Kind of work, institutions, etc.

almonds.

Bath Shlomo

1,150

30,668

LXXIX

THE MANIFESTO OF THE BILU (1882)

IN 1882, in a little lodging-house in Galata, Constantinople, a meeting of young Jews was held. Most of those present were students, artisans or scholars. The assembly resulted in the formation of a Society called Bilu, from the initials of the words: Beth Iakob Lechu Venelcha (House of Jacob, come, let us go!). The Society had many branches, each bearing some name well known in Jewish history, as Kreti U'phleti. There was an artisans' branch, called He'charash Ve'hamasger (carpenters and locksmiths). From headquarters was issued the following manifesto (in Hebrew) :

"

To our Brethren and Sisters in the Exile, Peace be with you! "If I help not myself, who will help me?' (Hillel).

"Nearly two thousand years have elapsed since, in an evil hour, after an heroic struggle, the glory of our Temple vanished in fire and our Kings and chieftains changed their crowns and diadems for the chains of exile. We lost our country, where dwelt our beloved sires. Into the Exile we took with us, of all our glories, only a spark of the fire, by which our Temple, the abode of our Great One, was engirdled, and this little spark kept us alive while the towers of our enemies crumbled to dust, and this spark leapt into celestial flame and shed light upon the faces of the heroes of our race and inspired them to endure the horrors of the Dance of Death and the tortures of the autos-da-fé. And this spark is now again kindling and will shine for us, a true pillar of fire going before us on the road to Zion, while behind us is a pillar of cloud, the pillar of oppression threatening to destroy us. Sleepest thou, O our nation? What hast thou been doing till 1882? Sleeping and dreaming the false dream of Assimilation. Now, thank God, thou art awakened from thy slothful slumber. The Pogroms have awakened thee from thy charmed sleep. Thine eyes are open to recognize the cloudy structure of delusive hopes. Canst thou listen silently to the flaunts and the mockery of thine enemies? Wilt thou yield before the might of . . .? Where is thine ancient pride, thine olden spirit? Remember that thou wast a nation possessing a wise religion, a law, a constitution, a celestial Temple, whose wall is still a silent witness to the glories of the Past, that thy sons dwelt in Palaces and towers, and thy cities flourished in the splendour of civilization, while these enemies of thine dwelt like beasts in the muddy marshes of their dark woods. While thy children were clad in purple and fine linen they wore the rough skins of the wolf and the bear. Art thou not ashamed to submit to them?

Hopeless is your state in the West; the star of your future is gleaming in the East. Deeply conscious of all this, and inspired by the true teaching of our great master Hillel: 'If I help not myself, who will help me?' we propose to build the following society for national ends :

"I. The Society will be named Bilu, according to the motto: 'House of Jacob, come, let us go!' It will be divided into local branches according to the number of members.

"2. The seat of the Committee shall be Jerusalem.

44

3. Donations and contributions shall be unfixed and unlimited.

"What we want :

"1. A Home in our country. It was given to us by the mercy of God, it is ours as registered in the archives of history.

"

2. To beg it of the Sultan himself, and if it be impossible to obtain this, to beg that at least we may be allowed to possess it as a state within a larger state; the internal administration to be ours, to have our civil and political rights, and to act with the Turkish Empire only in foreign affairs, so as to help our brother Ishmael in his time of need.

"We hope that the interests of our glorious nation will rouse the national spirit in rich and powerful men, and that everyone, rich or poor, will give his best labours to the holy cause.

"Greeting, dear brethren and sisters.

"

'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and our Land, Zion, is our own hope.

"God be with us!"

The Pioneers of Bilu.

The last survivors of the Bilu still in Palestine are: Israel Belkind, S. Belkind, Mrs. Feinberg (née Belkind), Dr. Chissin, Drubin, Swerdloff, Leibowitz, Hurwitz and Zaladichin.--Of the veterans of the Chovevé Zion Colonization we met in 1914-to mention only a few-Gissin in Petach Tikvah, the Stamper family (Stamper was one of the first, and the most energetic settlers, he came from Roumania); Shalit, Meerowitz, Lubman, Freimann in Rishon; Idelowitz, now in Alexandria, managing the "Carmel" Wine business; Eisenberg, Goldin, Hirschensohn, Mme. Basia Makow in Rechoboth, and of the old " Menucha Ve-Nachla" (the Warsaw Colony) settlers: Bucharski, Padua, Weinstein, Bresner, Rafalkes, Appel.

LXXX

ZIONISM AND Jewish Art

IT is somewhat difficult to distinguish between Jewish art, that is to say between art expressing the Jewish national spirit, and ordinary art cultivated by the Jews.

Is Jewish art possible to-day? National art requires a soil out of which to issue, and a sky towards which to unfold. Wepresent-day Jews-have neither. We are inhabitants of many countries, and our thoughts ascend to different skies. Within our innermost soul we know of no earth and no sky. We have no country to bear our hopes in its lap and lend firmness to the tread of our feet, and we have no national sun to bless our sowings and irradiate our day. National art requires a homogeneous community out of which it arises and for which it exists. We have merely fragments of a community, and as yet there is hardly any stirring of the part to assemble into a whole. But without these premisses national art cannot come into existence; it cannot be made. It is no hothouse growth, but healthy, sapful plant life in a free native atmosphere. No artificial conditions may be created for it, it must come and develop with the progressing renascence.1

Another question presents itself. Are, at present, Jewish artists possible, i.e. artists who respond inwardly and in their works to Jewish individuality? If we may answer this question in the affirmative, the inner possibility of Jewish art is affirmed too. Because, as a rule, two elements have to co-operate so that a national artist may be evolved: a strain of national heredity, and a national environment; the former consecutive, not acquired by experience, but brought in unconsciously, the latter rather atmospheric, and up to a certain point consciously experienced. Since, in the most favourable conditions, presentday Judaism contains only the material and the elements of transformation of national environment, a Jewish artist would have to derive his national individuality chiefly from qualities received through heredity. But this would tend to prove that the artistic aptitude of the Jewish race is still aglow like live coal under ashes, and that it only needs personalities gifted with creative energy, and in whom this aptitude concentrates, condenses and transmutes into works, to bring forth Jewish artists. Are Jewish artists possible nowadays? By way of reply it may suffice to show that there are Jewish artists, or rather that with many Jewish artists we have the impression that their art has a national character.

It is very doubtful indeed whether any clear definition can be given of Jewish national art equally acceptable from the standpoint of the nationalist and that of the artist. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to a brief outline of the evolution of Jewish artistic activity in painting and sculpture in modern times, without entering into the old and much-discussed question of ancient Palestinian Jewish painting, sculpture, architecture, etc., medieval Jewish miniature-painting of a religious or semireligious character and more or less Jewish origin, and the 1 Martin Buber, Jüd. Künst., Lesser Ury.

arts of poetry and music cultivated by Jews since remotest antiquity and bearing undoubtedly in some cases the national character.

The sphere of art, particularly painting and sculpture, became accessible to the Jews at the same time as the realm of modern science and European culture and education, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The fugitives from the Ghetto began to devote themselves to the study of art with more or less zeal, according to the opportunities afforded and conditions prevailing in the countries in which they lived-in Western Europe at an earlier period and in Eastern Europe somewhat later. Having received their training in different countries, they were naturally influenced by various schools of art. Some attained great distinction and merit, deserving to be placed in the foremost rank of European art, but these repudiated their Judaism, e.g. Munkácsy; others gained locally a high reputation; the majority of them, however, did not rise above mere mediocrity.

Benjamin Ulmann, an Alsatian, born in Strasburg, 1829, was a historical and portrait painter of some merit; Jean Jules Worms, born in Paris, 1832, painted genre-pictures with a good deal of animation; Leopold Pollack, born in Lodenitz, Bohemia, 1809, was a genre-painter of much refinement. He was an artist possessed of various accomplishments, who gained distinction in artistic circles as a "Slav"; Felix Schlesinger, born in Frankfurt 0/M., 1814, and educated at Paris, became a famous French painter and was much appreciated as a genrepainter; Emil Lévy, born in Paris, 1826, deserves mention as a painter of idyllic scenery that showed considerable skill combined with simplicity; Louis Neustaeter, born in Munich, 1829 (d. 1899), achieved a reputation as a portrait painter; Felix Possart, born in Munich, 1837, was a most versatile popular painter; Nathanael Sichel, born in Mainz, 1843, was a historical painter of great talent; Eugene Benjamin Fischel, born in Paris, 1821 (d. 1895), was a historical painter ("The Arrival at the Inn" at the Luxembourg Museum since 1863), and devoted himself later on to painting of miniatures; Eduard Bendemann, born in Berlin, 1811 (d. 1889) was a painter of good taste and highly artistic accomplishments: he painted for the most part historical pictures, some of which are hung in German museums; Carl Jacoby, born in Berlin, 1853, distinguished himself among German painters of his time for his remarkable correctness in drawing; Friedrich Friedlaender, born in Vienna, 1825 (d. 1895), displayed the peculiar style of "Viennois" painting of his time; Toby Rosenthal, born in New Haven, U.S.A., 1848, was a disciple of Pilloty, and endeavoured to emulate his master; Herman Junker, Frankfurt (b. 1838); Karl Blosz, Munich; Edmund Edel, Charlottenburg; Julius Ester, Munich; August Gross, Vienna; Tullo Massarini,