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The Part of the Tarnow Jews in
Science, Art, Literature and the Press

Reb Mordechai Dovid – that is how we referred to Mordechai David Brandstetter in Tarnow. When we spoke about Reb Mordechai Dovid, we were referring to the tall Jew with a long and smoothly-shaved face and closely-cropped gray hair. He walked down the street with a rather resolute stride, not stopping unless someone actually approached him. He had vibrant blue eyes, creased at the sockets, which glided over everything in his view with a hidden smile, certainly not with haughtiness. Jews doffed their hats in his direction, as if he was a dignitary, even if they just knew him slightly. Somehow, you could not just pass by him in the same way as other Jews you encountered on the street. When he walked down the street it was not a casual matter due to his stature in town.

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Mordechai David Brandstetter 1844-1928 z“l (of blessed memory)

How he was addressed in person depended on the religious observance of the person speaking. If the person addressing him was a learned Jew from the older generation, a Jew who categorizes people according to whether or not they are scholarly, then they didn't have, G-d forbid, any fear about calling him Reb Mordechai Dovid. End of story. If it was a modern-day Jew, one with cut sidelocks who dressed in the more modern German or partially-German style, for example a merchant, he addressed Reb Mordechai Dovid with the more formal “Mr. Brandstetter.” Depending on the circumstances, he was referred to differently. In his role as scholar and apostate, he was called Reb Mordechai Dovid. In his professional life, as a merchant and oil manufacturer, he was called “Mr. Brandstetter.” The younger generation, who recognized the stature Reb Mordechai Dovid held in the annals of Hebrew literature, combined both names: “Reb Mordechai Dovid Brandstetter”.

I do not remember whether Reb Mordechai Dovid had any friends in town. In the beginning of the century, one certainly envisions him as having light-hearted chats with the community-writers and the cynical enlightened individuals, who, behind the backs of the elite, skewered the town. From time to time he would demonstrate his critical writing in a pamphlet opposing the young upstarts, the Zionists, along with his colleagues, the “hunchback” Max Bienenstock (b.1879 or 1881–d.1923), and Dr. Zaltz, the son of the Yidl Mutz (the tailor from the Grabowska district). Sometimes two drunken enlightened men would drop by, the first of whom was Fishl Weissman Chajes, a brother of the well-known Rabbi Mordechai Vaysman Chajes, more commonly known as Fishaleh Pyok (“the drunk”). He was a correspondent from “HaMagid” and for the Viennese “Neue Freie Presse” [Note: the New Free Press- a Viennese newspaper], where he would write a few lines about trivial matters, a great fire, or the celebrations for the Kaiser's birthday. Besides that he also had the privilege of soliciting subscriptions for the newspaper and was able to collect a commission for the subscriptions he solicited. The other drunken friend was Shloyme Mendel Haber, who also sometimes wrote for the Hebrew newspapers - a more

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respected gentleman. Because of his excessive drinking and lack of a job, he was supported by his family's trust fund and received a daily alcohol 'maintenance' - a half liter of mead - from Chaim Berl, the mead-barkeeper. Yet he still had enough strength and mindset to interpret a biblical passage or engage in a Talmudic discussion in order to confirm that he retained his level of scholarship. He had the ability to discover illicit acts of the prophets and acronyms, etc... In exchange for these words and thoughts, someone would come forward to honor him by buying him a drink in Dovid Leibel's wine bar. Although Shloyme Mendel Haber didn't earn a living, he was a maven of a well-spoken word. In Leibel's beer tavern, you could always find a big crowd at the long table in the front room, where Reb Mordechai Dovid would comfortably speak about both Torah and wisdom.

When these two, Fishl Pijak [the drunk] and Shloyme Mendel HaBehr [the bear] drank, they might wobble out together from the tavern. If they could stand on their own two feet, they meandered over to the Walowa, across from the police station, where Mordechai Dovid lived. Mordechai Dovid was a man who coveted having time after lunch in his house. One knew perfectly well that one could find him at home at that time. To visitors, Mordechai Dovid always had a clear message to impart, about the Torah or the like.

But this was back quite a few years.

When these two -- Fishl and Menachem Mendel - were already long dead in their graves, it became rather quiet for Reb Mordechai Dovid. From time to time he chatted with the assimilated Dr. Goldhammer (c. 1851-1912), who was a gentleman and a wise man. Dr. Goldhammer was the most brilliant speaker and an outstanding jurist, whose greatness was known even by the clerks in the highest courts in Vienna. He never relied solely on jurisprudence and rhetoric. It was rumored that on occasion he would slip a small gift or bribe into someone's hand –some older lawyers whispered about this- so that no one would know. Though they were a bit envious, they couldn't deny that he was the greatest. Dr. Goldhammer was actually the only one in town who could impress the great writer Mordechai Dovid with anything; he was quite the European gentleman. Beginning in the 1880s Dr. Goldhammer, who was at that time still a young lawyer and had just arrived in Tarnow from a small shtetl, gave a public lectures in Tarnow about Henrik Ibsen, an author that the world was just starting to become aware of.

There was another indication of how highly the older writer [Mordechai Dovid] regarded the young lawyer [Dr. Goldhammer]. When the first issue of the “Yidishe Natzional” newspaper was published, in the early days of the Enlightenment, when the first sparks of worldly Jewishness started to appear in the Lemberger “Shomer Yisroel”, Dr. Goldhammer, ran for office in the Austrian parliament election against the priest Father Stayalovski, under the auspices of a Jewish National Party, which he himself founded for that purpose. That was how the young lawyer. Goldhammer, known to have a “silver tongue”, became the leader of what were known as the

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progressive Jews. These Jews had their own temple, where they prayed in short talises, and they had an organ and a choir befitting what they considered to be the 'finer people.' But Dr. Goldhammer's elevation to national recognition lasted only as long as the election. It had to take another 15 years before the cause was taken up by younger and more ordinary Jews, i.e. shop owners and the bourgeoisie, and they went a step further than just the National. They were Zionists. They founded the “Ahavat Tzion” (Lovers of Zion) along with the son of tailor Yidele Mutz – Dr. Abraham Zalts, Fisher Hollander and the Hebrew teacher, Zacharia Mendl Shapiro, who later was a teacher in Rosh Pinah in the Land of Israel. Afterwards he was in Tel Aviv, and published a book in German here in the 1920s, so nicely entitled: “Die Bibel als Ariadne-Faden im Labyrinth der Sprachen” [Translation note: “The Bible as Ariadne's Thread in the Labyrinth of Language”]. They founded ”Ahavat Tzion” (Lovers of Zion) and had taken to building camps in the Land of Israel, set-up an entire movement several years before the end of the 19 ^th century. They even tried to get rabbinical approval for this and were nearly banished by the Belzer Rabbi. Interestingly, the story can be read in Ahad-Ha'am's book “Al Parashat Derachim” [Translation note: Fork in the Road].

Reb Mordechai Dovid was not impressed by Zionism. The younger folks didn't impress him either. He smiled at them soberly, as he generally did for “half of Asia” with its Hasidim and Maskilim alike. As for the new type of Hassidim – Zionists – he considered them average or common. As he got older they did not impress him. In his sixties, he wrote revolutionary songs (which he didn't publish). When he was young he had wanted to turn the world upside down. Consequently he waged war in his earlier writings with the Hasidim including the rabbis of Belz and Ziditshov [Note: a Hasidic dynasty originating in town Ziditshoyv]. Now, as the great enemy is already retreating – here comes the person newly-elevated to distinction. He wondered if there anyone left to engage in a conflict with? He viewed the younger Zionists as ridiculous, and one needs to laugh at them a bit… true already they were becoming more European, more modern. One did actually learn something in all these years –but it did not create a conflict as he felt the young Zionists were ridiculous.

So what remains of Reb Mordechai Dovid's children? One of them, a doctor, Michal Brandstetter, is a fine academic. As for the grandchildren, he didn't know what would become of them, several were younger and remain at home. He had friends, Dr. Goldhammer, a busy person, and in Warsaw a friend named Frischmann. It warmed his heart just thinking of the writer Dovid Frischmann (1859-1922). He said, “Oh, that Frischmann, that's one fine man.” Once when Frischmann was traveling from Carlsbad, while en route, he made a point to stop in Tarnow to see Mr. Mordechai Dovid. They spent three days together. That was a memorable holiday, not to be forgotten. Reb Mordechai Dovid said that “Dovid Frischmann was truly a European and witty man.” They simply could not part, and this warmed the older man's heart for many years.

Mr. Mordechai Dovid's last story was the final in a series and was called

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“Tmunot Krynica” (Translation note: Pictures from Krynica”). He wrote it last of all. The story did not even get published in the book of “Tmunot” (pictures), but it truly is a wonderful epilogue to a writer's life. The story is set at the end of the season on the famous Promenade in Krynica. Usually the promenade is full of strolling visitors. In the story, there's only one older person sitting on a bench. The din of the summer season had passed. The autumn trees explode with faded leaves. Sometimes a breeze shakes up the bare park. At one moment– from among the trees- a squirrel comes nearer, jumps up on the bench and sits itself down. Lost in thought, the squirrel sits near a calm gentleman. They sit together on the bench – Mordechai Dovid Brandstetter, the greatest Jewish writer of his time – and the squirrel from the woods. The story ends like a lyrical poem.

Now all that remains of Mordechai Dovid's engaging writing – can be found in Hebrew and Yiddish literature. In Warsaw, “Tushiya” began publishing his collected works but didn't complete it. They won't move heaven and earth to get it completed. After all, there are so many other great contemporary writers. He doesn't even talk about this. He enjoys it when young people come to him and sometime bring him a new book. He talks about himself to them, sharing that as early as 1896 he spoke with (Micha Josef) Berdyczewski in Carlsbad and told him they needed to publish Bialik. He was the first to treasure him and understand that Bialik was due great respect. Mordechai Dovid expressed his opinions about Hebrew literature to the young visitors. He considered Shalom Aleichem to be a truly great artist because “he has standards,” especially artistic standards (that was his opinion regarding the volumes he knew). He considered Peretz to be a very talented “dilettante” simply because he didn't always maintain his own standards. Among the younger writers, Moishe Broderzon (1890-1956) strongly impressed him with his Yiddish-language artistry. As he saw the blossoming of Yiddish literature, he derived great pleasure that once, many years back, several of his anti-Hasidic stories were released in Yiddish translation. He spoke painfully about the collection of a thousand letters by Yiddish writers of his time, which he left behind in his apartment, when he escaped to Vienna fleeing the Russian invasion. He recounted the story of how they disappeared forever. In the confusion of the moment, he grabbed a pillow instead of the letters, so that he'd have something to sleep on. He totally forgot that he was offered several thousand dollars for these letters…and left them behind. He heard that during the invasion, S. Ansky had been up in his apartment, searching for what remained, but, it turned out that the letters had already been burned by the Russian officers.

He never stopped writing. When not writing and publishing stories, he jotted down aphorisms. He published quite a bit in the American newspaper, “Ha-Do'ar ”. There wasn't much business for him so any money he earned came in handy. To earn some money, he agreed to an arrangement . Mr. Chaim Neiger, the town's uber-Zionist, came to an agreement with him about buying a library. Once the library was bought, it would revert to a university in Jerusalem in a hundred years' time.

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He absolutely didn't want to part with his books. Did they arrive at the library? The poems were in a notebook, which he showed me, about Socialism (… when I was young I was a socialist too). But I found in the poems only songs against tyrants and aristocrats. Songs of a democrat of the 1860s.

He was then approximately 80 years old.

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I wish to be in the service of scholarship,
to be an aid to my people.

Leon Kellner was born in 1859 in Tarnow, the oldest son of Jewish grocers, Rafael and Lea Kellner. In the early years of their marriage, Dr. Kellner's parents lived in rather difficult conditions. None the-less they decided to give Leon, their beloved and coddled child, the very best upbringing in all fields, and additionally strove for the child to possess a thorough knowledge of Judaic studies including Tanach and Gemora.

Because of this, when the child turned 3, they enrolled him in a Cheder, so he could begin to learn the Hebrew aleph-bet. By that time the Kellners' financial situation had improved somewhat, and they opened a small grocery business, which they operated for many years in a building on the corner of Kishover Street in Tarnow.

Dr. Kellner himself writes about his childhood in his article, “The First Day of School”, printed in 1927 in the periodical known as “Menorah”. For the first few months he grudgingly attended the Cheder, and the teaching assistant had to put up with a great deal before it was time to dismiss the child to go home from the Cheder.

But the situation quickly changed for the better to the extent that bright little Kellner became not only diligent in his studies, but also the best student in his class. Therefore, every Thursday the rebbe entrusted him with the responsibility of

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reviewing the material that they had studied during the week with the older students. As fate would have it, even at this young age, Leibish (Leon) Kellner as he was then called, was teaching others. Unbeknownst to himself, he was preparing for a career in the teaching profession, which in later years would lead him to achieve a position as a university chairman.

His outstanding intellectual abilities were evident not only in his youth, but years before in his childhood, witnessed by the fact that at the age of 8, Leibish Kellner had already written a treatise containing commentaries on the weekly “parshas” (Torah readings) and the Tanach. No wonder that his elder future friend, Dr. Moritz Gudemann, the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, used to write and speak about Kellner as the “Child Prodigy of Tarnow.”

When Leon Kellner turned 10, his parents decided, despite their limited finances, to increase his level of learning. His parents, especially his mother, felt that their bright son needed more intellectual stimulation and that his academics could be improved. Their concerns were that his Judaic studies, including Tanach and Talmud, as well as his secular education needed to be enhanced. Although

Dr. Leon Kellner, z”l

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they didn't have the temerity to enroll him in the Algemeiner Shul. They decided, in order to achieve their plan, that they needed to arrange a private teacher for him. Searching for one, they happened upon David Shpitzer, who was at that time a student in the Higher Gymnasium in Tarnow.

As fate would have it, this became evident 50 years later, when under the protectorate of Prince (Jozef) Lubomirski, the “Pro-Palestine Committee” was founded in Poland. At the first official meeting, Prof. Dr. Ribovski, professor of the English language at the Cracow University (who had been a student of Dr. Kellner during his studies in Vienna) expressed his deep respect for Dr. Kellner. He further stated, even though Dr. Kellner hailed from Poland, he was better versed in English literature than native English professors from the universities there. Suddenly a councilor who was present at the session and was on the highest council of the land (Governing Board) stood up. To everyone's surprise and delight, he declared, that when he was a still a student in Tarnow, he had been Dr. Leon Kellner's private tutor for secular studies.

In retrospect, Kellner's parents' decision to hire a private teacher for their son's secular studies, marked a critical moment in young Kellner's life and decisively determined his future.

As we have already written, ever since childhood, it was clear that Leon Kellner was gifted with extraordinary skill and intellectual abilities. He was very competent in all of his studies. No wonder, that to the great satisfaction of his private teacher (whom Leon's parents used to call 'The German Teacher') the young pupil made great progress in his secular studies. He exhibited a particular interest in geography and foreign languages.

Insofar as young Kellner learned secular studies very diligently and dedicated many hours each day to it, he didn't for any time period stop learning Tanach and Talmud. His parents wanted to encourage him in that direction and engaged Rabbi Yeshua Mann, who was considered to be among the wisest Talmud scholars in Tarnow, to study with Kellner. Only the older and most capable of the young men in Tarnow and the surrounding area were permitted to study with him.

Among Rabbi Yeshua's older students Leibish (Leon) Kellner held a place of highest honor, even though he was the youngest one there. Because of his diligence, he quickly became the pride of Rabbi Yeshua, whom the young Kellner held at highest esteem throughout his life, always recalling him fondly. However, with time, young Kellner developed a change in his views on the best method of learning Jewish and religious studies. The more he

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pursued his secular studies, the more critical he became of the rules and injunctions set forth in the Tanach and Talmud.

As chance would have it, while studying Tanach, young Kellner paused at the chapter that described the Garden of Eden, where the first human beings lived, Adam and Eve. He noticed the fact that, according to the Tanach, the Garden of Eden was located in the place from which four rivers flow, among them the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris. These various Tanach stories didn't sit well with the then 13-year-old Kellner. From his geography lessons he already knew that the source of the Nile was not located in the same place from where the Euphrates flows. Disturbed, he turned to his father, Rafael Kellner, who also was knowledgeable in Tanach, and asked him to explain the discrepancy between the Tanach and geography.

The father and son decided to determine what is said about this by the greatest, and to this day, best commentator about Tanach and Talmud – Rabbi Yitzhak Ben Shlomo (Rashi). When the father showed his son in the text that Rashi held the same opinion as the Tanach with regard to the source of the rivers, the younger Kellner, not having in mind that this could be conceived as heretical, immediately answered that “Rashi must have made a mistake.”

This infuriated the elder Kellner so much, that he gave his coddled son a slap on the face. He immediately fired the student who gave his son secular lessons, and destroyed all his non-Jewish books.

But even this slap couldn't change Young Kellner's newly-held beliefs. Nor did it force him to abandon his secular studies. From now on he studied all secular studies on his own, without the help of the student tutor. He did this secretly, without any help at home. He often did this in the fields or in the meadows surrounding Tarnow, which were easily accessible from the house on Koshover Street, where his parents lived.

Once it happened that young Kellner was sitting in the meadow and studying Latin grammar. Tired from his studies, he fell asleep alongside his book. Just then a professor from the Tarnow Gymnasium happened by. Seeing a book alongside the sleeping Hasidic young man, he picked it up and was certain that this was a Latin grammar book. At that moment Kellner woke up and a conversation ensued between him and the professor, after which the professor was convinced, that the Hasidic young man had an exceptional understanding of the rules of Latin grammar. In the morning the professor told his students about the encounter with the Jewish boy and strongly praised him. The students in his class retold the story to their parents and eventually it reached Kellner's father and mother.

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The community and Kellner's parents were very concerned that their son, not taking into consideration the fact that his father had forbidden it, had disobeyed them. Yet Leon Kellner continued to study secular subjects.

After this event, something else concerning happened on a particular morning when he came to pray in the synagogue. It was discovered that hidden inside his prayer book was a secular book. Therefore Kellner was forbidden to come to the synagogue. This was a powerful slap in the face to his religious parents.

All of this led the elder Kellner to seek advice from a certain Mr. Feit, who in Tarnow was known as a wise and honest man. He was a religion teacher in the Tarnow state schools. After this consultation it was decided that the parents should send young Kellner to Breslau, where a traditional but progressive Jewish theological seminary was located. The thought was that if he completed his studies there, young Kellner would become a District Rabbi. They believed that his studies would ensure that he was both knowledgeable in Tanach and Talmud as well as receive a fine secular education. In this way Kellner's parents felt, at least in part, they would achieve their dream of having their talented son become a rabbinic scholar. Kellner was at this point 15 years old.

After the entrance exam, young Kellner was admitted to the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (on the tract that had a higher course of study). The seminary was the first modern rabbinical seminary in Europe. His teachers as well as his parents thought that surely Leon would grow up to be a renowned District Rabbi.

However, what transpired was completely different. Before finishing his second academic year young Leon went to the seminary director and announced to him that he was completely dissatisfied with the manner of teaching in the seminary. Furthermore, he stated that he had originally agreed to come to Breslau to study Tanach and Talmud because he believed he would be taught by esteemed scholars such as the Professors Philipson and Graetz. Professor Graetz was known to be an innovative Judaic studies educator as well as a historian. This turned out not to be the case. In his first year of study, he observed that his professors in the seminary taught using the same traditional and rigid methods that were employed by his teachers in Tarnow. In other words – he left his parents' home and his birthplace unnecessarily.

After listening to young Kellner's “This I Believe” speech, the director understood that Leon Kellner would never be a rabbi. He advised him to travel to Bilitz and make an effort to be admitted to the German gymnasium there. The plan was that after he received his secular degree there, if he would want to, he could come back to the seminary, he could without difficulty complete his rabbinical studies.

This discussion took place in the year 1878, and after a brief consideration young Kellner decided to take the director's advice. By May 1, 1878 he was already in Bilitz, fortified with a letter of recommendation to the renowned Bilitzer businessman Herr Scheingut. After several days in town, he went off to the gymnasium to take the exam and without additional obstacles he was admitted into Level Seven. After two years of study, in the year 1880, he received his diploma and in the fall of the

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same year he travelled to Vienna and enrolled in the Department of Philology at the University of Vienna, where he studied classical languages, but for the most part dedicated himself to English and French language.

For the entire period of his university studies, young Kellner supported himself by giving lessons to children of wealthy families in Vienna, such as Karol Zaylor, Sabatka and Frank Meyer.

As a student in the sixth university semester, the very capable and industrious Leon Kellner started to work on a dissertation, “On the Syntax of English Verbs with Regard to Shakespeare.” Eventually, renowned individuals such as then professors Councilors Schiffer and Heinl recognized this work as brilliant. Immediately after his vacation, Kellner took a special exam, in which he earned the highest score as well as additional awards. At the end of 1883 he was granted the title of Doctor of Philosophy.

After receiving his doctorate, he began applying for different teaching positions. He was offered a position in the Real Gymnasium in Vienna. Because the salary for such a job was very low, a mere 60 guilder a month, which in his opinion would not suffice even to modestly support a family, Dr. Kellner started to look around to make some earnings on the side. Of great benefit to him was his broad knowledge of traditional Jewish subjects which he obtained in his youth, studying in the Tarnow synagogues and in the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau. Thanks to this he received a second teaching post (as a teacher of religion) in one of the Viennese gymnasiums.

Having secured two salaries, Dr. Kellner began thinking in earnest about getting married to Fraulein Anna Weiss, whom he met for the first time in Bilitz, in the home of Mr. Scheingut, to whom he had presented his letter of recommendation from Tarnow.

Their wedding took place on the 12^th of February in the year 1884.

Anna Weiss, Dr. Kellner's wife, was a daughter of Shlomo and Clara Weiss. Shlomo Weiss was a renowned Talmudist, originally from Hungary and his wife was descended from a renowned Hasidic family in Bialystok.

After getting married, Anna Weiss Kellner became well known in the literary circles thanks to her very successful German translations of renowned English and French writers and also translations from German to English and French.

The couple, Leon and Anna Kellner, had three children – two daughters and one son. Two of them – their daughter, Paula, and son, Victor, long-time colonists, live until today in Binyamina (Israel).

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Dr. Leon Kellner's creative spirit knew nothing of the concept of 'rest'. By the 24^th of February 1884 in the well-known journal “German Weekly Magazine” edited by Friedjung, he published his scholarly work titled “Schopenhauer as Linguistic Scholar”. On the basis of this particular work he was immediately recognized in literary circles as a respected writer with a great deal of knowledge.

Dr. Kellner was of the correct opinion, in order to remain an excellent professor of English in the full sense of the word, one must acquaint oneself properly with the life and manner of the English world. Not just by reading books and English periodicals, but by personally living among the English in their country. As a result of that point of view, it was clear to him, that he must relocate to England, if not full-time, at least for a specified time period. This was the reason for his frequent excursions to London and other British cities.

Dr. Kellner traveled to London for the first time in the year 1885, in order to spend a part of the school vacation there. A year later, in the year 1886, he spent the entire vacation period in London, along with his wife. After his return to Vienna, Dr. Kellner set his goal of studying for the teacher qualifying exams, which he completed with a brilliant result and immediately received the position of Professor of English and French in the Upper Real Gymnasium in the third district of Vienna.

By the year 1887 he began to receive a stipend from the Austrian education ministry. These extra funds allowed him to travel out of Austria to England, in order to immerse himself in English literature. During that visit he collected material to write two important scholarly works. On his return to Vienna he re-worked and published them in the year 1889. One of these works was called “Historical Outlines of English Accidence” of Richard Morris. (Revised and completed by Dr. Leon Kellner), and the second – his original work with the title “Historical Outlines of English Syntax.”

Both books, published by the renowned London publishing house Macmillan, were regarded as very important, and till this day exams are given on these books in England, Canada, and the English colonies for all those who want to enter university. In the above mentioned countries people don't know about an institution such as the 'Matura' [ed note: secondary school exit exam given in some European countries]. In some English speaking countries, everyone who completes high school and wishes to enter university, must take an entrance exam, and the candidate is questioned with regard to material from two books authored by Dr. Leon Kellner. In this way tens of

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thousands of students in the British Empire, who want to benefit from university, must study the books of the Tarnow Jew, Dr. Leon Kellner. This is a distinct satisfaction for Jews as well as non-Jews from Poland, and a particular joy for Tarnow Jewry, from whose origins Dr. Kellner came from and where he first received a Judaic and general education.

Once again, during the following two years , Dr. Kellner spent school vacations in London, establishing friendly relations with many literary and political personalities and worked very diligently in various museums, libraries, and archives. The fruit of these undertakings was --- two very worthwhile books -- based on material by William Caxton (b. 1422) which he translated and then published as a result of the recommendation of an English scholarly organization.

One of these books was discovered by Dr. Kellner and was originally published as a fifteenth century novel under the assumed name “Blanchardine and Eglantine” and translated with a change in language and content. The second book – an original work by Dr. Kellner was called “Caxton's Syntax and Style”.

This second book was his own work. In the year 1890 he received the title “Docent of Vienna University” for his complete philological work. In his new position he had full recognition of his scholarship on the part of students and professors.

In 1891, after a year and a half's work in this new position, he was appointed as full professor of English and French languages in the Upper Real Gymnasium in the Czech Republic city of Opava (Trafav), where he relocated. In Opava as well he had a calm and pleasant life, acquiring there a large number of friends and admirers, as well as love and recognition on the part of the students, although he was not personally satisfied with the remuneration of this position. He always thought of returning to Vienna, in order to have the opportunity to continue studies at the university. This finally transpired in 1894, when he was transferred back to Vienna and again became a lecturer at the university.

* * *

In the year 1896 Dr. Kellner receives a letter from Dr. Theodore Herzl, in which the latter invited him to an important meeting regarding Zionistic problems. Dr. Kellner accepted the invitation and until his last breath he remained an active member of the World Zionist Organization, which at that time was unusual given that he was a senior government official. This particular fact indicates

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that when it concerned important national matters for the Jewish community, Dr. Kellner was prepared to risk even his career.

He actively participated in the efforts to call together the first Zionist Congress, was co-editor of the first official Zionist weekly, “The World” and for the first edition wrote a wonderful article “Earl Beaconsfield – Benjamin Disraeli.”

In the year 1898 Dr. Kellner again received a paid one-year leave to travel to England, in order to deepen his knowledge of the field of English language and literature. During this time he wrote a greater number of articles in specialized journals and published a very significant book entitled “A Year in England”, issued by the world-renowned publisher “Cato.”

After returning from his annual leave, he continued his work as a docent in Vienna University and taught in the Vienna Real Gymnasium. Two years later he was nominated for a professorship in English literature and language in the university in Chernivtsi (Tshernovitz, now in Western Ukraine). This nomination was closely connected to his settling in Chernivtsi and was a factor in the radical change in his life up to that point. He immediately found himself in a different Jewish environment, with another way of life and mentality, which wasn't exactly the Viennese Jewish community he had become familiar with.

As a person who was endowed with an extraordinary intellectual sense, Dr. Kellner, in the first days after his arrival in Chernivtsi, understood that the moment had come for him to carry out what he had foreseen in his youth as his mission: “I wish to be an aid to my people.” Pondering in which direction now to steer his activities, he came to the conclusion that in the first place one must uplift the spirits of the Bukovina Jews and at least partially improve the economic circumstances of the greatest masses of the Jewish poor – the workers and craftsmen.

To reach this goal, Dr. Kellner set up in the main city of Bukovina a new institution by the name “Toynbee Hall” which was a sort of folk university and modeled after London's Toynbee Hall. Within a short time he was fortunate to interest in the institution a couple of benefactors, Marcus and Anna Kintzlinger, who were well-known in Chernivtsi because of their generosity towards poor and needy Jews. Now they also granted to the folk university a quarter million pre-war Austro-Hungarian crowns.

With the support of such a large donation, a substantial beautiful building was built in Chernivtsi. The building contained larger and smaller rooms, a large and beautiful concert hall, lecture halls, meeting

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rooms, entertainment areas, and other event spaces which were always accessible to the entire Chernivtsi community for an additional fee. Those participating in these endeavors were offered tea and snacks and were always served by the wealthy society women and by the Kintzlinger couple themselves.

In the same building, the Kintzlingers arranged for a dormitory to be constructed to house poor Jewish students and all expenses for maintaining such a dormitory were covered by the Kintzlingers.

In this way Dr. Leon Kellner was able to diminish the antagonism between the propertied class and the broad masses of the Jewish poor thanks to the often common time spent together during various cultural events at Toynbee Hall. In addition, through these frequent lectures and presentations by recognized scholars and pedagogues, the Jewish knowledge and cultural level of the working class was significantly raised.

In order to mitigate the difficult material conditions of the Jewish population of Chernivtsi, Dr. Kellner worked with the Parisian “Ika” to establish in Chernivtsi a bank that would issue loans at low interest or even interest-free.

Thanks to Dr. Kellner's efforts the “Jewish National Council” was created in Chernivtsi, which was officially recognized as the representative of the Bukovina Jews and successfully fought to give Jews the rights that were due to them. The council also published a weekly titled “The Jewish People's Council.”

In those days the Austrian government decreed elections to the Bukovina parliament, the Jewish National Council requested that Dr. Kellner announce his candidacy for deputy. Disregarding the strong opposition on the part of his parents and wife, that he should not run, in particular when the then institutional leadership wished to give a hearing to Dr. Kellner, as a result of the high government position which he occupied. They felt that he shouldn't appear as an official Zionist candidate in the campaign with the government candidate, nonetheless he put his candidacy forward and was elected to the Bukovina parliament, where with great benefit to the Jewish community, he admirably defended its interests and opposed votes which could have brought misfortune to the Jews.

There was great enthusiasm in the Jewish community at the successful election of Dr. Kellner as deputy. This was supported by the fact that after the publication of the election results, Dr. Kellner wanted to travel home from the town hall. Jewish academics unhitched the horses from his wagon and harnessed themselves, in order to bring him home. At his house, they carried him in their arms into his home, shouting “Long Live Dr. Kellner!”

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Dr. Yitzhak (Ignacy) Schiper was fundamentally different from his colleague Meyer Balaban, seven years his senior, in his methods and in the scope of his historical work as well as in his personality. With a wonderful combination of a volcanic personal-temperament and political activism along with a scholarly creative spirit, Schiper stood out as a unique individual not only in Jewish Poland but also in modern world Jewry.

He carried the dynamism of his political activity into his historical research, not in order to politicize scholarship, but in order to actualize it. His scholarly interest was not fixed on static elements but rather on the dynamic aspects of Jewish history, lending themselves to the developmental processes which formed the contemporary Jewish people. History for him meant a good deal more than “an interesting picture book for curious human beings,” as Max Adler had correctly characterized the descriptive direction in historiography. Schiper considered history to be a social science, a science which uncovers for us the rules of social development. “Collectors of old galoshes,” he used to say with his cutting sarcasm to describe the historians who get excited about every old document, regardless of whether their “bargain” finds could aid in clarifying historical processes. He therefore used to consider historians, who for years dug themselves into a collection of documents simply because those particular collections fell into their laps, with good-natured contempt. The true historian, he declared in one of his witty conversations, ought not to let himself to be ruled by materials, but must rule over materials; he must first of all define a problem and with perseverance, search for and select the necessary historical material in order to resolve the problem.

And Schiper truly posed problems. He set out in his life's work to answer the most essential questions of Jewish historical development, not just because the study of Jewish economic

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history was neglected more than all other research of historical scholarship. He devoted his greatest powers in order to plow his arid field. Even though he wasn't a sworn historical materialist, he always understood the elemental truth, that the socio-economic relations of a people are the basis of all aspects of a people's lives. His research interest extended to all areas of a people's creation and he noted their development in all manner of economic activity as much as in their finest cultural achievements. As early as 1908 the barely 24-year-old scholar wrote in the introduction of his first Polish publication of the economic history of the Jews in Poland during the Middle Ages, in a formulation which has already become a classic:

The foremost Jewish historical scholarly writers have accomplished many things…thanks to them we possess an impressive picture of Judaism's intellectual leaders in the diaspora. However there is no complete history of the hundreds of thousands who left a trace for the future,

Dr. Yitzhak Schiper z”l

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not from a wealth of intellect, but from their labor and toil, or from their manifest competence. In short, we know all about the Sabbath Jew with his exalted soul, now it's time to become acquainted with the history of everyday experiences and everyday thoughts and to go search for illumination in the history of Jewish labor.^[1]

Just as in his economic history, in his cultural history work Schiper's intention was to reveal to us not only the accomplishments of the greatest of a generation but also the anonymous creations of a people, of the wider Jewish masses: their expression of pain and joy; their aspirations and ideals; their view of life; their generations-long collective wisdom and experience. The pioneering historian of daily life of the “spiritual” people, Schiper was also the discoverer of spirituality and beauty in the daily life of the everyday masses.

Schiper examined Jewish economic, social, and cultural history as well as many other complex problems. As a result he could not find any satisfaction in limiting his research to the history of Jews in Poland only. The history of Jews in Poland, where a significant Jewish center first developed at the end of the Middle Ages, is actually the culmination of a thousand-year history of Jews in the Middle Ages in various countries of Europe and even in Asia and Africa. Furthermore Schiper, soon after the beginning of his research on the subject of Jewish history, had thrown himself whole-heartedly into researching general European Jewish history during the Middle Ages. Only after he emerged from this work with deep knowledge and sense of accomplishment, did he once again take on the history of Jews in Poland. If in later years he once again returned to general European Jewish history, he remained on this subject until the end of the Middle Ages. He researched all eras of Polish Jewish history as well as the subject of the modern period and even the most current period, he accomplished no less than he did with regard to his research on the Middle Ages.

As one who poses problems and as one of the boldest problem-solvers in Jewish historical research, Schiper bypassed the conventional drawbacks of traditional Jewish histography, which many historians continue to follow to the current day. He never overlooked the general economic background, not in his historical-economic research, nor in his cultural-historical work. Jewish historians who see their task as providing snapshots

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from the past and in drawing silhouettes of historical personalities aren't particularly disturbing, if they consider Jewish life to be an island in and of itself. Schiper, who primarily scrutinized history for causal context, actually found the path of illuminating the most important questions of the Jewish economic and cultural past in the orientation and manifestation of the general environment.

Schiper did not find a perfect answer to all the problems that he attempted to solve. He could not find a solution for some problems that he purposefully placed on the agenda of historical research, despite extensively considering them. In the case of some questions, his answer was originally derided and elicited an extensive polemic. However Schiper's great historical achievement is not at all diminished; he elicited thought and investigation as much through his unsolved research questions, as through his great works which will remain for generations a fount of Jewish knowledge. He didn't make his work easy for himself, by walking through well-trodden paths of sabers and switches, never tired of searching for new answers. His thought always was original, fresh, and captivating and therefore he was productive and creative, even in his errors.

“Style makes the man,” according to an old French saying and one can also add: “Style makes the historian.” Schiper's style was a faithful reflection of his path in historical writing, just as he had expressed his personality as a passionate and imaginative thinker and scholar. It's the style of a romantic realist. Differing from the vapid pomposity and pathos exhibited by other narrative historians, Schiper used language that was dynamic. He did not use the dry language of fact-compilers and fact-explainers, but rather resorted to language that was loaded with the real drama of historical occurrences. We encounter this not only in his books and studies of cultural-historical and social-political problems, where the material itself is colorful^[2]; he also wrote about statistical and economical questions in much the same way. The theme would capture the imagination of even the most casual reader who generally shows no interest in such “prosaic” topics.^[3] It is even more astonishing that Schiper

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masterfully enriched the style in all three languages in which he wrote his work: Yiddish, German, and Polish. In his oral lectures, in addition to all these written attributes, he added the enthusiasm and the fervor of a folk storyteller.

Shiper earned the thanks of countless students and admirers who were impressed by his refined, artistic personality, matched by his pioneering and scholarly research. He never aged, not in spirit and not in his external bearing, because he never lost his impulsive temperament, his youthful zest and enthusiasm.^[4] A striking characteristic of his youthfulness, from his natural open-heartedness and human modesty, was his warm, friendly relationship with younger and even youngest colleagues. He never begrudged time or effort to help young historians with his invaluable advice and instructions. The inclination to be jealous of younger scholars was foreign to him, he truly rejoiced when a new scholar appeared in the field of Jewish history and he would respond enthusiastically and respectfully, encouraging every new effort arising from the group of young historians.

He expressed his deep love of Yiddish and of the culture of the Jewish folk masses not only in his stimulating investigation of Old Yiddish and Old Yiddish literature; he was one of the founders and one of the major pillars of the historical arena of YIVO, and thereby was active in the Warsaw YIVO-branch, separate from the historical committee for Poland, which had been organized in Warsaw.

He was a Renaissance-figure not only in the broader sense of the European Renaissance: he was one of the finest interpreters of the modern Jewish cultural-renaissance in the academic arena, just like Y.L. Peretz he was in the upper reaches of the new Yiddish literature.

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Ignacy (Yitzhak) Schiper was born the 9^th of November 1884 in Tarnow (West Galicia). His father was descended from an enlightened, learned family; his mother was the daughter of a baker. From his father – Schiper recounted on his 50^th birthday – he inherited the drive for knowledge and for research, from his mother he inherited the love of ordinary folk and of the Yiddish language. Starting in gymnasium he was active in youth political circles, at first in the Polish socialist movement, where he worked alongside the other later-renowned Tarnower –Karol Radek-Sobelsohn (sp correct), later – in the Zionist movement. In 1903, as a university student, Schiper joined the Poalei Zion party where he was a prominent leader until 1922.

Schiper completed his university studies in the philosophy and legal departments in Krakow and in Vienna, and in 1907 he became a Juris Doctor. He divided his time between scholarly work and political activities. He became a member of the central committee of the Austrian Poalei Zion, a co-worker for a brief period and also editor of The Jewish Worker in Lemberg and of the Polish party organ for student workers Nasze Hasla. He didn't interrupt his scholarly and party-political work during the First World War, even though in the first two years he was a refugee in Vienna, nor later, when he served in the Austrian army, initially as a soldier, later as a military judge.

Early in 1919 Schiper was admitted as a representative in the Sejm (Polish Parliament) in place of the deceased Dr. Max Rosenfeld who was elected on the Poalei Zion list in the Chelm district. In 1920, after the split in the Poalei Zion-movement, Schiper initially remained with the Poalei Zion Left. A bit later, in the same year, he connected to the movement of Poalei Zion Right. In 1922 Schiper transitioned over to the general Zionist movement, where he remained until his final years as one of its most distinguished leaders. In the second Sejm (1922-1928) Schiper was a representative in the Zionist list. Through his active participation in the Sejm giving speeches in the plenary session and participating in Parliamentary committees, he positioned himself among the most distinguished deputies. Beginning in 1928 Schiper was the director of the Institute for Judaic Studies in Warsaw (in the Praga district) and for several years presented lectures in the Reformed Institute in Warsaw as an instructor of Jewish economic-history. In the final years before the war Schiper took on the post of director of Keren Hayesod in Poland and for a certain period he was also president of the Zionist Organization in the country.

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As a result of the authorities' antisemitic political culture, Schiper, who accomplished in quantity as well as quality more than multiple university professors combined, never had the privilege of receiving a university chairmanship in a Polish university. He derived no great sorrow from that, while the “learned guild” or the “pompous scholars” as he used to call them in German, were often an object of mockery for him.

Schiper began his scholarly work at the age of 18, in 1902, with a study of “Kazimierz the Great's Legislation Regarding Jews” (published in the periodical Moriah). In 1905, at barely 21 years old, in Kwartalnik Historyczny, the most prominent Polish scholarly periodical, he published a piece entitled “Jews in Tarnow Through the End of the 18^th Century.” Starting with these various juvenile works Schiper manifested his capacity to analyze socio-political antagonisms in his method of illuminating the political in relation to Jews from the standpoint of the economic interests of the power elite.

One year later, in 1906, Schiper's first standard work appeared. This was the study of “The Beginnings of Capitalism among West European Jews. “Die Anfange des Kapitalismus Bei den Abendländischen Juden” published in the Viennese Zeitschrift fur Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltungslehre and in 1907 as a separate book.^[5] Schiper described the significance of his work for Jewish economic-history in his introduction: others before him used only limited ideas about Jewish trade in the Middle Ages, without any effort to research their role in general economic life. There were also unbiased works regarding Jewish money lending, illuminated solely from a legal perspective, not from the perspective of economic development. George Karo – who later in 1908 released the first volume of his highly regarded “Social and Economic History of the Jews” – in 1904 published in the Monthly Writings a study of “The Jews in the Middle Ages and Their Economic Significance,” but he limited himself to German Jews only. Schiper was the first to undertake the description of the economic history of Jews in the Middle Ages (through the end of the 12^th century) from the perspective of the general economic development of medieval society. His central problem was the accumulation of capital by Jews in the Middle Ages.

Today we can investigate Schiper's thesis, which reported that the capital that Jews used in trade during the early Middle Age had been accumulated

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in antiquity as landowners. Schiper later revised his original theory in his four-volume economic history, now stating that Jews in their earlier position in the Middle Ages didn't have any involvement with trade. It remains the achievement of his previous work that Schiper there determined: the character of Jewish trade in the early Middle Ages; the economic and political causes which brought forth the gradual transition of Jews in Western Europe from trade to money lending; the character of Jewish credit depending on the economic development and social classes which they served, initially as productive-credit and later mainly as consumption-credit. The significant sociological achievement of this work lies in challenging all psychological and race-theories regarding Jews' ostensible inherent tendency toward engaging in specific professions, trades, or money lending.

This work, which established Schiper's reputation not only in Jewish historiography, but in broader economic historical circles, indicates the difference between the economic development of East European and West European Jews in the Middle Ages.

Schiper continued his research of the economic circumstances of Jews in Poland during the Middle Ages for several more years. He published preliminary studies sequentially on Jewish-Polish, Jewish-German, and Jewish-Russian periodicals and publications, among them a critical survey regarding the historiography on the subject of Jews in Middle-Age Poland (in Wschod 1909). In 1911 Schiper's book entitled “Studies Regarding the Economic Relationship of Jews in Poland During the Middle Ages.” (Studya nad Stosunkami Gospodarczymi Żydów w Polsce Podczas Średniowiecza) was published. This book received first prize among the philosophical faculty in Lemberg University in a competition named for the Warsaw philanthropist Hipolit Wawelberg (published in Yiddish translation in 1926).

In his “Studies” Schiper applied his research methods in a classical manner to the study of Jewish economic history, as he had indicated in the “Beginnings of Capitalism.” With the single exception of the chapter about Jewish agricultural work, where Schiper hadn't sufficiently supported his theory regarding agriculture as the major occupation of the first Jews in Poland, as well as with his hypothesis regarding Jewish land-settlement in East Galicia in the 15^th century, every chapter of the book is a paradigm of historical research and thought. It is sufficient to recount in the analysis of the general rights of Polish Jews from 1264, as Schiper demonstrates, how the several paragraphs which are found in the Austrian model of rights are a result of the specific economic and political circumstances in Poland; the fundamental analysis of the various forms of Jewish credit-

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operations in their functional and economical agrarian way of life; the clarification of the period in which the pogroms occurred in various territories of Medieval Poland, depending on the level of economic development; the disruption of the theory of the Polish historian Kutzheva regarding that until the end of the 15^th century Jews in Poland were not involved with trade, but only with lending money; the substantive chapter regarding Jewish professions; the brilliant classification of the wage-system with regard to Jews.

On this solid foundation, Schiper approached his tireless lifelong research of the economic history of Polish Jews in the modern period. In the period shortly before the First World War, Schiper published a series of articles in the Russian-Jewish encyclopedia about Jews in Poland. A markedly timely commentary about his work and talent, several chapters which he contributed to the collected work “History of the Jews in Poland” released in Russian in Moscow in 1914 as the eleventh volume of the projected Istoria Jewreiskowo Naroda. Considered epoch-making for Jewish historical statistics is the chapter regarding the population and expansion of Jews in Poland from the 15^th through the 18^th centuries. He took as a base for the calculation of the number of Jews, the tax on Jewish houses and the Jewish head tax. The chapter about the economic situation of Jews (written along with Dr. Vizhnitzer, long may he live) is a good synthesis of the limited amount of material which was then known. The chapter about taxes on Jews is distinguished by the same systematic accuracy as the associated chapter in his “Studies Regarding Polish Jews in the Middle Ages.”

At the same time, in 1913, Schiper published his first work regarding the autonomy of Jews in Poland in Monats-Schrift.

Despite the challenges of doing research within the disorganized condition of the documents in the archives, Schiper is able to present to us such a systematic and detailed analysis of the organization and of the functions of the Provincial Councils (Va'adey Ha'Galuyot). This study can be considered the best ever written about Jewish autonomy, if one disregards the later works of Schiper written on this same subject.

In the years of the First World War, Schiper couldn't publish much other than several articles in the periodical Moriah which were almost all later included in his Cultural History of the Jews in Poland During the Middle Ages. However in the first two years, with his characteristic diligence, he studied in the Vienna Community

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Library, where he gathered a tremendous amount of material to write a Jewish economic history. From this particular period, it is worthwhile to note his interesting “Sketch Regarding Polish-Lithuanian Jews in the Land of Israel” (Moriah 1917) and the original economic-statistical study of “Galician Jewry in the years 1772-1848” (1918, Neue Judische Monatshefte). Here he again demonstrates his resourcefulness and methods of historical statistics by translating the antiquated numerical-rubric to the language of modern statistical categories.

During the first decade after the war Schiper concentrated on wide-ranging research regarding Jewish culture, literature, and language-history, an area of knowledge in which he began to interest himself since his youth. On the subject of the history of the oldest Jewish language and literature he succeeded in publishing only several smaller works and critical articles in Yidishe Filologia, in The Jewish World, in the Book-World and in Literary Pages. These aforementioned works were later summarized by Schiper in two significant articles in the YIVO Bleter in 1934 and 1935: “Problems of Old-Jewish Literary History” and “Cultural-Historical Background of Old Jewish Literature.” Schiper's original achievement here consists mainly in demonstrating how with the names of German Jews in the Middle Ages, which were preserved in official documents and in memorial books, one can detect the influence of the surrounding cultural currents and cultural ideals.

This aforementioned research also served as a roadmap for Schiper for a series of significant chapters in his book named “Cultural History of the Jews in Poland During The Middle Ages” (1926), the first book he wrote originally in Yiddish. These are the important chapters about names of Jews in Poland in the 14^th and 15^th centuries and about the colloquial language of the Polish-Russian Jews at that time. In that same book Schiper throws a good deal of light on the little-researched question of the organization of Jewish communities in Poland during the Middle Ages. In the book, he demonstrates not only the significant historical fact that the progressive currents of humanism, Hussitism, and the Reformation were manifested in Poland by tolerance and philo-semitism, but also that the pinnacle of Jewish society, doctors, court Jews, were influenced by the surrounding cultural currents. If this book is not as epoch-making as Schiper's “Studies” of economic history, the fault lies in the dearth of historical materials available for research of this yet-darker cultural era of Polish Jews.

The most brilliant result of Schiper's cultural-historical research is the impressive three-volume work on the history of Jewish theater, art and drama (1^st volume 1923, 2^nd volume 1927, 3^rd volume (1928).

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The pioneering significance for Jewish cultural history of the aforementioned work was unanimously recognized even by critics who had identified certain faults and errors in some of the details. Thanks to his erudition and thanks to his cultural-historical method, Schiper was able to reconstruct entire epochs of Jewish theatrical offerings from scraps and fragments. This book however has more than a scholarly significance. It revolutionizes our view of our own cultural past. Not with the power of hollow conjecture, but on the basis of a huge wealth of systematically analyzed material, we have living proof of how both our modern theater-culture, and our worldly folk culture in general is not new to Jewish life, but rather a continuation of a colorful, fascinating tradition, spanning hundreds of years and replete with heart and soul. If Schiper himself treasured the significance of his aforementioned work in his lively preface to the first volume, it is not difficult to surmise that actually this awareness that he was undertaking a major cultural project, fortified him in his multi-year comprehensive research on this subject.

Two years later, in 1930, Schiper's Jewish History (an economic history) was published, a work of four volumes about the Middle Ages period. Schiper had already laid the cornerstone for this work in his “Beginnings of Capitalism” and in “Studies.” Nonetheless he had to construct from the beginning the Jewish economic history in a group of countries which he previously had hardly touched upon, such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and for all the countries for which he had no predecessors for the late Middle Ages. In contrast, George Karo's second volume, which was published in 1920, extends only as far as the middle of the 14^th century.

Despite the fact that in 1930 important monographs were issued separately on the subject of the history of the Jews in Germany, Spain, and in the Near East, which support the correct portrayal by Schiper of the economic picture of these several countries; despite the fact that Schiper has not always made use of all the sources which were already available – his written work is considered a milestone of Jewish economic history. The great value of the work consists mainly in its methodical approach and in its pointed, synthesizing execution. Here all aspects of Jewish economic life are addressed and not just the activities which are relevant to the accumulation of capital. Particularly important is his attempt to discuss separately the general economic and political factors which contributed to the Jewish economic structure in each country and each epoch. The growing antisemitism which at the end of the Middle Ages leads to the expulsion of Jews from the entirely of Western Europe and from a large part of Central Europe is explained within the context of the class interests of

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each separate stratum of the rural population regarding the Jews. This particular explanation is basically correct, even if one needed to complete it with an analysis of the political role of the Late Middle Age Catholic Reaction. Let us add that the economic relationship of Jews is presented in all countries in the form of in-depth discussions about the number and expansion of the Jewish population. The author has analyzed in detail the political situation of the countries where there were Jewish mass-settlements. This book is therefore not only capable of carrying out the task – the intention of its writing –as the greatest work on an economic-historical foundation: judging from the task and judging from the results themselves, it is more than this. The history of Jews –“Tolerance and Reason” in the era of the Middle Ages, which Graetz has described so masterfully, one can only properly understand in all its essential entangled problems, when one reads and one thinks through (as reading alone is not enough) Schiper's four-volume work.

Having achieved a significant part of his lifelong dream of documenting a general economic history of Jews in every generation, Schiper once again entered into research about the history of the Jewish masses in Poland. He first takes on the history of the Jewish Central Autonomy in Poland, which he had given such a fine initial treatment in his study from 1913 regarding the Provincial Councils. In contrast to his other historical works, where he had only partially depended on archival materials but leaned more heavily on sources which had previously been published to arrive at his integrated conclusions regarding Vaad Arba Aratsot (Sejm Czterech Ziem) based almost exclusively on archival documents, particularly on decrees from the main governmental archives in Warsaw. Joseph Perles, Levi Levine, Simon Dubnow and other researchers, who accomplished a good deal on this subject, studied the Jewish Central Autonomy in the past in Poland internally, where it was reflected in the annals of the Community Council, and externally, the dealings with the Polish governmental administration, a method which was in part dictated by the character of the archival documents.

In this also lies the major significance of these three greater works which he published in Historical Writings of YIVO (B, I, 1928) and in the Economical Writings of YIVO (B, II, 1932). His original attempt to reconstruct the compilation of the districts of Community Council Va'ad Arba according to the directive of the living tradition of ancient Great and Lesser Sanhedrin, with enough evidence was discredited. Not considered, however important, is the positioning of the problem in these new aspects which Schiper brings up in this specific respect. Schiper introduces especially important material in “Polish Regulations in the History of the Va'ad Arba

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Aratzot.” With his methodicalness which is worthy of amazement, is the noteworthy third, greatest work from this series, known as “The Financial Destruction of the Central and Provincial Autonomy of the Jews in Poland.” Schiper touches upon an entirely new theme in this work regarding the “Warsaw Committee Va'ad Arba Aratzot” (printed in Polish in the Jubilee Book in honor of Dr. Brody, 1931).

In 1932 Schiper published his greatest work on the history of Jews in Poland in the 19^th century: “Jews in Congress Poland in the Time of the November Uprising” (in Polish). Contrary to its title, this was fundamentally a history of Jewish Warsaw communities during the uprising and their attitude toward the uprising. Within this defined frame the author presented a colorful historical picture, though with a tendency toward patriotism and one-sidedness regarding source material (particularly regarding decrees from the community archives in Warsaw).

The last great work from Schiper is “The History of Jewish Trade in Polish Territories,” which he published in 1937 (in Polish). The author had already used his preliminary work on this particular subject in his studies in the two-volume Polish publication “Jews in Reborn Poland” (Żydzi w Polsce Odrodzonej) which was issued on the 15^th anniversary of the new Polish government in 1932-1933. Schiper considered the history of trade so broadly (the book consists of approximately 800 pages) that it can serve in great measure as a history of the economic development of Jews in Poland. Besides the history of the participation of Jews, at a minimum, in the internal trade in Poland, Schiper offers here enormously valuable research about the professional structure among Jews, about Jewish population statistics, about the Polish power structure's relationship to Jews and regarding the economic politics of the communities. We cannot today imagine any historical work on the subject of the economic history of Jews in Poland, which would not take into account this “Economic History,” just as it is impossible to study the history of Jews in Poland in the Middle Ages without Schiper's not yet outdated “Studies.”

A bibliography of Schiper's publications which also would include all of his articles, would be a difficult effort, because the number approaches too many hundreds of articles in journals and newspapers in Yiddish, Polish, German, Russian, Hebrew, starting in 1902 until the outbreak of the war in 1939. Just in the last year before the war, from the middle of 1938 until the middle of 1939, Schiper published five articles in various publications all of which are important contributions to Jewish scholarship: a study of the Baal Shem Tov in the 50th anniversary publication of Haynt; seven pages of notes regarding Purim plays in the 5^th volume of Philological Writings of YIVO; an article about

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“A Jewish Romance Novel from the Middle Ages” (a contribution to the history of the origin of “Bria and Zimrah”) in the YIVO Bleter; an introduction about “Heinrich Graetz and His Monumental Work” in the Polish translation of Graetz's folklore publication; and a Polish brochure about “700 Years of the Jewish Community in Plotsk.” There is also information that shortly before the war a longer book by Schiper came out about the history of the Jews in Drohobycz. And this occurred during a year when Schiper's extraordinary work skills were largely limited on account of a serious heart illness!

A comprehensive bibliography of Schiper's work however would in fact, because of its prominence, have great significance for historical scholarship. It goes without saying that it is difficult to find an article of Schiper's or even a critique, which isn't distinguished with brilliance and with originality of thought. Mainly however such a bibliography would need to be undertaken in order to create a complete edition of Schiper's writings in Yiddish, since what could be a more fitting tribute to the memory of the singular luminary Yitzhak Schiper, than to spread the wealth of his spirit among the broadest mass of the Jewish people?

Original Footnote

1. I tremble in regard to the Yiddish translation of 1926, in particular several passages, where the translation clearly changes the sense of the original Polish: I have corrected those several passages in keeping with the original. R. Mahler return
2. The end of the sketch (in Polish) regarding “Polish-Lithuanian Jews in the Land of Israel” (Journal Moriah 1917): Plonsky, the Jew, who is interrogated by Novosiltsev's police, answered the question of how Jews anticipate the redemption: ”Through prayer.” Schiper concludes: “The spirit of Moloch listens in on Plonsky's answer and blushes from holy shame…” return
3. Schiper begins the chapter about pogroms in his book Economic History of the Jews During the Middle Ages with such artful and expressive brevity: “The Middle Ages knew of two methods to free oneself from Jewish debt: the reduction of the debts which ordinarily used to be carried out 'by the rulers for the improvement of the soul and for the praise of the patriarchs' in the Jewish pogroms. This last cure was the most certain.”
   In his pioneering statistical treatment of “Galician Jewry in the Years 1772-1848” (published in Neue Jüdische Monatshefte, 1918) Schiper begins, with a quotation among others, from Hermann Behr's work Wien about Kaiser Joseph II: “Nations, populations, people were for them nothing more than material…” return
4. The sober and calm wise man, the nature-scholar and public personality, Yosef Yashunsky, who also shared Schiper's bitter fate, in an intimate gathering in 1934 at the Warsaw premises of YIVO in honor of the 50^th birthday of Dr. Schiper, began his speech with words to this effect: “It's completely fabricated, that Dr. Schiper is 50 years old! Schiper's presence is nothing other than youthful!” return
5. The book was released in Yiddish translation in 1920 by the Warsaw publisher “Arbeter-Heim.” return
6. Beitrage zur Geschichte der partiellen Judentage in Polen um die Wende des XVII ten und XVIII ten Jahrhunderts return

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