Menes, Abram
MENES, ABRAM
MENES, ABRAM (1897–1969), historian. Born in Grodno, Poland, Menes became engrossed in the problems of socialism early in his youth; at the age of 20 he founded an illegal *Bund branch in Grodno, which engaged in educational work and the distribution of illegal socialist literature. After World War i he devoted himself to public affairs, becoming the vice chairman of the Grodno Jewish community. After moving to Berlin in 1920, where he studied Jewish history and Bible, Menes, together with Nahum *Shtif and E. *Tcherikower, laid the foundations of *yivo (the Institute of Jewish Research). In 1933 he moved to Paris, and became one of the leading contributors to the Yiddish Encyclopedia, writing on a wide range of historical subjects. He continued his work on the editorial board of the encyclopedia even after settling in the U.S. (1940), where he also joined the staff of the Yiddish daily Forward.
Menes' main area of interest in Jewish history was its economic and social aspects. Articles on these subjects, covering the talmudic period as well as late 19th-century Russian Jewry, appeared in yivo's historical publications. Together with Raphael *Abramowitz, Menes wrote Leyenbukh tsu der Geshikhte fun Yisroel ("A Layman's History of Israel," 1923). Another favorite topic of his was the history of the Jewish Workers Movement and of socialism: Der Onhoyb fun der Yidisher Arbeter-Bavegung un ir Shoyresh in Yidishen Folks Lebn, published in the Zukunft (40 (1935), 539–44), is an investigation into the problems of socialism, in general, and in particular among the Jews. His essays on significant events in Jewish history, in both the preexilic and postexilic periods, were published in Oyfn Sheydveg, an independent publication of Jewish culture, art and literature, and cultural philosophy, edited by E. Tcherikower and I. Efroikin. These essays mark a turning point in Menes' approach to Jewish history: "The time has come to amend Heine's youthful error and to replace 'le credit' with 'la religion' – the belief in man with the belief in God." Mention should also be made of his contribution, "Jewish History," to the volume "Jews" in the Yiddish Encyclopedia, in which he wrote on the biblical and talmudic periods. His articles in the Forward dealt to a large extent with Jewish holidays. His writings on the problems of methodology in Jewish history are of significance to scholars in the field.
Menes' writings on Jewish ethics, sociology, and philosophy continued to be based on the principle that "there can be no faith in man without a feeling of sanctity." Jacob Glatstein described Menes as a historian "who has introduced a new evaluation of Jewish history."
bibliography:
lnyl, 6 (1965), 72–78.
[Israel Ch. Biletzky]