Judah Leib Gordon

Jude abdomen Gordon ( born December 7, 1830 in Vilnius, † December 16, 1892 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Hebrew poet and representative of the Haskalah.

Life and work

Gordon's first teacher was Rabbi Lipa, students of the Gaon of Vilna a trailer. After the Gaon method the boy first learned Bible and Hebrew grammar and then the Talmud; this order was unusual at that traditional Jewish education. At 14, Gordon was a child prodigy and was granted permission to continue his studies without a teacher. At 17, Gordon began with the study of European culture and languages ​​( Russian, German, Polish, French and English). In 1853 he graduated from the State Teachers' Seminary in Vilnius and began the same year to work as a school teacher in various state Jewish schools in the province of Kaunas.

Gordon's first works were long epic poems with reference to biblical themes, such as Ahavat David u - Michal ( " The Love of David and Michal ", 1857). Appeared in 1859 Mishlei Yehudah ( " Judah parables " ), with translations and adaptations of the works of Aesop, Phaedrus, La Fontaine, Lessing and Krylov. This work has been very popular in the Russian Empire. It was also read by Karaite students and then collected into an anthology of Moritz Steinschneider. Even in later years, Gordon worked as a translator and transferred among others the Hebrew Pentateuch into Russian (1875 ) and the Hebrew Melodies (Hebrew Melodies ) by Lord Byron into Hebrew ( Semirot Yisrael, 1884).

One focus of the commitment of Gordon was in the struggle to improve the situation of women in Judaism. His poem Kozo shel iodine ( " The point of the iodine ", 1876 completed) describes the situation of Bat - Shua, who is left by her husband Hillel with two children down and wants a divorce. However, since the Get ( bill of divorce ), it shall submit to the Orthodox rabbis, the iodine in the name Hillel is missing, denied her the rabbi to confirm the bill of divorcement, and they must continue as Aguna ( abandoned woman ) living in poverty. Kozo shel iodine became a buzzword for a rigid orthodoxy.

1865 Gordon was director of public Hebrew school in Telz and founded in this city a girl schoolhouse. In 1872 he gave up teaching and moved to St. Petersburg, where he was secretary of the Jewish community and head of the " Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews." In 1879 he was banned for a year on charges of " anti-Tsarist activities " in Pudosch in the province Olonets. During this time he wrote " King Zedekiah in prison," a historical biblical poem in which he recorded his prison experiences. In 1880 he was allowed to return to St. Petersburg, but was unable to resume his former activities again and took a job as editor of the Hebrew daily Ha - Meliz.

The pogroms in southern Russia after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II was another serious blow to Gordon. As a convinced representative of the Enlightenment Gordon had initially supported the concept of assimilation of the Jews in Russia and was of the opinion that colloquial Yiddish, which he regarded as " jargon " should be replaced by Russian. After the violent riots in the eighties, however, he came upon the idea of ​​assimilation and saw the emigration to the West, especially in the USA, the only saving opportunity. Emigration to Eretz Israel seemed to him at this time is not appropriate, as the corrupt rulers of the Ottoman Empire blocked the Jewish emigration in the province of Palestine. Nevertheless, Gordon was a supporter of the Zionist idea and published in Hebrew and Russian a positive review about the essay auto-emancipation of Leo Pinsker.

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