Benjamin Fondane

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Benjamin Fondane : biography

November 14, 1898 – October 2, 1944

In 1919, upon the war’s end, Benjamin Fondane settled in Bucharest, where he stayed until 1923. During this interval, he frequently changed domicile: after a stay at his sister Lina’s home in Obor area, he moved on Lahovari Street (near Piaţa Romană), then in Moşilor area, before relocating to Văcăreşti (a majority Jewish residential area, where he lived in two successive locations), and ultimately to a house a short distance away from Foişorul de Foc.Daniel, p. 614–615 Between these changes of address, he established contacts with the Symbolist and avant-garde society of Bucharest: a personal friend of graphic artist Iosif Ross, he formed an informal avant-garde circle of his own, attended by writers F. Brunea-Fox, Ion Călugăru, Henri Gad, Saşa Pană, Claude Sernet-Cosma and Ilarie Voronca, as well as by artist-director Armand Pascal (who, in 1920, married Lina Fundoianu).Daniel, p. 614–615. Some of these names also in Răileanu & Carassou, p. 16 and Sandqvist, p. 354 Pană would later note his dominant status within the group, describing him as the "stooping green-eyed youth from Iaşi, the standard-bearer of the iconoclasts and rebels of the new generation".Răileanu & Carassou, p. 16; Sandqvist, p. 354

The group was occasionally joined by other friends, among them Millian and painter Nicolae Tonitza.Daniel, p. 615 In addition, Fondane and Călugăru frequented the artistic and literary club established by the controversial Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti, a cultural promoter and political militant whose influence spread over several Symbolist milieus.Cernat, p. 34, 39, 132, 405–406 In a 1922 piece for Rampa, he remembered Bogdan-Piteşti in ambivalent terms: "he could not stand moral elevation. […] He was made of the greatest of joys, in the most purulent of bodies. How many generations of ancient boyars had come to pass, like unworthy dung, for this singular earth to be generated?"Cernat, p. 44

Pressed on by his family and the prospects of financial security, Michaël Finkenthal, , in Observator Cultural, Nr. 397, October 2007 Fondane contemplated becoming a lawyer. Having passed his baccalaureate examination in Bucharest, he was, according to his own account, a registered student at the University of Iaşi Law School, obtaining a graduation certificate but prevented from becoming a licentiate by the opposition of faculty member A. C. Cuza, the antisemitic political figure.Daniel, p. 622 According to a recollection of poet Adrian Maniu, Fondane again worked as a fact checker for some months after his arrival to the capital. His activity as a journalist also allowed him to interview Arnold Davidovich Margolin, statesman of the defunct Ukrainian People’s Republic, with whom he discussed the fate of Ukrainian Jews before and after the Soviet Russian takeover. Gina Sebastian Alcalay, , in România Literară, Nr. 20/2001

Sburătorul, Contimporanul, Insula

Over the following years, he restarted his career in the press, contributing to various nationally circulated newspapers: Adevărul, Adevărul Literar şi Artistic, Cuvântul Liber, Mântuirea, etc.Daniel, p. 611, 622 The main topics of his interest were literary reviews, essays reviewing the contribution of Romanian and French authors, various art chronicles, and opinion pieces on social or cultural issues.Daniel, p. 611–612 A special case was his collaboration with Mântuirea, a Zionist periodical founded by Zissu, where, between August and October 1919, he published his studies collection Iudaism şi elenism ("Judaism and Hellenism").Oişteanu, p. 28 These pieces, alternating with similar articles by Galaction, showed how the young man’s views in cultural anthropology had been shaped by his relationship with Gropper (with whom he nevertheless severed all contacts by 1920).

Fondane also renewed his collaboration with Rampa. He and another contributor to the magazine, journalist Tudor Teodorescu-Branişte, carried out a debate in the magazine’s pages: Fondane’s articles defended Romanian Symbolism against criticism from Teodorescu-Branişte, and offered glimpse into his personal interpretation of Symbolist attitudes. One piece he wrote in 1919, titled Noi, simboliştii ("Us Symbolists") stated his proud affiliation to the current (primarily defined by him as an artistic transposition of eternal idealism), and comprised the slogan: "We are too many not to be strong, and too few not to be intelligent."Tomescu (2005), p. 229–230 In May 1920, another of his Rampa contributions spoke out against Octavian Goga, Culture Minister of the Alexandru Averescu executive, who contemplated sacking George Bacovia from his office of clerk. The same year, Lumea Evree published his verse drama fragment Monologul lui Baltazar ("Belshazzar’s Soliloquy").