Zvi Kolitz

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Zvi Kolitz (born December 14, 1912 in Alytus , † September 29, 2002 in New York , USA ) was a Lithuanian Jewish writer , journalist , filmmaker and theater producer .

Life

Kolitz was born in 1912 in the Lithuanian town of Alytus as the son of the rabbi and Talmudic scholar Nachmann Kolitz († 1930) and the mother Hannah (née Heelson) from Eydtkuhnen . Kolitz first studied at the prestigious Vilijampolė yeshiva from Slabodka in Kaunas .

Together with his mother and 7 siblings, he fled the spreading anti-Semitism via Germany to Italy in 1937. His family moved on to Palestine , he himself stayed in Italy and studied history in Florence and in Civitavecchia . In 1940 he came to Jerusalem . There he joined the Zionist movement of Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky , worked in the Jewish resistance ( Irgun ) and was arrested twice. When in 1942 the members of the Jabotinsky movement subordinated the fight against the British occupying power to the fight against Hitler, Kolitz also joined the British army and was chief recruiting officer in the Middle East until the end of the war . He also wrote articles for the daily newspaper "HaBoker" (Der Morgen).

After the end of the war he went to Buenos Aires , where in a few days he wrote his most famous work, "Jossel Rakovers Wendung zu Gott", which appeared on September 25, 1946 in "Die Jiddische Zeitung". In December 1946 he was a delegate at the 22nd Zionist Congress in Basel .

He was a screenwriter and co-producer of "Height 24 not responding", the first internationally successful Israeli film author was several books, over three decades columnist of "The algemayner Shournal", one in New York appearing Yiddish magazine, and author of the Jewish Week .

In 1964 he was co-producer when a production of Rolf Hochhuth's Vatican-critical play The Deputy was staged on Broadway , which led to violent protests from New York Catholics. He also worked as a co-producer of other Broadway plays, including The Megilla of Itzik Manger (1968) and the musical I'm Solomon, (1968), which was canceled after 7 performances.

In the last decades of his life he lived mostly in the USA.

Jossel Ra (c) kower speaks to God

His most famous work is the monologue by Jossel Rackower or Rakower (depending on the German translation - Yiddish original title in English transcription: Yossl Rakover ret tsu Got , 1946) on the question of whether and how people can believe in God despite persecution and suffering : " You may insult me, you may chastise me, you may also take away from me the most expensive and best that I have in the world and torment me to death - I will always believe in you, in spite of yourself! "

As mentioned above, the text appeared in 1946 under Kolitz's name in Buenos Aires. In 1953 the text was sent by a stranger to the quarterly journal Die goldene Keit , published in Tel Aviv (without naming the author and without marking it as a narrative) , which published an abridged version in spring 1954 as an authentic document from the Warsaw ghetto .

The text gained wider circulation when the abridged version, translated into German by David Kohan and Anna Maria Jokl , was broadcast in January 1955 by the broadcaster Free Berlin . The broad media coverage of the program - Thomas Mann and Rudolf Krämer-Badoni were deeply moved - also reached Kolitz, who lived in New York and made his authorship known, and with it a heated controversy about his text and the allegedly deliberately scattered misinformation regarding his authorship triggered.

However, Kolitz's correction was unable to put an end to the legend, because in a Hebrew translation from 1965 it is again a testament without an author's name and in an anthology from 1968 the author is named, but it is claimed that it actually had a Jossel Rakover who died in the Warsaw ghetto.

Works

Books

  • Yossl Rakover ret tsu Got. In: The Jiddische Zeitung Buenos Aires, September 25, 1946. German editions:
    • Jossel Rackower speaks to God. Translated from Yiddish by Anna Maria Jokl with the help of David Kohan. With three linocuts by Jan Uhrynowicz. Edition Tiessen, Neu-Isenburg 1985, ISBN 3920947665
    • Jossel Rakover's turn to God . Bilingual Yiddish-German. Translated, edited and with an afterword by Paul Badde. With a facsimile of the original edition. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-353-01069-6 . New edition with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer . Diogenes, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-257-80012-6
  • Tiger beneath the skin. Stories and parables of the years of death. Creative Age Press, New York 1947
  • Survival for what? Philosophical Library, New York (1969)
  • The Teacher. An existential approach to the Bible. Crossroad, New York 1982, ISBN 9780824505073
  • Confrontation. The existential thought of Rabbi JB Soloveitchik. Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken (NJ) 1993, ISBN 0881254312 . About the rabbi and philosopher Joseph Ber Soloveitchik .

Movie

  • Height 24 does not answer. Original title: גבעה 24 אינה עונה (Giv'a 24 Eina Ona). Director: Thorold Dickinson . Israel 1955. 101 min.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1919 is often mentioned as the year of birth. According to his wife Mathilde, Kolitz was not born in 1919, but in 1912. See Paul Badde: Zvi Kolitz. Epilogue in: Zvi Kolitz: Jossel Rakover's turn to God. Diogenes, Zurich 2004. p. 171. The concealment of the year of birth can be related to attempts to evade military service. The threat of military service for Talmud students in Lithuania was also the reason for the relocation of the yeshiva from Slabodka to Hebron in the late 1920s.
  2. ↑ Including his brother Jitzhak Kolitz , who later became Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and his sister Rachel, who as Rachel Margalioth is one of the most important scribes in Israel.
  3. ↑ Afterword by Paul Badde, p. 114ff
  4. ↑ Afterword by Paul Badde, p. 138
  5. ^ Afterword by Paul Badde, p. 131
  6. ↑ Nomination for the Palme d'Or in Cannes 1955
  7. ↑ Brooks Atkinson Theater, (February 26 to November 28, 1964), see The Deputy . ibdb.com. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  8. ↑ Jossel Rakover's turn to God. Zurich 2004. p. 99
  9. ^ Afterword by Paul Badde, pp. 144ff
personal data
SURNAME Kolitz, Zvi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Alytus
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 2002
Place of death New York City