Israel: The Ever-Dying People

The Polish-born Hebraist and historian of Jewish thought Simon Rawidowicz moved to Berlin when he was in his twenties to pursue a university education. When the Nazis seized power in 1933, he took refuge in England, where he taught in London and Leeds, before leaving for the United States in 1947. He taught at the College of Jewish Studies in Chicago and later headed the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. His crowning work, Bavel vi-Yrushalayim (1957), which was published posthumously, set forth his conception of Jewish history and analyzed the impact of the creation of the State of Israel on modern Jewish life. He was known particularly for rejecting the Zionist doctrine of she-lilat ha-golah (negation of the diaspora) and arguing that the Land of Israel and the diaspora were mutually supportive, vibrant centers of Jewish creativity.