The Face of East European Jewry

Arnold Zweig

1918

Is this the Jew of the East? Is he an old man, who, almost entirely removed from the present day and certainly removed from the future, lives a life that is limited to the most oppressed and narrowest form, a life that scatters once the pressure that forced it into that form is relieved? We know that our forefathers were relatives of the men we…

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Painting of bearded man in glasses and hat seated at table with cigarette in one hand and Yiddish newspaper in the other.
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Related Guide

Jewish Intellectual Inquiry at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

1880–1918

Jewish scholars combined empirical social science with philosophical inquiry, while others explored Jewish history, folklore, and identity to address the challenges of modernity and antisemitism.

Creator Bio

Arnold Zweig

1887–1968

The German-born novelist and writer Arnold Zweig is best known for his antiwar novel The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1927). A Zionist who was heavily influenced by Martin Buber, he wrote a romantic account of his own encounter with Russian Jewry, The Face of East European Jewry (1918), which was illustrated by Hermann Struck. He was also influenced by the writings of Freud, with whom he corresponded for twelve years, and in 1927 published a psychological study of antisemitism, Caliban oder Politik und Leidenschaft. After the Nazi takeover, he settled in Haifa, but, unable to master the Hebrew language and frustrated that Zionism failed to develop in a binational and primarily cultural Buberian direction, he left the newly created State of Israel to settle in Communist East Germany, where he was much feted by the new regime.

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