Baruch Kurzweil
| Baruch Kurzweil | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1907 Pirnice, Czech Republic |
| Died | 1972 (aged 65) |
| Occupation | Literary critic |
Baruch Kurzweil (1907–1972) (Hebrew: ברוך קורצווייל) was a pioneer of Israeli literary criticism.[1]
Biography
Kurzweil was born in Brtnice, Moravia (now Czechoslovakia) in 1907, to an Orthodox Jewish family.[2][3] He studied at Solomon Breuer's yeshiva in Frankfurt and the University of Frankfurt.[4] Kurzweil emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1939.[3] Kurzweil taught at a high school in Haifa, where he mentored the poet Dahlia Ravikovitch.[5] He founded and headed Bar Ilan University's Department of Hebrew Literature until his death. He wrote a column for Haaretz newspaper.[3][6]
Kurzweil committed suicide in 1972.[3]
Thought
Kurzweil saw secular modernity (including secular Zionism) as representing a tragic, fundamental break from the premodern world.[3] Where before the belief in God provided a fundamental absolute of human existence, in the modern world this pillar of human life has disappeared, leaving a "void" that moderns futilely attempt to fill by exalting the individual ego.[3] This discontinuity is reflected in modern Hebrew literature, which lacks the religious foundation of traditional Jewish literature: “The secularism of modern Hebrew literature is a given in that it is for the most part the outgrowth of a spiritual world divested of the primordial certainty in a sacral foundation that envelops all the events of life and measures their value.”[3][7][8][9]
Kurzweil saw a writer's response to the "void" of modern existence as his most fundamental characteristic.[3] He believed S.Y. Agnon and Uri Zvi Grinberg were the greatest modern Hebrew writers.[3][10] A confrontational polemicist, Kurzweil famously wrote against Ahad Haam and Gershom Scholem, who he saw as attempting to establish secularism as the foundation of Jewish life.[3]
Awards
- In 1962, Kurzweil was awarded the Bialik Prize for literature.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ David, Anthony, The Patron: A Life of Salman Schocken, 1877–1959, p. 296
- ↑ Myers, David N. Resisting history: historicism and its discontents in German-Jewish thought. Princeton University Press. 2003. p. 225.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Myers 155
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- ↑ Orr, Akiva. The unJewish state: the politics of Jewish identity in Israel. p. 194
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- ↑ Crowsly, Marcus (2006). Being for Myself Alone: Origins of Jewish Autobiography. Stanford University Press. p. 35.
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Further reading
Diamond, James S. Barukh Kurzweil and modern Hebrew literature. Chico, Calif. Scholars Pr. Brown Judaic Studies. 1983.
