The Ashkenazi Revolution

102Hebrew authors a bad reputation. By his avoidance, not only of activismbut also of identifying spiritually with activism, Yehuda Leib Gordonpainted himself into a corner, but when misfortune came, he declaredbankruptcy. In order to have a solution ready ahead of the problem, theHebrew authors intensified the use of their tactic of claiming that theAshkenazi People was not worthy of redemption. For the position of falseprophets who predict evil tidings is better than the position of those whopredict a rosy future. A denier like this is a liar and he accommodates allopinions. However, a false prophet who stands at the podium bearing themask of one who is without hope and sees evil things, can always say thathe is happy that he had made it all up and that his predictions never came topass…The intensification of the use of the tactic that describes the AshkenaziPeople as being stricken with blemishes, and that it can never succeed,came to its ultimate expression in the great prose of Mendele. This prose,just as it earned Hebrew Literature a place in modern literature, was alsoobliged – by the power of internal logic in which the Hebrew authorswished to absolve themselves of any revolutionary mission - to describe, insharp terms, the Ashkenazi People as a people immersed in depravity.Mendele performed this work of indictment with great enthusiasm. Hecreated a large work of prose whose entire purpose was to present flawed,ridiculous and twisted characters in order to make fun of the AshkenaziPeople, and to “prove” that even from the start, one should not givecredence to any great revolutionary idea, since this powerless and impotentpeople cannot accept upon itself any work to realize it… Mendele’s workof indictment and slander exceeded all that preceded it and the wide andmodern page of prose enabled him to spread his poison far and wide - for itwas not like mediocre poetry and articles, which reach only a limitedaudience. Moreover: By creating negative and believable stereotypes,Mendele injected the lie into the deep psychological fabric and into thehidden and intimate soul. At the foundation of his writing was the will toensure, no matter what, a place of honor within secular Jewry for HebrewLiterature, and along with this to free it, from the start, from any intense