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THE S O U THERN ISRAELITE
That Man Sokolo
An Intimate Portrait of the New President of the Zionists
By REUBEN BRAININ
W hat a curiously puzzling collection of
portraits, if one were to assemble in a
single room all the drawings, paintings,
sketches and etchings made of Nahum
olmv and all the essays, feuilletons and
t .rials written on him. Out of one frame
Sokolow the philosopher, the old sage
would look, gazing past us into invisible,
abstract worlds; on the next portrait we
would find a meticulously groomed Soko
low. the elegant, scintillating, somewhat
superficial causeur; from a third canvas a
Voltairean, skeptical, almost cynical Soko
low would smile at us. One biographical
essay describes him as a subtle journalist
and stylist, speculating on coming events,
juggling with definitions; another hails
Sokolow’s most recent book, on Spinoza,
as a penetrating study, the life work of
one who has dedicated himself to research.
In one corner we would see an artist’s
conception of Sokolow the diplomat, with
an enigmatic, Mona Lisa-like expression on
his face; and just opposite an old prophet,
bent over a Talmud, would seem to shrug
his shoulders, as if to indicate that the
doings of all the other Sokolows are of
little import to him.
And we would be at a loss, unable to
believe that all these Sokolows are por
traits of one and the same man. We might
feel tempted to lose our faith in the artists
and biographers whose various conceptions
of this one personality differ so grossly,
who have discovered so wide a range of
inflicting characteristics in one face. Yet
; dl these artists and writers have seen cor-
,,( “ctly. Each has grasped one phase, one
uood, one facet of this most versatile of
modern Jews, Nahum Sokolow'.
The true portrait of Nahum Sokolow
v °uld have to be painted in the ultra-mod
ernistic manner, with a strange background
ot planets, books, tractors, universities,
•ridges and other symbols of the manifold-
' of his personality, his interests and
; erudition. The canvas w T ould have to
r " n vey the intellectual versatility of a
eonardo da Vinci. The artist, disregarding
shape of Sokolow’s nose and beard,
mid have to attempt to symbolize the
• nial Jewish youthfulness and kaleido-
"Pic versatility w'hich Sokolow, more than
other being I can think of, personi-
s - As Sokolow r ’s dominant characteristics,
"Wever, this portrayer W'ould have to take
Olympian philosophic calm, his lucid,
■ mdy, tolerant, passionless eyes. In a ner-
ms. inconstant, restive generation of
•insient moods, exaggerated enthusiasms
: neuralgic pessimism Sokolow has inva-
dy retained his far, clear vision, unaf-
ted by pyrotechnic flashes or ephemereal
astrophes. Cynics may misread his de-
•iment and qualify his aloofness as in
ference, may see in him merely an epi-
! oan undisturbed by human and national
gtdies, immersed only in his owm intel-
ual tribulations. But petty mentalities
The public life of Nahum Sokolow—the
new president of the World Zionist Or
ganization, whose election to Weizmann’s
former post ,is discussed everywhere—is
well known to world Jewry. Few, however,
are familiar with Sokolow the man, the
thinker and the scholar. The following
estimate is written by the dean of Hebrew
literature whose activities have often coin
cided with those of Nahum Sokolow.
cannot understand Sokolow’s Weltan-
c'hauung, his phenomenal erudition, the his
torical perspective that makes him think
in centuries, continents and nations rather
than in days and individual species.
The biographer will have to study the
history of Hebrew literature and of the cul
tural and national political revival of the
Jewish people in the last half century to
find the record of Sokolow’s many-sided
life. For since his early youth he has given
freely and recklessly of his intellectual
gifts, keeping no account of his donations.
I have the impression that at times he
himself smiles at his multitudinous activi
ties. In appraising his own life and achieve
ments he uses the perspective which future
centuries will use; he know's that a world
history even a Sokolow must content him
self w'ith a brief footnote. That is why he
does not attempt to build his owm monu
ment. This versatile litterateur and scholar
has never bothered to collect the enormous
output of his prolific pen in book form. In
these days, when even mediocre journalists
and political ward leaders collect their
banal utterances in pretentious volumes for
the “benefit” of future generations, Nahum
Sokolow’s valuable contributions to modern
Jewish literature lie scattered between the
dusty covers of innumerable Hebrew, Ger
man and English periodicals. That w'hich is
fit to survive will survive, not because of
what we do but despite our feeble endea
vors—this is his view'. None of the collec
tions which some of the Jewish and He
brew literary guild have brought out of
their own works—gathered together by the
sweat of their brows and published through
the kindness of some friends—will ever
outweigh the scattered comments of Soko-
low’, the brilliant Hebrew Stylist. His work
will live as long as Jews will continue to
be interested in one ol the most glorious
chapters of the national revival: the renais
sance of Hebrew literature, which began in
t he last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Sokolow t he Hebrew man of letters exem
plifies one of its most fecund periods.
Sokolow is much older than his age. His
biographer wdll realize that he matured ex
ceptionally early; his literary career begins
almost in his childhood. As a boy he
amazed every one with his precocity as a
Talmudic student; his face as an illudi
dates back sixty years. As the editor of
Hatzefirah, as a vital figure in the councils
ot East European and German Zionism he
assumed without eflort, perhaps even
without wishing to—a leading position in
the Jewish political world. The most daz
zling part of his biography will have to
be the English chapter; perhaps because he
entered upon it at an age at which other
public figures usually are shelved and be
gin writing their memories.
When the war broke out Nahum Sokolow
—-Polish Jew, Hebrew feuilletonist and, la
ter , somew hat Germanized man of letters
broad European culture and truly Jewish
adaptability soon made him seem entirely
at home in Anglo-Saxon society, in the
House of Commons and at five o’clock teas
with British statesmen. His poise and tact,
h* s quick intellect and ready wit overcame
the reserve of the most supercilious of
British politicians. This typical elderly Jew-
i>h scholar and man of action, who could
converse with equal ease about belles let-
tres, the Koran, British interests in the
Near and Far East, sports and Bergson’s
creative evolution, was a new phenomenon
r? < u J^PP^on sa l° ns °f the Samuels, the
Rothschilds and the Monds and of non-
Jewish statesmen. Some veteran English
diplomats whispered that this bent little
Jew reminded them of Disraeli in his most
brilliant period. During the protracted ne
gotiations, which preceded the Balfour D>ec-
laration it was Sokolow, perhaps even more
than Weizmann, who w'on the sympathv
ot prominent British Jewish figures there
tofore indifferent to Jewish national aspi.
rations in Palestine. Weizmann’s gains ir
the political work with Balfour, Lloyc
George and others were consolidated am
strengthened by (Continued on Page 18