17 Facts About Jakob Klatzkin

Jakob Klatzkin received his early schooling from his father and yeshivas in Lithuania.

Jakob Klatzkin received his doctorate from the University of Berne in Switzerland, then returned to Germany to write for Hebrew periodicals and establish Jewish publishing firms.

Jakob Klatzkin served as director of the Jewish National Fund in Cologne.

Jakob Klatzkin wrote widely on the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, translating the latter's Ethics to Hebrew.

Jakob Klatzkin compiled 10 of 15 anticipated volumes of the German Encyclopaedia Judaica with Nahum Goldmann.

Jakob Klatzkin had a close relationship with Arnold Schoenberg, a Jewish musician who was active in advancing the need to establish a place of refuge for the Jews in the 1930s.

Jakob Klatzkin moved to the United States in 1941 and continued to teach in Chicago at the College of Jewish Studies.

Jakob Klatzkin returned to Switzerland in 1947 and died there at the age of 66.

Jakob Klatzkin rejected the notion of chosenness for the Jewish people, either religious or secular.

Jakob Klatzkin argued that the only meaningful goal for Zionism was regaining the land of Israel and normalizing the conditions of Jewish existence.

Jakob Klatzkin believed that assimilationists were "traitors to their Judaism".

Jakob Klatzkin criticized Ahad Ha-Am for the notion that morality was the key to Israel's uniqueness.

Jakob Klatzkin believed that ethics are universal, not the possession of a particular people.

Jakob Klatzkin maintained that the spiritual definition of Judaism denied freedom of thought and led to national chauvinism.

Jakob Klatzkin proposed a Jewish covenant that is based on secular-nationalist terms.

Jakob Klatzkin developed an alternative to the Freudian view of life, which holds that it can only be understood from within.

The conflict, according to Jakob Klatzkin, is the reason why man live in constant alienation from the world.