The Life and Thought of Ze’ev Jawitz : “To Cultivate a Hebrew Culture”

Ze’ev Jawitz (1847-1924) was one of the foremost intellectuals of the First Aliyah and a leader of the religious faction within the Hibbat Zion movement. During his life he experienced the transition from living in the Diaspora to settling in the homeland, and he faced complex problems along with rare opportunities.

Jawitz sought to adapt Orthodox Judaism to the changing reality in the Land of Israel by blending it with the nascent Jewish nationalism. He engaged in most facets of the Hebrew culture of his time, including history, literature, philosophy, biblical exegesis, linguistics, opinion writing, and even politics. He did all this out of an understanding that a people returning to its land needs a broad culture and cannot remain confined to the limits of halakha (Jewish law).

This biography is based on rich archival material, most of which has never before been published. It moves along two axes: historically, it follows Jawitz’s life through the places where he lived – Warsaw, Yehud, Zikhron Yaakov, Jerusalem, Vilna, Berlin, Antwerp and London; and intellectually, it analyzes Jawitz’s literary and philosophical work against the backdrop of his time.