The Denver Jewish news., 1920-10-06
THE JEWISH ELEMENT IN THE
NEW GERMAN LITERATURE
BY JACOB MESTEL
(Copyrirbt. 1890. by ]. j. l.. ID

. bsnI "a n nd
,ct.J. hut Jeremi,h smoke in vain. His
,,,,I. ala NOT understand him and he
conIJ ,ccomn,;sb nothinc." Thus we
! find ,h,t ,,b.r rho ills of the war
.b,cl,ed ~. II again found an
ou,,at In literary and poetic production,
Stef,n Zweip tn rive expression to the
untold miseries Of the Jewish people,
turned Ia tho urophet jeremiah for
=, nlo, far his dramatic work. 1t was
to denict the same tragedy which in
snired y 1 Jouyoe i'm his Dance of
Death" and which is responsible for II
considerable number of novels by II.
G. Wells and Goldring. The German
rim has likewise masterfully present.
ed In his monumental play The Race"
all the martyrdom and fruitless strus-
giles of the enslavrd shirt of humanity.
Rut Tins work. great as it is in its
picture of the mains of Mother HUI
munity and its apotheosis OF final vic
tory of the new generation thru rev.
olution To liberty Thu's work was
written after fine European rcvolution)
cannot compare with the symbolic
prophecy of Stefan Zweig. whose play.
written betwecn 1918 and 1917. shows
the martyrdom of the Jewish nation
dine TO blind fury of nations. but
breothes the hone and courage to re-
turn 10 the divinity of Judaism and
lis ..UoIv Land" of pcacc and broth
cr,v love
| Stefan Zweiy's "Jcrcmiah'' is a rare
| instance of noetir prrsentation of mel
| nn,boly restoration dine TO II bloody
dramatic war of humanity. As Jew.
he updou1tcdIv drcw his iuspirat ton
from the Bible. The pathos of his
dramatic poetry is almost equal to that
one of the noblpst products of the
| theatrical Muse If is written prin-
cipolIy in prose. but occasionally it is
| int.rsnercd with hlouk verse or n,
| rhvmc depeudiup upou tbc importance.
of the scene or character and it,
grandeur or sacredness, Attic in place.
| we are under impression that there /.
"A certain excess of pathos or passion
| or that there may he an abundance OF
| Superahundanceso of words. and even the
the author occasionally appears as n
rhetorician talking to no purpose, yet
in spite of all its possible SHORTCOMINGS
one cannot galnsay It's holy anger ana
violent spirit OF rebellion which OPP
poses with -destructiv" energy the eX-
ceSses. crimes and hloodincss of the
era.
jeremiah sounds a warning to his
people not to engage in warfare with
the mighty foe. Laughter and deris-
! ion are his lot. But his holy conviction
that peace alone can secure the happl-
ness Oh MS people anu humanity III
iarse leaves hin' ITO rest even inc
''e"eNia''' '"e h'"S' H'i'''''''" ny 'ii'
iaise prophets Oh Iuo'"' 'aS's MIN INC
d'iseoh' 'erehiiahs voice causes
me Kings palace 10 trehipie ana Tore
'''a "'e"N> us way '''o '''e 'i'ei'E
CAMP ie"ce a''ne VIII preserve 'he
world.
To he sure. as pointed out before. tho
| work is not free from weaknesses. Toe
pronounced and therefore not. truly
artistic. is its allegory of the present
war There is too much of linden
burg's strategy in NebuchadneZZar and
there are too many inaccurate Biblical
citations. 1t is apparent that stefan
IwCg has only recently returned into
the Jewish fold and that he derives
| his knowledge of the Bible from Luth
erS translation. But after all. what
difference can that make in view OF
| the poets gigantic power of expression