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C H A P T E R 7 Ludwig Lewisohn : A Lif e i n Zionis m Stanley F. Chyet Ludwig Lewisohn, Berlin-born , Sout h Carolina-raised, wa s at most twenty-one when he came to New York in the fall o f 190 3 to study literature a t Columbi a University . Hi s year s i n th e city—inter rupted b y length y sojourn s elsewher e i n th e Unite d State s an d i n Europe—saw hi m undertak e a long , difficul t journe y bac k t o hi s German an d Jewish origins , fal l i n an d ou t o f lov e wit h thre e o r four women , fathe r a son , achiev e fam e a s a literar y an d dram a critic, a s a translator an d even as a novelist, becom e the apostle of Goethe an d Hauptman n an d Rilke , o f Herzl an d Buber , an d mak e an extraordinar y contributio n t o a stil l emergen t an d precariou s American Zionist movement. 1 The young Lewisoh n ver y muc h exemplifie d Veblen' s notio n o f "renegade Jews," a gifted intellectua l wh o had become "a natural ised , thoug h hyphenate, citize n in the gentile republic of learning" and exhibited "a t the best . .. a divided allegiance to the people of his origin." Th e criticis m Lewisoh n produced , eve n i n middl e age , much o f it fo r th e libera l weekl y th e Nation, ha d littl e t o do wit h specifically Jewish concerns and a great deal to do with the struggle for a modern , post-Victoria n literatur e i n America . Tha t bod y o f criticism—The Modern Drama (1915) , The Spirit of Modern German Literature (1916) , A Modern Book of Criticism (1919) , The Drama and the Stage (1922) , The Creative Life (1924) , Cities and Men (1927)—impresse d hi s younge r contemporar y Alfre d Kazi n as " a forc e fo r progress. " Kazi n credite d Lewisoh n wit h "greate r cultivation tha n an y o f hi s fello w critic s sav e Va n Wyc k Brooks " 160 LUDWIG LEWISOHN : A LIF E I N ZIONIS M l 6 l and honore d hi m fo r hi s belie f "i n th e highes t purpos e o f expres sion ." Not tha t Kazin' s admiratio n wa s unqualified: Lewisoh n wa s given t o " a rhetori c o f exaltation"; h e put everythin g " a littl e to o grandly." Still , "n o criti c ha d eve r insiste d s o strenuousl y o n th e need of precise study of the basic facts underlyin g ar t a s a spiritual vocation." It is our loss that a generation afte r hi s death Lewisohn' s impac t on America n letters , s o compellin g i n it s tim e (hi s Expression in America [1932 ] was probably the first attempt at a Freudian accoun t of American literature) , ha s left behin d fe w traces . Scarcely more, it woul d seem , ca n b e sai d fo r hi s Zionis t reputation—an d on e suspects it i s this last oblivio n Lewisoh n woul d hav e deemed mos t demeaning. Veblen had also written that the emancipated Jew was, in his intellectual life , "likely to become an alien," but "spirituall y he is more than likely to remain a Jew."2 Lewisohn would hav e appreciate d th e eulog y give n hi m i n 195 6 by the Jerusalem Vost, which memorialize d hi m a s "the firs t grea t American literar y spokesma n fo r th e Zionis t movement. " Tw o decades earlier, in 1935 , he had offered a most interesting third-perso n account of himself: "Never except in his confused an d misled twenties " ha d h e bee n "a s alienate d fro m hi s peopl e a s h e ha d ofte n been assumed," an d even then, i n turning his back on Judaism an d...

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