Gershom Scholem. Lamentations of Youth: The Diaries of Gershom Scholem, 1913-1919. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2007. 374 pp. $39.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-674-02669-8.
Reviewed by Jay Howard Geller
Published on H-German (March, 2008)
Gershom Scholem stands like a giant astride with his family and friends. In the 1990s, coincid‐ the feld of modern Judaic Studies. He was inte‐ ing with a rediscovery of Scholem and an explo‐ gral in founding the feld of academic Kabbalah sion of interest in Kabbalah, Jüdischer Verlag is‐ studies. He helped transform the discipline of Jew‐ sued a two-volume edition of Scholem's diaries ish history from one dominated by rationalism to from 1913 to 1923, and C. H. Beck Verlag pub‐ one that accepted irrationalism and messianism, lished a three-volume selection of Scholem's let‐ or at least placed them into their proper historical ters. Those were followed in 2002 by a one-vol‐ context. However, before Scholem could trans‐ ume selection of his letters, published in English form Judaic Studies, he had to transform himself. by Harvard University Press and edited and trans‐ Born into an unreligious family of bourgeois Ger‐ lated by Anthony David Skinner.[1] The same edi‐ man Jews with deep roots in Berlin, young Ger‐ tor-translator has now made Scholem's youthful hard Scholem embraced cultural Zionism and im‐ diaries available to an English-speaking audience. mersed himself in the study of Judaism. After Indeed, this book ofers a selection drawn earning his doctorate in Munich, he immigrated from the aforementioned German-language edi‐ to Palestine in 1923 and became Gershom Sc‐ tion of Scholem's diaries. While the original di‐ holem. Within a few years, he was a university aries featured virtual essays on myriad topics (in‐ professor in Jerusalem. As the holder of an en‐ cluding Scholem's participation in the Zionist dowed chair and president of Israel's Academy of youth movement) alongside traditional diary en‐ Sciences and Humanities in his later years, he tries, this version has been radically pared down. stood at the center of the Israeli intelligentsia. Nearly 1,300 pages have been brought down to The most accessible window into Scholem's less than 400. Literally hundreds of diary entries personality has always been his letters and di‐ have been omitted, while many others have been aries. With graphomaniacal zeal, Scholem kept a abridged. In doing so, Skinner has sought to diary and maintained a prolifc correspondence present Scholem's diaries as a Bildungsroman and H-Net Reviews has highlighted Scholem's friendship with Walter me, whereas to others I remain a closed book be‐ Benjamin. cause they do not understand my language" (p. When Scholem began keeping a diary in early 353). 1913, shortly after his ffteenth birthday, the Even when he did not place himself at the young Berlin Jew was alienated from the assimi‐ center of a Jewish renaissance, he used his diaries lated and minimally Jewish, German nationalist, to pour forth his views on Jewish identity, Jewish bourgeois milieu of his parental home. He was theology, Hebrew, and many other Jewish topics. clearly on a quest for intellectual and religious The diaries are thick with these intellectual explo‐ moorings. His intellectual precociousness is strik‐ rations. In his youth, Scholem published a short- ing. Well before his twentieth birthday, he was lived newsletter called Blue-White Spectacles. The conversant with an immense body of literature name was exceptionally appropriate as he viewed and philosophy. His diary entries provide a run‐ the world through Jewish lenses. A Jewish outlook ning list and critique of all that he read, including colored even his views of art. Scholem held in‐ philosophy (such as Friedrich Nietzsche and tense debates with his friend Werner Kraft over Søren Kierkegaard), literature (Johann Wolfgang the so-called silence of the Hebrew language and von Goethe and Leo Tolstoy), and works of Jewish the so-called German heart, and Scholem did not theological import. As Scholem wrestled with his want to be seen as a German Jew. Meanwhile, Sc‐ own Jewish identity, he moved far beyond the holem dreamed, with trepidation, of his future question of what it meant to be a German Jew in life in Palestine. the 1910s. He plumbed deeper, more enduring ex‐ The diaries also provide a window into Sc‐ istential questions, ultimately forging his own holem's most important friendship: that with Wal‐ particular view of Judaism and Zionism. The ur‐ ter Benjamin. Skinner fnds Benjamin's infuence gency of forming and disseminating a new world‐ on Scholem both critical and unacknowledged. view was fueled by turbulent debates in the world The diaries leave no doubt that young Scholem of Judaic learning and the impact of the World was increasing in thrall of his older, supremely War. gifted friend: "In grasping what Benjamin has to It would probably not be an exaggeration to say, the same astounding thing always happens to write that young Scholem was a fanatic. With the me: at frst I'm standing somewhere on the wide exuberance of youth, he occasionally saw himself earth while Benjamin's in heaven. Then what is as a prophet. In one entry (May 22, 1915), he said comes closer to me, and suddenly I am in the wrote of the Chosen One "who was to search for center" (p. 168). Later, when young Scholem was his people's soul." The Chosen One emerged from torn by actual and potential romantic attach‐ an assimilated family, saw through political Zion‐ ments to various women, he confded to his diary, ism, and drank heavily of Martin Buber en route "The only relationship that always and uncondi‐ to becoming the prophet: "And who is this dream‐ tional holds frm is to Walter. I love Walter" (p. er, whose name already marks him as the Await‐ 208). Upon receiving permission from the authori‐ ed One? Scholem, the Perfect One" (pp. 54-58). As ties to leave wartime Germany, Scholem moved to he relates his own ideas on Judaism, his depiction Muri, Switzerland, to live with Walter and Dora of others' ideas reeks with self-righteousness and Benjamin. The budding literary and cultural crit‐ condescension. When asked by one acquaintance ic's views deeply infuenced Scholem, who tried what exactly he meant by his idiosyncratic use of his hand at literary criticism. However, Scholem's the terms "Torah" and "the Teaching," he replied, admiration for Benjamin was tempered when his "I can be understood only by those who think like idol did not live up to expectations. Benjamin cer‐
2 H-Net Reviews tainly did not share Scholem's views on Judaism The volume is divided into four sections, each and Jewishness. Moreover, Benjamin, already with an introduction by the editor that presents with a wife and child, did not reciprocate the the larger historical context and germane bio‐ friendship quite as passionately as it was given to graphical detail on Scholem. These introductions him, and Scholem was clearly a third wheel in as well as the volume's general introduction are their minute circle. At times, Dora resented his interesting and will be all-but-essential for read‐ presence, and he complained about her in his di‐ ers not already familiar with the contours of mod‐ aries. ern German history and with Scholem's life. Un‐ Though less present than in the original edi‐ fortunately, these preliminary remarks are tion, the Great War also looms heavily in the back‐ marred by inaccuracies. For example, the claim ground of Scholem's diaries, and his contempt for that Scholem "was not from the educated assimi‐ it is clear. When he went to the enlistment ofce, lated bourgeoisie" (p. 12) is not correct. Even if the he gave a clever, planned performance to earn Scholems did not and would not convert to Chris‐ the distinction of being unft for service, but he tianity, they had assimilated considerably, cele‐ lived in fear of conscription. Only a feigned psy‐ brating Christmas and not observing Jewish di‐ chosis kept him out of the trenches and in the etary restrictions. Though neither haut bourgeois mental ward. Scholem's friends went of to war, aesthetes nor exclusively members of the liberal and some never came back. Both the Social professions, Scholem's family members were un‐ Democrats and the Zionists sufered internal commonly educated by the standards of the time. feuds over the issue of support for the war. And His father Arthur and Arthur's three brothers re‐ Scholem's disdain grew. On August 1, 1916, the ceived at least some secondary education at a second anniversary of the general war, Scholem Gymnasium or Realgymnasium, an educational wrote, "Today in heaven a mighty Kaddish will be level achieved by less than 6 percent of their said for Europe. But rather than a prayer of re‐ peers in Prussia at the time. Moreover, Scholem's newal, it would be a prayer of condemnation: Uncle Georg (not "George") held a doctorate from Calling out from Zion, God lifts up his voice the University of Leipzig, his Uncle Hans held a against the seducers in Berlin and the wretches in doctorate from the University of Berlin, and his St. Petersburg" (p. 123). Indeed, the war's all-con‐ Aunt Käte held a doctorate from the University of suming fury only strengthened Scholem's hope Freiburg. Additionally, in 1917, his father expelled for a renewal in Zion. Regrettably, the vicissitudes Scholem from his parental home, but it is not en‐ of World War I-era German Zionism receive only tirely accurate that he "ended up in a hotel in a secondary attention in this condensed edition. working-class neighborhood" (p. 161). Scholem did move into a kosher pension, but this guest‐ Scholem's diaries are not solely an intellectual house was located in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, histori‐ autobiography. Behind the curtain of intellectual cally one of the more afuent areas of the city. fury and sociopolitical pronouncements, the de‐ velopment of a genuine young man is evident. Skinner has done a fne job of rendering Sc‐ There were family struggles. There was the tor‐ holem's dense prose into readable English, but the ment of frst love and the difculties of romantic diaries' explanatory notes have been taken with involvement. There were fears about future em‐ minimal revision from the original German edi‐ ployment. These, too, permit insight into Sc‐ tors' notes, allowing small errors to slip in. For ex‐ holem's character and indicate that the great, un‐ ample, Gershom Scholem wrote that his great- compromising intellectual-in-the-making had a grandfather was buried in the Jewish cemetery in human side. the Schönhauser Allee. This is located in Berlin- Prenzlauer Berg and is not synonymous with the
3 H-Net Reviews larger and more famous cemetery in Berlin- Weißensee, as is claimed in the notes. Also, in con‐ tradiction of the notes, the Soviet Union did not exist as such until 1922. Some endnotes refer to specifc earlier diary entries that do not seem at all germane. Perhaps the relevant passages were excised in the process of condensing the original entries. Translation is a difcult process, but con‐ fusingly for a reader not familiar with both Ger‐ man and Hebrew, German transliterations of Jew‐ ish terms are sometimes retained and not ex‐ changed for English ones (for example, siwwug rather than zivug, zimzum rather than tzimtzum, zaddik rather than tzaddik). This translation of Scholem's diaries will be of interest to an English-speaking lay audience for Jewish studies already familiar with Scholem and to scholars of Judaic Studies scholars. Scholars of German, comparative literature, and German his‐ tory will probably prefer to delve into the unabridged German edition. As more English- speakers discover Jewish mysticism, it is good that they can also discover its chief modern inter‐ preter. Skinner's translation and edition of Sc‐ holem's diaries open the door for them to become familiar with young Scholem's inner life. Note [1]. Gershom Scholem, A Life in Letters, 1914-1982, trans. and ed. Anthony David Skinner (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).
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Citation: Jay Howard Geller. Review of Scholem, Gershom. Lamentations of Youth: The Diaries of Gershom Scholem, 1913-1919. H-German, H-Net Reviews. March, 2008.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14318
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