WILLIAM
NATANSON (NATHANSON) (November 27, 1883-September 15, 1963)
He was born in Povelitsh, Kiev
district, Ukraine. He was raised in the
woods and villages. He studied Tanakh
and Talmud with itinerant village teachers.
He left home at age thirteen. He
studied privately in Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva), where he passed his
examinations and then moved to Zhitomir to prepare for his baccalaureate, but
he was drawn into the Jewish labor movement, was active in the Bund, and
befriended Mark Liber who was his first teacher in Marxism. At age twenty he left for the United States
and studied medicine for two years at university, but he was lured away to
community activity, and after marrying a practicing doctor, Miriam Yampolski,
he turned completely to studying philosophy.
He studied philosophy and psychology at university for three years,
while at the same time organizing Jewish clubs and school, where he worked as a
teacher and speaker, primarily in his place of residence, Chicago. He gave lectures as well in English and led
public debates with Dr. Chaim Zhitlovsky.
He debuted in print in Fraye
arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor) in New York with articles on minority
and majority, anarchism, and agnosticism, among other topics. He also wrote under the pen name
Ben-Nosn. He published important work
in: Zhitlovsky’s Dos naye leben (The
new life) on Henri Bergson and pragmatism; “Perets in likht fun filosofye”
(Perets in the light of philosophy), in Vilna’s Yudish velt (Jewish world) (1915); “Di filosofye fun leben” (The
philosophy of life), in Di idishe velt
(The Jewish world), edited by K. Fornberg; on Perets’s “Di goldene keyt” (The
golden chain), “In polish af der keyt” (Detained in the synagogue anteroom),
and “Natsyonalizm un patryotizm in likht fun kultur” (Nationalism and
patriotism in the light of culture), in Idisher
kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York; on Leivick’s “Der goylem” (The
artificial man), in Warsaw’s Literarishe
bleter (Literary leaves)—as well as pieces in: Tog (Day), the anthology Royerd
(Raw earth), the collection Shriften
(Writings), and in the Anglophone journal of philosophy Open Court, among other serials in New York. For a time he was editor of Louis Miller’s
weekly Kultur (Culture), in which,
aside from other items, he published the essay “Farbergsonisher un bergsonisher
bagrif fun frayen viln” (Pre-Bergsonian and Bergsonian concepts of free
will). He was also for a while co-editor
of the quarterly Kheshbn (The score)
in Los Angeles. In 1923 he published his
work Kultur un tsivilizatsye (Culture
and civilization) in the series “New socialism” (Chicago: Naye gezelshaft), 461
pp. That year the same publisher brought
out his Marksizm in likht fun kultur,
esents fun bukh “kultur un tsivilizatsye” (Marxism in light of culture, the
essence of the book Kultur un tsivilizatsye),
98 pp.; Shpinoza un bergson, a parallel
(Spinoza and Bergson, a parallel),[1] 46 pp.; his translation of
Bergson’s Araynfir in der metafizik
(Introduction to metaphysics), 58 pp., which had initially appeared in the
anthology Shriften in 1921; and his
translation of Spinoza’s Etik, dervizn af
a geometrishe oyfn (Ethics, demonstrated in geometrical order), 317
pp. The edition of the Etik published in Poland (Warsaw:
Kultur-lige) went through a number of printings in a short period of time. Later, the following of his works appeared: Inteligent, kunst un kinstler, literatur in
likht fun filosofye (Intelligence, art, and the artist, literature in light
of philosophy) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1931), 545 pp.; Tsu der revizye fun natsyonal-radikal gedank (Toward a revision of
national radical thinking) (Chicago: L. M. Shteyn, 1936), 71 pp.; H. leyvik, der dikhter fun onkum un oyfkum
(H. Leivick, the poet of arrival and rising) (Chicago: L. M. Shteyn, 1936), 177
pp.; Sovetisher despotizm, vi lang? Nay
sotsyalizm verzus sovietshn komunizm (Soviet despotism, how long? New
socialism vs. Soviet Communism) (New York: Idisher kemfer, 1936), 47 pp.; Mentsh un kosmos, filozofish-literarishe
eseyen (Man and cosmos, philosophical-literary essays) (Chicago: L. M.
Shteyn, 1953), 381 pp.; Kultur-kvaln,
filozofish-literarishe eseyen (Cultural sources, philosophical-literary
essays) (Chicago: L. M. Shteyn, 1959), 348 pp.
His book Kultur un tsivilizatsye
was soon after publication received by the critics as possessing considerable merit. In this work, Natanson clarifies the
difference between civilization and culture, and he demonstrates that
civilization is materialistic and rational, while culture is idealistic and
irrational. In a fundamental manner he
expressed the struggle that a fight for a better social order would not solve
the painful issues as long as the fight was led by the light of civilization
and not by that of culture. Culture, he
argued, and not the economy determined the means and the content of the
revolution that a people experience.
Natanson was an idealist in the entire realm of social and spiritual
life. He placed the emphasis on the
individual and also on the irrational and the religious. In his book Tsu der revizye fun natsyonal-radikal gedank, he came out publicly
for the revival of everything (in the old Jewish way of life) that possessed “a
depth of life and a perception into life.”
He knew that “much that makes sense and has worth transcends reason and
logic.” In his social and political
consciousness, he was an ethical socialist.
In his books on literature and art—
Inteligent, kunst un kinstler and H.
leyvik, der dikhter fun onkum un oyfkum, among others—he dealt with these
issues in light of philosophy; namely, he sought primarily a philosophical
interpretation in artistic ideas.
“Natanson,” wrote Shmuel Niger, “is opposed to looking or seeking in
life or in art only one thing—only the aesthetic value or the ethical, only
ideas or only feelings, but what is clear, open, and noted or, conversely, to
only seek what lies under the threshold of consciousness, in the dark depths of
our psyche.” As Yankev Glatshetyn put
it: “Natanson is a name that belongs to the young and ascending in Yiddish
literature in America. When he was in
Chicago, he dispatched from his remote seclusion his long-winded treatises…. In his own way, Natanson created a holiday
around Yiddish literature and solemnly received the words of his creations. He experimented—we didn’t recognize it at the
time, years ago—in his own manner with the rising esteem of the Yiddish word;
he spread and created living room and spaciousness for it…. Natanson devised a fine expression for the
Zhitlovsky influence: ‘Cultural zest.’
However, this zest had a definite impact. This is evident in Wm. Natanson’s book, Mentsh un kosmos. This is apparent even when one now reads…the
freshness of Natanson’s Yiddish. No sign
of obsolescence, despite the fact that most of his essays were published years
ago, is there that his language has grown stale. His voice is clear and resonant. Also clear, clearer than ever, are the
changes in secular Jewish thought and in Yiddish literature…. Natanson dared to dream that our literature
or our Yiddish language would resound in a university. One need know for student listeners that the
works of Yiddish writers should be left to cling to the required curriculum of
their general studies…. In Natanson’s
books there is an abundance of indications of a youthful optimism and devotion
in the comfort of Yiddish literature and in its possible influence. Therefore, Natanson’s essays may be read even
with the joy and recognition with which they were read years ago.” Natanson died in Los Angeles, California.
Sources:
Emma Goldman, in Forverts (New York)
(September 14, 1931); Shmuel Niger, in Tog
(New York) (April 23, 1932; March 3, 1935); Niger, H. leyvik, 1888-1948 (H. Leivick, 1888-1948) (New York, 1951), pp.
264-67; Y. Botoshanski, in Literarishe
bleter (Warsaw) 4 and 9 (1932); Dr. A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 22, 1932; December 23, 1932); B.
Tutshinski, in Tshernovitser bleter
(Czernowitz) (September 3, 1936); Dr. B. Grobard, in Di tsukunft (New York) (September 1954); Noyekh Goldberg, in Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Buenos
Aires) (November-December 1958); Y. Yonasovitsh, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (January 13, 1960); Dr. Kh. M. Rotblat, in Kheshbn (Los Angeles) (May 1960); Y.
Fridland, in Kheshbn (May 1960);
Fridland, in Fraye arbeter-shtime
(New York) (November 1, 1963); N. Sumer, Af
zaytike vegn (Along side streets) (New York, 1963), pp. 50-52; Meyer
Esters, in Fraye arbeter-shtime
(December 1, 1963); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(New York) (January 26, 1964).
Leyb Vaserman
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