The Essential Hayim Greenberg: Essays and Addresses on Jewish Culture, Socialism, and Zionism

593 Pages·2017·3.89 MB·English

by  Hayim Greenberg

THE ESSENTIAL
HAYIM GREENBERG
JEWS AND JUDAISM: HISTORY AND CULTURE
Series Editors
Mark K. Bauman
Adam D. Mendelsohn
Founding Editor
Leon J. Weinberger
Advisory Board
Tobias Brinkmann
Ellen Eisenberg
David Feldman
Kirsten Fermaglich
Jeffrey S. Gurock
Nahum Karlinsky
Richard Menkis
Riv- Ellen Prell
Raanan Rein
Jonathan Schorsch
Stephen J. Whitfield
Marcin Wodzinski
THE ESSENTIAL
HAYIM GREENBERG
Essays and Addresses
on Jewish Culture, Socialism, and Zion ism
MARK A. RAIDER
Edited by
Foreword by PAUL MENDES-F LOHR
The University of Alab ama Press
Tuscaloosa
The University of Alab ama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487- 0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2016 by the University of Alab ama Press
All rights reserved.
Publication has been made possible in part through generous assistance from the Posen
Foundation as well as the Brandeis- Genesis Institute for Russian Jewry, with the support of
the Genesis Philanthropy Group.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the University
of Ala bama Press.
Typeface: Garamond
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover image: Hayim Greenberg, detail from sketch by Saul Raskin of dignitaries at a Jewish
National Workers’ Alliance banquet honoring Chaim Weizmann, Der Tog, c. 1942
Cover design: Michele Myatt Quinn
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of Americ an
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48- 1984.
Cataloging- in- Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 1935- 9
E- ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 9069- 3
To my father David H. Raider and father- in- law Walter Roth,
whose Labor Zion ist values are a source of pride and inspiration
Do you know what shocks me most in you? . . . You think like an
intellectual, you speak like a freethinker, and you have theories which
reek of radicalism. . . . Yield to my prayers, renounce your mad ideas;
become good, simple, innocent, and happy once more.
—Anatole France, The Revolt of the Angels (1914)
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword
Paul Mendes- Flohr xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Editor’s Note xvii
Introduction: Free Associations—An Intellectual
and Po liti cal Profile of Hayim Greenberg
Mark A. Raider 1
1. The Meaning of Zion ism (1922) 39
2. Policy and Labor (1923) 65
3. East and West (1925) 69
4. Sabbatai Zevi: The Messiah as Apostate (1926) 75
5. Our Stand (1934) 87
6. Jew and Arab (1934) 92
7. Revisionism (1934) 95
8. Notes on Marxism (1935) 102
9. To a Communist Friend (1936) 109
10. Open Letter to the Third International (1936) 118
11. An Answer to Gandhi (1939) 128
12. Leon Trotsky (1939, 1940) 136
13. Prayer (1940) 148
14. Einstein Discusses Religion (1940) 158
15. Psychoanaly sis and Moral Pessimism (1940) 167
16. Chosen Peoples (1941) 178
17. Socialism Re- examined (1941) 187
18. The Myth of Jewish Parasitism (1942) 194
19. Go to Nineveh (1942) 200
20. Halakhah and Agadah (1943) 204
21. Bankrupt! (1943) 215
22. Concerning Statehood (1943) 223
23. Notes on the Melting Pot (1944) 229
24. The Universalism of the Chosen People (1945) 234
25. Current Alternatives in Palestine (1947) 272
26. Patriotism and Plural Loyalties (1948) 287
27. Concerning an Israel Constitution (1949) 302
28. Jewish Culture and Education in the Diaspora (1951) 317
29. The Future of Americ an Jewry (1951) 330
30. Church and State: Seven Theses (1952) 343
31. Religious Tolerance (n.d.) 348
Notes 353
Glossary of Terms 523
Index 529
Illustrations
1. “Lives of Our Times: Hayim Greenberg” (1948) 3
2. From Hayim Greenberg’s Ethical Will (April 18, 1949) 9
3. Handwritten note from Hayim Greenberg to Baruch Zuckerman
(Sep tem ber 3, 1951) 36
4. Portrait of Hayim Greenberg (c. 1935) 87
5. Jewish National Workers’ Alliance (JNWA/Farband) Banquet
in Honor of Chaim Weizmann (c. 1942), sketched by Saul Raskin 136
6. Portrait of Hayim Greenberg (c. 1945) 204
7. Photo of Hayim Greenberg in Palestine (c. 1947) 302