Simon Rawidowicz

{{Infobox person

| name = Simon Rawidowicz

| image = Simon Rawidowicz - Ha'Olam 1926.jpg

| caption = Rawidowicz in 1926

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 1896

| birth_place = Grajewo, Poland

| death_date = 1957

| death_place = Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.

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| occupation = Philosopher

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| spouse = {{marriage|{{ill|Esther Eugenie Klee-Rawidowicz|de}} (1900-1980)|1926}}

| children =

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| relatives = Alfred Klee (father-in-law)
Hanneli Goslar (niece)

}}

Simon Rawidowicz (1896–1957) was a Polish-born American Jewish philosopher.

Early life

Simon Rawidowicz was born in 1896 in Grajewo, Poland to Chaim Yitzchak Rawidowicz (later Ravid), a Zionist activist, a travelling merchant, a writer, and a pioneer farmer, and to Chana Batya (née. Rembelinker). A second of ten children – seven of whom survived childhood – he studied at the modern Yeshiva at Lida. Rawidowicz received a traditional Jewish education, during the course of which he became attracted to the Haskalah and Modern Hebrew literature.{{cite book |last1=Skolnik |first1=Fred |title=Encyclopedia Judaica |date=2007 |publisher=Keter Publishing House. |pages=125 |edition=Second Edition, Volume 17 |url=https://ketab3.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/encyclopaedia-judaica-v-17-ra-sam.pdf |access-date=2022-08-25}} He was drawn to the reviving Hebrew language and literature, and before turning 18 he became a teacher at a cheder metukan ("improved cheder") .{{cite book |last1=Ravid |first1=Benjamin |title=The Life and Writing of Simon Rawidowicz |date=1986 |publisher=Associated University Presses Inc. |location=in: Simon Rawidowicz (1986): Israel, The Ever Dying People and Other Essays (Benjamin C.I. Ravid, Ed.). |isbn=0-8386-3253-X |page=12 |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/articles/RAMBI000085269/NLI |access-date=2022-08-25}} He was educated in Germany.{{cite book|last1=Sachar|first1=Abram Leon|title=Brandeis University: A Host at Last|date=1995|publisher=Brandeis University Press|location=Waltham, Massachusetts|isbn=9780874515817|oclc=32243102|page=[https://archive.org/details/brandeisuniversi0000sach/page/204 204]|url=https://archive.org/details/brandeisuniversi0000sach/page/204}} 1933 he emigrated to the United Kingdom.

He married Esther Klee in 1926, the daughter of Alfred Klee and the maternal aunt of Hanneli Goslar (Anne Frank's best friend).{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Career

Rawidowicz taught at the Jews' College in London and at the Leeds University (as of 1941). In 1948 he emigrated to the United States, first teaching at the College of Jewish Studies of Chicago. Rawidowicz served as the chair of the Department of Near-Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.{{cite news|title=Jewish Philosopher Dies|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/58548635/?terms=%22Simon%2BRawidowicz%22|accessdate=July 12, 2016|work=The Plain Speaker|date=July 22, 1957|page=4|location=Hazleton, Pennsylvania|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }} He was the author of several books and essays, some of which were published posthumously.

Rawidowicz was a critic of Zionism.{{cite news|last1=Magid|first1=Shaul|title=What You Must Think About Zionism|url=http://forward.com/culture/103830/what-you-must-think-about-zionism/|accessdate=July 12, 2016|work=Forward|date=March 11, 2009}} In his essay entitled Between Jew and Arab, he suggested that early Arab refugees in Israel were treated differently from Jews as early as 1948. In The Ever-Dying People, he argued that each generation of Jews was afraid of extinction.{{cite news|last1=Himmelfarb|first1=Milton|title=Should Jews Criticize Israel?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/30/books/should-jews-criticize-israel.html|accessdate=July 12, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=September 30, 1990}}{{cite book|last1=Freedman|first1=Samuel G.|chapter=Prologue|title=Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry|date=2000|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=9780684859446|oclc=44414300|url=https://archive.org/details/jewvsjewstruggle00free|via=The New York Times}}

Death

Rawidowicz died of a heart attack in 1957 in Waltham, Massachusetts.{{cite news|title=Deaths|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/23988099/?terms=%22Simon%2BRawidowicz%22|accessdate=July 12, 2016|work=Oshkosh Daily Northwestern|date=July 22, 1957|location=Oshkosh, Wisconsin|page=7|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}

File:Simon Rawidowicz at a Berlin Cafe 1932.jpg

Works

{{cite book|last1=Rawidowicz|first1=Simon|title=The Chicago Pinkas|date=1952|publisher=College of Jewish Studies|location=Chicago, Illinois|oclc=2922981}}
{{cite book|last1=Rawidowicz|first1=Simon|title=Studies in Jewish Thought|date=1974|publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=9780827600577|oclc=1255999|url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinjewisht0000rawi}}
{{cite book|last1=Rawidowicz|first1=Simon|editor1-last=Ravid|editor1-first=Benjamin C. I. |title=Israel, The Ever-Dying People, and Other Essays|date=1986|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|location=Rutherford, New Jersey|isbn=9780838632536|oclc=13185419}}