Avram Steuerman-Rodion
Encyclopedia
Avram Steuerman-Rodion, born Adolf Steuerman or Steuermann and often referred to as just Rodion (November 30, 1872–September 19, 1918), was a Romania
n poet, anthologist, physician and socialist
journalist. A member of Romania's Jewish community
, he was a lifelong militant for Jewish emancipation
and assimilation
, noted for poems which attack the prevailing antisemitism of his day. For a while, he was active as a propagandist of Hovevei Zion
ideas among local Jews.
During the early stages World War I
, Rodion was a columnist at Seara
daily, with articles which criticized Romania's prospects of joining the Entente Powers
. Steuerman is himself described as a Germanophile
, but, upon Romania's entry into the war in 1916, earned distinction on the local front. He committed suicide upon demobilization
, following episodes of clinical depression.
Married into the family of Jewish intellectuals Moses and Elias Schwartzfeld, Steuerman-Rodion was thus related to poet-philosopher Benjamin Fondane
, who was his literary pupil. Steuerman himself is often described as an obscure contributor to Romanian literature
, but survives in cultural memory for having given a poetic voice to the ideals of Jewish integration.
city, the historical capital of Moldavia
region, Steuerman enlisted at the University of Iaşi Faculty of Medicine, and later furthered his medical studies in France
. Upon his return, he set up a medical practice in his native city. The Jewish printing house of Lazăr Şaraga published Steuerman's selection of Romanian literature, Autori români ("Romanian Authors"), divided into two undated volumes: the Anthology-proper and the Chrestomathy
. Steuerman and Şaraga published a second, dated, edition in 1896. His writing career was consecrated by several volumes of lyrical poetry—Sărăcie ("Poverty"), Lirice ("Lyricals"), Spini ("Thorns")—, a volume of short stories—O toamnă la Paris ("An Autumn in Paris
")—, a libretto
for an opera about Moldavian Prince Petru Rareş
, and several translations from foreign literature. He married the daughter of Iaşi-based Jewish folklorist Moses Schwartzfeld, and was integrated into the Schwartzfeld family.
As a journalist, Avram Steuerman was primarily affiliated with the socialist press of Moldavia, and made his name writing for the left-wing paper Evenimentul. In 1897, Steuerman was a contributor to Noutatea ("The Novelty"), an independent daily published in Iaşi by the Jewish poet Berman Goldner-Giordano. This short-lived gazette had a relatively obscure history, and one of its contributors, the maverick socialist Garabet Ibrăileanu
reportedly forgot to mention it in all his later accounts of the period. Its regular contributors were young supporters of left-wing ideologies: alongside Steuerman and Giordano, they include poet Mihail Codreanu and future jurist Eugen Heroveanu. With Codreanu, Steuerman (who usually disguised his name under the signatures Rodion, Aster, Leander and Tristis) took charge of the literary column and the poetry section. They were sporadically joined by other writers, among them Laura Vampa, Alexandru Toma
, I. A. Bassarabescu, George Ranetti etc.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Rodion began a cordial correspondence with Ion Luca Caragiale
, the self-exiled Romanian playwright. Himself a noted proponent of Jewish emancipation and Jewish Romanian literature, Caragiale viewed Steuerman as one of his best Jewish friends, a group which also includes dramatist Ronetti Roman, critic Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
, journalists Barbu Brănişteanu and Emil Fagure, as well as Steuerman's own publisher Şaraga. Around 1907, Caragiale publicly stated his admiration for Steuerman and Ronetti Roman. His words of praise irritated nationalist
historian Nicolae Iorga
, who published the antisemitic review Neamul Românesc: in one of his articles for that magazine, Iorga reported that Caragiale was a sellout to Jewish interests. Caragiale indirectly reacted to this accusation in 1908, when he satirized Iorga's scholarly ambitions with a mordant epigram
that was first published in Convorbiri Literare.
Rodion was also a literary chronicler at Ordinea ("The Order"), published by the Conservative-Democratic Party, and held a similar position at Alexandru Bădărău's Opinia ("The Opinion"). Both magazines notably published his introductions to the work of English
poet Oscar Wilde
. His activity at Ordinea enjoyed reputation outside Moldavia: in Transylvania
, critic Ilarie Chendi noted that, with Dumitru Karnabatt and some others, the "fecund" Steuerman was still maintaining alive the tradition of cultural journalism. At around the same time, Rodion had become a sympathizer of Josef B. Brociner and his Society of Romanian Israelites—a local branch of Hovevei Zion
and one of Romania's first Jewish political associations
.
Steuerman befriended the much younger Benjamin Fondane (born Benjamin Wechsler in 1898), to whom he was known as bădi ("uncle") Adolf or Adolphe. Their camaraderie and kinship (Fondane was Moses Schwartzfeld's nephew) doubled as literary training: around 1912, when Fondane was aged 13, Steuerman reviewed his debut verse and encouraged him to continue. Reportedly, Rodion also helped introduce his relative to the socialist circles of Iaşi.
, when the Kingdom of Romania
maintained its neutrality, Rodion grew close to the political circles comprising Germanophile
s, neutralist socialists or pacifists
. Like his colleagues there, Rodion was not a keen supporter of making Romania part of the Entente camp
; he looked with more sympathy toward the German Empire
and the Central Powers
. In June 1915, Avram Steuerman was assigned a regular column in Seara
, a Bucharest newspaper founded by Germanophile agitator Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
and purchased from him by a German cartel. The Seara pieces, which he signed as Rodion and collectively titled Scrisori din Iaşi ("Letters from Iaşi"), sought to depict the Moldavian state of affairs in lively colors, with noted stress on the spread of Germanophile sentiment. They notably covered the conflicts between the academics of Bucharest and Iaşi, in particular the largely unsuccessful attempt of University of Bucharest
envoys to attract Iaşi University staff into a national pro-Entente organization. The project was opposed by the Germanophile group of former socialist Constantin Stere
and rendered ineffectual when Stere's own rival, Rector Matei Cantacuzino, also advised against it.
Drafted into the Romanian Land Forces
as a military physician
, Rodion saw action throughout the Romanian Campaign, retreating with the army into Moldavia after Bucharest fell to the Germans. His activity in the besieged province is said to have been exemplary throughout the period; in 1917, Rodion had reached the rank of Major
. In May 1917, he was stationed in the village of Căiuţi
, where he read in Opinia that Fondane's father Isac Wechsler had died. In a letter of condolence he addressed to the Wechslers, Rodion stated: "here [...] death stalks us with every step and makes us love life."
After Romania signed a separate peace with the Central Powers, and following the demobilization
of summer 1918, Steuerman returned to Iaşi. Back into civilian life, Rodion was, like George Topîrceanu
, one of the combatants whom the war years had rendered even more critical of the Ententist option; from Moldavia, he sent his texts to be published in Stere's explicitly Germanophile review, Lumina, and, at the same time, began contributing to Scena, the daily owned by conscientious objector
A. de Herz. Lumina hosted a second series of his Scrisori, beginning in June 1918. During the same month, Rodion was also a correspondent of the short-lived leftist tribune Umanitatea, launched in Iaşi by the Bessarabia
n Germanophile Alexis Nour, and noted for its advocacy of total Jewish emancipation. On July 27, Opinia published Steuerman's eulogistic commentary on the political essays of Stere's follower Dumitru D. Pătrăşcanu; Pătrăşcanu's text, grouped under the headline Vinovaţii ("The Guilty Ones"), constituted an indictment of both the Entente and the National Liberal Party
, Romania's main Ententist group.
Avram Steuerman-Rodion was haunted by memories of the war, and, according to historian Lucian Boia
, suffered episodes of clinical depression which he both concealed and left untreated. He eventually committed suicide in Iaşi, the news of which reputedly shocked his colleagues and friends in the political-literary community. Homages and obituary pieces were printed in various Romanian press venues, including Lumina, Scena and Opinia—the latter also featured a special commemorative piece by future novelist Cezar Petrescu
, La mormântul unui confrante ("At the Tomb of a Brother in Arms", September 26, 1918). A year later, in his columns for Scena daily and the Zionist
paper Mântuirea, Fondane paid homage to his deceased uncle. These texts linked Rodion's death to desperation over the surge of antisemitism, chronic insomnia
, and gerontophobia
.
, Rodion, a "minor poet", was one of the young writers and activists instrumental in supporting the Romanian socialist patriarch Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
, who was at the time caught in an ideological dispute with the dominant conservative
group Junimea
. The other figures listed by Ornea in this context are Stere, Ibrăileanu, Dimitrie Anghel
, Anton Bacalbaşa, Traian Demetrescu
, Emil Fagure, Raicu Ionescu-Rion, Sofia Nădejde and Henric Sanielevici. In his earlier Istoria literaturii române synthesis, the influential literary critic George Călinescu
chose to discuss Rodion and Berman Goldner-Giordano together, as two minor representatives of Dobrogeanu-Gherea's "tendentious art
".
Steuerman-Rodion left literary works which bridged socialist tendentiousness with his own cultural priority, Jewish assimilation
. One of his poems reflected his dual identity, rendered dichotomous by the spread of antisemitism:
According to Fondane: "Rodion wanted to live. That is a habit people tend to have, and Rodion wanted life, the same as a leaf of grass or the bird of flight. The son of a people with sideburns
and robes
, that survives by assimilation with earthworms, with stones, with mankind, with plots of land, his force has bumped [...], like a fly, upon the wall of the world..." Fondane noted that Rodion, with his "painfully Romanian style of writing" at a time when Zionism was still "vague", could only opt in favor of erasing his own Jewish identity. Steuerman's Romanian patriotism
, frustrated by the antisemitic establishment, led him to write what are arguably his most-quoted lyrics:
Rodion's verses were described as particularly eloquent in depicting the misfortune of Jewish intellectuals who sought integration into Romanian society but were still rejected—the piece is called "agonizing" by Zigu Ornea, and "immortal" by poet-essayist Radu Cosaşu. However, Romanian and Israel
i academic Michael Shafir noted that, with similar texts by Ronetti Roman, Steuerman-Rodion's poem mostly reflected the disbelief with which Jewish intellectuals were reacting to the late 19th century antisemitic barrage; according to Shafir, this reaction was undignified "lament": "Steuerman-Rodion [...] sounds more like a lover rejected by his woman than a counter-combatant of the socialist persuasion".
Writing in 2010, Lucian Boia
noted that Rodion's Scrisori din Iaşi were "a veritable chronicle", "minutely researched and written with talent". Boia found the overall Germanophile bias of Scrisori to be palatable: "the impression they leave is that Iaşi was sharing in only too little measure the 'Ententist' pathos of Bucharest; an exaggeration of sorts, but also a fair amount of truth."
drama". Michael Shafir also referred to Rodion as "(justly) forgotten", and Cosaşu called him "obscure". One to be influenced by Rodion was his own nephew Fondane: according to Ornea, it was Rodion and poet Jacob Gropper who first got Fondane interested in Judaism
as a distinct literary subject. Fondane is also believed to have chosen the title of his column in the Zionist journal Lumea Evree, Idei şi oameni ("Ideas and People"), as a quote from and homage to Steuerman. In 1919, the same magazine hosted a philosemitic
essay by Romanian cultural promoter Gala Galaction
, which deplored the marginalization or persecution of Jewish writers, from Barbu Nemţeanu to Rodion.
Rodion's political case resurfaced during polemics launched by the Romanian antisemites and the antisemitic fascists
, down to the end of World War II
. Poet and Premier
Octavian Goga
outlined his self-declared hatred for the Jews and call for discriminatory policies in his political tracts, but, unusually in this context, stated that he held no such grudge against either Rodion or Ronetti Roman. According to Radu Cosaşu, Rodion's failure to integrate announced the similar drama of 1930s Jewish writer Mihail Sebastian
, who wanted to be perceived as Romanian but was in return vilified by the far right
. In 1941, the authoritarian
regime of Ion Antonescu
published a directory of Jewish Romanian authors, living or deceased, whose work was officially banned: Steuerman was included, under the erroneous spelling Steverman. Although negative in substance, the brief profile published in George Călinescu Istoria... (first edition 1941), alongside other portraits of Jewish literary men and women, is sometimes referred to as an act of defiance to Antonescu's cultural pronouncements. The goal of recovering Steuerman's contribution was consciously taken up by Jewish scholar and anarchist
Eugen Relgis
, who wrote about him in one of his own literary essays.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n poet, anthologist, physician and socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
journalist. A member of Romania's Jewish community
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
, he was a lifelong militant for Jewish emancipation
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
and assimilation
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
, noted for poems which attack the prevailing antisemitism of his day. For a while, he was active as a propagandist of Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion , also known as Hibbat Zion , refers to organizations that are now considered the forerunners and foundation-builders of modern Zionism....
ideas among local Jews.
During the early stages World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Rodion was a columnist at Seara
Seara (newspaper)
Seara was a daily newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania, before and during World War I. Owned by politician Grigore Gheorghe Cantacuzino and, through most of its existence, managed by the controversial Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti, it was an unofficial and unorthodox tribune for the Conservative...
daily, with articles which criticized Romania's prospects of joining the Entente Powers
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
. Steuerman is himself described as a Germanophile
Germanophile
A Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German or a German citizen. Its opposite is Germanophobia...
, but, upon Romania's entry into the war in 1916, earned distinction on the local front. He committed suicide upon demobilization
Demobilization
Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary...
, following episodes of clinical depression.
Married into the family of Jewish intellectuals Moses and Elias Schwartzfeld, Steuerman-Rodion was thus related to poet-philosopher Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated Neoromantic and Expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor...
, who was his literary pupil. Steuerman himself is often described as an obscure contributor to Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, but survives in cultural memory for having given a poetic voice to the ideals of Jewish integration.
Early life and career
A native of IaşiIasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
city, the historical capital of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
region, Steuerman enlisted at the University of Iaşi Faculty of Medicine, and later furthered his medical studies in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Upon his return, he set up a medical practice in his native city. The Jewish printing house of Lazăr Şaraga published Steuerman's selection of Romanian literature, Autori români ("Romanian Authors"), divided into two undated volumes: the Anthology-proper and the Chrestomathy
Chrestomathy
Chrestomathy is a collection of choice literary passages, used especially as an aid in learning a foreign language.In philology or in the study of literature, it is a type of reader or anthology which presents a sequence of example texts, selected to demonstrate the development of language or...
. Steuerman and Şaraga published a second, dated, edition in 1896. His writing career was consecrated by several volumes of lyrical poetry—Sărăcie ("Poverty"), Lirice ("Lyricals"), Spini ("Thorns")—, a volume of short stories—O toamnă la Paris ("An Autumn in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
")—, a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for an opera about Moldavian Prince Petru Rareş
Petru Rares
Peter IV Rareș was twice voievod of Moldavia: 20 January 1527 to 18 September 1538 and 19 February 1541 to 3 September 1546. He was an illegitimate child born to Ștefan cel Mare...
, and several translations from foreign literature. He married the daughter of Iaşi-based Jewish folklorist Moses Schwartzfeld, and was integrated into the Schwartzfeld family.
As a journalist, Avram Steuerman was primarily affiliated with the socialist press of Moldavia, and made his name writing for the left-wing paper Evenimentul. In 1897, Steuerman was a contributor to Noutatea ("The Novelty"), an independent daily published in Iaşi by the Jewish poet Berman Goldner-Giordano. This short-lived gazette had a relatively obscure history, and one of its contributors, the maverick socialist Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
reportedly forgot to mention it in all his later accounts of the period. Its regular contributors were young supporters of left-wing ideologies: alongside Steuerman and Giordano, they include poet Mihail Codreanu and future jurist Eugen Heroveanu. With Codreanu, Steuerman (who usually disguised his name under the signatures Rodion, Aster, Leander and Tristis) took charge of the literary column and the poetry section. They were sporadically joined by other writers, among them Laura Vampa, Alexandru Toma
Alexandru Toma
Alexandru Toma was a Romanian poet, journalist and translator, known for his communist views and his role in introducing Socialist Realism and Stalinism to Romanian literature...
, I. A. Bassarabescu, George Ranetti etc.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Rodion began a cordial correspondence with Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, the self-exiled Romanian playwright. Himself a noted proponent of Jewish emancipation and Jewish Romanian literature, Caragiale viewed Steuerman as one of his best Jewish friends, a group which also includes dramatist Ronetti Roman, critic Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
, journalists Barbu Brănişteanu and Emil Fagure, as well as Steuerman's own publisher Şaraga. Around 1907, Caragiale publicly stated his admiration for Steuerman and Ronetti Roman. His words of praise irritated nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
historian Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, who published the antisemitic review Neamul Românesc: in one of his articles for that magazine, Iorga reported that Caragiale was a sellout to Jewish interests. Caragiale indirectly reacted to this accusation in 1908, when he satirized Iorga's scholarly ambitions with a mordant epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
that was first published in Convorbiri Literare.
Rodion was also a literary chronicler at Ordinea ("The Order"), published by the Conservative-Democratic Party, and held a similar position at Alexandru Bădărău's Opinia ("The Opinion"). Both magazines notably published his introductions to the work of English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poet Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
. His activity at Ordinea enjoyed reputation outside Moldavia: in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, critic Ilarie Chendi noted that, with Dumitru Karnabatt and some others, the "fecund" Steuerman was still maintaining alive the tradition of cultural journalism. At around the same time, Rodion had become a sympathizer of Josef B. Brociner and his Society of Romanian Israelites—a local branch of Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion , also known as Hibbat Zion , refers to organizations that are now considered the forerunners and foundation-builders of modern Zionism....
and one of Romania's first Jewish political associations
Jewish political movements
Jewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside of the Jewish community...
.
Steuerman befriended the much younger Benjamin Fondane (born Benjamin Wechsler in 1898), to whom he was known as bădi ("uncle") Adolf or Adolphe. Their camaraderie and kinship (Fondane was Moses Schwartzfeld's nephew) doubled as literary training: around 1912, when Fondane was aged 13, Steuerman reviewed his debut verse and encouraged him to continue. Reportedly, Rodion also helped introduce his relative to the socialist circles of Iaşi.
World War I and suicide
During the first stage of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
maintained its neutrality, Rodion grew close to the political circles comprising Germanophile
Germanophile
A Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German or a German citizen. Its opposite is Germanophobia...
s, neutralist socialists or pacifists
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
. Like his colleagues there, Rodion was not a keen supporter of making Romania part of the Entente camp
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
; he looked with more sympathy toward the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
. In June 1915, Avram Steuerman was assigned a regular column in Seara
Seara (newspaper)
Seara was a daily newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania, before and during World War I. Owned by politician Grigore Gheorghe Cantacuzino and, through most of its existence, managed by the controversial Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti, it was an unofficial and unorthodox tribune for the Conservative...
, a Bucharest newspaper founded by Germanophile agitator Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitesti
Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti was a Romanian Symbolist poet, essayist, and art and literary critic, who was also known as a journalist and left-wing political agitator. A wealthy landowner, he invested his fortune in patronage and art collecting, becoming one of the main local promoters of modern art,...
and purchased from him by a German cartel. The Seara pieces, which he signed as Rodion and collectively titled Scrisori din Iaşi ("Letters from Iaşi"), sought to depict the Moldavian state of affairs in lively colors, with noted stress on the spread of Germanophile sentiment. They notably covered the conflicts between the academics of Bucharest and Iaşi, in particular the largely unsuccessful attempt of University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
envoys to attract Iaşi University staff into a national pro-Entente organization. The project was opposed by the Germanophile group of former socialist Constantin Stere
Constantin Stere
Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea was a Romanian writer, jurist, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea (Romanian; , Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere;...
and rendered ineffectual when Stere's own rival, Rector Matei Cantacuzino, also advised against it.
Drafted into the Romanian Land Forces
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the force.The Romanian Land Forces were founded on...
as a military physician
Military medicine
The term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members...
, Rodion saw action throughout the Romanian Campaign, retreating with the army into Moldavia after Bucharest fell to the Germans. His activity in the besieged province is said to have been exemplary throughout the period; in 1917, Rodion had reached the rank of Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
. In May 1917, he was stationed in the village of Căiuţi
Caiuti
Căiuţi is a commune in Bacău County, Romania. It is composed of nine villages: Blidari, Boiştea, Căiuţi, Floreşti, Heltiu, Mărceşti, Popeni, Pralea and Vrânceni....
, where he read in Opinia that Fondane's father Isac Wechsler had died. In a letter of condolence he addressed to the Wechslers, Rodion stated: "here [...] death stalks us with every step and makes us love life."
After Romania signed a separate peace with the Central Powers, and following the demobilization
Demobilization
Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary...
of summer 1918, Steuerman returned to Iaşi. Back into civilian life, Rodion was, like George Topîrceanu
George Topîrceanu
George Topîrceanu was a Romanian poet, short story writer, and humourist.-Biography:Born in Bucharest, Topîrceanu began his schooling in the city, and then moved to the hilly countryside of the Argeş county, in the Şuici commune, where he formed his taste for themes taken from nature...
, one of the combatants whom the war years had rendered even more critical of the Ententist option; from Moldavia, he sent his texts to be published in Stere's explicitly Germanophile review, Lumina, and, at the same time, began contributing to Scena, the daily owned by conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
A. de Herz. Lumina hosted a second series of his Scrisori, beginning in June 1918. During the same month, Rodion was also a correspondent of the short-lived leftist tribune Umanitatea, launched in Iaşi by the Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
n Germanophile Alexis Nour, and noted for its advocacy of total Jewish emancipation. On July 27, Opinia published Steuerman's eulogistic commentary on the political essays of Stere's follower Dumitru D. Pătrăşcanu; Pătrăşcanu's text, grouped under the headline Vinovaţii ("The Guilty Ones"), constituted an indictment of both the Entente and the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
, Romania's main Ententist group.
Avram Steuerman-Rodion was haunted by memories of the war, and, according to historian Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...
, suffered episodes of clinical depression which he both concealed and left untreated. He eventually committed suicide in Iaşi, the news of which reputedly shocked his colleagues and friends in the political-literary community. Homages and obituary pieces were printed in various Romanian press venues, including Lumina, Scena and Opinia—the latter also featured a special commemorative piece by future novelist Cezar Petrescu
Cezar Petrescu
Cezar Petrescu was a Romanian journalist, novelist and children's writer.He was inspired by the works of Honoré de Balzac, attempting to write a Romanian novel cycle that would mirror Balzac's La Comédie humaine...
, La mormântul unui confrante ("At the Tomb of a Brother in Arms", September 26, 1918). A year later, in his columns for Scena daily and the Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
paper Mântuirea, Fondane paid homage to his deceased uncle. These texts linked Rodion's death to desperation over the surge of antisemitism, chronic insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
, and gerontophobia
Gerontophobia
Gerontophobia is the fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly.-Indicators:Ken Dychtwald identifies seven markers that can make up this phobia in chapter two of Age Wave: How the Most Important Trend of Our Time Will Change Your Future:...
.
Literary contributions
According to literary historian Zigu OrneaZigu Ornea
Zigu Ornea was a Romanian cultural historian, literary critic, biographer and book publisher. The author of several monographs focusing on the evolution of Romanian culture in general and Romanian literature in particular, he chronicled the debates and meeting points between conservatism,...
, Rodion, a "minor poet", was one of the young writers and activists instrumental in supporting the Romanian socialist patriarch Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
, who was at the time caught in an ideological dispute with the dominant conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
group Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
. The other figures listed by Ornea in this context are Stere, Ibrăileanu, Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel was a Romanian poet.His first poem was published in Contemporanul...
, Anton Bacalbaşa, Traian Demetrescu
Traian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
, Emil Fagure, Raicu Ionescu-Rion, Sofia Nădejde and Henric Sanielevici. In his earlier Istoria literaturii române synthesis, the influential literary critic George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
chose to discuss Rodion and Berman Goldner-Giordano together, as two minor representatives of Dobrogeanu-Gherea's "tendentious art
Didacticism
Didacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός , "related to education/teaching." Originally, signifying learning in a fascinating and intriguing...
".
Steuerman-Rodion left literary works which bridged socialist tendentiousness with his own cultural priority, Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
. One of his poems reflected his dual identity, rendered dichotomous by the spread of antisemitism:
Voind prin versurile mele, Cu două neamuri să mă-mpac, La unul am luat durerea, La celalt graiul – s-o îmbrac |
Wishing, through my verses, To make my peace with both peoples, I took from one its sorrow, From the other the speech – as cover |
According to Fondane: "Rodion wanted to live. That is a habit people tend to have, and Rodion wanted life, the same as a leaf of grass or the bird of flight. The son of a people with sideburns
Payot
Payot is the Hebrew word for sidelocks or sidecurls. Payot are worn by some men and boys in the Orthodox Jewish community based on an interpretation of the Biblical injunction against shaving the "corners" of one's head...
and robes
Kittel
right|180pxA kittel, also spelled kitl, coat’) is a white robe which serves as a burial shroud for male Jews. It is also worn on special occasions by Ashkenazi Jews. In western Europe this garment is called a Sargenes. The word Sargenes is related to the Old French Serge as well as Latin Serica...
, that survives by assimilation with earthworms, with stones, with mankind, with plots of land, his force has bumped [...], like a fly, upon the wall of the world..." Fondane noted that Rodion, with his "painfully Romanian style of writing" at a time when Zionism was still "vague", could only opt in favor of erasing his own Jewish identity. Steuerman's Romanian patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
, frustrated by the antisemitic establishment, led him to write what are arguably his most-quoted lyrics:
Tu nu mă vrei, o, ţară Eu, totuşi, sunt al tău, Tu poţi să-mi pui hotare, Să mă-mpovări de rău. |
You may not want me in, o country, But, nonetheless, I'm yours, However you may fence me out And burden me with wrongs. |
Rodion's verses were described as particularly eloquent in depicting the misfortune of Jewish intellectuals who sought integration into Romanian society but were still rejected—the piece is called "agonizing" by Zigu Ornea, and "immortal" by poet-essayist Radu Cosaşu. However, Romanian and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i academic Michael Shafir noted that, with similar texts by Ronetti Roman, Steuerman-Rodion's poem mostly reflected the disbelief with which Jewish intellectuals were reacting to the late 19th century antisemitic barrage; according to Shafir, this reaction was undignified "lament": "Steuerman-Rodion [...] sounds more like a lover rejected by his woman than a counter-combatant of the socialist persuasion".
Writing in 2010, Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...
noted that Rodion's Scrisori din Iaşi were "a veritable chronicle", "minutely researched and written with talent". Boia found the overall Germanophile bias of Scrisori to be palatable: "the impression they leave is that Iaşi was sharing in only too little measure the 'Ententist' pathos of Bucharest; an exaggeration of sorts, but also a fair amount of truth."
Legacy
According to the overall verdict of George Călinescu, Rodion and Giordano were "insignificant" contributors to Romanian literature, exclusively preoccupied with "the SemiticSemitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
drama". Michael Shafir also referred to Rodion as "(justly) forgotten", and Cosaşu called him "obscure". One to be influenced by Rodion was his own nephew Fondane: according to Ornea, it was Rodion and poet Jacob Gropper who first got Fondane interested in Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
as a distinct literary subject. Fondane is also believed to have chosen the title of his column in the Zionist journal Lumea Evree, Idei şi oameni ("Ideas and People"), as a quote from and homage to Steuerman. In 1919, the same magazine hosted a philosemitic
Philo-Semitism
Philo-Semitism or Judeophilia is an interest in, respect for, and appreciation of the Jewish people, their historical significance and the positive impacts of Judaism in the history of the western world, in particular, generally on the part of a gentile...
essay by Romanian cultural promoter Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
, which deplored the marginalization or persecution of Jewish writers, from Barbu Nemţeanu to Rodion.
Rodion's political case resurfaced during polemics launched by the Romanian antisemites and the antisemitic fascists
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, down to the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Poet and Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
outlined his self-declared hatred for the Jews and call for discriminatory policies in his political tracts, but, unusually in this context, stated that he held no such grudge against either Rodion or Ronetti Roman. According to Radu Cosaşu, Rodion's failure to integrate announced the similar drama of 1930s Jewish writer Mihail Sebastian
Mihail Sebastian
-Life:Sebastian was born to a Jewish family in Brăila. After finishing his secondary studies, Sebastian went on to study law in Bucharest, but was soon attracted to the literary life and the exciting ideas of the new generation of Romanian intellectuals, as epitomized by the literary group...
, who wanted to be perceived as Romanian but was in return vilified by the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
. In 1941, the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
regime of Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
published a directory of Jewish Romanian authors, living or deceased, whose work was officially banned: Steuerman was included, under the erroneous spelling Steverman. Although negative in substance, the brief profile published in George Călinescu Istoria... (first edition 1941), alongside other portraits of Jewish literary men and women, is sometimes referred to as an act of defiance to Antonescu's cultural pronouncements. The goal of recovering Steuerman's contribution was consciously taken up by Jewish scholar and anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
Eugen Relgis
Eugen Relgis
Eugen D. Relgis was a Romanian writer, pacifist philosopher and anarchist militant, known as a theorist of humanitarianism...
, who wrote about him in one of his own literary essays.