MORGENSTERN, SOMA

MORGENSTERN, SOMA
MORGENSTERN, SOMA (1890–1976), novelist, journalist. Soma Morgenstern was born as Salomo in Budzanow, Galicia, and although reared in a ḥasidic environment and familiar with the languages of the multiethnic culture of the Habsburg monarchy, his father provided him with a tutor in German. He attended a gymnasium in Tarnopol and studied law and political science at the University of Vienna from 1912. Like his friend Joseph Roth, he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I and was commissioned. In 1921 he received his doctorate; however, did not work as a lawyer, deciding instead to become a writer. Attracted to the theater, he worked as an assistant to max reinhardt and freelanced as a critic of drama, music and literature in Vienna and Berlin. In 1927 he joined the staff of the Frankfurter Zeitung, and from 1928 to 1933 was its cultural correspondent in Vienna. He later wrote for Die Weltbuehne. In 1932 he began work on his first novel, inspired not only by the music of Modest Mussorgski, as his friend Alban Berg noted, but also by the world congress of Agudat Israel in 1929 in Vienna, which he attended as a journalist for the Frankfurter Zeitung. He conceived an entire trilogy, Funken im Abgrund, the first part of which was printed in 1935 in Berlin under the title Der Sohn des verlorenen Sohnes and tells the story of the return of an assimilated Viennese Jew to East European Judaism. Morgenstern fled to Paris in 1938, escaped from a concentration camp in occupied France in 1940, and made his way via Morocco and Portugal to the United States in the summer of 1941. The English version of The Son of the Lost Son, translated by Joseph Leftwich and Peter Gross, and its sequels, In My Father's Pastures (1947), translated by ludwig lewisohn and The Testament of the Lost Son (1950), completed the trilogy. Funken im Abgrund is a unique paean to the vanished Jewish life in rural Eastern Europe, revealing remarkable narrative power and with lengthy detailed description. It tells the story of the son of an apostate   Jew who returns to his father's native village, where he rediscovers the values of authentic Jewish life. In his later work The Third Pillar, translated by Lewisohn in 1955 (the German original, written between 1946 and 1953, was published under the title Die Blutsaeule in 1964, and a Hebrew translation appeared in 1976 under the title Ammud ha-Damim), he attempts to come to terms with the Holocaust; combining realistic and fantastic elements, it is set in the same locale as the trilogy, and told in biblical language. abraham heschel called it "the only Midrash about the Holocaust." A passage from it has been incorporated in the liturgy of the Yom Kippur martyrology in the Maḥzor for Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur, published by the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement (1972). Morgenstern died in New York. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Wholesale, in: Midstream, 23 (1977); M. Grossberg, Oesterreiche Literarische Emigration in den Vereinigten Staten (1970). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Altrichter, in: H.-J. Boemelburg (ed.), Der Fremde im Dorf (1988), 211–30; I. Schulte, in: Exilforschung, 13 (1993), 221–36; R. Kitzmantel, Eine Ueberfuelle an Gegenwart. Soma Morgenstern (2005). (Wolfe Kelman / Andreas Kilcher (2nd ed.)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

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  • SOMA — (von griechisch σῶμα soma „Körper“) bezeichnet in Biologie und Medizin: den Körper einer Zelle, siehe Soma (Zellbiologie) Körperzellen, die nicht zu den Keimzellen zählen, siehe Somatische Zelle den Leib oder Körper des Menschen im Gegensatz zu… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Soma Morgenstern — (* 3. Mai 1890 in Budzanów, Ostgalizien; † 17. April 1976 in New York City), eigentlich Salomo Morgenstern, war ein deutschsprachiger jüdischer Schriftsteller, Journalist und Zeitzeuge altösterreichischer Herkunft. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Kindheit… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Soma Morgenstern — (born May 3 1890 in Budzanów, Galicia; died April 17 1976 in New York) was a Jewish Austrian writer and journalist. Biography Soma (real name Salomo) Morgenstern spent his childhood in various villages in Galicia. His father worked as a bailiff,… …   Wikipedia

  • Soma Morgenstern — (Budzanów, Galitzia oriental, 3 de mayo de 1890 Nueva York, 17 de abril de 1976), de verdadero nombre Salomo, fue un escritor en lengua alemana, periodista y memorialista muy notable, formado literariamente en Viena. Tuvo que exiliarse, y fue… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Soma Morgenstern — Soma Morgenstern, (né le 3 mai 1890 à Budaniw, en Galicie orientale, mort le 17 avril 1976 à New York City), plus exactement Salomo Morgenstern, était un écrivain juif de langue allemande, un journaliste et un témoin de l… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Morgenstern (Begriffsklärung) — Morgenstern bezeichnet: eine umgangssprachliche Bezeichnung für den Planeten Venus die biblische Beschreibung für Jesus Christus eine Bezeichnung für Luzifer eine katholische Beschreibung für Maria (Mutter Jesu) eine mittelalterliche Waffe, siehe …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Morgenstern — is a Germanic surname meaning morning star.[1] Contents 1 Surname 2 Fiction 3 Music 4 Other u …   Wikipedia

  • Soma — bezeichnet: in Biologie und Medizin (hier von griechisch σῶμα soma „Körper“): Soma (Zellbiologie), den Körper einer Zelle Somazellen, Körperzellen, die nicht zu den Keimzellen zählen; siehe Somatische Zelle den Leib oder Körper des Menschen im… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Morgenstern — Abendstern; Venus * * * Mọr|gen|stern 〈m. 1; unz.〉 1. 〈Astron.〉 Wandelstern Venus 2. mittelalterliche Schlagwaffe, eine derbe Keule mit stachelbesetztem Kopf; Sy Bengel 1 (2) * * * Mọr|gen|stern, der [mhd. morgenstern(e)]: 1. <o. Pl.> als …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Dan Morgenstern — (links) mit George Avakian 2007 beim Satchmo Summer Fest, New Orleans Dan Morgenstern (* 24. Oktober 1929 in München) ist ein führender amerikanischer Jazzforscher, historiker und kritiker. Leben und Wirken Morgenstern wurde …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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