his nose the way one would think only hands could be clenched. At the most gripping passages, which he wants to bring home to the listener, he himself comes close to
us, or rather he enlarges himself by making his appearance more distinct. He steps forward only a little, opens his eyes wide, plucks at his straight black coat with his
absent-minded left hand and holds the right out to us, open and large. And we are supposed, even if we are not gripped, to acknowledge that he is gripped and to explain
to him how the misfortune which has been described was possible.
I am supposed to pose in the nude for the artist Ascher, as a model for a St. Sebastian.
If I should now, in the evening, return to my relatives, I shall, since I have written nothing that I could enjoy, not appear stranger, more despicable, more useless to them
than I do to myself. All this, naturally, only in my feelings (which cannot be deceived even by the most precise observation), for actually they all respect me and love
me, too.
24 January. Wednesday. For the following reasons have not written for so long: I was angry with my boss and cleared it up only by means of a good letter; was in the
factory several times; read, and indeed greedily, Pines’s L’Histoire de la littérature Judéo-Allemande [The History of Jewish-German Literature], 500 pages, with
such thoroughness, haste, and joy as I have never yet shown in the case of similar books; now I am reading Fromer, Organismus des Judentums [The Jewish
Organism]; finally I spent a lot of time with the Jewish actors, wrote letters for them, prevailed on the Zionist society to inquire of the Zionist societies of Bohemia
whether they would like to have guest appearances of the troupe; I wrote the circular that was required and had it reproduced; saw Sulamith once more and Richter’s
Herzele Mejiches for the first time, was at the folksong evening of the Bar Kokhba Society, and day before yesterday saw Graf von Gleichen [Count of Equals] by
Schmidtbonn.
Folksong evening: Dr. Nathan Birnbaum is the lecturer. Jewish habit of inserting “my dear ladies and gentlemen” or just “my dear” at every pause in the talk. Was
repeated at the beginning of Birnbaum’s talk to the point of being ridiculous. But from what I know of Löwy I think that these recurrent expressions, which are
frequently found in ordinary Yiddish conversations too, such as “Weh ist mir!” or “S’ist nischt,” or “S’ist viel zu reden,” are not intended to cover up embarrassment
but are rather intended, like ever-fresh springs, to stir up the sluggish stream of speech that is never fluent enough for the Jewish temperament.
26 January. The back of Mr. Weltsch and the silence of the entire hall while listening to the bad poems. Birnbaum: his hair, worn somewhat longish, is cut off abruptly
at his neck, which is very erect either in itself or because of its sudden nudity. Large, crooked nose, not too narrow and yet with broad sides, which looks handsome
chiefly because it is in proper proportion to his large beard—Gollanin, the singer. Peaceful, sweetish, beatific patronizing face turned to the side and down, prolonged
smile somewhat sharpened by his wrinkled nose, which may be only part of his breathing technique.
Pines: Histoire de la Lttérature Judeo-Allemande. Paris 1911.
Soldiers’ song: They cut off our beards and earlocks. And they forbid us to keep the Sabbath and holy days.
Or: At the age of five I entered the “Hede” and now I must ride a horse.
Wos mir seinen, seinen mir
Ober jüden seinen mir.
[What we are, we are,
But Jews we are.]
Haskalah [Jewish Enlightenment] movement introduced by Mendelssohn at the beginning of the nineteenth century, adherents are called Maskilim, are opposed to the
popular Yiddish, tend towards Hebrew and the European sciences. Before the pogroms of 1881 it was not nationalist, later strongly Zionist. Principle formulated by
Gordon: “Be a man on the street and a Jew at home.” To spread its ideas the Haskalah must use Yiddish and, much as it hates the latter, lays the foundation of its