The Russian Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917–1937 IJS STUDIES IN JUDAICA Conference Proceedings of the Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London Series Editors Markham J. Geller François Guesnet Ada Rapoport-Albert VOLUME 13 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ijs The Russian Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917–1937 Edited by Jörg Schulte Olga Tabachnikova Peter Wagstaff LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 These volumes are based on the international conference series of the Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London. Issues are thematic, 250–450 pages in length, in English, plus at most two papers in one other language per volume. Volumes focus on significant themes relating to Jewish civilisation, and bring together from different countries, often for the first time, eminent scholars working in the same or allied fields of research. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Russian Jewish diaspora and European culture, 1917–1937 / edited by Jörg Schulte, Olga Tabachnikova, Peter Wagstaff. p. cm. — ( IJS studies in Judaica ; v. 13) ISBN 978-90-04-22714-9 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Jews, Russian—Europe—Intellectual life—20th century—Congresses. 2. Jews—Russia—Intellectual life—20th century— Congresses. 3. Russia—Ethnic relations. I. Schulte, Jörg. II. Tabachnikova, Olga, 1967– III. Wagstaff, Peter. DS134.82.R86 2012 305.892’40409041—dc23 2011052552 ISSN 1570-1581 ISBN 978 90 04 22714 9 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 22713 2 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. CONTENTS List of Illustrations ...................................................................... ix Preface and Acknowledgements ................................................. xi Peter Wagstaff Russian-Jewish Cultural Retention in Early Twentieth Century Western Europe: Contexts and Theoretical Implications ..... 1 François Guesnet PART ONE RUSSIAN JEWISH Translators AND WRITERS Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell in Bialik’s Translation ............................. 11 Anat Feinberg Bialik’s Translation of Don Quixote (1912/1923) ........................ 25 Marianna Prigozhina Vogel and the City ..................................................................... 37 Glenda Abramson Marginalia of the Hebrew Renaissance: The Enrichment of Literary Hebrew through Calques of Russian Phrases in the Works of Elisheva and Leah Goldberg ........................... 55 Zoya Kopelman PART TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF PAST AND PRESENT OF JEWISH CULTURE Russian-Jewish Ideas in German Dress: Elias Bickerman on the Hellenizing Reformers of Jewish Antiquity ........................... 73 Albert I. Baumgarten vi contents Nahum Slouschz (1871–1966) and His Contribution to the Hebrew Renaissance .............................................................. 109 Jörg Schulte Cultural Anxieties of Russian-Jewish Émigrés: Max Eitingon and Lev Shestov ..................................................................... 127 Olga Tabachnikova Pinas Rutenberg and Vladimir Burtsev: Some Unknown Aspects of the Connection between Palestine and the Russian Emigration in Europe ............................................... 147 Vladimir Khazan An Enclave in Time? Russian-Jewish Berlin Revisited ............. 179 Olaf Terpitz Bergelson, Benjamin and Berlin: Justice Deferred .................... 201 Harriet Murav PART THREE NEW Sources ON Russian JEWISH INFLUENCES IN MUSIC, ART AND PUBLISHING If Moscow Were Paris: Russia, the Soviet Union and Birobidzhan As Points of Reference in the Yiddish Press of Paris .................................................................................... 221 Agnieszka W. Wierzcholska Der Einfluss der jüdischen kulturellen Renaissance in Osteuropa auf das Musikleben in Wien (1919–1938) ........... 237 Jascha Nemtsov The Graphic Work of Issachar Ber Ryback (1897–1935): An Outstanding Example of Children’s Book Art ................ 279 Serge-Aljosja Stommels and Albert Lemmens contents vii ‘A Beautiful Lie’—Zhar Ptitsa (The Firebird): Sustaining Jour nalistic Activity and Showcasing Russia in 1920s Berlin ....................................................................................... 301 Susanne Marten-Finnis The Absence of a Jewish Russian Legacy in France: Ben-Ami’s Testimony and the Schwartzbard Affair ............. 327 Boris Czerny Ideology and Identity: El Lissitzky in Berlin ............................. 339 Christina Lodder PART FOUR REPOSITORIES OF THE RUSSIAN JEWISH DIASPORA Simon Dubnow and the Question of Jewish Emigration in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century .................... 367 Viktor Kel’ner ‘Immortalizing the Crime in History . .’: The Activities of the Ostjüdisches Historisches Archiv (Kiev—Berlin—Paris, 1920–1940) .............................................................................. 373 Efim Melamed From a Russian-Jewish Philanthropic Organization to the ‘Glorious Institute of World Jewry’: Activities of the World ORT Union in the 1920s–1940s ........................................... 387 Alexander Ivanov Vladimir (Zeev) Jabotinsky and His Recently Discovered Works: Problems of Attribution and Analysis ....................... 417 Leonid Katsis Index of Names .......................................................................... 437 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Cover illustration for Miriam Margolin, Mayselekh far kleynike kinderlekh, III ............................................................................. 297 Cover illustration for Leib Kvitko, Foyglen ................................. 297 Plate 6 from Issachar Ryback, Shtetl. Mayn khoyever heym, a gedenknish ............................................................................... 298 Plate 26 from Issachar Ryback, Shtetl. Mayn khoyever heym, a gedenknish ............................................................................... 298 ‘Paysanne aux épis’, plate 5 from Issachar Ryback, Sur les champs juifs de l’Ukraine ............................................................. 299 Bakst, The Firebird as Female Figure ....................................... 305 Bilibin, Scene from a Russian Fairy Tale .................................. 309 Kustodiev, Life in the Russian Province ................................... 310 Somov, Burlesque ....................................................................... 311 Larionov, Fairground Scene ....................................................... 312 Bakst, Scene from Thamar .......................................................... 317 Bakst, Scene from Shéhérazade ..................................................... 318 Chagall, Over the Town ............................................................ 319 El Lissitzky, Cover for Mani Leib, A Mischievous Boy (Yingl Tsingl Khvat) ................................................................... 341 El Lissitzky, Proun 99, 1923 ........................................................ 342 El Lissitzky, Installation for the Pressa Exhibition, 1928, Cologne ................................................................................... 343 El Lissitzky, Composition ............................................................... 352 El Lissitzky, Cover for Mani Leib, A Mischievous Boy (Yingl Tsingl Khvat) ................................................................... 357 El Lissitzky, ‘The Passenger Ticket’, Illustration for Ilya Ehrenburg, Six Tales with Easy Endings (Shest’ povestei o legkikh kontsakh) .................................................................................... 360 El Lissitzky, The Constructor (Self-Portrait), 1924 ........................... 362 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Peter Wagstaff Contributions to the present volume have their origin in a series of conferences and workshops held between 2008 and 2010 at the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, the University of Portsmouth Centre for European and Inter- national Studies, and the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Stud- ies, University College London. Entitled ‘Cultural Continuity in the Diaspora: Paris and Berlin in 1917–1937: The Experience of Russian Jews in an Era of Social Change’, the project was developed under the aegis of the Leverhulme Trust Academic Collaboration—International Network scheme. The principal motivation for the choice of project was the belief that the theme—the diasporic experience and cultural activity of Rus- sian Jews in Western Europe in the period between the two world wars—was seriously under-researched, and that such research as was being carried out was fragmented, in both geographical and disciplin- ary terms. Initial objectives focused on: the reconstruction of the chronologi- cal history of Russian Jewish emigration to Germany and France; the definition and analysis of Russian Jewish cultural values