Lesser Ury (and Jewish Art)

Martin Buber

1901

1

The strongest testimony to life is productivity, and the most direct form of productivity is art. That is why those of us who announce a life of the Jewish people inquire into the possibility of Jewish art.

Is Jewish art possible today?

To this we only have one answer, a clear and harsh one—no.

National art needs soil from which to develop and a…

Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Martin Buber

1878–1965

Martin Buber was one of the best-known Jewish thinkers in the Western world in the twentieth century. His neoromanticism and use of völkisch terms of analysis in his early writings exerted an enormous influence on Jewish youth in Central Europe, as did his popular (and frequently unreliable) accounts of Hasidic teachings. Perhaps more than any individual he was responsible for introducing Hasidism to Western-educated Jewish audiences. In 1923, he published his best-known philosophical work, I and Thou. In 1938, he moved to Jerusalem, where he was given a chair at the Hebrew University. Before 1948, he was among those in the Yishuv (mainly German-speaking, Central European intellectuals) who advocated a binational state in which Jews and Arabs would cooperate. After World War II, he was much lauded, both in Europe and America, as a great humanitarian.

You may also like

A Jewish University

The purpose of the Jewish University is to offer Jewish youth the opportunity to obtain an education:A. In the general higher disciplines with special consideration given to the Wissenschaft des…
View Source

Babi Yar

Had I fastened The cradle on a rafter, And rocked it—and rocked it. My little son, my Yankl. But the house has vanished Into a fiery dome, How then can I rock My little son, my own? Had I…
View Source