THE HEBREW PERIODICAL HA-SHILOAH FROM 1896 TO 1919 AND ITS ROLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE by All Mohamed Abd El-Rahman Attia A.thesis submitted in.partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Modern Hebrew Literature School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1979 ProQuest Number: 10731353 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731353 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 THE HEBREW PERIODICAL HA-SHILOAH FROM 1896 TO 1919 AND ITS ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE by Ali Mohamed Abd El-Rahman Attia ABSTRACT The Hebrew monthly Ha-Shiloah is one of a very few periodicals which made a great impact on the.development of modern Hebrew literature.. In order to establish the importance of this periodical, Chapter I of this thesis is devoted to a discussion op the - knowledge of Hebrew among the.reading public and the various methods of Jewish education. This is followed by a historical survey: of Hebrew periodicals in. Germany, Austria, Russia and Poland before the publication of Ha-Shiloah. Chapter II is devoted .to the period in which Ha-Shiloah was edited by Ahad Ha-cAm. It includes his efforts to establish the paper, his editorial policy and the argument of the 'Young Writers' against.it. A discussion_is also included of^ some literary and. administrative problems that came from his editorial treatment of contributions to the periodical .and his determination to maintain a high literary standard. The last section of this chapter is a literary survey of the material that appeared in Ha-Shiloah during this period.------------------------------- ’— Chapter III treats the rest of the European period before the paper was moved to Palestine. It discusses the change of editors and the consequent change in policy,. The role of Klausner and Bialik in editing the journal, and the influence of Ahad Ha-cAm on both are surveyed in detail. The chapter also includes a discussion op the link between Ha-Shiloah and Ha-Sofeh and the effect of this link on the publication of Ha-Shiloah. Other problems * . which faced the publication of Ha-Shiloah are fully analyzed. The.last section Is a literary assessment of material that appeared in the journal during this period. Chapter IV is .a summary survey of argument presented in the preceding chapters. CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ii CONTENTS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv SCHEME OF TRANSLITERATION V PREFACE vi CHAPTER I, 1. HEBREW AS A LITERARY MEDIUM IN RUSSIA AT THE 1 TURN OF THE CENTURY 2. HEBREW PERIODICALS BEFORE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 18 HA-SHILOAH * CHAPTER II. HA-SHILOAH IN THE FIRST PERIOD (1896-1902) 51 1. THE FOUNDATION OF HA-SHILOAH 51 2. EDITORIAL POLICY 64 3. THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN AHAD HA-CAM AND THE 78 'YOUNG WRITERS' 4. FINANCIAL MATTERS'AND PROBLEMS OF PUBLICATION! 92 5. FEATURES OF AHAD HA~CAM's EDITORIAL ACTIVITY 105 6. A LITERARY SURVEY OF HA-SHILOAH DURING THE FIRST 126 CHAPTER III. HA-SHILOAH IN THE SECOND PERIOD (1903-1919) 166 1. THE APPOINTMENT AND POLICY OF KLAUSNER ' 166 2. KLAUSNER AS CONTRIBUTOR AND EDITOR ■ 179 3. BIALIK AS CONTRIBUTOR AND EDITOR . 211 4. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS 230 5. A LITERARY SURVEY OF HA-SHILOAH DURING THE SECOND 245 PERIOD CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSIONS 265 EXCURSUS (A): HA-SHAHAR AND HA-SHILOAH : SIMILARITIES 279 AlItT DIFFERENCES^ EXCURSUS (B): THE STYLE OF AHAD HA-CAM 287 * APPENDIX I 297 APPENDIX II 304 APPENDIX III 317 BIBLIOGRAPHY: (a) English 318 (b) Hebrew 319 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to those who have helped make this study possible. My v? greatest debt vto Professor O.B. Segal for his stimulating instruction and for his expert guidance. I should also wish to thank Dr. M. Nadav, Head of the Department of Manuscripts and Archives, The Oewish National and University Library of Jerusalem for making available to me some of the unpublished material in the archives of Ahad Ha-cAm and Klausner. My thanks go also to Dr. G. Mendel of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, to Mr. G. Kressel, Mr. S.C. Devani of the Inter-library-Loan (at S.O.A.S.), and to Mr. P.S. Salinger, Assistant Librarian (Near and Middle East) for their invaluable help in providing the required material. Not least, I am grateful to my wife Badia for her encouragement and moral support. Finally, thanks to Mrs. Sylvia Greenwood, my efficient typist. SCHEME OF TRANSLITERATION Consonants Vowels K •^linjru. 1_ a a b a 7r a V 0 % , a g u d t- 1 — ■ i n h e ✓ i w f 1 e t z % # e tf h — e *> 0 t e t * y 0 T ‘ 3 k e 3 kh V 1 a m 3 n 0 s y c *D P « D f S s • P q n r w sh / V s n , a t The transliteration of personal and. conventional follows that of the Encyclopaedia Sudaica, PREFACE The subject of this study is the most important phase, the first twenty-three years, of Ha-Shi1oah 1 s publication in Europe, under the editorship of Ahad Ha-cAm and Klausner. This study offers a detailed survey of a journal whose significance for the development of modern Hebrew literature has long been recognised. But it is difficult to analyze and present the journal in any kind of coherent and Unified study. Certain basic interests and a definite ideological framework stand out distinctly throughout almost the entire range of subjects treated in the journal, making it impossible to survey and assess these views within the reasonable limitation offered by a single study. It is impossible to do full justice within this restricted space to all the important features of a monthly which covered nearly all fields of literature. For this reason too, it seemed appropriate to confine the study of the historical background, before the publication of Ha-Shiloah, to the important Hebrew periodicals - although, it is true, non-Hebrew periodicals affected the success of the monthly in an indirect way. The emphasis in this study is inevitably laid on the period in which the journal was under the editorship of Ahad Ha-°Am . This was the period In which was laid down the policy of the paper, and its reputation as a highly respected monthly was built up. Another reason for this emphasis on that period was the availability of material. The main source of information for this study was the correspondence between the editors and both their contributors and publishers. In this respect, Ahad Ha- Am1s published letters, although dealing only with literary matters, were of great value. This source of information is unfortunately lacking in the period of Klausner, since he was not in the habit of keeping copies of his own letters or of those dealing . with matters relating to Ha-Shiloah that were sent to him by others. However, I was fortunate enough to have access to some unpublished material from the archives of both Ahad Ha-cAm (classified as Hebrew Archives No: 4*0791) in The National and University Library, Jerusalem; and that of Klausner (classified as Hebrew Archives No: 401086) in The National and University Library, Jerusalem. Unfortunately I did not receive all the material for which I asked. The archival material is referred to in the footnotes as: ’Arkhiyon A.H. (Ahad Ha-cAm) and * ’Arkhiyon K. (Klausner) followed by a slash (/), followed by the number of the file and where possible, the date of the letter. CHAPTER X 14 HEBREW AS A LITERARY MEDIUM IN RUSSIA AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY In the year 1891, A.L. Shalkovich, known by his pseudonym Ben-Avigdor, commenced the publication of a series of stories, sketches and poems under the general name of "sSfre Agorah"; in these the emphasis was upon the more material, secular and universal aspects of life. To it contributed, apart from Ben-Avigdor himself, writers like R. Brainin, 3. Gorin, I.H. Tawiow and N.N. Samuely. The enterprise was expanded two years later by the establishment of Ahiasaf, the first non-commercial Hebrew publishing company, in Warsaw, at the initiative of Bend Mosheh and under the direction of Ben-Avigdor and the guidance of Ahad Ha- Am. This company which remained active until 1923, published work of modern Jewish scholarship; it was to play an important part in the development of Hebrew periodical literature. Following a disagreement with his fellow-leaders of Ahiasaf over their attitude towards the widening of the scope of Hebrew literature, Ben-Avigdor set up the Tushiyyah publishing company in 1893, and the new company extended its activity to Hebrew belles lettres, both original and translated. This company enriched Hebrew o literature with the two series "Bihliyoteq&h ivrit" and "Bibliyoteqah gedolah". They included some three hundred books on various aspects of belles lettres, history, science, biography and reproductions of Hebrew works from previous periods as well as translations from other languages. Six years later H.N. Bialik, S. Ben-Zion and I.H, » RawnitzJ-4.fi established the Moriah publishing company in Odessa for classical Hebrew literature and text-books for schools.