Thursz, Dov Berish. Has Kategor ["Silence the Accuser": defense of the Talmud against the false accusations of the Polish anti-Semite Andrzej Nemoyevski]

(POLEMICS)

J. Wagmeister

Warsaw

1924

FIRST EDITION. Title within modernist typographical border. Marginalia in Hebrew and Polish

Friedberg, H-846

This rare volume bears the encomia of three important leaders from three divergent traditions: The great Rabbi Tzvi Ezekiel Michaelzohn of Warsaw; The great Chassidic Rebbe Mordechai Joseph Elazar Leiner of Radzyn; and The great Maskil Prof. Dr. Meir Balaban. On pp. 148-152 we find a blistering attack on the journalist Hillel Zeitlin, whose lukewarm pre-release review of the book appeared in the Yiddish newspaper Moment. While praising the author's familiarity with the entire rabbinic literature, Zeitlin pointed out that the book "lacks scholarly material, systematic presentation, modern style and idiom, and historic perspective." Returning the favor, Thursz subjects Zeitlin to a venomous ad hominem attack: "He [Zeitlin] immerses himself, publicly purifying himself in the sea of Chabad Chassiduth, while holding in his hand modern disbelief" (p. 148).