Born in Pest (now
Budapest), Hungary, he had a traditional Jewish education. Age 14 he
published his first poem and two years later was a theater critic.
He qualified as a physician and opened a general practice, later
specializing in psychiatry. In 1880, he moved to Paris, practiced
medicine and was a correspondent for German-language newspapers. He
gained fame and popularity for his trenchant and witty articles and
for his critical essays, which attacked the superstitions that he
saw threatening civilization including religion, nationalism, and
racism. His Degeneracy attacked all forms of modernity and brought
him worldwide fame. Nordau met Theodor Herzl in 1892 and an instant
bond of sympathy was struck between the two men. He became Herzl's
main lieutenant and at the early Zionist Congresses his surveys of
world Jewish affairs were regarded as masterpieces both in content
and oratory. It was he who drafted the Basle Program, the basic
statement of Zionism. During WW1 he was expelled from France as an
Austrian subject and took refuge in Spain. He died in Paris but
following his request was reburied in Tel Aviv.
Bibliography:
NORDAU, Max. Conventional lies of our
civilization. (Edited by Leo Markun). Pp. 64. Girard, Kan.:
Haldeman-Julius Co., c1925.
NORDAU, Max. Die Tragaedie der
Assimilation, mit einem Vorwort des Herausgebers Davis Erdtracht.
Pp. 16. Wien-Daebling, Verlag "Wiedergeburt," 1920.
NORDAU, Max. Ketavim Tsiyoniyim. (Zionistische
Schriften. Hebrew) 4 vols. 1954-62
NORDAU, Max. Zionism and anti-Semitism
(Max Nordau and Gustav Gottheil, PH.D).Pp. 76. New York: Scott-Thaw
company, 1904.
NORDAU, Max. Degeneration.
(Translated from the 2d edition of the German work). Pp. xiii, 560.
New York: D. Appleton, 1895.
NORDAU, Max. Maks Nordau el `amo,
ketavim mediniyim. [Nitargem `al-yede Y. Yevin ve-neerakh al-yede
B. Netanyehu]. 2 vols. Tel-Aviv: Medinit, 1936-37
ZUDRELL, Petra. Der Kulturkritiker und
Schriftsteller Max Nordau: zwischen Zionismus, Deutschtum und
Judentum. Pp. 295. Wuerzburg: Koenigshausen & Neumann, c2003.
Links:
Nordau, Max (born Simon Maximilian Suedfeld 1849-1923)
Biography
Max Nordau - Jewish Virtual Library
