In Defense of Diasporic Judaism: Adolphe Danziger De Castro's “Muscular Jew”

Adolphe Danziger De Castro (1859–1959) is a remarkable figure in Jewish American literature. Nonetheless, in spite of his sixty-year incessant literary production, no literary study has been devoted to his oeuvre, which includes a collaboration on a short novel with Ambrose Bierce,1 short stories, five volumes of poetry, five novels, essays, a film script, a monograph on Talmudic history, and articles in American and Jewish American journals. Probably such a neglect is due to Danziger De Castro's controversial personality and the literary scandal concerning the authorship of the popular novel The Monk and Hangman's Daughter, which he co-authored with Bierce. Danziger De Castro may be also seen as a controversial figure because he added incredulous details to his early biography. Hence Danziger De Castro, who frequently claimed Sephardic heritage and significant academic achievements, was an enigmatic figure with many of his assertions unverified. William M. Kramer notes that Danziger De Castro spent much of the twentieth century wrestling with his own identity, only to ultimately question if he had been living a masquerade.2 Danziger De Castro's claims of Sephardic identity, however, may be seen as part of this broader trend among German Jews, who viewed Sephardic culture as a model for transforming Ashkenazic identity and achieving acceptance within German society.3 An additional reason for literary disregard may be due to the fact that now and then Danziger De Castro's novels feature a curious mix of literary genres—sentimental, sensational, first-person confessional letters or memoirs, historical fiction, a “ghetto-story,” and a Bildungsroman—which at times verge on the edge of soapy melodrama, especially when depicting farfetched coincidences. Analyzing Danziger De Castro's novel The Children of Fate: A Story of Passion (1905), his theological manuscript Jewish Forerunners of Christianity (1903), and his articles, this essay probes into the depictions of “resilient Jews” living in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It also demonstrates how Danziger De Castro's social and political agenda is aimed at defending the male Jew against centuries-old stereotypical delineations. It shows how by portraying a Jewish super-hero, a morally elevated and physically fit “New Jewish male,” Danziger De Castro attempts to defy common prejudices, which have mostly become prevalent following the massive influx of eastern European Jews to America. Moreover, it examines the rapports among Jewishness, virtue, and masculinity. Finally, it illustrates how his depiction of virtuous Jews in the Pale and America is juxtaposed with the representations of Jews and Jewish immigrants to America by his non-Jewish American contemporaries.4Born Abram Dancygier in Poland in 1859, Danziger De Castro was a rabbi, journalist, writer, lawyer, dentist, and American vice-consul to Madrid in 1903–04. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1883 and settled in San Francisco, where he worked as a dentist and freelance journalist. He claimed a rabbinical certification from Poland and a Ph.D. from the University of Bonn. He also adopted the name De Castro from an ancestor, Israel De Castro, a Sephardic Jew. This helped him become a prominent member of the Sephardic Community of Los Angeles, where he served as its first president. Though he moved frequently and changed professions, writing was his most stable career.Christopher A. Powell, who published a biographical sketch of Danziger De Castro, writes that his “superior intellect” allowed him “to successfully master half a dozen other occupations” but “failed him in his quest to be an important literary figure.” This claim is debatable, because it disregards Danziger De Castro's contribution to creating the American “New Jew”—a strong, capable, and moral Jewish hero. In numerous newspaper articles and in Children of Fate, he defied stereotypes of Jewish weakness, challenging anti-Semitic views. Moreover, Powell's comment overlooks the fact that Danziger De Castro's books were well received and popular.5The Jewish body, specifically the Jewish male body, has been scrutinized from various perspectives, including racial, political, religious, and ideological ones. The conceptualization of the figure of the “muscular Jew” was a decisive moment in the history of the formation of the “New Jew,” who leaves the Russian or Polish Shtetl to build a new life in the Promised Land. In a speech at the second Zionist Congress in Basel in August 1898, Max Nordau, a writer and a Zionist leader, proclaimed that there is a necessity to generate a “new Muscle [Muscular] Jew,” one who would not just symbolize a healthy and well-made body, but “rather [be] an acknowledgment of the older German tradition, which saw an inherent relationship between the healthy political mind and the healthy body.” Nordau connects physical fitness to Zionist ideals and to the prophetic vision of reestablishing the Jewish state in Palestine. He maintains that “Zionism breathes new life into Judaism. This much I am sure of. It does this morally by refreshing the ideals of the People, physically by physical education of our offspring, who shall reestablish a bygone Muscular Judaism.”6 Nordau addressed his plea particularly to Eastern European Jews who “must rise up and reform their individual bodies in order to reform their people as a whole; the ‘Luftvolk’ of the Diaspora must become grounded as a ‘Nationvolk.’”7 For him, a full-scale citizen must have a fit body.The idea of a “Muscular Jew” developed as a response to challenges faced by Jews historically, particularly in the context of anti-Semitism. Supporters of “Muscular Judaism” proposed social and political change through the body. A fit body would provide people with the might and moral character necessary for the attainment of centuries-old national dreams. Hence, the notion of enhancing physical strength became an important theme within the Zionist movement, as it aimed to counter stereotypes and promote a self-reliant Jewish identity. According to Stephen H. Norwood, “during the early-twentieth century, Jewish activists organizing against antisemitism recovered the submerged heritage of Jewish military prowess,” believing that “promoting physical fitness and fighting capability encouraged contemporary Jews to be more combative in protecting their communities against physical assault and defamation.”8 The “New Jew” concept was intertwined not just with discussions on physical strength, but also included an engagement in manual and agricultural labor as means of return to the Land of Israel. It emphasized the transformation of Jewish identity from one associated with urban intellectualism and religious traditions to one that embraced physicality, productivity, and a connection to the land. Anita Shapira's analysis highlights the emergence of an ideological shift aiming to redefine the Jewish identity, predating the advent of Zionism in the late-eighteenth century. This transformation was intertwined with the concept of the “New Jew,” a notion deeply rooted in the significance of the Land of Israel. Shapira argues that Zionism emphasized the link between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland as fundamental for this profound metamorphosis to occur.9The notion of re-creating a “Muscle/Muscular Jew” associates the Jewish heroic past with the present by drawing from the valiant tradition represented by the Maccabees, which exemplifies the epitome of heroism. This vision challenges the conjectures of social Darwinism since “Jews, overcoming the extenuating circumstances that rendered them weak and adapting to the new challenges of nation building, could now become ‘true moderns’ in order to thrive.”10 In response to Nordau's entreaty, a series of sport clubs, so-called “Bar Kochba clubs,” were established in Europe that attracted young male Jews. The image of a “muscle Jew” became the symbol of Jewish regeneration both on individual and social levels.The image of a “Muscular Jew” appeared in British literature as early as the 1830s. Nadia Valdman discovered connections among masculinity, Jewishness, and English national identity and representations of “tough Jews” in Benjamin Disraeli's writings in the 1830s and ’40s. She maintains that the connection between moral, political, and physical toughness was underscored by the “Muscular Christianity” movement in the 1850s.11 Disraeli's uniqueness lies in his association of masculinity, chivalry, and physical and moral prowess with the idea of “race” and by linking the latter values with the exemplar of Jews, hence reinforcing both English and Jewish national identities.In American literature, probably the first iteration of the notion of a “Muscular Jew” appears in Helen Wise Molony's “True Love Falters Not” (1886). The story was written twelve years before Nordau coined the phrase the “Muscular Jew,” thus envisaging the growing popularity the Zionist leaders’ campaign aimed at propagating the idea of fitness. It is a story of an adept Jewish man, Robert Stern, whose physical prowess and muscularity are emphasized. As I have argued elsewhere, the novella's “originality stems not just from the introduction of the ideal of a ‘Muscular Jew,’ which was quite revolutionary” in Jewish American literature during “the last two decades of the nineteenth century, but also by conceiving an innovative genre—the Jewish survival narrative, written according to the literary tradition of the Bildungsroman.”12 As a typical Bildungsroman protagonist, Stern needs to realize that his fall was brought about by reckless actions, specifically his gambling. He needs to be reeducated, pay his literal and symbolic debts, and then realize redemption. During hard years of physical labor on a farm, he saves some of his fellow laborers by intervening in their fights.Another early depiction of a gentle, righteous and “Muscular Jew” is presented in Rosa Sonneschein's “Between Two Worlds” (1897), the story of an upright Jewish man named Bamberg who saves a rich young American widow from a shipwreck. Tragically, when trying to rescue her son, he drowns with her son. Ironically, before the collision she and her cousin express anti-Semitic opinions. According to the cousin, Jews are plotting to “Judaize the world.” This young widow, who prides on being open-minded, disdainfully proclaims that all Jewish husbands deal in diamonds with which their wives adorn themselves. This malicious observation echoes a deep-rooted stereotypical view of Jews, ominously voiced by apparently progressive Americans. Upon discovering that Bamberg is a Jew, both women are stunned, considering him an exception which only proves the rule regarding Jews’ greed and rudeness.13 The title of Sonneschein's novella is important in this context, as Bamberg, the manager of a profitable iron factory and a true gentleman, is caught between two worlds—he is a successful American businessman but, as a Jew, he is considered a member of a lowly sect.In “The Empire of the Ghetto,” Danziger De Castro protests Americans’ prejudices toward Jewish immigrants to New York. He addresses American readers and asserts that “your information [with regard to Jews], dear Gentiles, is sadly incomplete,” adding that Gentiles misinterpret Jewish practices and character when looking just at the “uncleanly aspect” of “the bewigged and bargaining women [. . .] pathetic in their poverty” and “bearded merchants with their odd speech.”14 In another article he criticizes George C. Lorimer, a prominent American pastor, for defending Jews, stating that “it never strikes these gentlemen [priests and leaders] that vindication is next door neighbor to insult.”15 In Danziger De Castro's experience, philosemitic pronouncements are usually followed by offensive comments.He believes that Jewish newcomers want to become Americans and they learn eagerly to integrate themselves within American culture. He trusts that Jewish youth will greatly contribute to their adoptive country, when given a chance to attain, in addition to Jewish education and in He the of the New who the by his and The Jews’ and the of will when they are given a chance to their and and their Danziger De Castro the fact that Jews must as the are to According to Norwood, during the and early-twentieth of into Jewish them of being Danziger De Castro Nordau's vision which to a of Jewish who rise early and are not before who have and hard “New he will the Jewish from progressive another Danziger De Castro criticizes some Jewish youth for in which young in the these young Jews to a where they will they have the of and in them or if the of circumstances have them with the of In a article he of the San Jewish for “the of the Jewish young and young women of that the new young will the Jewish For Jews, who by the within the Jewish in New where of Jews are he a controversial at the to that the only for these Jews’ in as “the may a to these the will view of to the idea of the regeneration of Jews in by the “New Jew,” became a of within the American Jewish a Children of Fate, Danziger De Castro a Jewish youth from as the ideal of the fit and physically Jew. In the of the from the of the Jewish and its an anti-Semitic in and challenges the rule of the name is in means will In the into due to his as a by the and demonstrates the of a and Moreover, on name in and is an for his name and be means in German to the and physical of in it means to his his to a to him in for a also to build his physical the for some at will about in the and and strong, for who themselves the of the must be strong, both in body and in This echoes the ideal of the “new Muscular Jew, as by Nordau and challenging the of the Jew. According to “the Jew a and to of Jewish his in the with Polish and an at physical prowess and in Polish the Jewish to him, as they his with their view of Jewish A Jewish the for a with a Russian saves and for her as she the shift from Jews as to in The Polish as also express for Jews, the of the who how his from strength and moral both Jewish and Polish prejudices, as people question his due to his physical and moral Danziger De Castro a Jewish whose the of both Jews and the context of being a Jew, quest is by the of the Jew between two of and religious traditions Jewish and the The of his Jewish past and present are at with of the it to these for the of his which is to the by not just but by The deeply rooted anti-Semitic the from a Jew who is and physically Danziger De Castro's of these is in a article where he asserts that he could Jewish from because it had the of offensive to of and as the him and his He is between the Jewish who and the Polish for the of his is by the Jewish who to by one of the most fundamental shall not or a against and shall fellow as The of Jews, their and are no is another He to a aimed at the to themselves from Russian He his that “to in the of is an man might to in the of is a for which and in which he his I am to as an may at at Jews in Europe and toward Jewish immigrants to them for a growing in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, of Jews from the there were about the of these they into American their religious and Jews were to be more to their religious to their or to other Jews to the The Jews themselves that they would be for their to or their The of this was by the first Jew to the U.S. who no American that Zionism is with [. . .] is no between to America and to In Danziger De Castro, in his of the of the “New addressed a to the of New the of of the for military years of study with the a to him and aiming to become a He for years with the but just before in the many including a Polish who in with him, where he a and his successful the with the Polish is with Polish He argues that and Christianity common of and and that of Jewish by of anti-Semitic to between Jews and Danziger De Castro the novel echoes to the up to the The of is a of and is considered an important in the life of and the of physical and before of a by an during an For the of is a of in which and to for It is the of and as well as a means of between and The is followed by the of In many is as a he to Jewish the that his there to be that one of the in [. . .] were of one who had received and of the of his are and his are to the when to Jews from an by the by the Polish Polish who a for his of the to the [. . .] it is the during the and early-twentieth a shift among Jewish regarding the figure of within Jewish This transformation a of where was as a figure to Jewish identity. with connection to during his and the to Judaism. This of a broader of Jewish identity and history in response to that during the first half of the twentieth century adopted the figure of not as part of an and or as a between and but in the context of the new national identity, as a of model for the New Danziger De Castro was never associated with Jewish which some popularity in the century in and some of might at the on the Jewish when trying to in the of and challenges from the Jewish He to his a and that is the for in the of to the Gentiles the of the Jewish for the values of he at the does not as the true or Christianity as the theological common to Jewish literature in which aimed at a common between these religious For him, since was a Jew who to the which religious is is believes that by the among both Jews and the Gentiles, he may that the is In one of his theological with asserts that he is the on the in [. . .] which is a was a I all the I for the Jews, but as the as their I to them in Jewish literature, to one the In another Danziger De Castro that he is a an Jew. a in he of the many the had of how he had and to and the of [. . .] that was not the of all and other Danziger De Castro's of his Jews’ from Jews’ He that some Jews are to to Christianity to their are in as they that such may provide them with to counter According to Danziger De Castro, about practices does not Jews in his comment on a Polish American to San Jews’ to Danziger De Castro maintains that “the Jews are no more of the by they are of the in the all it is a of a De Castro's in Christianity to be are aimed at stereotypical depictions of Jews, and propagating acceptance of Jews by and Danziger De Castro's Jewish Forerunners of a series of of people and the of to and the rise of Talmudic literature. Danziger De Castro's is that is through Jewish to the New since is both the of and the of the Danziger De Castro to that the of Jewish of Jewish He believes that his will be to both Jews and may both to a of which may the by tradition of and to is are virtuous young Jewish who not just but and against and are devoted who for their in their early for the of fellow to a who him of depicting as an Danziger De Castro his dear whose and I have to all that is the and most heroic in the who is not but a man of and most man as a Jew in fiction, the man who does not De Castro had to on some other A of Children of him for depicting as to be Moreover, the to the figure of some from Jewish most Danziger De Castro's that “the literary of Danziger is An writer him for his contribution to Jewish American and that the of who have is who is well as a of The that Danziger De Castro's literary be as the latter in a short to master the English A of In the maintains that Danziger De Castro a and his have all the and of an whose [. . .] will be encouraged by all of an as some that Danziger De Castro to and literary especially in He was in of as a prominent writer and some of his books were in the of his is with for his literary and writing De Castro as a and enigmatic figure in Jewish American literature. his his has been by his novel Children of as a significant literary the the novel into the for on of against The novel a of the of a Jew between two is by the deeply anti-Semitic of the it for them to a Jew. the other is also by the within his own Jewish where he of fundamental a to his life to the Polish people themselves from Russian of at Jews. the is in with between his and the of theological and to the between and Christianity Danziger De Castro's to promote between these two In Children of as a of the faced by Jews living the and religious as a of the for identity and the of a between