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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