Reforma czy asymilacja? O konieczności przekształcenia kultury żydowskiej według Hilarego Nussbauma

Abstract

The main character in this article is Hilary Nussbaum – a forgotten nineteenth-century Jewish reformer of cultural and religious life, and a prolific writer and columnist. In the first part of the article, the author describes the writer’s biography with its key moments, which influenced the interests and the directions of action of this representative of moderate assimilationism. In the second part of the text, Nussbaum’s selected literary texts are discussed (a popular-scientific text, entitled Z teki weterana warszawskiej gminy starozakonnych (From the Portfolio of a Veteran from the Warsaw Municipality of Jews), the dialogue Leon i Lejb (Leon and Leib), the novel Jakub Izraelowicz. In his literary works, the author expresses his views of society: the need for assimilation, creating a new type of Jewish schools (not cheders, but folk schools), an introduction of the Polish language to Jewish liturgy, the praise of tolerance and the development of the Jewish community on the basis of the culture in the country inhabited by the diaspora. Also the positivist premises of organic work and grassroot work are close to him. Most of the author’s views are expressed by the title character in the Nussbaum’s novel – Jakub Izraelowicz – described in more detail in this article. In his texts, the Jewish writer expresses his belief that the representatives of Polish politics and culture are positively oriented towards the reformative efforts coming from enlightened Jewish groups in the mid-nineteenth century.