Micha Josef Berdyczewski

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Micha Josef Berdyczewski

Micha Josef Berdyczewski and later Micha Josef Bin Gorion (July born 27 . Jul / 8. August  1865 greg. In Medzhybizh , Russian empire , died 18th November 1921 in Berlin ) was a Russian-German writer.

life and work

Berdyczewski came from a number of Hasidic rabbis. His father was a rabbi in the Shtetl Medschybisch. As a teenager, Micha Josef began to read the writers of the Haskala ; the clashes between modern ideas and the forces of traditional Judaism influenced his writing throughout his life. His first marriage (1883–85) ended when his father-in-law wanted to forbid him from reading modern Hebrew literature. Shortly afterwards he moved to the yeshiva of Valoschyn , where he studied for a year. Here he began his literary career and with his writings drew the wrath of his teachers. His first publications were polemical articles that were characterized more by lyrical outbursts than by logically connected statements - a style that would also determine his later writing.

In 1890 Berdyczewski moved from Russia to Germany and initially lived for two years in Breslau , where he studied at the local rabbinical seminary and university . Here he often met with David Frischmann , who sought to broaden Berdyczewski's intellectual horizons and literary taste. In 1892 he moved to Berlin , where he continued to study religious and secular subjects.

In his philosophical studies he was mainly influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer . In his article Reschut ha-Jachid bead ha-Rabbim ("The right of the individual vis-à-vis the majority", 1892) he defended the claims of individual freedom and creativity against requirements arising from abstract terms such as tradition, religion, common sense and history and ideology.

After studying for two years at the University of Bern , Berdyczewski again spent four years (1896–1900) in Berlin. Encouraged by his opposition to Achad Ha-Am and Theodor Herzl , he attacked all accepted ideological positions in numerous Hebrew magazines and called for a " revaluation " - in the sense of Nietzsche - of Judaism and Jewish history as well as an expansion of Hebrew literary taste. In 1897, a debate between Achad Ha-Am and Berdyczewski appeared in the Ha-Schiloach magazine .

In 1900 he married the dentist Rachel Romberg (1879–1955), who supervised his literary activities and, together with her son Immanuel Bin-Gorion, continued to publish her husband's writings after his death. A trip of a few weeks with his wife to the Russian Paleon of Settlement brought Berdyczewski to mind the harsh realities of Jewish life there. After a stay in Warsaw, he returned to Germany, lived in Breslau from 1901–11 and the rest of his life in Berlin, where he received Prussian citizenship on New Year's 1919.

Grave of Micha Josef Bin Gorion in Weißensee

In Wroclaw he wrote numerous articles and stories in Hebrew and Yiddish, collected rabbinic legends, studied the origins of Judaism with an emphasis on the Samaritan tradition and began to write an unpublished diary in German. The years after 1914 were particularly difficult for him: his health was in poor health, he was subject to travel restrictions as a Russian citizen and was deeply shocked to find out after the war that his father had been murdered in a pogrom in Dubovo. Nonetheless, he wrote some of his most important stories after the First World War, in particular his novella Mirjam , which he completed shortly before his death. He died in 1921 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

His literary reviews are ironic and often written in an impressionistic style. He showed little appreciation for leading contemporaries such as Mendele Moicher Sforim , Chaim Nachman Bialik and Achad Ha-Am, but supported younger writers such as Josef Chaim Brenner . His numerous stories, over 150 in Hebrew, and more in Yiddish and German, deal mainly with two subjects: life in the Jewish shtetl in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century and the life of Eastern European Jewish students in the cities of Central and Western Europe. The representation of the Eastern European small towns with a Jewish and a non-Jewish quarter, which are always separated by a river, often symbolizes the psychological and social tensions. Time and again, life is described as a battle between beauty and ugliness, refined culture and rawness, in which the good and the beautiful are defeated. After 1900, Berdyczewski's shtetl increasingly appeared as the scene of a society gripped by blind, cruel violence.

1921-25 appeared the collected works of Berdyczewski under the title Kol Kitwe in the 20-volume Stybel edition.

The moshaw Sdot Micha in Israel, founded in 1955, is named after Micha Josef Berdyczewski.

Story collections

  • The sagas of the Jews , collected and edited by Micha Josef Bin Gorion. The texts are translated into German by Rahel Ramberg-Berdyczewsky. - Frankfurt a. M, Rütten & Loening 1913–1927
    • Volume 1 From prehistoric times: Jewish legends and myths. 1913
    • Volume 2 The patriarchs  : Jewish legends and myths. 1914
    • Volume 3 The twelve tribes  : Jewish legends and myths. 1919
    • Volume 4 Moses  : Jewish Legends and Myths. 1926
    • Volume 5 Judah and Israel  : Jewish Legends and Myths. 1927
  • The Born of Judas  : Legends, Fairy Tales and Stories / Micha Josef Bin-Gorion. - Leipzig [u. a.], Insel-Verlag 1916–1923
    • Volume 1 Of love and loyalty.
    • Volume 2 From the right path.
    • Volume 3 Mars and Lessons.
    • Volume 4 Wisdom and Folly.
    • Volume 5 Folk Tales.
    • Volume 6 Kabbalistic Stories.

Other works

  • The first humans and animals: selection from the legends of the Jews. Frankfurt a. M., Rütten & Loening 1917
  • Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: selection from the legends of the Jews. Frankfurt a. M., Rütten & Loening 1917
  • From Eastern Judaism. Religious, literary, political. Berlin, Löwit 1918
  • Before the storm. East Jewish Stories. Vienna u. Berlin 1919.
  • Two generations. Stories. Vienna / Berlin, Löwit 1918
  • Eli. After d. Reordered font. v. M (icha) J (osef) am Gorion. Translated by Rahel Romberg. With 3 stone drawings v. Lovis Corinth . Leipzig published by Insel-Verlag in 1919 in 4 tons (26 × 20.5 cm). Printing of the text by Poeschel & Trepte u. the lithograph at Meißner & Buch , both in Leipzig. 3 lithographs, thereof. the frontispiece full-page. 34, (2) pp. Pressure line: ER white.
  • Past writings: Sinai and Garizim: on the origin of the Israelite religion; Research on Hexateuch based on rabbinical sources, Berlin, Morgenland-Verlag 1926
  • Joseph and his brothers. Ed. MJ Bin Gorion. Berlin, Schocken 1933
  • Bin-Gorion, Micha Josef: The Born Judas: Legends, fairy tales and stories. collected by Micha Josef bin Gorion. Ed. And with an afterward by Emanuel bin Gorion. 1st edition: Wiesbaden: Insel, 1959, again: Frankfurt am Main, Jüdischer Verlag 1993; ISBN 3633540741

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Raphael Patai: Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions , Routledge, London and New York, 2013, p. 75
personal data
SURNAME Berdyczewski, Micha Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gorion, Micha Josef Bin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-German writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Medjybish
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1921
Place of death Berlin