Jewish Nietzscheanism

Jewish Nietzscheans have traditionally shied away from any detailed examination of Nietzsche’s comments on contemporary Jewry or the Jewish religion. Scholars who have examined Jewish Nietzscheans have therefore sought to connect Nietzsche with some dimension of Jewish thought through similarities in views between Nietzsche and the Jewish intellectuals who were purportedly influenced by him. The two books under consideration in this essay strain to find solid connections between Nietzsche’s philosophy and the writings of eminent Jewish writers. Daniel Rynhold and Michael Harris examine how selected Nietzschean concepts can also be found in the work of the noted Jewish thinker Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. David Ohana, by contrast, examines a variety of Jewish writers who at some point exhibited an enthusiasm for Nietzsche, ranging from Hebrew scholars and translators to German-Jewish intellectuals. Both books suffer from many of the shortcomings of general Nietzschean influence studies: there is often no sound philological evidence of influence, or the “connection” is so general that it is difficult to see Nietzsche as the source of influence, or the alleged influence was of short duration, and it is difficult to understand what remains Nietzschean in the individual influenced.

Jewish Nietzscheanism

Jewish Nietzscheans have traditionally shied away from any detailed examination of Nietzsche’s comments on contemporary Jewry or the Jewish religion. Scholars who have examined Jewish Nietzscheans have therefore sought to connect Nietzsche with some dimension of Jewish thought through similarities in views between Nietzsche and the Jewish intellectuals who were purportedly influenced by him. The two books under consideration in this essay strain to find solid connections between Nietzsche’s philosophy and the writings of eminent Jewish writers. Daniel Rynhold and Michael Harris examine how selected Nietzschean concepts can also be found in the work of the noted Jewish thinker Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. David Ohana, by contrast, examines a variety of Jewish writers who at some point exhibited an enthusiasm for Nietzsche, ranging from Hebrew scholars and translators to German-Jewish intellectuals. Both books suffer from many of the shortcomings of general Nietzschean influence studies: there is often no sound philological evidence of influence, or the “connection” is so general that it is difficult to see Nietzsche as the source of influence, or the alleged influence was of short duration, and it is difficult to understand what remains Nietzschean in the individual influenced.

THE HUMANE ASPIRATIONS IN ISAAC BABEL’S RED CAVALRY

Isaac Babel is an exceptional Russian-Jewish writer of Russian literature. The writer himself and his best work Red Cavalry have truly become a remarkable phenomenon in Russian and world literature. Through Red Cavalry, Babel not only helps readers understand more about the life, the fighting process as well as the virtues and the ideal of the Red Army Cossack soldiers, but also allows them to see the human values, human nature, simple wishes and noble aspirations of people, especially the Jewish intellectuals in violent war situations. His readers, therefore, pay even more respect for this talented and brave writer, and at the same time, earn a more comprehensive view of a highly turbulent period of the Russian-Soviet literature. With an uncommon psychological view used in approaching the works written about war, this article hopes to highlight the issues mentioned above.

Utopia's Discontents

In the years before the 1917 revolution, exiles who had fled the Russian empire created large and boisterous Russian colonies across Western and Central Europe. Centers of radical activity in the heart of bourgeois cities, these émigré settlements evolved into revolutionary social experiments in their own right. Feminists, nationalist activists, and Jewish intellectuals seeking to liberate and uplift populations oppressed by the tsarist regime treated the colonies as utopian communities, creating new networks, institutions, and cultural practices that reflected their values. Prefiguring the ideal world of freedom and universal fraternity of which radicals dreamed, émigré communities played a crucial role in defining the Russian revolutionary tradition and transforming it into praxis. The dreams born in the colonies also influenced their European host societies, informing international debates about the meaning of freedom on both the left and the right. But if the utopian visions forged in exile inspired populations far and wide, they developed a tendency to evolve in unexpected directions. Colony residents’ efforts to transform the world unwittingly produced explosive discontents that proved no less consequential than their revolutionary dreams.

From Greenberg to Rahv

This chapter traces Rahv’s story of immigration and explores his psychology as an immigrant. Reaching back to his time in Russia, it considers pogroms, the notorious trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis, the use of Yiddish and Russian language, and the Bolshevik revolution. It examines his dysfunctional Jewish family, which it relates to the families of other New York Jewish intellectuals. It explores the significance of his father’s beginnings as a peddler, his mother’s Zionism, and the time he spent in Palestine. Some light is shed on the mysteries surrounding his lack of formal education. Detailed analyses of two texts are provided: “Homeless but not Motherless, Variation on a theme by L. Kwitko” by the Ukranian poet Leib Kvitko, which Rahv translated from Yiddish; “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” Delmore Schwartz’s modernist tour de force which appeared in Partisan Review in 1937.