Sammy Gronemann Explained

Sammy Gronemann (Strasburg, Westpreußen, 21 March 1875 – Tel Aviv, 6 March 1952) was a German-born Zionist activist, author and satirist.

Biography

Samuel (Sammy) Gronemann was the son of the chief rabbi of Hannover.^[1]

Gronemann was the chief judge of the Zionist Congress Court and founder of its Court of Honour (1921–1946).^[2] He was a major contributor to the satirical magazine Schlemiel published in 1903–1905 and 1919–1924.

In 1933, after the rise of the Nazis, he fled to Paris with his wife, Sonja and immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1936.^[3] In 1937, the Jewish National Fund sent him to France to speak about the plight of the Jews in Palestine thanks to his knowledge of French and French culture.^[4]

Published works

• Tohuwabohu. 1920 novel
• Hawdoloh und Zapfenstreich. 1924 novel
• Hamans Flucht. Vienna, R. Löwit, 1926.
• Schalet. Beiträge zur Philosophie des „Wenn schon“. 1927
• Der Weise und der Narr: with an introduction by Margot Klausner . Tel-Aviv: Moadim, Palestinian Play Publishers, 1942.
• Der Prozess um des Esels Schatten. Tel-Aviv: Moadim, Palestinian Play Publishers, 1945.
• Erinnerungen. Berlin: Philo, 2002.
• Erinnerungen an meine Jahre in Berlin. Berlin: Philo, 2004.

Notes and References

1. Ruth Gutmann A Final Reckoning: A Hannover Family's Life and Death in the Shoah 2013 0817318097 "Sammy Gronemann was the son of Landrabbiner Selig Gronemann (1883–1918) of Lower Saxony. The Rabbinate of Lower Saxony had been established in 1687."
2. https://rosenzweig.huji.ac.il/book/critical-edition-collected-writings-sammy-gronemann A Critical Edition of Collected Writings by Sammy Gronemann
3. Derek Penslar Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective 2007 1134146698 "One of Schlemiel's chief contributors, the genial Zionist humorist Sammy Gronemann, was the son of the chief rabbi of Hannover and had a thorough yeshiva education, but he did not make use of his Judaic knowledge in his writing, which, despite its paeans to the East European Jewish folk soul and its condemnation of assimilation, was destined for an audience of highly acculturated readers. "
4. https://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxx/jan-kuhne-sammy-gronemann%C2%B4s-lessing/ Sammy Gronemann's Lessing