My Own

The symbolist poet and literary critic Gustave Kahn was born in Metz but moved to Paris with his family when Germany annexed Lorraine in 1870. Kahn was a contributor to many literary reviews and in the interwar years wrote weekly columns for daily newspapers. From 1932 until his death, Kahn edited the French Zionist journal Menorah. One of the first French poets to write free verse, he was also an avid advocate and defender of the new literary style. The Dreyfus Affair made Kahn more conscious of his Jewish background, as did the mounting antisemitism of the 1930s, and although he was distant from communal affairs, he became an active supporter of Zionism.