NOKHUM
SOKOLOV (NAHUM SOKOLOW) (January 10, 1859-May 17, 1936)
He was born in Vishegrad (Wyszogród),
Plotsk (Płock) region, Poland, into a family
that drew its pedigree back to Rabbi Natan Nata Shpiro, the “Megale amukot”
(Revealer of depths) [1585-1633]. At age
three he was already in religious elementary school; at age five he moved with
his parents to Płock where he studied under his father’s
purview and later in synagogue study hall.
He was studying Talmud with commentaries at age ten, and he soon had gained
fame as a prodigy. His father wanted him
to become a rabbi and stood by him earnestly in the Torah world, but in his
thirst for knowledge about secular things as well, at age eight Sokolov
secretly kept dictionaries and grammars and began to learn foreign
languages. Thanks to a phenomenal
memory, he quickly mastered numerous European languages, and under the
influence of various people close to him, including among them the governor of Płock,
Baron Wrangel, who was acquainted with the Sokolov family, Sokolov’s father and
grandfather finally allowed the young Sokolov to take private lessons with
professors (tutors) from the Płock high school, when he was free from his
synagogue studies. He thus went through
the high school course of study and was always thankful thereafter to his
teachers, the Polish professors Maslawski, Debicki, and Schultz, who taught him
Latin, Greek, and history. His teachers
wanted him to prepare himself for subsequent examinations for higher education. This alarmed his father and grandfather, and
they decided that there was no time to lose to have him sent away from this
heresy-laden Płock. So he left Płock and
began going from one rebbe to another, wrote his own Torah novellae, and was
exhaustive with learning. At the same
time he was reading secular books. When
he returned to Płock, he and his friends began to publish a handwritten
newspaper, Hashoshana (The rose), in
which he placed poems and translations from Schiller and Shakespeare. At that time as well, he began sending in
correspondence pieces to the Hebrew-language press, mainly to Hamelits (The advocate). He married a relative at age eighteen, Regine
Segal, an intelligent young woman from Makov (Maków), who encouraged him
greatly in his literary ambitions. For a
certain period of time, he became a wool merchant and to that end traveled to
Bukhara and Kavkaz. In 1874 he debuted
in print with a correspondence piece from Płock in the Galician periodical Ivri anokhi (I am Jewish), published in
Brody. In 1877 he published a
translation of a handbook of geography, Metsuke
erets o yesode yediat hageografiya hativit (The precipices of the earth or basic
information on natural geography) (Warsaw, 1877), 96 pp. He also wrote essays for Hamagid (The preacher), in which he placed (unsigned) his work Letora veleteuda (On Torah and duty),
which appeared over time in installments and raised quite a stir. He published numerous articles in Hakol (The voice) in Königsberg and
therein conducted a lengthy polemic with the first writers of the Jewish
Enlightenment. From Maków he also wrote
in German, in Rohmer’s literary newspaper and in Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (General newspaper of Jewish
affairs) in Bonn; and in French for Archives
israélites (Jewish records). In 1879
he settled in Warsaw, where he became a regular contributor (later, also
editor) of Hatsfira (The siren),
initially published weekly and later daily.
Through Hatsfira his influence
began with his weekly survey of Jewish life, entitled “Hatsofe levet yisrael”
(Observer of the House of Israel) and later with his daily political notes
entitled “Divre hayamim” (Chronicles).
He also wrote literary critical essays, popular historical and
philosophical treatments, and travel narratives; his feature piece “Mishabat
leshabat” (From Sabbath to Sabbath)—in the style of the informal French
“causerie”—was a huge success with readers.
He also published short novellas and poetry, and he tried as well to
write a long novel from Roman times (Neure
hanesher or Youth of the eagle). As
a supplement for everyone, he published and edited Haasif (The harvest), an annual Hebrew anthology, to which
well-known Jewish scholars, story writers, and poets contributed work—these
anthologies, six in all, encompass from 600 to 1,600 pages annually. Sokolov also published and edited four
volumes of Sefer hashana
(Yearbook). He published the books: Erets ḥemda (Desirable country), a history
and geography of the land of Israel (Warsaw, 1885) 191 pp.; Sinat olam laam olam (Eternal hatred for
the eternal people), on anti-Semitism (Warsaw, 1882), 309 pp.; and Torat sefat anglit (Rules of the English
language), a textbook for English (1882).
He began but did not complete an epic of Jewish life in Poland under the
title “Napolyon min hageto” (Napoleon of the ghetto); twelve or thirteen chapters
of this work were published only after his death.
His
first work in Yiddish was Naye praktishe
methode der englishen shprakhe (New practical method for the English
language), “to master in a short time without any help from a teacher to write
and speak English freely, and a new, very simple system, originally worked out
by N. Sokolov” (Warsaw: A. Tsukerman, 1904), 96 pp.—this work went through
sixteen editions, each with roughly 10,000 copies. Characteristic of his ties to Yiddish at this
time is the foreword to this book, in which he writes: “As for the method of
practical uses to which this may be put for each individual without exception,
educated or uneducated, I use in the explanation and in the translation an easy
Judeo-German, for with a base zhargon
one will be unable to use a living European language to make proper
adjustments, and therefore I stand midway, neither to proper German nor to
common gibberish.” Later, though, when
Warsaw became, thanks to Y. L. Perets, the center of modern Yiddish literature,
Sokolov ceased to think of Yiddish as a “base zhargon” and became a Yiddish writer himself. He soon turned away from his Germanized
gibberish and demonstrated in Yiddish that he was a splendid stylist and
spirited feature writer. His Yiddish
debut (using the name Amitai) actually took place in Perets’s Yudishe biblyotek (Jewish library) 3
(1891), pp. 173-91: “Rabi nakhmen krokhmal, a shmues in vagon” (Rabbi Nachman
Krochmal, a chat on a train)—a treatment in a semi-fictional form with
tendencies toward enlightenment concerning the famed thinker from Żółkiew. A large portion of his essays in Ishim (Personages) were initially
written in Yiddish and then translated into Hebrew, especially the entry for A.
Shlonski. His systematic activities as a
writer in Yiddish began in the years around Der
telegraf (The telegraph), the daily Yiddish newspaper which he founded in
late 1905 in Warsaw after the collapse of Hatsfira. He would on a virtually daily basis publish
articles under various and sundry pseudonyms.
Of these one should tale particular note of his feature “Yidish”
(Yiddish), written as an example of how one ought write Yiddish in connection
with the polemic that was then going on in literary circles around introducing
German words into the Yiddish language. Living
in London in 1906, he also wrote numerous articles for Yudishe velt (Jewish world), the Yiddish supplement to the
well-known weekly The Jewish World,
published by the Westernized, English community leader Lucian Wolf. He later contributed to Yidishes tageblat (Jewish daily newspaper) and Yudishe gazetten (Jewish gazette) in New York, and even later for Haynt (Today) in Warsaw, with articles
entitled “Fun mayn literarishn notits-bukh” (From my literary notebook), as
well as “A serye brif tsu der yidisher froy” (A series of letters to the Jewish
woman). On several occasions he also
came out to defend the Yiddish language against its enemies (he made a
particular impression with his article, “Hip-hip keneged hazhargon” [Opposition
to zhargon] in Hazman [The times]). Only a
small number of his Yiddish journalistic efforts is included in the volume of
his Oysgeveylte shriftn (Selected
writings) (Warsaw: P. Kantorovitsh, 1912), 158 pp. Also, translated into Yiddish—in the daily
newspaper Dos yudishe folk (The
Jewish people) in Warsaw (1919)—are chapters from his English work, History of Zionism (1918). Initially, Sokolov took no side with respect
to the Zionist movement, was close to the Polish Jewish organ Izraelita (Israelite), and warmly
supported (in Hatsfira) emigration to
Argentina. As an opponent of “Ḥibat
tsiyon” (Love of Zion), he was publicly opposed Dr. Pinsker’s Selbstemanzipation (Auto-emancipation) and Herzl’s Der Judenstaat (The state of the Jews),
but later, after the first Zionist Congress in Basel, he became a firm adherent
of Herzl and later (around 1901-1902) he also contributed to the weekly
newspaper Di velt (The world), the
central organ of the World Zionist Organization. Sokolov translated Herzl’s Altneuland (Old-New land) into
Hebrew. When Hatsfira closed its doors, Sokolov settled in Köln, and there he
served as the main administrator of the movement. Around 1907 he helped to found the Hebrew
journal Haolam (The world). Several years later, when Hatsfira was revived, he returned to
Warsaw. When WWI broke out, Sokolov—now
a leader in the Zionist movement—settled in London. Following the announcement of the Balfour
Declaration (1918), he became the ambassador of Zionism to the world, visited
dozens of cities and countries, addressed conferences, gave innumerable
speeches and lectures, and engaged in talks with well-known political leaders
throughout the world. He was chairman of
the Zionist Executive under the presidency of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, and over the
course of four years (1931-1935) he was himself president of the World Zionist
Organization. Even in old age, he
remained president of Zionist Congresses, participated in meetings, and
traveled on distant assignments. On the
literary front, he remained fresh and cheerful until the last day of his
life. Even at the presidium table at
Zionist congresses, he composed one of his life works, Dos hebreishe verterbukh (The Hebrew dictionary). Sokolov died in London. In his memory there was built in the center
of Tel Aviv a two-story house for journalists, “Bet sokolov” (Sokolov
house). In 1956 his remains (and his
wife’s) were transported to the state of Israel and buried with state honors in
Jerusalem on Mount Herzl. The number of
his articles numbers in the thousands, and few of them were published in book
form. Aside from those books cited
above, he published the following works in Hebrew: Sefer hazikaron lesofre yisrael haḥayim itanu kayom (The book of
remembrance for the Jewish writers living as if today), 2 vols., a handbook of
the most important writers in the two halves of the nineteenth century (Warsaw, 1889), 208 pp.; Barukh shpinoza
uzemano (Barukh Spinoza and his times), a historical-philosophical biography
(Paris, 1929), 418 pp.; Tsadik venisgav
(Righteous and sublime), a historical novella about Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller
(Warsaw, 1882), 72 pp.; Toldot sifrut
yisrael (History of Jewish literature); Ishim,
3 vols., essays about personages who excelled in their deeds or literary
writings (Jerusalem: Hasifriya hatsiyonit, 1954), first published by Stybl in
Tel Aviv (1935), 532 pp.; Hatsofe levet yisrael (Jerusalem, 1960/1961), 586 pp. A much smaller portion of his work, written
first in Yiddish, as well as translated from Hebrew, was published in book
form: Naye praktishe methode der
englishen shprakhe (sixteenthe printing: Warsaw, 1904), 94 pp., also
published under the title Lernt aykh
english (Teach yourself English) (Warsaw, 1939), 96 pp.; Di likhtlekh, a gedikht in proze (The
little candles, a poem in prose), written in London (London: Jewish National
Commission for England, 1916), 16 pp.; Idishe
froy (Jewish woman) (London: Zionist Federation, 1917), 22 pp.; Nokhum sokolovs redes in erets-yisroel
(Nokhum Sokolov’s speeches in the land of Israel) (London: Head Office, Jewish
National Fund, 1926/1927), 24 pp.; Oysgeveylte
shriftn, vol. 1 (original work and translations); Vos mir viln, rede gehalten af der tsienistisher
folks-konferents in london (What we want, speech given at the Zionist
public conference in London) (Warsaw: Histadruth Hatseirim, 1916), 29 pp. (this
speech given at a Zionist meeting in London was also published in Yiddish by
the local Zionist Federation); Perzenlekhkeytn
(Personalities), translation of Ishim
from Hebrew by M. Shenderay (Buenos Aires: Central Association of Polish Jews
in Argentina, 1948), 254 pp.; Perzenlekhkeytn
un folk (Personalities and people) (Jerusalem: Hasifriya hatsiyonit, 1966),
401 pp.—a translation of Ishim by L.
Olitski.
As Shloyme Bikl noted:
Sokolov did not sit, as he said of himself, by the waters of
ideological contradiction…. He was not
and did not wish to be an ideological decisor and of course not the ultimate
arbiter. Sokolov also understood the
ideas of his opponents and had an organic aversion to extremist ideas and to
ideological fanaticism, which clogged up the ears [eyes] so they would not see
anything other than their own tears….
Reading Sokolov’s essays, one senses not only his tolerance and
generosity as a writer, but there is also revealed to us Sokolov the man;
Sokolov, the Leyvi-Yitskhok figure of our national renaissance. He was tolerant and full of sympathy not
because he was by nature a weak, sentimental person and wanted to spare himself
alone and to explain this kind of person his ideological sins, but because
there lived within him, as in the legendary Leyvi-Yitskhok image, the organic
law of cosmic harmony, which equalizes the bad with the good.
Arn
Tsaytlin wrote:
Imagine that one poses the question, is there really such a
unique person who was called Nokhum Sokolov.
It would seem that the well-known name was borne by hundreds of
different men. All the Sokolovs would,
though, every day anew, become one person, one Sokolov…. One thing ties all the Sokolovs together: the
strength of their extraordinary, quick, brilliant perception, the strength of
knowledge and the ability to acquire it.
Herzl was a man of the wider world in a natural way. Sokolov mastered the wider world, and without
anyone’s help, with the power of an open mind.
What one learns naturally from others (if one is not for himself alone),
Sokolov learned “for himself” and by himself….
He could write a poem—when he had to or wished to—but he was not nor did
he become a poet. He understood art but
that did not make him an artist. On the
topic of art, even a Sokolov could not demonstrate such wonder as to transcend
understanding, to comprehend something—to become that something. Wonder came to an end here…. The same is true of Sokolov’s Ishim.
Sokolov depicts there well-known personalities whom he knew, describes
their lives and works, his meetings with them, and draws their portraits. It is fascinating. Sokolov’s language, Sokolov’s wisdom,
Sokolov’s amazing memory—all may be found therein. All these sparkle in Sokolov. However, more than we see in his physical
body, we hear—and with great interest—the writer himself. Sokolov’s magnitude as a writer generally was
not in the least reduced because he was not an author of fiction. Great literature is not necessarily
fiction. Sokolov, though, was not only a
writer, for before all else he was Sokolov the person—Sokolov the phenomenon.
ca.
1890 later in life
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2, with
a bibliography; D. Frishman, Tsvey
tsaytungen un zhurnaln (Two newspaper and journals), vol. 3 (Warsaw-New
York: Progres, 1911), pp. 96-99; Frishman, in Tsukunft (New York) (January 1928); Y. L. Perets, in Haynt (Warsaw) (July 30, 1912); A.
Goldberg, Nokhum sokolov, zayn byografye
un kharakteristik (Nokhum Sokolov, his biography and character) (Warsaw,
1912), 28 pp.; Goldberg, in Morgn-zhurnal
(New York) (August 11, 1931; September 3, 1931); Goldberg, in Poylishe yidn (Polish Jews), yearbook
(1936); A. Kretshmer-Izraeli, in Tsayt
(New York) (November 13, 1921); Avrom Reyzen, Epizodn fun mayn lebn (Episodes from my life), part 2 (Vilna,
1935), pp. 148-50; A. Reyzen, in Di
tsukunft (1936); A. Reyzen, in Di
feder (New York) (1949); Bal-Makhshoves, Geklibene shrftn (Selected writings), vol. 4 (Warsaw, 1929), pp.
151-56; H. D. Nomberg, Mentshn un verk
(People and works) (Warsaw, 1930), pp. 195-99; H. Lang, in Forverts (New York) (July 16, 1931); Sh. Yudson, in Morgn-zhurnal (December 30, 1931; July
22, 1932); Sh. Bernshteyn, in Tog
(New York) (December 31, 1931; April 14, 1932; March 22, 1935); B. Ts.
Goldberg, in Tog (January 7, 1932);
M. Dantsis, in Tog (February 13,
1932); B. Ts. Kats, in Morgn-zhurnal
(June 26, 1932); Tsvi-Hirsh Maslyanski, in Tog
(September 30, 1932); N. Mayzil, in Literarishe
bleter (Warsaw) (April 7, 1933); Mayzil, in Haynt (March 8, 1935); Mayzil, Y.
l. perets vesofre doro (Y. L. Perets and writers of his generation) (Merḥavya, 1960), pp.
280-301; Sh. Roznfeld, in Tog
(February 9, 1935); M. Ribalov, in Hadoar
(New York) (May 22, 1936; June 19, 1936); A. R. Malachi, in Hadoar (June 19, 1936; August 7, 1942;
December 28, 1951); Malachi, in Bitsaron
(New York) (Kislev [=November-December] 1960); Sh. Shnitser, Nokhum sokolov (Nokhum Sokolov) (Warsaw,
1936), 60 pp.; Dr. Sh. Ravidovitsh, in Di
tsukunft (September-December 1938); Sh. Kruk, Plotsk (Płock) (Buenos
Aires, 1945), pp. 128-30; M. Ginzburg, in Keneder
odler (Montreal) (May 31, 1946); Sh. N. (Shmuel Niger), in Yivo-bleter (New York) 28 (1946), pp.
204-5; L. Finkelshteyn, in Der veker
(New York) (August 1, 1949); Dr. Y. Tsinberg, Kultur-historishe shtudyes (Cultural-historical studies) (New York,
1949), pp. 341-43; Aharon Ben-Or, Toldot hasifrut haivrit haḥadasha (History of modern Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Tel Aviv, 1951), pp. 65-70;
Y. Mastboym, in Letste nayes (Tel
Aviv) (May 7, 1954); Y. Fikhman, in Di
naye tsayt (Buenos Aires) (June 11, 1954); F. Sokolov, in Unzer vort (Paris) (May 10,
1954-September 14, 1954); Zalman Shazar, Or
ishim (Light of personalities) (Tel Aviv, 1955), pp. 78-86; Dr. Shloyme
Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York)
(May 20, 1956); Bikl, in Di tsukunft
(July-August 1960); Igfrot harav nisnboim
(Letters of Rabbi Nisnboym) (Jerusalem, 1955/1956); Shlomo Shreberk, Zikhronot
hamotsi laor (Memoirs of a publisher) (Tel Aviv, 1954/1955), pp. 130-31,
146-47; Getzel Kressel, in Di goldene
keyt (Tel Aviv) 28 (1957); Kressel, Naḥum
sokolov, darko vepoalo (Nokhum Sokolov, his way and deeds) (Jerusalem,
1960/1961), 97 pp.; Kessel, in Sefer
hashana shel haitonaim (Yearbook for journalists) (Tel Aviv, 1961/1962),
pp. 179-88; Y. Grinboym, Pene hador
(The face of the generation) (Tel Aviv, 1959), pp. 70-95; Grinboym, Fun mayn dor (From my generation) (Tel
Aviv, 1959), pp. 102-37; Moyshe Shtarkman, in Keneder odler (November 29, 1959); Dr. M. Z. Sole, in Hapoal hatsair (Tel Aviv) (March 15,
1960); Arn Tsaytlin, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(May 13, 1960); D. Perski, in Hadoar
(Sivan 15 [= June 10], 1960); Dr. M. Vaksman, in Bitsaron (Sivan-Tamuz [= May-July] 1960); Simcha Kling, Nachum Sokolow, Servant of His People
(New York: Herzl Press, 1960), 205 pp.; Sh. Grinshpan, Yidn in plotsk (Jews in Płock) (New
York, 1960), pp. 61-92; Grinshpan, in Keneder odler (June 5, 1961; June 6, 1961; June 7, 1961); B. Kruzo,
in Sefer hashana shel haitonaim (Tel
Aviv, 1960), pp. 269-72; M. Gros-Tsimerman, in Der veg (Mexico City) (March 25, 1961); M. Ungerfeld, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (October 13, 1961); Dr.
Y. Aviad-Volfsberg, Deyoknaot
(Portraits) (Jerusalem, 1961/1962), pp. 251-59; A. Alperin, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (January 6, 1963); B.
G. Zak, in Keneder odler (March 10,
1963); Dov Sadan, Ben din leḥeshbon
(Between law and accounting) (Tel Aviv, 1963), pp. 345-47; Floryan Sokolov, Mayn foter nokhum sokolov (My father,
Nokhum Sokolov), trans. Naftali Zilberberg (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1972), 311
pp.
Leyb Vaserman
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 397.]
