Maya Barzilai, University of Michigan
“Love and the Zionist Translation Project”
In this episode of “Frankely Judaic,” Maya Barzilai, an associate professor of Hebrew literature and Jewish culture at the University of Michigan, explores the nuanced and complex relationship between German and Hebrew translation in the early 20th century. Sparked by her exposure to translations of Paul Celan’s poetry, Barzilai delves into the cultural and political significance of translating German works into Hebrew during this period. She focuses on the Zionist mission to elevate Hebrew as a language of modernity and nationalism and examines how translators navigated the aesthetic and ideological landscapes of the time. One pivotal example is Meir Vilkansky’s 1911 Hebrew translation of Goethe’s “The Sufferings of Young Werther,” which the influential writer Joseph Chaim Brenner criticized for lacking passion. Barzilai argues that debates over translation were not merely about linguistic accuracy but were deeply intertwined with contemporary political and cultural agendas. By reevaluating these translations, her work aims to complicate the linear narratives of Zionist history and highlight the ambivalent yet enriching role of translation in the cultural development of the Jewish homeland.