Israel: The Ever-Dying People and Other Essays

by Simon Rawidowicz, Simon Rowidowicz

Simon Rawidowicz was a strong advocate of the position that as long as the Diaspora existed, it had to develop an ideology of creative survival enabling it to enter into a relationship of equal partnership with the Jewish community of the Land of Israel. Rawidowicz's son has collected his essays and translated them into English.

247 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

Simon Rawidowicz was born in 1896 in Grajewo, Poland to Chaim Yitzchak Rawidowicz (later Ravid), a Zionist activist, a travelling merchant, a writer, and a pioneer farmer, and to Chana Batya (née. Rembelinker). A second of ten children – seven of whom survived childhood – he studied at the modern Yeshiva at Lida. Rawidowicz received a traditional Jewish education, during the course of which he became attracted to the Haskalah and Modern Hebrew literature. He was drawn to the reviving Hebrew language and literature, and before turning 18 he became a teacher at a cheder metukan ("improved cheder"). He was educated in Germany. In 1933 he emigrated to the United Kingdom.
He married Esther Klee in 1926, the daughter of Alfred Klee and the maternal aunt of Hanneli Goslar (Anne Frank's best friend).
Rawidowicz taught at the Jews' College in London and at the Leeds University (as of 1941). In 1948 he emigrated to the United States, first teaching at the College of Jewish Studies of Chicago. Rawidowicz served as the chair of the Department of Near-Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He was the author of several books and essays, some of which were published posthumously.

Reviews

[Arnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title essay is a classic and well worth the cost of the whole book