BRANDSTAEDTER, MORDECAI DAVID

BRANDSTAEDTER, MORDECAI DAVID (1844–1928), Galician Hebrew writer. A successful manufacturer, he became a leading figure in the Tarnow Jewish community, and was appointed lay judge in the district court. His first short stories, "Eliyahu ha-Navi" ("The Prophet Elijah") and "Mordekhai Kizoviẓ," appeared in Ha-Shaḥar (1869), which published most of his subsequent work. Brandstaedter ridiculed the Ḥasidim and their Ẓaddikim. He also exposed the foolishness of the so-called "enlightened" Galician Jews, and their shallow materialism. He did not employ the biting satire or the rationalistic didactic moralizing of most of his contemporaries in the Haskalah movement. He gently mocked his characters' petty and ridiculous activities, without hate or anger. His work bore traces of romanticism; he invented intricate and wonderful plots and idealized characters and situations. Although he did not delve into economic or social problems, he had a grasp of prevailing conditions in the Pale and opposed defects in marriage customs, family life, education, and communal affairs. He derided Jewish petty mercantilism and advocated that Jews engage in craftsmanship and agriculture. In later life, Brandstaedter joined the Ḥibbat Zion movement, and his stories "Kefar Mezaggegim" ("The Glaziers' Village"), and "Zalman Goi" ("Zalman the Gentile") extolled Zionism and life in Ereẓ Israel. In his work, the dialogue tended to take dramatic form, but occurred naturally within the plot, and avoided lengthy philosophizing and blatant propaganda. Brandstaedter shunned elaborate phrases, and preferred a more concise style. His descriptions were realistic. During World War i Brandstaedter was forced to flee to Vienna. He returned to Tarnow in 1918, and wrote a series of aphorisms, entitled "Keisamim" for the New York Hebrew magazine Hadoar (1924–29). His autobiography "Mi-Toledot Ḥayyai" also appeared in Hadoar (1926, nos. 12–20). A three-volume edition of his collected works was published in Warsaw (1910–13).

bibliography:

Lachower, Sifrut, 2 (1929), 237–8, 315; Klausner, Sifrut, 5 (1955²), 232–42.

[Mordechai Rabinson]