Translating Jewish experience and transmitting its values to subsequent generations have always been venerable tasks for Jews. Of central importance to the Jewish people has always been to keep Judaism alive, to be a lamplight to the world and a shining guide to mankind. Jewish scholars from a number of disciplines have written commentaries, and have long examined Jewish thought, culture, and religion. At the end of the nineteenth-century a new multidimensional approach to Jewish continuity was necessary, due to the pogrom and other atrocities sponsored by the Russian Czar in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities.
For the most part Jews did not take up arms (except for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising) to fight their oppressors. They used the power of the pen to reflect and deflect their pain. In examining the Jewish experience in fighting back against anti-Semitism, one can understand why in an era of prejudice, hate, and pogroms Jews could not rely on others for salvation. Instead, they turned inward, into their intellect, to explain and teach future generations. They sought to transform a tragedy into a learning experience for generations to come. One such writer was the poet, Chaim Nachman Bialik.
Chaim Nachman Bialik
Bialik was called the father of Modern Hebrew poetry and the poet-prophet of Jewish nationalism. Some of his greatest contributions to Jewish nationalism and hopes were written in the early part of the twentieth century. He witnessed the Russian pogroms, the Russian Revolution, and the rise of Zionism. These were reflected in his poetry, which helped revive the Hebrew language. "The City of Slaughter," written in 1903, after some of the worst pogroms sponsored by the Czar in Kishinev made Bialik a world recognized poet.
Bialik describes the agony of the dying in the pogroms, and the terror of their death. "Their eyes cry, asking God why? It is a silence only God can carry". He continued to describe in the poem how the atrocities of his people would affect the body, spirit, and soul forever. He ends with a question: "Where are the heirs of the Hasmoneans (Jewish rebels) the sons of the Maccabees?" This poem inspired many Jews to join Zionist organizations. As a result, many immigrated later to Israel and set up
kibbutzim
(farm settlements).
Leon Pinsker
In 1882, Leon Pinsker decried the place of the Jewish people among the nations of the world. He said that most nations lived side by side with each other, secured by treaties and international recognized boundaries, but it was different with the Jewish people. No such privilege of equality existed with them. Although the Jews had a common language and a historic homeland, they were treated as stateless people. European nations never dealt with a Jewish nation; only with individual Jews, who adapted to their lands and lost the culture of their former holy land. As a result, Pinsker felt they lost touch with their inborn qualities of being the descendants of David, the king of Israel. Pinsker added that Jews mistakenly thought that if they identify with their oppressors and deny their past, that anti-Semitism would cease to exist. Jews never succeeded in gaining the acceptance they sought to enjoy as natives with equal rights.
Yevgeni Yevtushenko
Yevgeni Yevtushenko's poem "Babi Yar" was written in 1961, to commemorate and expose the human tragedy and subsequent cover up by the Russian government's refusal to erect a monument in the memory of thousands of Jews murdered there by the Nazis on September 29, 1941. In the poem Yevtushenko sees himself as an ancient Israelite wandering the roads of ancient Egypt. He describes himself as being in a cage, trapped in, persecuted, spat on, slandered, and smelling vodka and onion everywhere. He hears the jeers of the pogrom and the calls to "kill the Jews and save Russia." He ends his poem with a statement: "The Anti Semites have proclaimed themselves to speak in the name of the union of the Russian people."
Chaim Nachman Bialik, Leon Pinsker and Yevgeni Yevtushenko inspired the Jewish people at a time when the world was apathetic to the plight of the Jews. These poets did not call on their brethrens to be anarchists or suicide bombers. Instead, they were crying out for international support. They made people think what to do next, to be active or passive, to join an organization or set up a national liberation movement. The answer came on November 2, 1917 with the Balfour Declaration letter to Lord Rothschild. In it, Balfour, a British government official, described his Majesty's Government of England's sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations and its favoring the establishment of the State of Israel. On May 15, 1948 the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the State of Israel became a reality. Jews from all over the world flocked to the new Jewish state. Today, Israel has six million citizens.