Chaim Liberman. In Tol fun Toyt [“In the Valley of Death. Thoughts concerning the Fate and Destiny of the Jewish Nation in our Time.”] pp. 36. <<* WITH:>> Di Shtime fun Tol [170 reviews and critical reactions to Liberman’s essay]. pp. 349.

This essay had an enormous impact on readers from traditional Rabbis to secular Yiddishists. Indeed such notables as Rabbi Isaac Hutner enthusiastically encouraged his disciples to read Liberman’s essay. Born in a village near the town of Dombrovits, Volhynia, Chaim Liberman (1889-1963) was a descendant of the Chernobyl Chassidic dynasty. He came to New York in 1905 eventually turning to a career as a Yiddish journalist and man of letters. Over the decades his freethinking nationalism and Zionist socialism moved over to a dedication to Torah Judaism.