Response and impression - Encountering concepts of Judaism and Zionism in the unpublished correspondence between Martin Buber and Stefan Zweig (1902-1931)

Two influential voices who challenged Theodor Herzl's Zionist tenets were Martin Buber and, to a lesser extent, but nevertheless equally significant, Stefan Zweig. Their basic dispute with Herzl as well as their own personal and professional relationship have not been discussed exhaustively in the critical literature and are worthy of further investigation. The unique Buber/Zweig relationship also represents an important chapter in the history of Judaism and Zionism. Our examination is founded primarily on a comparative analysis of their extant correspondence (dating from 1902 to 1930), almost all of which still remains unpublished. Though Stefan Zweig had not studied the teachings and history of Judaism as thoroughly as Buber, Zweig knew he was Jewish, and was fervently connected to the roots of his heritage. For example, in a rare interview Zweig stated: "Although I do not come from a rigorously Jewish family [...] I have been vitally interested in Jewish problems all my life, vitally aware of the Jewish blood that is in me ever since I have been conscious of it. What it was that drove me towards a deep interest in Jewish matters [...] is hard to say. But what human problem can be so important as that of the race to which one is born?" Especially interesting is the unexpected and somewhat uncomplimentary reaction that Buber gave toward Zweig's 1917 pacifistic drama Jeremiah.