Acta Poloniae Historica T. 123 (2021), In Memory of Professor Jerzy W. Borejsza
Polska Akademia Nauk. Komitet Nauk Historycznych
;
Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla
Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
This article focuses on Armand Lévy, Adam Mickiewicz’s secretary, as the missing link between Romantic Polish nationalism and proto-Zionism. It examines Lévy’s interpretation of Adam Mickiewicz’s use of Jewish motifs and how Lévy’s interpretation provided his friend and neighbour in Paris, Moses Hess, a German-Jewish socialist, colleague and rival of Karl Marx, with a repertoire he had lacked to structure his proto-Zionist ideas.The article discusses how ideas from one cultural sphere were transferred to others. Mickiewicz, seeking to find ways to strengthen the Polish nation-building process following the partition of his motherland, used his interpretation of the contemporary Jewish Diaspora as a model. His secretary, the Frenchman Armand Lévy, reinterpreted Mickiewicz’s interpretation. His convoluted life course eventually led him to think about the Jews in nationalist terms via the discursive tools he acquired from Mickiewicz. Going beyond the latter’s views, Lévy regarded the Jews as a diasporic nation aspiring to gain political statehood. He championed Jewish messianism as a concrete step towards the Jews’ sovereignty. This, in turn, provided Moses Hess with a repertoire he had lacked until this point: namely, an acquaintance with Jews who were committed to renewing the sovereign Jewish life as of old.The article shows how Armand Lévy – a person acting in a sociological ‘contact zone’, i.e. in a social space where cultures meet, clash, and grapple – was able to cross the boundaries of Frenchness, Polishness, Jewishness, cosmopolitanism and nationalism, transferring motifs between Jewish and non-Jewish émigrés in complex ways which provoked unexpected results.
Borejsza Jerzy W., Sekretarz Adama Mickiewicza: (Armand Lévy i jego czasy 1827–1891) (Gdańsk, 2005).
Katz Jacob, Leumiyut yehudit masot u-mekhkarim (Jerusalem, 1979).
Scheps Samuel, Armand Lévy: compagnion de Mickiewicz – révolutionnaire romantique (London, 1977).
Shimoni Gideon, The Zionist Ideology (Hannover–London, 1997).
Silber Marcos, ‘Stateless Nation: A Reciprocal Motif between Polish Nationalism and Zionism’, in Kenneth B. Moss, Benjamin Nathans, and Taro Tsurumi (eds), From Europe’s East to the Middle East: Israel’s Russian and Polish Lineages (Philadelphia, 2021), 87–116.
oai:rcin.org.pl:204226 ; 0001-6829 ; 2450-8462 ; 10.12775/APH.2021.123.04
IH PAN, sygn. A.295/123 Podr. ; IH PAN, sygn. A.296/123 ; click here to follow the link
Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license
Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -
Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Library of the Institute of History PAS
National Programme for the Development of the Humanities
Sep 22, 2023
Aug 1, 2021
65
https://rcin.org.pl/ihpan/publication/237335
Knapowska, Wisława (1889–1956)
Walicki, Jacek (1961– )
Kula, Marcin (1943– )
Chlebowczyk, Józef (1924–1985)
Chlebowczyk, Józef (1924–1985)