At one and the same time, considerable headway was made by the periodical press in the popular vernacular, called Jargon, or Yiddish. The Jüdisches Volksblatt, a weekly publication, appeared in St. Petersburg from 1881 to 1890. The Hausfreund, the Jüdische Volksbibliothek, the Jüdische Bibliothek, edited by Spektor, Shalom Aleichem, and I. L. Perez, respectively, were published in Warsaw and Kiev between 1888 and 1895. Der Jud, a Yiddish weekly, was issued in Warsaw in 1899-1902.
As for the Jewish press in the Russian language, the former mouthpiece of the progressive intelligenzia, the Voskhod, which appeared at the same time as a weekly and as a monthly publication, leaned more and more towards the national movement. Another Russian-Jewish weekly, Budushchnost, "The Future," which appeared in St. Petersburg from 1899 to 1903, was Zionistic in tendency.
In the theoretic branch of publicistic literature the dominant figure during that period was Ahad Ha'am, whose articles endeavored to answer not only the exciting questions of the day, but also the perpetual problems of Judaism. His brief semi-philosophic, semi-publicistic essays, under the general heading Perurim ("Titbits"), served as a lode star for those who hoped to find the synthesis of "Jew" and "man" in modern Jewish nationalism. In a series of articles he lashes "slavery in freedom,"[26] or the assimilation of the emancipated Jews of Western Europe; he criticizes the theory of "Nationalism without Zion," and the manifestations of a Jewish Nietzscheanism with its denial of the Jewish ethical doctrine. Not satisfied with mere criticism, he formulates in these articles the principles of a "spiritual revival"[27] in the sense of a nationalization of Jewish culture. The essays of Ahad Ha'am, which were subsequently collected under the title 'Al Parashat Derakim, "At the Parting of the Ways,"[28] represent a profound and closely reasoned system of thought which is firmly grounded in historico-philosophical premises.
In the forefront of publicists of a less theoretic turn of mind stood the talented Nahum Sokolow, the editor of the ha-Tzefirah in Warsaw, who, after some vacillation, joined the ranks of political Zionism. In the border-land between journalism and literary criticism the most conspicuous figures were David Frischman and Micah Joseph Berdychevsky. The former emphasized in his brilliant literary essays the necessity of a "Europeanization" of Judaism, while the latter championed the cause of Nietzcheanism, protesting against the suppression of the "man" in the "Jew," and against the predominance of the spiritual over the material in the doctrine of Judaism. Berdychevsky is also the author of a number of sketches portraying the tragic split in the soul of the Jewish intellectual and the primitive harmoniousness of the old hasidic world.
In the realm of Jewish belles lettres S. J. Abramovich, known under his pen-name Mendele Mokher Sforim, the writer of the "Era of Reforms," remained as theretofore the acknowledged leader. The creative energy of this author, who mastered with equal skill both the national and the popular language, attained to even greater heights during the period of the new Jewish martyrdom. His novel Wünschfingerl, "The Wishing Ring," which was originally written in Yiddish, and, in its Hebrew version, grew into a large volume, Be-'Emek ha-Bakha, "In the Valley of Tears," (1897-1907), constitutes a great epic depicting Jewish life during the gloomy reign of Nicholas I. and the "Era of Enlightenment" under Alexander II. A series of sketches, marked by inimitable humor, portray the disintegration of the old mode of life under the influence of the pogroms of 1881 and the subsequent emigration from Russia (Bime ha-Ra'ash, "In Stormy Days," and others). His autobiographical series (Bayyamim Hahem, "In Those Days") and his incomplete Shloime Reb Hayyims ("Solomon the son of Hayyim") reveal the power of rare psychological analysis.
Abramovich's literary activity, extending over half a century,[29] earned for him the title of "Grandfather of Neo-Hebrew Literature" (Der Zeide).[30] He was privileged to witness the brilliant successes of his "sons and grandsons" who came gradually to the fore, particularly in Yiddish literature. His younger contemporary, Isaac Leib Perez, wrote, during the first period of his literary endeavors, clever stories, portraying the life of the Jewish masses in Poland and distinguished by a powerful realism, often tinged with satire (his series Reisebilder, "Travel Pictures," and other sketches which were written mostly during the nineties). Later on, Perez leaned more and more towards modern literary symbolism, drawing his inspiration mostly from the mystic legends of the Hasidim (his series Hasidish, which was subsequently expanded into two volumes under the title Volkstümliche Geschichten, "Popular Stories," 1909).[31]
Towards the end of the century, the talent of the great Jewish humorist Shalom Aleichem (S. Rabinovitz)[32] attained its full bloom. He was particularly successful in his masterly delineation of the Luftmensch type of the Pale of Settlement, who is constantly on the hunt for a piece of bread, who clutches at every possible profession and subsists on illusions (his sketches Menahem Mendel). Using the popular vernacular with its characteristic idioms and witticisms as his vehicle of expression, Shalom Aleichem draws the pictures of the "Little People" of the Russian ghetto (his series Kleine Menshelekh), describes the joys and sorrows of their children (Maassios far Jüdishe Kinder, "Stories for Jewish Children"), and puts into the mouth of the unsophisticated philosopher of the ghetto, "Tevye (Tobias) the Dairyman," the soul-stirring epic of the great upheavals in this secluded little world (the series of sketches under the name Tevye Der Milchiger). To these big stars on the sky of Jewish belles lettres may be added the host of lesser luminaries who write in the rejuvenated ancient language of the nation or in the vernacular of the masses, the Yiddish.
The literary revival manifested itself with particular vigor in the domain of poetry. At the beginning of the nineties, the voice of Judah Leib Gordon, the poet of the "Era of Reforms"[33] was silenced (he died in 1892). The singer of the national sorrow, Simon Frug,[34] who was carried away by the new ideas of Zionism, began to sing his "Zionids" in the Russian language, writing at the same time for the masses sonorous poems in Yiddish, though neither of them reveals the poetic charm of his older national elegies.
New stars now glisten on the horizon. The middle of the nineties saw the ripening of the mighty talent of Hayyim Nahman Bialik, who brought the poetical forms of ancient Hebrew speech to unprecedented perfection. The magnificence of form is matched by the wealth of content. The greatest creative power of Bialik is displayed in his treatment of national motifs. Himself the product of the rabbinical Yeshibah and Bet ha-Midrash, he sings of the spiritual beauty hidden behind these ancient and outwardly unattractive walls, in this antiquated citadel of the Jewish spirit, where the cult of intellectual knighthood reigned supreme, where the spiritual shield was forged which preserved a nation of lambs amidst a horde of wolves (his wonderful poems Im Yesh Et Nafsheka la-Da'at,[35] ha-Matmid, "the Diligent Student," and others). The sufferings and humiliations heaped upon his people by its enemies bring the poet to the brink of despair, for he realizes that the old shield has been laid aside, and no new shield has taken its place. He is filled with indignation at the indifference of the Jewish masses to the appeal for regeneration sounded by Zionism (Aken Hatzir ha-'Am, "Verily, the People are like Grass," and others). At a later stage, beginning with the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, Bialik's lyre becomes more and more pessimistic, adopting the tone of wrathful rebuke and fiery denunciation.
In contradistinction to this singer of the national soul, another contemporary poet, Saul Chernikhovsky, sounds the keynote of general human experience and the joy of living. He demonstratively prostrates himself before the statue of Apollo (Lenokah Pesel Apollo, "Before the Statue of Apollo"), offering to it the repentant prayer of the Jew for having denied the ideal of beauty. He raves about "Hellenism," the cult of joy and light, repudiating the one-sided spirituality and rigorism of old Judaism. Erotic motifs, descriptions of nature, ballads, rustic idylls—such are the characteristic features of Chernokhovsky's poetry which forms, as it were, a general human pendant to the poetry of Bialik, though yielding to it in the depth of literary conception. Both Bialik and Chernikhovsky fructified the field of Jewish poetry, which in the beginning of the twentieth century found a whole host of more or less talented cultivators, most of them writing in the ancient national language, though in a rejuvenated form.