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Edmond Fleg—Man of Hope
By MAURICE SCHNEPS
Maurice Schneps, a personal friend of Edmond Fleg and
himself a distinguished poet, writer and artist, has written
the following article for AJP in honor of the noted French
author whose 80th anniversary is now being commemorated
throughout France. Mr. Schneps makes his home in Phil
adelphia.—EDITOR
It all seemed relatively peaceful,
in the year 1894, on the esthetic
front, the political front was about
to witness the birth of a monster
that soon shattered the esthetic
towers of young Edmond Fleg, as
well as the internal peace of
France. The French nation was
divided into two hostile camps: the
Drevfusards and the anti-Dreyfu-
sards. The Dreyfus Affair proved
to be of the greatest importance to
the twenty-year old Edmond Fleg.
He became conscious of his Jewish
ness, forming the nucleus, in turn,
for those later investigations into
the sources of Judaism which
brought forth so much fruitful ar
tistic expression.
When Edmond Fleg became sen
sitive to the meaning of Judaism
he expressed the belief that Israel's
mission was a striving for the mor-
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al triumph of the human race ac
cording to the concepts of the To
rah. The triumph of Israel could
not be independent of the rest of
mankind, isolated Israel could serve
only as mankind’s gauge of spirit
ual and social progress, a sensitve
heart among nations, as it was de
scribed by Jehuda Halevy in his
“El Khasari.” Whether a man
chose Judaism, therefore, as a faith
outside of the Holy Land, or as a
faith inside of the Holy Land Ju
daism imposed upon both the same
standards of moral perfection, and
the same world-mission dedicated
to peace and unity among the di
vergent families of the earth.
In Palestine M. Fleg was con
fronted by regions that had wit
nessed the birth of those idea s
from which he had been deriving
inspiration throughout his artistic
life. For a period of more than
thirty years M. Fleg had been
weaving his greatest work, the epic
poetry of the “Eeout Israel.” The
first intimations of these poems
came to him during the first world
war while he was serving as an in
fantry man in the French Foreign
Legion. Looking out upon the world
through the confined spaces of a
trench he dreamed of the roots of
his people. He felt stirring within
him the hopes for a united mankind
living reconciled and at peace. The
poet beheld the burdened figure of
the Wandering Jew roaming from
one vale of tears to the next, liv
ing in the hope that mankind would
realize, one day, the glories of the
Messianic Age. M. Fleg gave ex
pression to these Messianic concepts
in the poem entitled “Apocalypse,”
the play “Le Juit Du Pape,” in
the polemic writings, and in the
beautiful book “Jesus, Reconte Par
Le Juif Errant.”
If the first World War tested M.
Fleg’s determination to serve the
country of his choice (he was born
in Geneva). The second World War
tested him in the terrible way that
Job was tested. The dreamer was
hurled into a terrible burning of
the soul, ignited by Hitler. Of this
infamous epoch M. Fleg has much
to say, speaking as he does out of
the frightful ruins of the Hitlerian
decade, in his book “Nous de L’Es-
perance” (We Who Hope, 1949).
The narrative commences on a
night during the trying days of
1936. The radio had just delivered
its painful cargo. The scholar was
in anguish, he had been listening
to the cruelest persecutor of Israel.
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The Southern Israelite
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