HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
strange mixture of reverence, affection and disgust.
Greatest delicacy in discussing Heine's relation
to Judaism was manifested by his English coreligionists
from Leonard A. Montefiore to Israel
Zangwill. The former wrote, in the Fortnightly
Review of September, 1877, on Heine in Relation
to Religion and Politics. He showed that there was
nothing Heine abandoned more utterly than Judaism
and yet there was nothing that he loved better.
By becoming a Christian, he sinned against his
better self. Though he never believed in the doctrines
of his ancient faith, he loved its exquisite
customs and always treated them with reverent affection.
His attacks upon religion were due to his
passion for reason. With reason blazoned on his
shield, he tilted boldly at many of the more extravagant
rehgious teachings. To those, however, before
whose earnest gaze the glory of the old faith
had grown dim, Heine came as a beacon of light,
unfolding noble aims and goodly hopes and holding
out the possibility of a fuller life here on earth.
In this last statement, there was expressed not only
Montefiore's conclusions on Heine but also this
Englishman's own longings for the fuller life that
was at last opening up to British Jews.
Katie Magnus voiced a plea for Heine, her
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