Benjamin Feigenbaum

Benjamin Feigenbaum (August 12, 1860 – November 10, 1932) was a Polish born Jewish socialist, newspaper editor, translator, and satirist. Feigenbaum was an associate editor of the Yiddish language papers The Forward, its predecessor Di Arbeter Tsaytung, and the literary monthly Di Tsukunft and a pioneer of the Socialist Party of America.[1][2]

Benjamin Feigenbaum
"B. Feigenbaum, the most observant Marxist". Below caption says "Dedicated to extremist, blasphemous B. Feigenbaum, who rejects all gods except his own, Karl Marx.", (1912).
Born(1860-08-12)August 12, 1860
Warsaw, Poland
Died(1932-11-10)November 10, 1932
New York City
Resting placeMount Carmel Cemetery, New York
OccupationNewspaper editor, satirist, translator
LanguageYiddish, English, Polish
SubjectsSocialism, secularism
SpouseMathilda Feigenbaum
Children4 (including William, Henry, Belle Kanin and R. Ganetkin)

During the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur in 1899, Feigenbaum famously said in alternative event "If there is a God and if he is Almighty as the clergy claims he is, I give him just two minutes’ time to kill me on the spot, so that he may prove his existence!" after two minutes he declared "See! There is no God!". Afterwards he announced a location for the workers to eat instead of fasting, as traditionally done during Yom Kippur.[3]

Early life

Benjamin Feigenbaum was born to a prominent Chassidic family in Warsaw, Poland. He went to Yeshivah, but became a free-thinker. According to a colleague, Israel Joshua Singer, Feigenbaum's "conversion" to secularism happened when his teacher, the Gerer rebbe, discovered that Feigenbaum was not wearing tsitsit, a ritual garb. The rebbe beat him as a punishment.[4][5]

Later on, he moved to Belgium; there he attended his first socialist protest in Antwerp in 1884.[6] On December 25, 1886, his wife Matilda (Kaminsky) Feigenbaum gave birth to their son William Morris Feigenbaum. He had a total of 2 daughters and 2 sons named Kanin, R. Ganetkin, William and Henry.[1]

Career

As a young socialist in 1887, Feigenbaum considered starting a socialist Yiddish newspaper. To his delight, he discovered the London-based Arbeter Fraynd recently started. He wrote them immediately. Towards the end of 1888, Feigenbaum moved to London, UK with his wife, to join their editorial board.[6][7]

In 1891, Feigenbaum immigrated to New York, to work on New York's first Yiddish-language socialist newspaper, Di Arbeter Tsaytung (The Workman's Paper). He co-founded the Workmen's Circle, serving as its first General-Secretary.[8] In New York, Feigenbaum developed a relationship with Bolesław Miklaszewski, a representative of the London affiliate of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) called the Union of Polish Socialists Abroad (ZZSP). After vetting Feigenbaum's circles to ensure they did not have "a gravitational pull" to Russia, ZZSP announced creation of "Jewish Socialist Post from America to Poland" in 1896, to publish and disseminate Yiddish socialist literature.[9]

Police retaliation

Feigenbaum was arrested during a brawl with the police on October 29, 1892, shortly after giving a speech in Philadelphia. He was charged with inciting to riot, assaulting an officer and breaching the peace after allegedly hitting an officer with his cane. He was held on $600 bail.[10] In Providence he was charged with inciting to riot, which were later dismissed by a Judge during trial in a higher court.[11] In January, 1905, Providence police received a tip that an "anarchist provocateur" was scheduled to speak. Police surrounded the designated venue, disabling gas and cited lack of permit for as reason for shutting it down. The sponsors of the lecture, the Providence branch of Workmen's Circle obtained permits and scheduled another venue for Feigenbaum to speak at. If Hyman Goldsmith, a Yiddish speaking undercover police patrolman heard Feigenbaum mention anything about “Emma Goldmanism” or “bomb throwing” the hall would be cleared immediately by other undercover police in crowd. Instead, Feigenbaum orated for two hours and 15 minutes about the compatibility of religion and socialism, in contrast with his earlier recitals. The police were ridiculed the following day by The Daily Journal, The Evening Bulletin, and The Providence Telegram.[5][12]

Criticism of Zionism and religion

Feigenbaum was highly critical of Zionism and the usage of biblical scriptures to promoting socialist spiritualization. In his Yiddish article, 'Materialism in Judaism or Religion and Life' (1896), Feigenbaum criticized using the Bible as 'propaganda'. If Jeremiah did not know Marx, then it was disingenuous to claim that Marxism is part of a prophetic tradition. In 'Vi Kumt a yid tsu sotsyialismus' (How does a Jew come to socialism?) Feigenbaum writes "Yes, brothers, socialism is redemption for us, the Jews. Socialism will rescue all the unfortunate people, Jews as well, and give them equal rights...Socialism's victory would spell the only effective defeat of the forces of anti-Semitism". He further maintains that he met socialist Gentiles who ridded themselves of anti-Semitism upon discovering socialism. The enemy is the capitalist, whether Gentile or Jewish; and the Jewish poor are his friend.[13]

Feigenbaum rejected Zionism as utopian and urged Jews to reject notion of Goles as exile from Palestine, but rather state of persecution, from which socialism can redeem them.[9]

Death

Feigenbaum died on the morning of November 10, 1932 in the Home for Incurables in New York. He had been ill for the previous ten years, the last three of which he was paralyzed. Funeral services were held in Forward Hall, on November 13, 1932. Feigenbaum is currently buried in the Workmen’s Circle section of Mount Carmel Cemetery, in Queens, New York.[8]

Written works

Authored

כשר און טרפה [Kosher and Treyf]. New York: The Daily Forward. 1919. דיא רעליגיאן און דיא ארבייטער [Religion and the Worker]. New York. 1914.

כשר און טרפה [Kosher and Treyf]. New York: The Free Thought. 1909.

מעשי בראשית [Genesis]. New York: Hebrew Publishing Co. 1907.

פון וואנען שטאמען די היינטיגע אידען?, אדער, אידישע מלוכות אין רוסלאנד און אראביען [Where are Jews from? Or, Jews in Russia and Arabia?]. London: Radical Publishing Company. 1907.

דער רמב"ם [The Rambam]. New York: International Library Publishing Co. 1903.

שטיינער וואס פאלען פון הימעל : א פאפולערע ערקלעהרונג וועגען מעטעאריטען, שטערנשנופפען און קאמעטען [Stones that descend from Heaven: A popular exploration of meteorites, strollers and comets]. Warsaw: Progress Publishing House. 1901.

דארוויניזמוס [Darwinism]. Warsaw: Progress Publishing House. 1901.

אידישקייט און סאציאליזמוס : אין צוויי טיילען [Judaism and Socialism: Two parts]. Warsaw: Progress Publishing House. 1901.

Translated

Engels, Friedrich (1918). דיא פאמיליע : אמאל און היינט [The Origin of the Family]. Translated by Feigenbaum. New York: The Daily Forward.

See also

References
  1. "Feigenbaum Dies, Pioneer Socialist; Had been long ill". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 10 November 1932. p. 12. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  2. "Gale - User Identification Form". link.galegroup.com. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  3. "London's Revolutionary Yiddishland". Versobooks.com. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  4. Irving Howe; Kenneth Libo (October 2005). World of Our Fathers. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3685-2.
  5. Ingall, Carol K. (November 1979). "The Day The Anarchists Came to Town" (PDF). Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. 8 (1): 95–97.
  6. Bernard Weinstein (6 February 2018). The Jewish Unions in America: Pages of History and Memories. Open Book Publishers. pp. 46–. ISBN 978-1-78374-356-8.
  7. Ezra Mendelsohn (June 1997). Essential Papers on Jews and the Left. NYU Press. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-0-8147-5571-6.
  8. "Funeral Services Sunday for Feigenbaum, Socialist Leader | Jewish Telegraphic Agency". www.jta.org. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  9. Joshua D. Zimmerman (26 January 2004). Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892–1914. Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-0-299-19463-5.
  10. "Clipping from Pittsburgh Dispatch - Newspapers.com". Pittsburgh Dispatch. October 30, 1892. Retrieved 2018-08-31.
  11. Weinstein, Bernard (6 February 2018). The Jewish Unions in America: Pages of History and Memories. Open Book Publishers. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-1-78374-356-8.
  12. Foster, Geraldine S. (November 13, 2015). "When 'the Socialist' came to town". The Jewish Voice. Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  13. Eliyahu Stern (20 March 2018). Jewish Materialism: The Intellectual Revolution of the 1870s. Yale University Press. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-0-300-22180-0.
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