Ha-Shilo'ah

HA-SHILO'AḤ (Ha-Shillo'ah; Heb. הַשִּׁלֹחַ). Hebrew literary, social, and scientific monthly in Russia until World War I. Founded in 1896, Ha-Shilo'aḥ was first edited by *Aḥad Ha-Am in Odessa and Warsaw and printed in Berlin and krakow until after the Russian revolution of 1905. From 1907 to 1919 it was edited and printed in Odessa, while from 1920 until it ceased publication in 1926, it was edited and printed in Jerusalem. Altogether 46 volumes appeared in 23 years of publication (there were intervals during which the monthly did not publish, e.g., the Russian revolution of 1905, in 1915 under the czarist regime, in 1919 under the Soviet regime).

Aḥad Ha-Am intended Ha-Shilo'aḥ to be a journal devoted to Zionism, Jewish scholarship, and belles lettres in a style accessible to the general reader. Not believing in art for art's sake, he was interested in making literature serve the monthly's general objectives of Zionism and "usefulness" to the people. This approach was attacked by young authors ( *Berdyczewski , in particular) and the controversy helped determine the course of Hebrew literature in the early 20^th century. Ha-Shilo'aḥ expressed Aḥad Ha-Am's bitter antagonism to Herzl and political Zionism, which elicited a strong reaction from the Zionist movement. The writing in Ha-Shilo'ah was free of rhetoric, the result of the great effort Aḥad Ha-Am spent, as his letters testify, in guiding the writers and editing their work. Thus the monthly, which only printed material of high quality, was from its inception a novelty in Hebrew periodicals. Ahad Ha-Am's successor, Joseph *Klausner , who edited the monthly from 1903 until it ceased publication, followed a similar policy, but devoted more space to belles lettres and the works of such authors as J.Ḥ. *Brenner , I.L. *Peretz , S. *Asch , Z. *Shneour , and S. *Tchernichowsky . Ḥ.N. *Bialik , many of whose works were printed in Ha-Shilo'aḥ, coedited volumes 13–21. Most of Aḥad Ha-Am's essays also appeared in Ha-Shilo'aḥ, both while he was editor and after.

Ha-Shilo'aḥ revolutionized all genres of Hebrew literature and journalism. It became a model of Hebrew writing, both in form and content, and authors regarded it as an honor to publish in the journal. Indeed, the writings in Ha-Shilo'aḥ remain of interest and value today both for the subject matter and the style they introduced into Hebrew literature. Unlike Ahad Ha-Am, Klausner was an adherent of political Zionism, yet Ha-Shilo'aḥ reflected all the trends within Zionism. When Klausner immigrated to Ereẓ Israel in 1920, Ha-Shilo'aḥ resumed publication in Jerusalem, and from 1925, Jacob *Fichmann , editor of the literary section, coedited the monthly. In Jerusalem the journal did not enjoy the same importance as it had in Russia. There were already a number of newspapers and periodicals in Ereẓ Israel where, in addition, the atmosphere in which Ha-Shilo'aḥ had thrived in Russia was lacking. A bibliography of the writings and authors printed in Ha-Shilo'aḥ was compiled by Joshua Barzilai-Folman (1964).

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.