At the Crossroads: Essays on Ahad Ha'am

Preface

Preface The idea for a collection of essays on Ahad Ha-Am grew out of animated discussions among a circle of Jewish scholars at the University of Toronto about nothing less than Jewish and Zionist possibilities in the modern world. As we surveyed the field of possible guides to such problems, no other thinker seemed to provide as much clarity as did Ahad Ha-Am. He had divided the question of Jewish survival into two: the distress of Jews and the distress of Judaism. Contemporary discussion concentrated far more upon the first problem than upon the second, perhaps in itself a sign of the distress of Judaism. As Ahad Ha-Am had foreseen, having lost all but residues of Jewish culture, Jews shared with other Jews only the common memory and prospect of victimization. For Ahad Ha-Am only Zionism could heal the distress of Judaism, for only a Jewish national culture-the culture of a majority sheltered by a demographic majority and by political sovereignty-held the promise of creative renewal. In his conception of a "spiritual center," a renewed national Jewish culture in Zion would nurture Diaspora Jewry as well. We asked ourselves if this was the case: whether Israeli culture could sustain Jewish identity and creativity in the Diaspora, and indeed in Israel, and whether Diaspora Jewry could itself spawn new Jewish possibilities. Indeed, was Diaspora Jewry still capable of producing and sustaining an ideological and prophetic voice with the originality and bite of Ahad Ha-Am? If Ahad Ha-Am offered a solution, we fed on the problems. This led to the conception of a symposium on Ahad Ha-Am, for aside from the early biography by Leon Simon, the scholarship on vii PREFACE him in English was sparse. The symposium was held at the University of Toronto on Ocltober 14-15, 1980, a first step on the long road to this collection of essays. The Joseph and Gertie Schwartz Lectures Fund assisted our efforts at every step of the way. This fund administers a far-sighted and generous bequest to the University of Toronto by the Schwartz family of Toronto in the honored memory of their parents. Credit is due to the members of the Schwartz Committee-Professors, Michael Marrus, Abraham Rotstein, Joseph Shatzmiller and Mr. Herbert Solway -for their constant and unsparing support for this project. Professor Joseph Sha.tzmiller organized the Ahad Ha-Am symposium, and its success testified to his outstanding knowledge in the field of Jewish history. Subsequently, in my labors as editor, Prof. Shatzmiller aided me unstintingly with valuable advice and perceptive criticism. I am grateful to the anonymous reader for the State University of New York Press for his astute and expert judgment in assessing each of the essays. Thanks are due to the contributors to Ithis volume for the devotion and talent they brought to this project and for their patience in what sleemed like an endless task of rewriting and revision. Barry Walfish brought exceptional proficiency to the task of verifying and transliterating the Hebrew references. To Virginia O'Sullivan for her outstanding devotion and skill in preparing the manuscript for the publisher, lowe a deep debt of thanks. To my wife, Mona Silver Kornberg, I shall ever be profoundly grateful both for her selfless understanding and encouragement and wise sense of perspective regarding my scholarly labors. Jacques Kornberg viii ...