Yehudah Leib Gordon (1831-1892) was the most important Hebrew poet of the 19th century and a leading figure in the Russian Haskalah movement (the enlightenment which sought to broaden the intellectual and social horizons of Jews to take their place in Western society).
His poem Awake My People called for Russian Jews to be part of the civilization around them while remaining committed Jews. The Tip of the Yud (the Hebrew letter) criticized the role of women in traditional Jewish society and called for their liberation.
Gordon took a very controversial position when he actively supported the emigration of Jews to the United States rather than Palestine. He believed the land of Israel was the national home of the Jewish people, but that the national movement would only succeed in Palestine if the Jews who moved there dropped their religious traditionalism; otherwise, he warned, the Jewish community there would run the danger of becoming a theocracy.
Gordon was featured on this flyer for 1942 Writer’s Week, organized by Montreal’s United Committee for Hebrew Culture.
