The Invigoration of Western Jewishness

Fritz Kaufmann

1913

1

The best of the Western Jews have gradually become used to talking about the existence of a Jewish people as if it were a logical and historically proven fact.

But they have not yet arrived at the living flesh and blood wherein the folk resides.

Talk about the folk has remained a buzzword for the West—a comfortable crutch for all sorts of…

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Creator Bio

Fritz Kaufmann

1888–1922

Born in Eschweiler, German Empire, Fritz Moritz (Mordechai) Kaufmann studied to become a physician before encountering Yiddish culture through a Zionist student group in Leipzig. Attracted to ideas of Jewish national identity and cultural revival incipient at the time, Kaufmann began writing essays on Yiddish language, history, and culture for German-speaking Jewish audiences. In 1913, he formed the journal Die Freistatt, the first German periodical oriented toward the development of Yiddish letters. Alongside scholarly works, the journal included transcriptions and translations of Yiddish poetry and literature. Kaufmann died by suicide in Berlin.

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