jewish People was published in Moscow
in 1887 when he was only twenty-two. (Shortly before that he had been banished by the police from St. Petersburg). The liberal Russian press enthusiastically greeted and responded warmly to his ideas, but it met with scant favor among Jewish critics, because it contained no solution of the problems it treated. Several suspected him of being a Christian missionary.
Zhitlowsky returned to Vitebsk for a short time, from there he went to Galicia where it was much easier to preach Socialist doctrines among the Jewish masses. He became acquainted with a group of Jewish revolutionists from Zurich, who were engaged in disseminating radical literature in Yiddish.
He went to Berlin
and resumed his study of Jewish history, Marxism and philosophy. He was expelled from Germany, under the anti-Socialist law, and went to Zurich
. He immediately became active, founding the non-partisan “Verein fur Wissentschaft und Leben des Judischen Volkes,” for the purpose of inculcating Nationalism and Socialism among the Jewish masses.
With youthful fervor he engaged in the debates between the orthodox and the adherents of the Narodnaya Volya. The latter evolved into the Social Revolutionary Party.
He went to Berne
to study. Here, too, he founded an organization similar to the one in Zurich.
When famine broke out in Russia in 1891, he and Charles Rappaport founded a non-partisan organization to help the afflicted. The work was doomed to failure from the start. The representatives of the various political groups could not forget their differences. The work ended, even before it had begun.
Though engrossed as ever in social and political activity, he found time to prepare his Ph.D. thesis, and to continue his studies in Marxism. His debut in Jewish literature took place in 1891.
The London newspaper Freie Welt published his translation of two revolutionary poems. In 1892 The London Fund for Revolutionary Publication printed his Russian tractate A Jew to Jews, under the pseudonym of I. Khisin. In his first Socialist pamphlet on a Jewish theme, the author demanded national as well as civil equality for Jews. He was also active in an organization which combated the anti-Jewish—“Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”
Toward the latter part of 1893, Dr. Zhitlowsky, aided by Sh. Rappaport, M. Rosenbaum and several other Russian radicals, founded the “Federation of Socialist Revolutionaries” from which later developed the great Socialist Revolutionary Party. The group combated dogmatic Marxism. The newspaper The Russian Worker, appearing under the editorship of Zhitlowsky and Rappaport, busied itself with spreading propaganda among the masses. The Verband published in the year 1898 Zhitlowsky’s theoretical work, Socialism and the Fight for Political Freedom. It was written under the pen name Gregorovich. In this work, he tried to synthesize the three principal currents of the Russian revolutionary movement. From time to time, he contributed to several well-known Russian magazines, such as Russkoye Bogastvo; articles on Marxism and philosophy in the Jewish—Russian Voskhod; and contributed also to Sozialistische Monatshefte and Deutsche Worte.
In 1896 he organized the Group of Jewish Socialists Abroad. Their purpose was to prepare revolutionary propaganda literature in Yiddish, with the Communist Manifesto as a beginning. For this revolutionary library, Dr. Zhitlowsky wrote an introduction entitled Yiddish—Why? The Bund which published the booklet thought that Dr. Zhitlowsky’s introduction was not sufficiently revolutionary and too nationalistic, because the author expressed the belief that the rebirth of the Yiddish language and literature would lead to the national and social awakening of the Jewish people.
When the First Zionist Congress
convened at Basle, Dr. Zhitlowsky attended it. He was against founding a Zionist party. He believed in the necessity for a League for Jewish Colonization, a league that would appeal to all those opposed to Herzel’s political Zionism. A day after the Congress, Dr. Zhitlowsky addressed the delegates and guests on Yiddish and the purposes of the Yiddish publishing house Zeit Geist, which had been founded by a group of Jewish intellectuals and revolutionaries. In this speech were first laid the foundations of Yiddishism, which subsequently became deeply rooted in Eastern Europe and America. He came into close relations with the Bund which published his pamphlet Zionism or Socialism? In 1898.
In 1900 Dr. Zhitlowsky and Dr. John Edelheim founded the Deutscher Academischer Soziale Wissenschafte. They also took over the magazine Sozialistische Monatshefte.
He toured important European centers, making connections with revolutionary leaders of England, France, and Germany. The Deutscher Academischer Varlag existed several years. It was often attacked by orthodox Marxists because of the “revisionist” works published by him.
The Kishineff pogrom of 1903 coupled with personal difficulties profoundly depressed Dr. Zhitlowsky. He soon rallied, however, and turned toward the territorialistic movement. He conceived the idea of a Jewish Sejm
(parliament). At his initiative a group of radical nationalists and Zionists organized the Sejmist party. In 1904, Dr. Zhitlowsky served as delegate at the International Socialist Congress
in Amsterdam
, and his fight that the Socialist Revolutionary Party should have a representative in the International Socialist Bureau
ended victoriously.
When the first Yiddish daily in Russia, the St. Petersburg Frajnd, was founded, Dr. Zhitlowsky, under the penname N. Gaydaroff, contributed to it a series of articles entitled The Jewish People and the Yiddish Language, a theme which he often treated in later years.
In 1904 Dr. Zhitlowsky and “Babushka” (Granny) Breshkovskaya were sent by the Socialist Revolutionary Party to America to collect funds for the party and carry on a propaganda of its ideas.
With the Party’s permission he gave lectures on various Jewish matters during his stay in America. At that time the Jewish radical intelligentsia in America was under the influence of naive Socialist cosmopolitanism, which expressed itself in scorn for Jewish national problems, for the Yiddish language and culture. When Dr. Zhitlowsky in a series of lectures pointed out that there was no contradiction between progressive nationalism and the Socialist ideal, he encountered strong opposition. Very soon, however, many of his erstwhile opponents turned into his most ardent partisans.
After a two-year sojourn in America, he returned to Europe. He spent some time in Galicia and then he took himself to Russia, where his native province, Vitebsk, nominated him for Duma elections. The government refused to allow him to take his seat when elected. The reversal of this decision by the Senate came too late, for the Tsar had dispersed the Duma
.
Dr. Zhitlowsky spent 1907 in Finland. With the aid of Gregory Gershuni, he engaged in a strong Socialist Revolutionary propaganda. He called a congress of Socialist factions which leaned more closely to the Socialist Revolutionary ideology. This congress adopted several of his resolutions which increased the influence of the Sejmists (Parliamentarians) The S. R. and the Sejmists sent him as their delegate to the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart that year. Here he fought for the rights of these two parties in the International Socialist Bureau.
In 1908 he was sent to America by the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Sejmists. With the help of the following which he had attracted among the radical Jewish intellectuals during his previous visit, Dr. Zhitlowsky founded a publishing house which issued the monthly, Dos Naye Leben. Under the editorship of Dr. Zhitlowsky, it exercised great influence on Yiddish culture, literature, the development of free socialist thought,—an influence felt to this day. Dos Naye Leben became the spiritual home of many Jewish publicists and scientists, and the organ of modern Yiddish literature.
That very year, after a brief stay in America, Dr. Zhitlowsky returned to Europe, where he participated in a number of important conferences. That trip to Europe, is connected with a very important date in the history of the Yiddish language. The Yiddish Language Conference was held in Chernovitz in 1908. Under the leadership of its originators, Dr. Zhitlowsky, J. L. Perez and Nathan Birnbaum
, the Conference for the first time in history declared Yiddish to be "a national language of the Jewish people."
In 1909 Dr. Zhitlowsky raised (in his magazine Dos Naye Leben) the question of founding Yiddish secular schools in America.
In 1910 at the Convention of the Poale Zion
Party in Montreal, Canada, that matter was placed by him on the order of the day, and there and then the inauguration of this type of school was proclaimed. The first Folkshul in New York City was opened on December 10, 1910 at 143 Madison St., and Dr. Zhitlowsky took an active part in the growth of this school.
His influence was also very considerable in the creation, some years later, of the Jewish secular schools of the Workmen’s Circle.
In 1912, the thousands of followers of Dr. Zhitlowsky attracted by his writings and lectures, celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his literary activity. Four volumes of his collected works, shortly followed by two others, were published in connection with this anniversary.
In 1913 when Dos Naye Leben was discontinued, Dr. Zhitlowsky made a lecture tour of Jewish student colonies of the important academic centers in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He also visited Palestine
in order to study the possibilities of widespread Jewish colonization there.
He returned to America at the outbreak of the World War. Until then he had been a contributor to the Warheit, edited by L. A. Miller. He now joined the staff of the newly-organized Day. He advocated America’s neutrality, and battled against the pro-German feelings of the man in the street and of the Yiddish press.
Dr. Zhitlowsky also joined the movement for a Jewish congress
and when it was convened he played an important part in its deliberations. At the same time, he continued his tracts on philosophy and sociology in the Yiddish magazine Zukunft.
In 1920 appeared Die Zeit
, a Poale-Zion daily, Dr. Zhitlowsky who had joined that party a few years before, became one of the most important contributors of that paper. Its publication ceased in 1921, and since then Dr. Zhitiowsky has been a steady contributor of the Day.
In 1922, Dr. Zhitlowsky and Sh. Niger renewed the publication of Das Naye Leben. Its point of view remained unaltered. In 1923, when the magazine was discontinued, Dr. Zhitlowsky returned to Europe in order to complete his most important work, The Spiritual Struggle of the Jewish People for Freedom. He visited Palestine and toured the Jewish centers in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, between 1924 and 1925. Everywhere he was received with the greatest enthusiasm and admiration.
On November 28, 1925, Dr. Zhitlowsky’s sixtieth birthday was celebrated at the Manhattan Opera House in New York. Similar celebrations were held in other American and European cities visited by Dr. Zhitlowsky. A Zhitlowsky Memorial Volume was published in Berlin. It contained articles and reminiscences of his intimate friends and disciples. At Dr. Zhitlowsky’s suggestion, the proceeds from the book were turned over to the Yiddish Scientific Institute
of Vilno, which Professor Albert Einstein
, Sigmund Freud
, as well as Dr. Zhitlowsky, are members of its Honorary Board of Directors.
Through the initiative of Dr. Zhitlowsky, and his lifelong friend, Dr. S. Ellsberg, the Yiddish Culture Society was founded in September 1929. The purpose of the organization is to unite all adherents of Yiddish to enable them to work in common for the development of Yiddish, the Yiddish school and Yiddish culture in general. He was also one of the editors of the weekly Yiddish, issued by the Yiddish Culture Society.
When the Jewish-American Congress
decided to resume activity on a democratic basis, Dr. Zhitlowsky at once engaged in its labors. He is one of the leaders of the Worker’s Bloc, and favors the calling of a Jewish World Congress
.
Now on the eve of his seventieth birthday, he is no less active as a writer and leader than in former years.
Other writings of Dr. Zhitlowsky include: Philosophy (published in 1910), the first Yiddish book to deal with the development of philosophic thought; a Yiddish translation of Nietsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra; an essay on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
(published in Warsaw in 1930); Two Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Religion (published in 1931). The committee sponsoring the celebration of Dr. Zhitlowsky’s seventieth birthday plans to publish his collected works and memoirs.
During his literary career, Dr. Zhitlowsky has contributed to the most important Yiddish newspapers and magazines in America and Europe, and helped to create a style for Yiddish publicistic and scientific writing.
In his monograph, Dr. Zhitlowsky; His Life and Work, Sh. Niger made the following summary of Dr. Zhitlowsky’s achievements:
A) In the world of universal ideas.
Fought against dogmatism in philosophy in general, and in the philosophy of Dialectic Materialism, in particular.
Strove to unite all elements of labor, factory workers, peasants, intellectual workers—in the struggle for socialism.
Fought for the principles of autonomy and federalism as against centralization in the State.
Theoretic and practical propaganda of Socialist Revolutionary ideas.
B) In the Jewish world:
Fought for the secularization and separation of nationality from religion.
Fought for progressive national culture, against assimilation and narrow nationalism.
Theoretic proof of Galuth-nationalism.
Synthesis of nationalism arid socialism, of Galuth-nationalism and territorialism.
Influenced the programs of the Jewish nationalist parties.
Interested radical Jewish intelligentsia in Yiddish cultural life and work.
Helped to clarify and crystallize theYiddish radical movement in America.
Enrich Yiddish language and oratory. Propagated the idea of the new secular Yiddish school.
Pioneer work in the field of scientific and philosophical literature in Yiddish.
This is a short summary of over a half of century of scientific, literary, journalistic work, and activity as a lecturer and publisher, all in the spirit of Socialism and progressive nationalism among the Jewish masses in America and abroad.
.
"Hobbes and Locke" excerpt from "Philosophy" by Chaim Zhitlovsky
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(present-day Vitsebsk Voblast
Vitsebsk Voblast
Vitsebsk Voblast or Vitebsk Oblast is a province of Belarus with its administrative center being Vitebsk .As of a 2009 estimate, the voblast has a population of 1,230,800...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
).
He was a founding member and theoretician of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in Russia, an ideologist of Yiddishism and Jewish Diaspora nationalism
Diaspora politics
Diaspora politics is the political behavior of transnational ethnic diasporas, their relationship with their ethnic homelands and their host states, as well as their prominent role in ethnic conflicts...
, which influenced the Jewish territorialist and nationalist movements. He was an advocate of Yiddish language
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
and culture. Chaim Zhitlowsky was also a vice-president of the important conference on the Yiddish language
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
held in Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...
, 1908.
Biography
Issued by the Zhitlowsky Anniversary Committee in 1935:The entire Jewish world is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the distinguished Jewish thinker and writer, Dr. Chaim (Khayim) Zhitlowsky. Chaim Zhitlowsky was born in the year 1865, in the small town of Ushachy, in the province of Vitebsk
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. When he was five years old, his parents moved to Vitebsk, the capital of the province.
On his mother’s side he was descended from artisans and merchants, on his father’s—from an aristocratic and well-educated family. His father, Joseph, studied in the famous Yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
of Volozhin, to be a rabbi, but preferred to become a merchant. Though an ardent Chassid
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
of the Lubavich sect he was well versed in “Haskola” (enlightenment) literature, and often recited satiric “Haskola” tales and poems in Yiddish and Hebrew at family gatherings.
Fate was kind to Joseph and his business prospered. He moved to a richer, more exclusive section of the city. He kept an open house. A tutor of the Russian language was engaged for Chaim, but he continued his elementary religious studies at the kheyder.
Soon Chaim became friendly with high school students of his neighborhood. He began to read Russian literature. He made his first literary attempt, turning the Yiddish version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin into Hebrew.
On his thirteenth birthday (his Bar-Mitzvah) Chaim made the acquaintance of Shloyme Rappaport, who was later to become S. Ansky
S. Ansky
Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport , known by his pseudonym S. Ansky , was a Russian Jewish author, playwright, and researcher of Jewish folklore....
, the famous author of The Dybuk. A warm life-long friendship developed between Zhitlowsky and Ansky, who had a weakness in common-writing. For a short time they issued a hand-written holographic magazine called Vitebsk Bells.
On entering the third grade of the Russian Gymnasium in 1879, Zhitlowsky came into contact with Revolutionary circles, and, for the time being was estranged from Yiddish and other matters of Jewish interest as a result. He was sobered, however, by the pogroms of the early 1880’s, and his naive cosmopolitanism was quickly dissipated. He left the Gymnasium, went to Tula
Tula, Russia
Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...
in 1881 and there was engaged in spreading Socialist Revolutionary propaganda. Shocked by the view of some members of that party, that pogroms were a step toward the liberation of the Russian people, he left the party. When he returned to Vitebsk he was caught in the current of the then rising Palestine movement. He was inspired by the vision of the Jewish colonies and a Jewish peasantry, but the religious character of that Palestinism did not appeal to him. He sought to publish a magazine to propagandize “his idea”—a synthesis of Jewish nationalism and socialism. At first his father was willing to finance this enterprise, but was talked out of it by an ardent Palestinian friend.
In 1885 Zhitlowsky tried to found a Jewish section of the illegal Narodnya Volya party, but the Jews in the central committee of the Narodnya Volya who believed in cosmopolitanism and assimilation defeated the Zhitlowsky project. This was a severe blow for the young Jewish revolutionary. His grandfather consoled him, pointing out the revolutionary character of the prophets, and of the great Jewish intellects of the later times. This quickened Zhitlowsky’s interest in Jewish history. At the St. Petersburg Imperial Library he found books he so badly needed, and soon he established contact with a St. Petersburg group of the Narodnaya Volya.
His first work, a treatise in Russian entitled Thought of the Historical Fate of the Jewish People was published in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1887 when he was only twenty-two. (Shortly before that he had been banished by the police from St. Petersburg). The liberal Russian press enthusiastically greeted and responded warmly to his ideas, but it met with scant favor among Jewish critics, because it contained no solution of the problems it treated. Several suspected him of being a Christian missionary.
Zhitlowsky returned to Vitebsk for a short time, from there he went to Galicia where it was much easier to preach Socialist doctrines among the Jewish masses. He became acquainted with a group of Jewish revolutionists from Zurich, who were engaged in disseminating radical literature in Yiddish.
He went to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and resumed his study of Jewish history, Marxism and philosophy. He was expelled from Germany, under the anti-Socialist law, and went to Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
. He immediately became active, founding the non-partisan “Verein fur Wissentschaft und Leben des Judischen Volkes,” for the purpose of inculcating Nationalism and Socialism among the Jewish masses.
With youthful fervor he engaged in the debates between the orthodox and the adherents of the Narodnaya Volya. The latter evolved into the Social Revolutionary Party.
He went to Berne
Berne
The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...
to study. Here, too, he founded an organization similar to the one in Zurich.
When famine broke out in Russia in 1891, he and Charles Rappaport founded a non-partisan organization to help the afflicted. The work was doomed to failure from the start. The representatives of the various political groups could not forget their differences. The work ended, even before it had begun.
Though engrossed as ever in social and political activity, he found time to prepare his Ph.D. thesis, and to continue his studies in Marxism. His debut in Jewish literature took place in 1891.
The London newspaper Freie Welt published his translation of two revolutionary poems. In 1892 The London Fund for Revolutionary Publication printed his Russian tractate A Jew to Jews, under the pseudonym of I. Khisin. In his first Socialist pamphlet on a Jewish theme, the author demanded national as well as civil equality for Jews. He was also active in an organization which combated the anti-Jewish—“Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”
Toward the latter part of 1893, Dr. Zhitlowsky, aided by Sh. Rappaport, M. Rosenbaum and several other Russian radicals, founded the “Federation of Socialist Revolutionaries” from which later developed the great Socialist Revolutionary Party. The group combated dogmatic Marxism. The newspaper The Russian Worker, appearing under the editorship of Zhitlowsky and Rappaport, busied itself with spreading propaganda among the masses. The Verband published in the year 1898 Zhitlowsky’s theoretical work, Socialism and the Fight for Political Freedom. It was written under the pen name Gregorovich. In this work, he tried to synthesize the three principal currents of the Russian revolutionary movement. From time to time, he contributed to several well-known Russian magazines, such as Russkoye Bogastvo; articles on Marxism and philosophy in the Jewish—Russian Voskhod; and contributed also to Sozialistische Monatshefte and Deutsche Worte.
In 1896 he organized the Group of Jewish Socialists Abroad. Their purpose was to prepare revolutionary propaganda literature in Yiddish, with the Communist Manifesto as a beginning. For this revolutionary library, Dr. Zhitlowsky wrote an introduction entitled Yiddish—Why? The Bund which published the booklet thought that Dr. Zhitlowsky’s introduction was not sufficiently revolutionary and too nationalistic, because the author expressed the belief that the rebirth of the Yiddish language and literature would lead to the national and social awakening of the Jewish people.
When the First Zionist Congress
First Zionist Congress
The First Zionist Congress was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31, 1897. It was convened and chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionism movement...
convened at Basle, Dr. Zhitlowsky attended it. He was against founding a Zionist party. He believed in the necessity for a League for Jewish Colonization, a league that would appeal to all those opposed to Herzel’s political Zionism. A day after the Congress, Dr. Zhitlowsky addressed the delegates and guests on Yiddish and the purposes of the Yiddish publishing house Zeit Geist, which had been founded by a group of Jewish intellectuals and revolutionaries. In this speech were first laid the foundations of Yiddishism, which subsequently became deeply rooted in Eastern Europe and America. He came into close relations with the Bund which published his pamphlet Zionism or Socialism? In 1898.
In 1900 Dr. Zhitlowsky and Dr. John Edelheim founded the Deutscher Academischer Soziale Wissenschafte. They also took over the magazine Sozialistische Monatshefte.
He toured important European centers, making connections with revolutionary leaders of England, France, and Germany. The Deutscher Academischer Varlag existed several years. It was often attacked by orthodox Marxists because of the “revisionist” works published by him.
The Kishineff pogrom of 1903 coupled with personal difficulties profoundly depressed Dr. Zhitlowsky. He soon rallied, however, and turned toward the territorialistic movement. He conceived the idea of a Jewish Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
(parliament). At his initiative a group of radical nationalists and Zionists organized the Sejmist party. In 1904, Dr. Zhitlowsky served as delegate at the International Socialist Congress
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, and his fight that the Socialist Revolutionary Party should have a representative in the International Socialist Bureau
International Socialist Bureau
The International Socialist Bureau was the permanent organization of the Second International, established at the Paris congress of 1900. Before this there was no organizational infrastructure to the "Second International" beyond a series of periodical congresses, which weren't even given a...
ended victoriously.
When the first Yiddish daily in Russia, the St. Petersburg Frajnd, was founded, Dr. Zhitlowsky, under the penname N. Gaydaroff, contributed to it a series of articles entitled The Jewish People and the Yiddish Language, a theme which he often treated in later years.
In 1904 Dr. Zhitlowsky and “Babushka” (Granny) Breshkovskaya were sent by the Socialist Revolutionary Party to America to collect funds for the party and carry on a propaganda of its ideas.
With the Party’s permission he gave lectures on various Jewish matters during his stay in America. At that time the Jewish radical intelligentsia in America was under the influence of naive Socialist cosmopolitanism, which expressed itself in scorn for Jewish national problems, for the Yiddish language and culture. When Dr. Zhitlowsky in a series of lectures pointed out that there was no contradiction between progressive nationalism and the Socialist ideal, he encountered strong opposition. Very soon, however, many of his erstwhile opponents turned into his most ardent partisans.
After a two-year sojourn in America, he returned to Europe. He spent some time in Galicia and then he took himself to Russia, where his native province, Vitebsk, nominated him for Duma elections. The government refused to allow him to take his seat when elected. The reversal of this decision by the Senate came too late, for the Tsar had dispersed the Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
.
Dr. Zhitlowsky spent 1907 in Finland. With the aid of Gregory Gershuni, he engaged in a strong Socialist Revolutionary propaganda. He called a congress of Socialist factions which leaned more closely to the Socialist Revolutionary ideology. This congress adopted several of his resolutions which increased the influence of the Sejmists (Parliamentarians) The S. R. and the Sejmists sent him as their delegate to the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart that year. Here he fought for the rights of these two parties in the International Socialist Bureau.
In 1908 he was sent to America by the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Sejmists. With the help of the following which he had attracted among the radical Jewish intellectuals during his previous visit, Dr. Zhitlowsky founded a publishing house which issued the monthly, Dos Naye Leben. Under the editorship of Dr. Zhitlowsky, it exercised great influence on Yiddish culture, literature, the development of free socialist thought,—an influence felt to this day. Dos Naye Leben became the spiritual home of many Jewish publicists and scientists, and the organ of modern Yiddish literature.
That very year, after a brief stay in America, Dr. Zhitlowsky returned to Europe, where he participated in a number of important conferences. That trip to Europe, is connected with a very important date in the history of the Yiddish language. The Yiddish Language Conference was held in Chernovitz in 1908. Under the leadership of its originators, Dr. Zhitlowsky, J. L. Perez and Nathan Birnbaum
Nathan Birnbaum
----Nathan Birnbaum was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker and nationalist. His life had three main phases, representing a progression in his thinking: Zionist phase ; Jewish cultural autonomy phase which included the promotion of the Yiddish language; and religious phase...
, the Conference for the first time in history declared Yiddish to be "a national language of the Jewish people."
In 1909 Dr. Zhitlowsky raised (in his magazine Dos Naye Leben) the question of founding Yiddish secular schools in America.
In 1910 at the Convention of the Poale Zion
Poale Zion
Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...
Party in Montreal, Canada, that matter was placed by him on the order of the day, and there and then the inauguration of this type of school was proclaimed. The first Folkshul in New York City was opened on December 10, 1910 at 143 Madison St., and Dr. Zhitlowsky took an active part in the growth of this school.
His influence was also very considerable in the creation, some years later, of the Jewish secular schools of the Workmen’s Circle.
In 1912, the thousands of followers of Dr. Zhitlowsky attracted by his writings and lectures, celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his literary activity. Four volumes of his collected works, shortly followed by two others, were published in connection with this anniversary.
In 1913 when Dos Naye Leben was discontinued, Dr. Zhitlowsky made a lecture tour of Jewish student colonies of the important academic centers in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He also visited Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in order to study the possibilities of widespread Jewish colonization there.
He returned to America at the outbreak of the World War. Until then he had been a contributor to the Warheit, edited by L. A. Miller. He now joined the staff of the newly-organized Day. He advocated America’s neutrality, and battled against the pro-German feelings of the man in the street and of the Yiddish press.
Dr. Zhitlowsky also joined the movement for a Jewish congress
American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....
and when it was convened he played an important part in its deliberations. At the same time, he continued his tracts on philosophy and sociology in the Yiddish magazine Zukunft.
In 1920 appeared Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
, a Poale-Zion daily, Dr. Zhitlowsky who had joined that party a few years before, became one of the most important contributors of that paper. Its publication ceased in 1921, and since then Dr. Zhitiowsky has been a steady contributor of the Day.
In 1922, Dr. Zhitlowsky and Sh. Niger renewed the publication of Das Naye Leben. Its point of view remained unaltered. In 1923, when the magazine was discontinued, Dr. Zhitlowsky returned to Europe in order to complete his most important work, The Spiritual Struggle of the Jewish People for Freedom. He visited Palestine and toured the Jewish centers in Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, between 1924 and 1925. Everywhere he was received with the greatest enthusiasm and admiration.
On November 28, 1925, Dr. Zhitlowsky’s sixtieth birthday was celebrated at the Manhattan Opera House in New York. Similar celebrations were held in other American and European cities visited by Dr. Zhitlowsky. A Zhitlowsky Memorial Volume was published in Berlin. It contained articles and reminiscences of his intimate friends and disciples. At Dr. Zhitlowsky’s suggestion, the proceeds from the book were turned over to the Yiddish Scientific Institute
YIVO
YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
of Vilno, which Professor Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, as well as Dr. Zhitlowsky, are members of its Honorary Board of Directors.
Through the initiative of Dr. Zhitlowsky, and his lifelong friend, Dr. S. Ellsberg, the Yiddish Culture Society was founded in September 1929. The purpose of the organization is to unite all adherents of Yiddish to enable them to work in common for the development of Yiddish, the Yiddish school and Yiddish culture in general. He was also one of the editors of the weekly Yiddish, issued by the Yiddish Culture Society.
When the Jewish-American Congress
American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....
decided to resume activity on a democratic basis, Dr. Zhitlowsky at once engaged in its labors. He is one of the leaders of the Worker’s Bloc, and favors the calling of a Jewish World Congress
World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
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Now on the eve of his seventieth birthday, he is no less active as a writer and leader than in former years.
Other writings of Dr. Zhitlowsky include: Philosophy (published in 1910), the first Yiddish book to deal with the development of philosophic thought; a Yiddish translation of Nietsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra; an essay on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Theory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
(published in Warsaw in 1930); Two Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Religion (published in 1931). The committee sponsoring the celebration of Dr. Zhitlowsky’s seventieth birthday plans to publish his collected works and memoirs.
During his literary career, Dr. Zhitlowsky has contributed to the most important Yiddish newspapers and magazines in America and Europe, and helped to create a style for Yiddish publicistic and scientific writing.
In his monograph, Dr. Zhitlowsky; His Life and Work, Sh. Niger made the following summary of Dr. Zhitlowsky’s achievements:
A) In the world of universal ideas.
Fought against dogmatism in philosophy in general, and in the philosophy of Dialectic Materialism, in particular.
Strove to unite all elements of labor, factory workers, peasants, intellectual workers—in the struggle for socialism.
Fought for the principles of autonomy and federalism as against centralization in the State.
Theoretic and practical propaganda of Socialist Revolutionary ideas.
B) In the Jewish world:
Fought for the secularization and separation of nationality from religion.
Fought for progressive national culture, against assimilation and narrow nationalism.
Theoretic proof of Galuth-nationalism.
Synthesis of nationalism arid socialism, of Galuth-nationalism and territorialism.
Influenced the programs of the Jewish nationalist parties.
Interested radical Jewish intelligentsia in Yiddish cultural life and work.
Helped to clarify and crystallize theYiddish radical movement in America.
Enrich Yiddish language and oratory. Propagated the idea of the new secular Yiddish school.
Pioneer work in the field of scientific and philosophical literature in Yiddish.
This is a short summary of over a half of century of scientific, literary, journalistic work, and activity as a lecturer and publisher, all in the spirit of Socialism and progressive nationalism among the Jewish masses in America and abroad.
Other information
In Yidn un Yiddishkayt (Jews and Jewishness, 1924), he sought to define the secular essence of Yiddishkayt, this time by calling forth the notions of racial contemporary theoriesScientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
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Selected publications
- Gedanken über die geschichtlichen Schicksale der Juden, 1887 (in Russian)
- Der Traum fun a Lediggeher, London 1891
- Sozialismus und Kämpfe für politische Freiheit, 1898
- Das jüdische Volk und die jüdische Sprache, 1903
- Der Sozialismus und die nationale Frage, 1907 (in Yiddish)
- Die Philosophie, was sie ist und wie sie sich entwickelt hat, 2 vols. New York 1910, in Yiddish, 2. Aufl. 1920
Sources
- "Zionism or Socialism" By Chaim Zhitlovsky
- "Our Language Question" By Chaim Zhitlovsky
- "The Future of Our Youth In This Country and Assimilation" (English Translation) By Chaim Zhitlovsky
- "Kant's Critical Philosophy" excerpt from "Philosophy" By Chaim Zhitlovsky
"Hobbes and Locke" excerpt from "Philosophy" by Chaim Zhitlovsky
- "Plato and Aristotle" excerpt from "Philosophy" by Chiam Zhitlovsky
- "A Short Biography of His Life and Works"
- "The Assimilation" By Chaim Zhitlovsky