Isaac Ben Abraham Judah Akrish (1489-1578) Talmudic scholar and publisher. Divided most of his life among Jewish communities in countries around the Eastern Mediterranean. He arrived in Egypt in 1548, having lived in Naples, Italy, and Salonica (now in Greece), where he was employed by David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, a leader of the Jewish community, as a teacher to his grandchildren. In Egypt, he amassed an extensive collection of books by purchasing old manuscripts and copying those in Ibn Abi Zimra's library. His love for books stayed with him until the end of his life and wherever he traveled, he spent most of his earnings in purchasing additional books. However, he lost his collections at least twice: the first time in 1554 when following the new Papal edicts against the Talmud the Venetians confiscated his manuscripts while he passed through Candia (now Iraklion, on the Island of Crete). In 1569, a fire in the Jewish quarter of Constantinople destroyed his collection of books again. He spent the later part of his life under the patronage of Esther Kiera, a philanthropist and patron of art and letters, and other influential Jews, like Don Josef Nassi, duke of Naxos. In Constantinople Akrish published a number of important Hebrew literary pieces, some of them contained in "Kovetz Vikkuhim" - a collection of ten documents featuring the letter of Profiat Duran. This was followed by "Maaseh Beth David bi-Ymei Malkhut Paras" and "Kol Mavasser" the last including the alleged correspondence between Hisdai Ibn Shaprut and Josef, the King of the Khazars in addition to stories about the Ten Lost Tribes who live beyond the Sambation river.
Leon Grinberg (1921-2007), psychoanalyst, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After studying medicine, he turned to psychoanalysis and engaged in research. He quickly became a leading practitioner and innovator. He was particularly interested in the transfer of guilt and depression. In 1976 he went into exile in Spain, when then military junta came to power in Argentina, and became well known throughout Europe as the result participation in numerous conferences. He wrote a widely read book on the psychoanalysis of the immigrant and exile. He died in Spain.
Walter Bendix Benjamin (1892–1940), literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator and essayist, who was born to a wealthy family of assimilated Jews in Berlin, Germany. His father, Emil Benjamin, was a banker in Paris who relocated from France to Germany, where he worked as an antiques trader in Berlin. He owned a number of properties in Berlin. In 1902, ten-year-old Walter was enrolled to the Kaiser Friedrich School in Charlottenburg. In 1912, at the age of twenty, he enrolled at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, but then returned to Berlin to study philosophy. Elected president of the Freie Studentenschaft (Free Students Association), Benjamin wrote essays arguing for educational and general cultural change. When not re-elected as student association president, he returned to Freiburg University. In 1914 Benjamin began to translate the works of the 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). The next year, 1915, he moved to Munich, and continued his schooling at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he wrote about the 18th-century Romantic German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.
In 1917 he transferred to the University of Bern, Switzerland, and in 1919 Benjamin earned a doctorate with “The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism”. Later, unable to support himself and family, Benjamin returned to Berlin to live with his parents; in 1921, he published the essay "Kritik der Gewalt" ("The Critique of Violence"). In 1923, when the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) was founded, and later became home to the Frankfurt School, he published his translation of Charles Baudelaire, "Tableaux Parisiens". In 1924 found Benjamin residing in the Italian island of Capri where he wrote "Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiel" ("The Origin of German Tragic Drama"), as a dissertation intended to qualify him for the position of a university professor in Germany; his work was however rejected. Working with Franz Hessel (1880–1941), he translated the first volumes of "À la Recherche du Temps Perdu" ("In Search of Lost Time"), by Marcel Proust. The next year, 1926, he began writing literary articles for the German newspapers "Frankfurter Zeitung" and "Die Literarische Welt" ("The Literary World"), which paid enough for him to reside in Paris for some months.
In 1927, he began "Das Passagen-Werk" ("The Arcades Project"), his incompleted magnum opus, a study of 19th-century Parisian life. This book combined elements of German idealism or Romanticism, Historical Materialism and Jewish mysticism. It made an influential contribution to aesthetic theory and Western Marxism, and has sometimes been associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. His turn to Marxism in the 1930s was partly due to the influence of Bertolt Brecht, whose critical aesthetics developed epic theatre and its "Verfremdungseffekt" (alienation). An earlier influence was friend Gershom Scholem, founder of the academic study of the Kabbalah and of Jewish mysticism. In 1931 he saw Gershom Scholem in Berlin for the last time, and considered emigrating to the Land of Israel. In the same year he published "Einbahnstraße" (One-Way Street).
In 1932, during the turmoil preceding Nazis' assumption of power, Walter Benjamin left Germany for the Spanish island of Ibiza; he then moved to Nice, France, where he considered killing himself. Perceiving the socio-political and cultural significance of the Reichstag fire of 1933 as the de facto Nazi assumption of full power in Germany, with the subsequent persecution of the Jews, he moved to Paris. Once again he ran out of money, but received funds from the Institute for Social Research before later going permanently into exile. In Paris, he met other German artists and intellectuals who had fled there from Germany; he befriended Hannah Arendt, novelist Hermann Hesse, and composer Kurt Weill. In 1937 Benjamin worked on "Das Paris des Second Empire bei Baudelaire" ("The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire"), and joined the College of Sociology. This work which was partially funded by the Frankfurt School shows the competing influences on Benjamin of Brecht’s Marxism, Adorno’s critical theory and Gerschom Scholem’s Jewish mysticism. Meanwhile, being stripped of German citizenship, he was arrested and imprisoned by the French government. Returning to Paris in January 1940, he wrote "Über den Begriff der Geschichte" ("Theses on the Philosophy of History"). When the Nazis overwhelmed France in 1940 he fled to Spain planning to continue to Portugal and then to the USA. The Franco government had cancelled all transit visas and ordered the Spanish police to return such persons to France, including the Jewish refugee group Benjamin had joined. Expecting to be handed over to to the Nazis, Walter Benjamin killed himself in September 1940.
As a literary critic, among his major works are essays on Goethe's novel Elective Affinities, the work of Franz Kafka and Karl Kraus, translation theory, the stories of Nikolai Leskov, the work of Marcel Proust and perhaps most significantly, the poetry of Charles Baudelaire Walter Benjamin’s writings identify him as a modernist for whom the philosophic merges with the literary: logical philosophic reasoning cannot account for all experience, especially not for self-representation via art. He presented his stylistic concerns in "The Task of the Translator", where he claimed that a literary translation, by definition, produces deformations and misunderstandings of the original text. Moreover in the new text, previously obscure aspects of the original text become clearer and previously obvious aspects become completely unreadable. When placed in a specific constellation of works and ideas, he argued, such translational deformations of the source text is productive. The final lines of "Theses on the Philosophy of History" discusses the Jewish quest for the Messiah and provides a harrowing final point to Benjamin's work, with its themes of culture, destruction, Jewish heritage and the fight between humanity and nihilism. He brings up the the fact that Judaism forbids people from trying to calculate the year when the Messiah would arrive, and points out that this did not make Jews indifferent to the future "for every second of time was the straight gate through which the Messiah might enter."
Isaac Ben Abraham Judah Akrish (1489-1578) Talmudic scholar and publisher. Divided most of his life among Jewish communities in countries around the Eastern Mediterranean. He arrived in Egypt in 1548, having lived in Naples, Italy, and Salonica (now in Greece), where he was employed by David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, a leader of the Jewish community, as a teacher to his grandchildren. In Egypt, he amassed an extensive collection of books by purchasing old manuscripts and copying those in Ibn Abi Zimra's library. His love for books stayed with him until the end of his life and wherever he traveled, he spent most of his earnings in purchasing additional books. However, he lost his collections at least twice: the first time in 1554 when following the new Papal edicts against the Talmud the Venetians confiscated his manuscripts while he passed through Candia (now Iraklion, on the Island of Crete). In 1569, a fire in the Jewish quarter of Constantinople destroyed his collection of books again. He spent the later part of his life under the patronage of Esther Kiera, a philanthropist and patron of art and letters, and other influential Jews, like Don Josef Nassi, duke of Naxos. In Constantinople Akrish published a number of important Hebrew literary pieces, some of them contained in "Kovetz Vikkuhim" - a collection of ten documents featuring the letter of Profiat Duran. This was followed by "Maaseh Beth David bi-Ymei Malkhut Paras" and "Kol Mavasser" the last including the alleged correspondence between Hisdai Ibn Shaprut and Josef, the King of the Khazars in addition to stories about the Ten Lost Tribes who live beyond the Sambation river.
Leon Grinberg (1921-2007), psychoanalyst, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After studying medicine, he turned to psychoanalysis and engaged in research. He quickly became a leading practitioner and innovator. He was particularly interested in the transfer of guilt and depression. In 1976 he went into exile in Spain, when then military junta came to power in Argentina, and became well known throughout Europe as the result participation in numerous conferences. He wrote a widely read book on the psychoanalysis of the immigrant and exile. He died in Spain.
Walter Bendix Benjamin (1892–1940), literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator and essayist, who was born to a wealthy family of assimilated Jews in Berlin, Germany. His father, Emil Benjamin, was a banker in Paris who relocated from France to Germany, where he worked as an antiques trader in Berlin. He owned a number of properties in Berlin. In 1902, ten-year-old Walter was enrolled to the Kaiser Friedrich School in Charlottenburg. In 1912, at the age of twenty, he enrolled at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, but then returned to Berlin to study philosophy. Elected president of the Freie Studentenschaft (Free Students Association), Benjamin wrote essays arguing for educational and general cultural change. When not re-elected as student association president, he returned to Freiburg University. In 1914 Benjamin began to translate the works of the 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). The next year, 1915, he moved to Munich, and continued his schooling at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he wrote about the 18th-century Romantic German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.
In 1917 he transferred to the University of Bern, Switzerland, and in 1919 Benjamin earned a doctorate with “The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism”. Later, unable to support himself and family, Benjamin returned to Berlin to live with his parents; in 1921, he published the essay "Kritik der Gewalt" ("The Critique of Violence"). In 1923, when the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) was founded, and later became home to the Frankfurt School, he published his translation of Charles Baudelaire, "Tableaux Parisiens". In 1924 found Benjamin residing in the Italian island of Capri where he wrote "Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiel" ("The Origin of German Tragic Drama"), as a dissertation intended to qualify him for the position of a university professor in Germany; his work was however rejected. Working with Franz Hessel (1880–1941), he translated the first volumes of "À la Recherche du Temps Perdu" ("In Search of Lost Time"), by Marcel Proust. The next year, 1926, he began writing literary articles for the German newspapers "Frankfurter Zeitung" and "Die Literarische Welt" ("The Literary World"), which paid enough for him to reside in Paris for some months.
In 1927, he began "Das Passagen-Werk" ("The Arcades Project"), his incompleted magnum opus, a study of 19th-century Parisian life. This book combined elements of German idealism or Romanticism, Historical Materialism and Jewish mysticism. It made an influential contribution to aesthetic theory and Western Marxism, and has sometimes been associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. His turn to Marxism in the 1930s was partly due to the influence of Bertolt Brecht, whose critical aesthetics developed epic theatre and its "Verfremdungseffekt" (alienation). An earlier influence was friend Gershom Scholem, founder of the academic study of the Kabbalah and of Jewish mysticism. In 1931 he saw Gershom Scholem in Berlin for the last time, and considered emigrating to the Land of Israel. In the same year he published "Einbahnstraße" (One-Way Street).
In 1932, during the turmoil preceding Nazis' assumption of power, Walter Benjamin left Germany for the Spanish island of Ibiza; he then moved to Nice, France, where he considered killing himself. Perceiving the socio-political and cultural significance of the Reichstag fire of 1933 as the de facto Nazi assumption of full power in Germany, with the subsequent persecution of the Jews, he moved to Paris. Once again he ran out of money, but received funds from the Institute for Social Research before later going permanently into exile. In Paris, he met other German artists and intellectuals who had fled there from Germany; he befriended Hannah Arendt, novelist Hermann Hesse, and composer Kurt Weill. In 1937 Benjamin worked on "Das Paris des Second Empire bei Baudelaire" ("The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire"), and joined the College of Sociology. This work which was partially funded by the Frankfurt School shows the competing influences on Benjamin of Brecht’s Marxism, Adorno’s critical theory and Gerschom Scholem’s Jewish mysticism. Meanwhile, being stripped of German citizenship, he was arrested and imprisoned by the French government. Returning to Paris in January 1940, he wrote "Über den Begriff der Geschichte" ("Theses on the Philosophy of History"). When the Nazis overwhelmed France in 1940 he fled to Spain planning to continue to Portugal and then to the USA. The Franco government had cancelled all transit visas and ordered the Spanish police to return such persons to France, including the Jewish refugee group Benjamin had joined. Expecting to be handed over to to the Nazis, Walter Benjamin killed himself in September 1940.
As a literary critic, among his major works are essays on Goethe's novel Elective Affinities, the work of Franz Kafka and Karl Kraus, translation theory, the stories of Nikolai Leskov, the work of Marcel Proust and perhaps most significantly, the poetry of Charles Baudelaire Walter Benjamin’s writings identify him as a modernist for whom the philosophic merges with the literary: logical philosophic reasoning cannot account for all experience, especially not for self-representation via art. He presented his stylistic concerns in "The Task of the Translator", where he claimed that a literary translation, by definition, produces deformations and misunderstandings of the original text. Moreover in the new text, previously obscure aspects of the original text become clearer and previously obvious aspects become completely unreadable. When placed in a specific constellation of works and ideas, he argued, such translational deformations of the source text is productive. The final lines of "Theses on the Philosophy of History" discusses the Jewish quest for the Messiah and provides a harrowing final point to Benjamin's work, with its themes of culture, destruction, Jewish heritage and the fight between humanity and nihilism. He brings up the the fact that Judaism forbids people from trying to calculate the year when the Messiah would arrive, and points out that this did not make Jews indifferent to the future "for every second of time was the straight gate through which the Messiah might enter."