From the Pages of Yedies

by ROBERTA NEWMAN

Elsewhere in this March 7, 2014 edition Yedies, historian Joshua Karlip discusses the Diaspora Nationalist movement in Eastern Europe and notes that the father of the movement and its ideology was the scholar Simon Dubnow.

There are few more towering figures in the history of East European Jewry than Dubnow, who is also sometimes referred to as one of the fathers of modern Jewish history. The awe in which he was held is reflected in this article from the December 1935 issue of Yedies, which reported on celebrations around the world in honor of his 75th birthday. Jewish communities in Vilna, Warsaw, Lodz, Paris, and New York held public events.

The Paris event included speeches by several key Diaspora Nationalist leaders, such as Yisroel Efroikin, who spoke on Dubnow as the creator of Diaspora Nationalist ideology; Elias Tcherikower, whose presentation dealt with the influence of Heinrich Graetz on Dubnow; and  Ben-Adir, whose talk was entitled “Dubnow’s Influence on Our Political and Spiritual Development.” Marc Chagall was also present, and delivered a lecture on Dubnow’s influence on Jewish art.