JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

assimilation, its leaders were forced to make use of religion
for the defense of its existence. In the 19th century, however,
a Jewish “renaissance” set in, in which, on the one hand, the
individual was liberated, and, on the other hand, there arose
a new secular interest in the national life. In the development
of the Wissenschaft des Judentums in Germany in the 19th
century, Dubnow saw one of the manifestations of the Jewish
renaissance. He went so far as to try to justify the Jewish converts
in the period of the *salons (an observation not included
in the Hebrew version of the “World History”). Religion was
a discipline imposed upon the national organism, necessary
only so long as Jewish culture stood isolated, unrelated to the
culture of other peoples, i.e., to the time of *Emancipation.
Once Emancipation had taken place, this discipline was no
longer desirable. In Ḥasidism Dubnow saw a fresh manifestation
of the creative power of Jewish religion among East European
Jewry, which had preserved tradition and had not yet
entered the era of cooperation with the nations of the world.
Such cooperation would enable Jewry to exist as a European
people with a secular culture, a people destined to remain a
permanent minority in the countries of Europe. Basing his
work upon such a concept of history, Dubnow regarded the
attempts of Zionism to renew the Jewish State in its ancient
land as a pseudo-messianic adventure. He put forth a program
for the Jews’ future based on these theories which he
called *autonomism.
[Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson]
Bibliography: A.S. Steinberg (ed.), Simon Dubnow, the Man
and His Work (1963), 225–51, 254–5 (autobiography); S.W. Baron, History
and Jewish Historians (1964), index; I. Friedlaender, Dubnow’s
Theory of Jewish Nationalism (1905); J. Fraenkel, Dubnow, Herzl, and
Aḥad Ha-am (1963); Pinson, in: S. Dubnow, Nationalism and History
(19612), 1–65; J. Meisl, in: Soncino-Blaetter, 1 (1925/26), 223–47; idem,
in: Festschrift zum siebzigsten Geburtstag (1930), 266–95; S. Brieman,
Ha-Pulmos bein Lilienblum le-vein Aḥad Ha-Am ve-Dubnow ve-ha-
Reka shello (1951); B.Z. Dinaburg-Dinur, in: Zion, 1 (1936), 95–128; E.R.
Malachi, in: Sefer Shimon Dubnow (1954); S. Niger, in: YIVOA, 1 (1946),
305–17; S. Goodman, in: Commentary, 30 (1960), 511–5.
DUBNOW, ZE’EV (1858–1940?), *Bilu member. Dubnow,
who was born in Mstislavl, Belorussia, was the elder brother
of Simon *Dubnow, the historian. He tended to assimilation
in his youth and became interested in the Russian radical
movement. After the 1881 pogroms he joined Bilu and went
to Ereẓ Israel with its first group in 1882. After working at
*Mikveh Israel, Dubnow moved with several friends to Jerusalem,
where he was one of the founders of Shaḥu (Hebrew
initials for the words “return of the craftsmen and the smiths”),
an artisans’ association. In his letters to his brother he expressed
the ultimate aim of the Bilu movement: “to acquire
Ereẓ Israel and return to the Jews their political independence.”
In 1885 he returned to Mstislavl, “disappointed in the
hopes of quick success in settling Ereẓ Israel,” but still “a fervent
nationalist in his belief.” He became a teacher, and assisted
his brother in examining historical documents. Dubnow
remained in contact with the Biluim in Ereẓ Israel and
dubnow-erlich, sophia
corresponded with them. Eventually he settled in Moscow,
where he died.
Bibliography: A. Druyanov (ed.), Ketavim le-Toledot Ḥibbat
Ẓiyyon, 3 (1932), index; A. Hurwitz, in: He-Avar, 8 (May 1961), 102–5;
I. Klausner, Be-Hitorer Am (1962), index.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
DUBNOW-ERLICH, SOPHIA (1885–1986), poet, political
activist, critic, translator, and memoirist. Born in Mstislavl,
Belarus, she was the eldest child of Ida (Friedlin) and historian
Simon *Dubnow. The family moved to Odessa in 1890,
where Sophia entered a gymnasium in 1899; upon graduation
in 1902, she studied at the Bestuzhev Higher Courses in St.
Petersburg. Dubnow-Erlich began her foray into the literary
and political worlds in 1904, when her first poem, “Haman
and his Demise,” appeared in the Russian-Jewish weekly Budushchnost’
(Future). This satire of the czar’s minister of interior,
Plehve, was immediately confiscated by the censors. That
same year, university officials expelled her from her courses
for participating in a student protest. Undeterred, she entered
the history-philology department of St. Petersburg University
in 1905 and later studied comparative religion and the history
of world literature at the Sorbonne (1910–11). Rejoining her
family in Vilna, the hotbed of Jewish politics in the Russian
Empire, Dubnow-Erlich became an active member of the Social
Democratic Labor Party and the Jewish Labor Party and
an antimilitarist propagandist.
In 1911 Sophia married Henryk *Erlich (1882–1941), a
prominent leader of the leftist Bund in Poland with whom
she worked to promote the ideals of Jewish cultural autonomy
and socialist internationalism. By 1918, the political situation
drove the Dubnow-Erlichs to relocate to Warsaw, where they
remained for over 20 years with their two sons. When Warsaw
fell to the Nazis in 1939, Erlich was arrested by Soviet authorities
and Dubnow-Erlich moved her family to Vilna, where
they lived until 1941. She reached the United States in 1942
where she learned of her husband’s death and her father’s murder
by the Nazis. Dubnow-Erlich remained politically active
throughout her life, advocating for civil rights and protesting
the Vietnam War. She died in New York City.
Dubnow-Erlich contributed over 50 poems, essays, and
translations to Russian and Yiddish-language journals and
newspapers. She wrote three volumes of symbolist poetry
(Osenniaia svirel’: stikhi, 1911; Mat’, 1918; rep. Tel Aviv, 1969;
and Stikhi raznykh let, 1973); several histories on topics relating
to the Bund, including co-editing Di geshikhte fun ‘bund’
(5 vols., New York, 1960–81); a biography of her father (The
Life and Work of S.M. Dubnov, transl. J. Vowles, ed. J. Shandler,
Bloomington, Indiana, 1991; Russian original, 1950); and
a memoir, Khleb i Matsa (“Bread and Matzah,” 1994). Her papers
are at YIVO.
Bibliography: G. Ia. Aaronson, “Dubnov-Erlikh, Sofie
(March 9, 1885),” in: Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur, 1 (1958),
466–67; C.B. Balin, To Reveal Our Hearts: Jewish Women Writers in
Tsarist Russia (2000), 156–94; K.A. Groberg, “Sophie Dubnov-Erlich,”
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 37