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His Work · The Ahad Ha'am ↔ AZR Correspondence · The Other Side

Ahad Ha'am's Letters to AZR

Not only Bialik: Ahad Ha'am too, AZR's teacher and first editor, corresponded with him. The text itself, from the edition of his letters
The document "Bialik's Letters to AZR" exposed one side of the web of connections; this is its complement. Ahad Ha'am was AZR's first editor and recruiter: by his own testimony, AZR was among the first he enlisted at the founding of HaShiloah (1897), and his contributions already appeared in the second volume (see "Criticism and Reception"). Ahad Ha'am's letters were published in Igrot Ahad Ha'am (The Letters of Ahad Ha'am) and are available as full text at Project Ben-Yehuda (public domain), so the content of the correspondence itself can be read, without conjecture.

Verified letter: Ahad Ha'am → AZR, Poltava (27 Sept. 1901)

In a letter from Odessa, 27 September 1901, to "Mr. A. Z. Rabinovitch, Poltava," Ahad Ha'am, as editor of HaShiloah, replies to AZR's letters and to a story he had sent. It reveals the same two axes we saw with Bialik: editorial filtering of what AZR submits, and the historiographical project. Igrot Ahad Ha'am · Ben-Yehuda

A The Story: Between Imagination and "a Thing That Happened"

Ahad Ha'am is willing to print AZR's story with corrections, but conditions this on knowing whether it is invented or based on real people, a question of permission to publish, precisely the consideration that occupied Bialik:

"The story in general is not 'of the best,' but I can print it with some changes and corrections. For this, however, I must first know whether it is truly nothing but an imaginary sketch, or whether it contains 'a thing that happened'… I must know the event and the people, so that I may know whether I have permission to print it." Ahad Ha'am to A. Z. Rabinovitch, Odessa, 27 September 1901. Igrot Ahad Ha'am.

B AZR's Proposal to Write History: Ahad Ha'am's Confession

The surprising find: AZR proposed to compose a history book, and Ahad Ha'am, "in a whisper," reveals that he himself had once thought of writing exactly such a book, not for the multitude of "householders" but for the learned and the maskilim who read Hebrew; but his work and his health prevented it, to the point that he could not even take upon himself the supervision of the book:

"Your proposal regarding the composition of a history is good in principle, and in a whisper I will tell you that there were days when I myself thought to set about the task of composing a short history book, not for the multitude of 'householders,' but for the multitude of the learned and the maskilim among readers of Hebrew. But my various labors did not allow me to load upon myself such a work… To my heart's sorrow, I cannot even take upon myself the supervision of the book you propose to compose." Ahad Ha'am to A. Z. Rabinovitch, ibid.
Connection to AZR's work: This proposal of a history (1901) illuminates the background to the fact that AZR did indeed compose history books and literature for youth, among them Toledot HaSifrut HaIvrit (History of Hebrew Literature), which he later printed with Bialik at "Moriah" (1905/6). What Ahad Ha'am could not take upon himself, AZR did.

C The Broader Context: "Nathan the Wise" and the National Decision

Ahad Ha'am's tribute essay for AZR's 70th birthday (Haaretz, 1924; see "Criticism and Reception") documents the peak of the intellectual bond: AZR's essay "Nathan the Wise" (HaShiloah VII, 561), which toppled from its pedestal the idol of the Haskalah. Ahad Ha'am relates that AZR himself feared his words were "great heresy," and that he reassured him in a letter that he was not alone in his opinion, and refers to Igrot Ahad Ha'am, vol. II, p. 126. In other words, the correspondence also included a letter of intellectual reassurance, beyond the editorial matters.

D Paths Forward