Roni Hirsh-Ratzkovsky | Tel Aviv University (original) (raw)
Papers by Roni Hirsh-Ratzkovsky
Yearbook for European Jewish Literature Studies
In the following paper I wish to explore the ongoing movement of GermanJewish intellectuals betwe... more In the following paper I wish to explore the ongoing movement of GermanJewish intellectuals between France and Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century, as an attempt to simultaneously transcend the borders both of German culture and of their own German-Jewish identity. My discussion will focus on three writers: Franz Hessel, Kurt Tucholsky, and Paul Cohen-Portheim. All of them were Germans of Jewish origin who spent several years in Paris, a city that played an important role in their lives. They all saw themselves as intercultural mediators, seeking to expose France and its culture to Germans, and in so doing to promote understanding and elevate animosity between the two then rival countries. They all served as foreign correspondents of German newspapers in Paris in the 1920s, and wrote books that were either about France or took place in it (Cohen-Portheim 1930; Tucholsky 1927; Hessel 1920). Hessel and Portheim also worked as translators from French to German, while Tucholsky concentrated more on establishing personal connections with French political activists. This paper aims at demonstrating the interrelations between two groups that were designated by Germans as “others” – the Jews and the French. Although the “otherness” of each was different – seeing as, while the Jews were also Germans, the French were not – both fulfilled a similar function, in that their otherness helped modern German culture to define its borders. Ever since the days of the French revolution and the Napoleonic era, modern German nationalism and its Kultur were shaped in reaction to and as an antithesis to French civilisation. This idea is clearly expressed in Thomas Nipperday’s monumental work on modern German history, which begins with the sentence “At the beginning was Napoleon.” (1996 [1983], 1). That is to say that German nationalism emerged in
AJS Review
The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfri... more The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfried Lehmann. The first—a forgotten journalist and writer, the second—a doctor and educator, the founder of the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Mandate Palestine. Through the specific story of the two brothers, the article traces the path of messianic antiurban ideas prevalent in expressionist avant-garde circles in pre–World War I Europe, to the circles of German Jewish Zionism and from them to Palestine-Israel. Though German expressionism was itself an urban intellectual phenomenon, expressionist prose often exemplified antiurban and antimodern sentiments, as in the case of Lemm's prose. According to Lemm, redemption from the ills of modern society shall be found in withdrawal from the modern city and return to physical and metaphysical “roots.” Lemm's antiurban attitude influenced his brother Siegfried and found its full manifestation in the founding of the Ben Shemen Youth Village ...
AJS Review, 2017
The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfri... more The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfried Lehmann. The first—a forgotten journalist and writer, the second—a doctor and educator, the founder of the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Mandate Palestine. Through the specific story of the two brothers, the article traces the path of messianic antiurban ideas prevalent in expressionist avant-garde circles in pre–World War I Europe, to the circles of German Jewish Zionism and from them to Palestine-Israel. Though German expressionism was itself an urban intellectual phenomenon, expressionist prose often exemplified antiurban and antimodern sentiments, as in the case of Lemm's prose. According to Lemm, redemption from the ills of modern society shall be found in withdrawal from the modern city and return to physical and metaphysical “roots.” Lemm's antiurban attitude influenced his brother Siegfried and found its full manifestation in the founding of the Ben Shemen Youth Village in 1927.
Yearbook for European Jewish Literature Studies
In the following paper I wish to explore the ongoing movement of GermanJewish intellectuals betwe... more In the following paper I wish to explore the ongoing movement of GermanJewish intellectuals between France and Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century, as an attempt to simultaneously transcend the borders both of German culture and of their own German-Jewish identity. My discussion will focus on three writers: Franz Hessel, Kurt Tucholsky, and Paul Cohen-Portheim. All of them were Germans of Jewish origin who spent several years in Paris, a city that played an important role in their lives. They all saw themselves as intercultural mediators, seeking to expose France and its culture to Germans, and in so doing to promote understanding and elevate animosity between the two then rival countries. They all served as foreign correspondents of German newspapers in Paris in the 1920s, and wrote books that were either about France or took place in it (Cohen-Portheim 1930; Tucholsky 1927; Hessel 1920). Hessel and Portheim also worked as translators from French to German, while Tucholsky concentrated more on establishing personal connections with French political activists. This paper aims at demonstrating the interrelations between two groups that were designated by Germans as “others” – the Jews and the French. Although the “otherness” of each was different – seeing as, while the Jews were also Germans, the French were not – both fulfilled a similar function, in that their otherness helped modern German culture to define its borders. Ever since the days of the French revolution and the Napoleonic era, modern German nationalism and its Kultur were shaped in reaction to and as an antithesis to French civilisation. This idea is clearly expressed in Thomas Nipperday’s monumental work on modern German history, which begins with the sentence “At the beginning was Napoleon.” (1996 [1983], 1). That is to say that German nationalism emerged in
AJS Review
The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfri... more The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfried Lehmann. The first—a forgotten journalist and writer, the second—a doctor and educator, the founder of the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Mandate Palestine. Through the specific story of the two brothers, the article traces the path of messianic antiurban ideas prevalent in expressionist avant-garde circles in pre–World War I Europe, to the circles of German Jewish Zionism and from them to Palestine-Israel. Though German expressionism was itself an urban intellectual phenomenon, expressionist prose often exemplified antiurban and antimodern sentiments, as in the case of Lemm's prose. According to Lemm, redemption from the ills of modern society shall be found in withdrawal from the modern city and return to physical and metaphysical “roots.” Lemm's antiurban attitude influenced his brother Siegfried and found its full manifestation in the founding of the Ben Shemen Youth Village ...
AJS Review, 2017
The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfri... more The following article deals with the story of two German Jewish brothers, Alfred Lemm and Siegfried Lehmann. The first—a forgotten journalist and writer, the second—a doctor and educator, the founder of the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Mandate Palestine. Through the specific story of the two brothers, the article traces the path of messianic antiurban ideas prevalent in expressionist avant-garde circles in pre–World War I Europe, to the circles of German Jewish Zionism and from them to Palestine-Israel. Though German expressionism was itself an urban intellectual phenomenon, expressionist prose often exemplified antiurban and antimodern sentiments, as in the case of Lemm's prose. According to Lemm, redemption from the ills of modern society shall be found in withdrawal from the modern city and return to physical and metaphysical “roots.” Lemm's antiurban attitude influenced his brother Siegfried and found its full manifestation in the founding of the Ben Shemen Youth Village in 1927.