The Value of The Individual – According to Mathias Aharon Friedmann.

"The urge of the Individual to survive leads to the formation of the Collective Self that ultimately leads to the consolidation of the Morality of the Nation" writes Aharon Mathias Friedmann, descendant of a well-known Romanian Hasidic family of Bohush (Buhuși), in the culmination period of Jewish emancipation in Romania in 1916.

Shaul Greenstein | 18.04.18

גיליון 22 של כתב העת הלאומי "התקווה" משנת 1916 - עמוד השער.

Since the middle of the 19th century, the cultural, religious and national activities of the Jews in Romania received an impulse gaining the support of many Romanians and even of the administration itself, although around the turn of the century the number of its enemies and opponents increased.

“Încotro?” The article “Whereto?” published in Romanian in the 22nd issue of the Journal Hatikvah in 1916.

Friedmann, the author of the article “Wherever?” is known to the scholars of the period as a young Romanian-Jewish publicist who lived only 25 years, but who, during his brief life, served as secretary of the Federation for Hebrew Language and Culture in Romania. To avoid harming his father’s (Abraham Joshua Heschel Friedmann – the Admor of Adjud) reputation, Friedmann wrote these educated, socialist and Zionist thoughts, using one of his pen names. In his article, the young publicist Friedmann explains where he thinks the Jewish Spirit should turn. The value of the Individual in the society is measured according to his contribution to the Community. The Individual is the fundament and the basic compound of which the Collective consists. Therefore, the integrity of the Individual must be preserved by giving him the possibility and the opportunity for free development with the purpose to serve the ultimate goal: the subsistence of the Collective, namely the hold of a Jewish Spirit as a Nation in the Jewish Homeland.

“Wohin?” (“Whereto?”). The first page of part III of the article in Yiddish. Friedmann’s original handwriting. It is possible that the translation into Romanian was done by the Journal Hatikvah’s editing staff.

Although he was dismissed by his family as having abandoned the education and Hasidic values in which he was educated, Friedman insisted on finding the right way to combine the values of Orthodox Judaism with secular studies and socialist views to which he was exposed as a young man. This is not surprising since Friedmann’s personal biography is well known. Although he was educated by the Hasidic movement, he chosed to identify with a reformist movement known as “Modern Orthodox Judaism.” In the way of the communities called “Status Quo Ante” in neighboring Transylvania, he sought an alternative way to Western Jewish reform against the Orthodox stream. These communities were characterized by the fact that they remained in a state of constant deliberation lacking a uniform religious character. It is very possible that because of this, Friedman gave the title “Where?” to his article. Where, in Latin translation is Quo, a word that reminds us of the “Status Quo Ante” communities. The author of the article suggests that members of these communities should focus on a common goal, which is the importance of the Individual within the Community as a solution and as a condition for the continuous existence of the Jewish Nation.

The original manuscript of the third chapter of the above-mentioned philosophical-theological essay of Friedmann, including a postcard written by him to the editor of Hatikvah, Leon Gold (Ariel Yehuda), were deposited at the National Library in Jerusalem in the early 50s and are a part of the Collection of Jewish Romanian Intellectuals’ Private Papers.

Postcard from May 1 sent from Friedmann to the Hatikvah’s editorial board with a request to correct retroactively a typographical error that occurred in Part B of his article. About Friedmann See also David Assaf’s book “Untold Tales of Chassidim“

This collection contains mostly correspondence, but also works by representatives of Jewish and non-Jewish culture, both poets and politicians.

A letter dated January 30th, 1931, by the Romanian politician Octavian Goga to the Romanian Jewish banker Aristide Blanc in which Goga asks for assistance in the matter of a loan for his friend, the lawyer of the Romanian National Bank. Partially, Goga entered the stage of literary authors on the recommendation of Jewish writers. About eight years after the writing of this letter, Goga, with the help of the right-wing party, served for a year as Prime Minister of Romania. His government, apart from the closure of democratic newspapers, also enacted anti-Semitic laws, including a citizenship law whose function was to reexamine Jewish loyalty to the state.

Celebrate Israeli Independence in NYC, 1969!

In 1969 photographer Yael Rozen happened to be in New York City just in time for the Israeli Independence Day parade. View the photos from the joyous event in the Big Apple.

The National Library of Israel | 15.04.18

Amazing Photos United States

The ladies of "Hadassah" marching on Fifth Avenue

Two years after the Six-Day War, when Israel was still euphoric, Fifth Avenue was the place to celebrate the independence of the young Jewish state.

Yael Rozen was in the United States taking a photography course and she captured magical moments of the parade.

The National Council of Young Israel toiling the land

Young “Revolutionaries” flying the flags of Israel and the United States, both free of the British Empire

Beitar and a Hora circle marching together

The ladies of “Hadassah” marching on Fifth Avenue

The Artist Who Forewarned the Dangers of the Nazis

Take a look at the incredible treasures from the archive of the Hungarian-Jewish Artist, Gyula Zilzer.

Shaul Greenstein | 09.04.18

Hungary The Holocaust

This 1933 drawing is apparently one of the earliest illustrations of a Nazi concentration camp

The materials in the archive of Hungarian-Jewish born artist Gyula Zilzer were bestowed to the Archives of National Library of Israel in 2002 as part of the estate of Mary Zilzer, the artist’s widow, after she passed away in 2001.

The story of the artist’s life can be traced back through the personal documents, photographs, correspondence, literary works, paintings and illustrations contained within the archive.

Most of the paintings in the archive are lithographs, which, unlike a painting, can exist in more than one original copy. Making duplicates with the lithographic method involves a lot of effort and all duplicates are made by the same artist, using the same stone on which the original image was painted.

"Opium". Lithograph by Gyula Zilzer — “Opium”. Lithograph by Gyula Zilzer

Gyula Zilzer, a descendant of an artisan family, was born in 1898 in Budapest, Hungary. Members of this illustrious family include the Bavarian king’s court painter Antal Zilzer, the sculptor Hajnalka Zilzer, and the modern painter Frigyes Frank.

In his youth, Zilzer had a special interest in machines and spent time working on inventions.

Certificate from the Royal Hungarian Museum of Technology given to Gyula Zilzer concerning absolving a gas engine operator course in 1920

In 1917, together with two of his friends, Trotzer and Mintz, he worked to create a radio controlled torpedo. During the Russian Revolution, the Russian Army gave the three young men access to a factory to build their torpedo model and to produce it for military purposes, but the project was never completed.

The model became a secret German patent and later served as the basis for several technological innovations, including the dial mechanism of telephones and missile control systems developed in other countries.

The artist Gyula Zilzer in his study. Photo by André Kertész

As a Jew, Zilzer was prevented from continuing his academic studies in mechanical engineering due to the implementation of Numerus Clausus. In 1919 he fled from Hungarian nationalists to Trieste, Italy. There, while involved in the leadership of a factory that he founded along with his business partners, he began to paint. After displaying much talent, from 1922-1923 Zilzer went to study painting at the school of the famous German painter Hans Hoffman in Munich.

In 1924, after acquiring a Triestian certificate which attested to his status as a Christian, Zilzer returned to Budapest and signed up for the Academy of the Arts. When his Jewish origins were revealed to the academic administration, he was dismissed from the Academy as “untalented.” Despite this humiliation, Zilzer pushed forward and published his collection of lithographs entitled, “Kaleidoskop,” in 1924. This publication was so successful that it enabled him to leave Hungary for good. After leaving Hungary in 1924, he lived in Paris until 1932 where he worked for the French magazine Clarté and the daily newspaper L’Humanité, both of which belonged to the Communist Party. It was during this time that he became friends with the French writer and publicist Henri Barbusse.

From 1929, Zilzer’s works became clearly anti-fascist in nature with several of his pieces focusing in on Hitler and Mussolini. In 1932, in an exhibition in Amsterdam, he presented his “Gaz” album, a collection protesting the use of gas as a form of warfare against the civilian population. That year, following the success of the original installment, the collection was also displayed in the United States.

Zilzer, the socialist artist who suffered at the hands of anti-Semitism from his youth, expressed his political and general worldview through his paintings. He was an artist ahead of his time, presenting the horrors of the First World War in the 1920s. When he published the collections “Kaleidoskop” and “Gaz” in 1924 and 1932 respectively, he hoped they would forewarn of a future war that the fascist authorities may inspire. Additionally, his paintings criticized the cruelty of the National Socialist Party, as portrayed in his drawings of concentration camps from the early 1930s.

The cover drawing of the album "Kaleidoskop" by Gyla Zilzer, 1924 — The cover drawing of the album “Kaleidoskop” by Gyla Zilzer, 1924

GAZ GAS By ZILZER GYULA — One of the drawings from the album “GAZ” by Zilzer from 1934

Concentration camps were not an original invention of the Nazi apparatus in Germany. The camps set up by the British in South Africa during the Boer War at the end of the 19th century, as well as the Russian Gulag (a punitive system based on forced labor), preceded and influenced the formation of the Nazi camps. The first concentration camp on German territory was established in Dachau after Hitler came to power in 1933. The camp intended to imprison opponents of the Nazi regime as well as people from social groups marked by the Nazis as “undesirable,” including homeless people, homosexuals, and others.

Two drawings from 1933 representing the concentration camps. The second (bottom) one served as the cover page of the English booklet “Women and Children under the Swastika”, which collected factual reports on terrorism and oppression in the Third Reich, published 1936 in New York, USA

Zilzer belonged to the expressionist artistic movement, protesting the fascist ideology, calling for unity against the Nazi horrors in his published paintings as early as 1933.

"The Peace Talk" of Hitler calling for war. Caricature from 1934 — “The Peace Talk” of Hitler calling for war. Caricature from 1934

" Let us share it" - Mussolini and Hitler sharing the globe. 1935 — ” Let us share it” – Mussolini and Hitler sharing the globe. 1935

By 1932 Zilzer left Europe and moved to the United States, where he spent a year traveling throughout the country all the while continuing to draw and to paint.

Letter of recommendation from G. P. Putnam’s Sons given to Zilzer concerning his US citizenship. 1934

He moved to Hollywood in 1939 where he worked designing stage sets of famous films as an art director. Outside of his work in the film industry, Zilzer created more patents for items such as a toy book for children, a helical underground parking area with shelter and the “VISI-Recorder”.

Stage set Zilzer Gyula — A stage set planned and drawn by Zilzer for the film “The short happy life of Francis Macomber”

Patented book for children — A patented toy book for children planned an designed by Zilzer

Helical parkin by Gyula Zilzer — A helical underground parking area with shelter planned by Zilzer, Kovacs and Williger

Another version of the same shelter as above called “Air raid precaution parking place”

Logo of the patented Visi Recorder by Zilzer

Membership certificate from The Institute of American Inventors given to Gyula Zilzer in 1940

After the end of the Second World War, Zilzer returned to Europe and traveled between Paris and Budapest for a few years. In 1954 he moved to his final residence in New York City where he worked for the television networks NBC and Cinerama, all while continuing to paint and manage his private exhibitions, until his death in 1969.

Throughout his tumultuous life, Zilzer rubbed shoulders with many well-known, contemporary personalities including American writer and publicist Upton Sinclair, the French director Jean Vigo, the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, the movie actor Gregory Peck, the writers Roman Roland and Ilya Ehrenburg, the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, the Hungarian poet József Attila, the author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Zilzer was also in close contact with the physicist Albert Einstein who received a collection of paintings gifted from Zilzer himself. This is certified by a letter of thanks sent from Einstein to Zilzer on March 26^th 1933.

Records on “My Heritage” database show that Gyula was married to Irene P. Kellog. After their divorce he married Mary (Fuchs) Pitjel. Mary met Gyula in the USA, where she moved after the death of her first husband Kalman Pitjel, who fell during Israel’s War for Independence in 1948. This information is based on Tanya Rubinstein-Horowitz from Düsseldorf, Germany. Her father was a cousin of Kalman Pitjel.

A letter from Henry Miller to Gyula Zilzer 1956 — I am glad you have found a wife – a real one! – writes Henry Miller to Zilzer in 1956; apparently regarding Mary

For the Gyula Zilzer Archive at the National Library and detailed information click here.

The Gyula Zilzer Archive has been reviewed and described thanks to the generous support of The Leir Foundation.

The True Story Behind Harry Potter, Abraham the Jew and the Philosopher’s Stone

The true story of the mysterious owner of the Philosopher's Stone...

Stefan Litt | 22.03.18

Isaac Newton מרגש סודות כתבי היד העבריים

The cover of the Hebrew version of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", published by Miskal, Books in the Attic

In 1407, an underground passageway was built next to a large mass grave in Paris’ central burial ground, known as “The Holy Innocents’ Cemetery” (Cimetière des Saints-Innocents). The upper section of the new passageway was decorated with a group of statues featuring the typical Christian iconography of the time.

The statues depicted Jesus, surrounded by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, as well as by the couple who donated the underground passageway: Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel. Under these figures are several plates portraying traditional early 15^th century Christian symbols.

A picture of the group of statues in the Parisian cemetery by Charles Levi-Bernay (1786)

Very little is known about Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. Were it not for the group of statues in the Parisian cemetery, Nicolas Flamel would undoubtably have been forgotten by the residents of the city within a few decades of his death. The statues were destroyed towards the end of the 18^th century, but Nicolas Flamel’s name outlived that destruction as well.

During the Renaissance period, many people attempted to decipher the deeper meanings of the Middle Age Christian symbolism displayed in the statues, among them several alchemists. One of these, Robert Duval, immediately identified two dragons featured on one of the plates placed below the statues as an alchemist symbol for the creation of metals.

From this point forward, the plate drew a great deal of attention from those familiar with various secret teachings, and the cemetery became a site of pilgrimage for alchemists and other dabblers in the occult and the hidden sciences.

Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel praying next to St. Paul, from an 18th century French manuscript preserved in the British Library

As early as the late 16^th century, a legend spread that Flamel owned an old and mystical book from which he studied occult teachings. The esoteric information in the book’s pages helped Flamel to crack the secret of the creation of gold and silver by means of a “philosopher’s stone”. The legend was recorded in a French text known as Le Sommaire Philosophique (“The Philosophical Summary”), which includes a description of pictures similar to the figures displayed in the cemetery statues.

It seems that turning Nicolas Flamel into a mystical sage was not sufficient and an autobiography attributed to Flamel himself was suddenly discovered in the early 17^th century. This book was given the mysterious name “Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures” (Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques) and relates a classic tale in the field of alchemy: one day, while working as a registrar of estates of the deceased, Flamel encountered a book bound in a gilded copper binding whose 21 pages were made of tree bark.

A picture of the group of statues in the Parisian cemetery printed in the book “Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures”, attributed to Nicolas Flamel

The book was written in what appear to be Greek letters, which Flamel did not know how to read, and was replete with unusual illustrations. According to the title page it was authored by “Abraham the Jew”, a prince, Levite, astrologist and philosopher. Flamel bought the book and managed to decipher its contents but was unable to understand the hidden symbols in the illustrations. Flamel, therefore, traveled to Spain, where he hoped to find a scholar able to explain the true meaning behind the images.

According to the tale, in Spain, the Parisian scholar found a Christian doctor with Jewish origins named Canche, who managed to decipher the message hidden in Abraham the Jew’s mysterious book. The doctor claimed that the illustrations contained the secrets behind the creation of metals. Canche died on their journey back to Paris, but after his return, Flamel managed to create high-quality strands of silver and gold in alchemical experiments based on Canche’s interpretations of the images. This discovery, the autobiography tells us, improved Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel’s financial standing to such an extent that they could make large donations to welfare institutions in Paris.

The autobiography also notes that the mystical drawings in Abraham the Jew’s book were evemtually reproduced in the aforementioned underground passageway in the Paris cemetery.

It is important to note that the original manuscript of Flamel’s book was never discovered. Abraham the Jew’s book was also never found. Historical research has proven that the book “Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures” was written by a 17^th century author and alchemist. The autobiography contains language typical of that time, and mentions people not yet born during the lifetime of the historical Nicolas Flamel.

The qualms about the background and history of the supposed autobiography did not prevent it from enjoying a long and fruitful shelf life. After its publication in French in 1612, the text was translated into other languages (English in 1624, and German in 1681). One of the enthusiastic readers of the autobiography was none other than Isaac Newton (1643-1727), the father of modern physics. Newton summarized the book by hand and even copied out the picture depicting the group of statues in the Paris cemetery, including the mysterious plates which have been referred to as hieroglyphics. This manuscript can be found, together with Newton’s other alchemistic writings, in the Sidney M. Edelstein Collection at the National Library of Israel.

https://blog.nli.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/4-Newton-on-Flamel-1.jpg — Isaac Newton’s drawing in his summary of the book “Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures”, from the Sidney M. Edelstein Collection at the National Library of Israel.

Copies of the fantastic autobiography attributed to Flamel can still be found today. The last edition we are aware of was printed in 1996 in Spain under the name El libro de las figuras jeroglificas. The figure of the supposed author, Nicolas Flamel, was also brought back to life in contemporary literature. In J.K. Rowling’s book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (published in the U.S. under the name Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), Flamel is described as a man who is hundreds of years old, a friend of Albus Dumbledore the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the owner of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Flamel also makes an appearance in Dan Brown’s popular book The Da Vinci Code, and the Irish author Michael Scott even dedicated an entire six-book series to the imaginary Flamel: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel. Needless to say, all these literary works are unconnected to the historical Nicolas Flamel.

So who was the historical Nicolas Flamel?

To the best of our knowledge, Nicolas Flamel was born around the year 1330, not far from the French capital. In 1370 he married a widow named Perenelle and spent most of his life as a transcriber of manuscripts, an author and low-ranking legal clerk – positions from which he made a living. He later became a manuscript merchant in the service of the University of Paris.

The funds which helped him and his wife become patrons of a series of small churches, hospitals and other welfare institutions should be attributed to his wife – she appears to have been in possession of significant financial wealth when she was married to Nicolas, which she inherited from her two previous deceased husbands.

All the above information can be found on a 600 year old tombstone currently found in a museum in Paris (Musee de Cluny) which, together with several of the couples’ original documents, tell the story of the man immortalized both among lovers of secret teachings and readers of modern fantasy literature.