Germany Leading Europe in Output of Books on Judaism

In spite of the unrelenting anti-Jewish campaign, German Jewry is giving an excellent account of itself in the literary field. In fact, in recent months more Jewish books have made their appearance in Germany than in any other European country. More than ever in the past German Jewish writers are directing their attention to Jewish problems. In the last few weeks alone more than a dozen new books, dealing with all phases of Jewish life, have made their appearance.

Philo-Verlag (Berlin) announces the publication of a volume on “Rembrandt und Spinoza,” by Julius Bab. This book, which carries the sub-title, “A Double Picture in the German-Jewish Sphere,” points to the creative parallels in the work of the two men who lived their lives close to each other, yet never met. Spinoza the Jew, creates his life work among Germanic people, and Rembrandt the Low-German, obtains most of his inspiration and ideas from the Jewish environment in the Amsterdam Ghetto where he passed his latter days. Both, says the author, were able to bring out the best in them through their contacts with the foreign world near them.

HEBREW POETRY IN ITALY

Schocken Verlag has brought out two noteworthy books, an anthology of Hebrew poetry in Italy, with an historical sketch, and a Life of Flavius Josephus. The anthology, which was prepared by Dr. Jefim Schirman, is a volume of 600 pages and consists of more than 300 poems by some 133 Hebrew poets who lived in Italy from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries.

The poems are in unbroken continuity, beginning with the familiar liturgical Neilah hymn, “Israel Is Saved in the Lord,” by Sheftatiah ben Amittai, who flourished at Oria in South Italy and died in 886, and ending with the poem on the death of Theodor Herzl, by Vittorio Castiglioni, who preceded the present incumbent in the Rabbinate of Rome.

The “Leben des Flavius Josephus” is made up entirely of quotations from Josephus’s own writings, translated by Emanuel Ben Gorion.

JEWISH IDEA OF DESTINY

“Die Schicksalsidee im judentum”-Destiny Concept in Judaism-is the title of a new work by Joseph Wochenmark, published by W. Kohlhammer (Stuttgart). It is a philosophical study of the “Mazil” idea through the ages.

Jakob Meitlis has written an historical work on the “Ma’asebuch,” the Yiddish story-book, published by Verlag Rubin Meiss (Berlin). The author begins his account of the evolution of Jewish fiction from the first “Ma’asebuch,” which appeared in Basle in 1602, until it ceded its place to the Jewish novel.

The Jewish publishing house of Augsburg, Verlag Benno Filser, has completed the printing of another historical work “Juedische Gotteshaeuser und Friedhoefe in Wuettemberg” (Jewish Synagogues and Cemeteries of W???rttemberg) which brings Jewish history in Germany back to the tenth century.

HERZL’S ZIONIST WRITINGS

Very timely, in view of the approaching thirtieth anniversary of Theodor Herzl’s death (July 3, 1904), is the appearance of the first volume of the new edition of his “Zionistische Schriften.” issued by the Judischer Verlag (Berlin), which is to contain material which did not appear in the earlier editions. Volume II is expected this month, and the others at intervals of four to six weeks.

In Great Britain novels of the stage and the concert-room seem to be having an extraordinary attraction for Jewish authors. Recent examples are S.L. Bensusan’s “Maurice Davidoff” and Vivian Ellis’s “Faint Harmony.” The latest to deal with the same field is Marleon Schrager in her second novel, “The Dancers,” published by Hutchinson & Co.(London.) This is the story of Nathalia and Vladimir Pavlov and the world-famous troupe of Russian dancers.

THE JEWS OF VIENNA

In Austria, a study of Vienna Jewry, “Die Juden Wiens,” by Hans Tietze, has just been published by E.P. Tal und Co. This rather voluminous book, with 30 pages of pictures and plans portrays Jewish life in Vienna during the last four centuries by following the vicissitudes of outstanding Jewish personalities and leaders around whom Ghetto life centered. A considerable portion of the study is devoted to distinguished Court Jews, Samuel Oppenheimer, Samson Wertheimer and Salomon Rothschild, all of whom utilized the prestige won at the court of the ruling monarchs of their time for the improvement of the status of their co-religionists.

“La Religion d’Israel” is the title of a new book just off the press in Paris, by Alfred Loisy, who during the last fifteen years has written close to 25 works on the subject of ancient and modern religions. In the present volume, published by Ed. Nourry (Paris), he attempts to interpret Judaism in relation to its historical antecedents as one of the links in the chain of religious evolution.