David Herman
Isaac Rosenberg: Jewish Poet of WWI
Summary
Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) was one of the great Jewish poets of World War I and a fine artist. He was killed in the last months of the war and only became well known many years later. We will discuss his life and his relevance today.
David Herman
David Herman is a freelance writer based in London. Over the past 20 years he has written almost a thousand articles, essays, and reviews on Jewish history and literature for publications including the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Quarterly, Jewish Renaissance, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Prospect. He has taught courses on Jewish culture for the London Jewish Cultural Centre and JW3. He is a regular contributor to Jewish Book Week, the Association of Jewish Refugees, and the Insiders/Outsiders Festival on the contribution of Jewish refugees to British culture.
Well, some were bought privately by better off Jews at the time before and immediately after the First World War. And a lot were not really discovered, were not publicly shown till much later. It was really after the war that people started to collect his work more and to exhibit his work more in public galleries, admittedly mostly Jewish galleries like the Whitechapel and Ben Uri. But nevertheless, the scholarship began, so the proper catalogues were made when the Ben Uri had its outstanding exhibition of Isaac Rosenberg’s work. The catalogue is absolutely fantastic, beautifully illustrated, full of fascinating scholarly essays. So that really is what changes somebody’s reputation. It’s not so much how much they’re collected privately, it’s how catalogues and major public exhibitions take place like in Berlin.
Not very is the simple answer, but those who were both artists and poets were very significant figures. Isaac Rosenberg, obviously. Now somebody else who has really come to be discovered in the English speaking world is the Polish Jewish writer and artist, Bruno Schulz, who was both an artist and a poet. And there’s a major new book which has just come out earlier this year about him by Benjamin Balint, who I think is still based in Jerusalem. So those are two examples. A third example that’s just slipped my mind. Oh, Kafka, sorry. Because although Kafka will always be primarily known as a writer, there’s an enormous and beautifully illustrated book of his drawings has just been published, I think I’m pretty sure by Yale University Press. And it is absolutely fascinating because in the various articles, which accompany the drawings, the scholars make very interesting connections between the kinds of figures that Kafka writes about and the kinds of figures he draws. Very thin, very angular, very isolated. So that is fascinating when their art or drawing feeds into their writing or where their connections. Obviously it was harder for Rosenberg to paint or even draw during the First World War when he was serving in the infantry for three years. He didn’t get much leave. So that was hard. He did do some war paintings, pictures, drawings, but really his best known art is from before the war. But his best known poetry is really his poetry about the experience of the trenches. So those are three examples and I’m sure as we talk other examples will come to mind.
Well, that’s a very interesting question Ralph, and I wonder whether university libraries would be the first place of contact to approach if you or anyone you know has such writings or drawings. And it would definitely be worth approaching university libraries or local university library or others further afield to see if they might be interested in adding to their collections or the Imperial War Museum of course, also. I hope that’s a helpful suggestion.