Nathan Birnbaum

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Nathan Birnbaum.

Nathan Birnbaum (16 May 1864 – 2 April 1937) was Austrian journalist, Jewish philosopher, the founder of a Jewish nationalist organisation "Kadimah" ten years before Theodor Herzl became the leading spokesman of the Zionist movement. Birnbaum is credited for coining the term "Zionism". Sometimes he used the pseudonyms 'Mathias Ascher' or "Mathias Acher".

1 Biography
2 Works
3 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Nathan Birnbaum was born into a Eastern European Jewish family in Vienna. After receiving a traditional religious education, he studied law, philosophy and Orientalism at the University of Vienna from 1882 to 1885. During his study, in 1883, Birnbaum, nineteen years old, founded Kadimah, the first Jewish student association in Vienna. In 1884, the first issue of Selbstemanzipation (Self-Emancipation) pamphlet appeared, made completely by Birnbaum himself.

In 1890 Birnbaum coined the terms "Zionist" and "Zionism". He married Rosa Korngut (1869–1934) and they had three sons: Solomon Birnbaum (1891–1989), Menachem Birnbaum (1893–1944), and Uriel Birnbaum (1894–1956).

[edit] First Zionist Congress

1892 issue of Self Emancipation describing the principles of Zionism.

Birnbaum played a prominent part in the First Zionist Congress (1897) where he was elected Secretary General of the Zionist Organization Agudat Israel.

[edit] Later life

Until his death, Birnbaum continued as a journalist, but turned away from Zionism. Birnbaum, in his youth, had been associated with and was one of the most important representatives of the cultural variant of Zionism, which promoted the settlement of Palestine without specific promotion of a Jewish state, and only through Chaim Weizmann was he drawn into political Zionism. Birnbaum continued, however, to advocate specifically for Eastern European Judaism, Hassidic culture and the Yiddish language.

He was chief convenor for the First Conference for the Yiddish Language in Czernowitz on August 30–September 3, 1908. Later Birnbaum, who had at various points adopted almost every possible religious stance including atheism, subscribed to Orthodox Judaism

In 1933, at the time of the Nazi rise to power, Birnbaum with his family emigrated to the Netherlands. He died in Scheveningen in 1937 after a period of severe illness.

[edit] Works

Ausgewählte Schriften zur jüdischen Frage, 2 Bände, 1910.
Den Ostjuden Ihr Recht!; (Löwith) Vienna, 1915,
Gottes Volk; (Löwith) Vienna, 1918,
Um die Ewigkeit. Jüdische Essays; (Welt) Berlin, 1920,
Im Dienste der Verheissung, Frankfurt 1927.
Der Aufstieg; Berlin and Vienna, Jan. 1930 - Dec. 1932

[edit] References

First Yiddisch Language Conference Tshernovits
- Birnbaum's Opening Address
Confessions by Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937)
First Zionist Conference
First Yiddish Language Conference By Nathan Birnbaum.

This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia (Retrieved 05:22, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)). That, in turn, gives the following references:

M. Kühntopf-Gentz, Nathan Birnbaum; Diss. Tübingen 1990. (In German.)
Angelika M. Hausenbichl, Nathan Birnbaum. Seine Bemühungen um das jüdische Theater und die jüdische Kultur; Dipl.Arb. Wien 2001. (In German.)
dies., Wirklich nur Politiker?; in: David. Jüdische Kulturzeitschrift 54 (09/2002). (In German.)
Joshua A. Fishman, Ideology, Society and Language. The Oddysey of Nathan Birnbaum; Ann Arbor (Karoma Publ.) 1987. (In English.)
Solomon Birnbaum, Nathan Birnbaum; in: Leo Jung (Hg.), Men of the Spirit, New York (Kymson Publ.) 1964. (In English.)
S. A. Birnbaum, Nathan Birnbaum and National Autonomy; in: Josef Fraenkel (Hg.), The Jews of Austria, London 1967, 1970. (In English.)