Аукцион Bidspirit | Collection of Letters Handwritten and

Collection of Letters Handwritten and Signed by Rabindranath Tagore, Luareate of the Nobel Prize in Literature – Sent to the Palestinian Traveler Shlomit Flaum – Letters about Palestine and Zionism, the Jewish People, the Fate of the World, and other Subjects - Twenty-two letters and three poems, sent by Indian Poet Rabindranath Tagore to the Palestinian traveler Shlomit Frida Flaum. Santiniketan (India) and elsewhere, early 1920s to early 1940s. English (a few items in Bengali). Shlomit Frieda Flaum, who is considered the first Jewish woman traveler, was born in 1893 in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, a descendant of Rabbi Shlomo Luria. In 1911, she immigrated to Palestine by herself and for ten years wandered between its various cities, documenting them in her diaries and sketching their sights. In 1921, she decided she wanted to explore overseas countries as well and travelled to the USA. In New York she met the poet Rabindranath Tagore for the first time. After their meeting, she wrote in her diary: ”From now on we shall not walk blindly”. Tagore showed much interest in Flaum's story, her Jewish nationality and Zionist views, and invited her to visit the Ashram he founded in western Bengal, Santiniketan. A year later, Flaum arrived at Santiniketan, extending her stay for two years. During this period, the most important and influential of her life, Flaum became Tagore's closest student and a strong friendship developed between the two, a friendship that continued until Tagore's death. Offered is a collection of handwritten and typewritten letters, which Tagore had sent Flaum over the course of about twenty years. In the letters, Tagore refers to Shlomit as ”Shanti” (a word that in Hindi means ”peace”, chosen as an approximate translation of the Hebrew name ”Shlomit”) and they reflect Tagore's spiritual world, the changes that occurred in the world during this period and his great rapport with Flaum. The early letters in the collection are mostly handwritten and they often address the time Flaum had stayed in Tagore's Ashram, Santiniketan. In a letter from October 1923, Tagore writes: I have great affection for you and we are all so thankful for your generous contribution […] I doubt very much if your place here will ever be adequately filled”. In another letter from the same year, he writes: ”You have brought love to the shrine of our ideal […] brought it from across the sea, across difference of race and culture, keeping it fresh and sweet”. In other letters from this period, Tagore shows much interest in Palestine and Zionism, thanks Flaum for the books she had sent him on these subjects and even expresses his intention to visit Palestine: ”I wish my hurry to the South America engagement had not prevented me from visiting Palestine and forming my association with those of you who are struggling for a great chance” (1925). The later letters in the collection are mostly typewritten and often address the situation in the world, the war ahead, and Tagore's old age. In a letter from 1938, Tagore writes: ”If you have not received any reply to your last letter, blame my age or my Secretary but you have to spare me. Nor should you forget that my poor pen has claims to some rest after its so very faithful service extending over nearly three fourths of an entire century”. In an interesting letter from 1936, Tagore addresses the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine at length: ”It has pained me very deeply to read of the bloody conflicts between the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine. Of course, I was somewhat prepared for it […] we who know of the communal troubles in India, can easily picture the situation – the utter cruelty and senselessness of such mad inter-racial conflicts. And yet where is the way out? Don’t you feel this postwar world of ours is still more gross and brutal than it used to be? We almost seem to be going back to the medieval ages when greatest atrocities were daily being committed in the name of religion and civilization. I despair the future”. In one of the last letters in the collection, written after the outbreak of World War II, Tagore writes: ”Thank you for your good wishes for the new year. Today we all have one common wish, that this tortured world may be soon reclaimed from the fever of insanity in which it is caught. I tremble to think of the future if the year 1940 ends as it has begun, with slaughter on every side, with history being made in terms only of outrage and violence. It is good to know that Palestine is quieter and that you all are doing well. Give my best wishes to Prof. Einstein and Prof. Geiger, if they are still there”. A number of the letters are written on Tagore's official stationery, with a paper label of his initials mounted on some. Alongside the letters, the collection includes three handwritten poems (possibly enclosed with the letters or given to Flaum as souvenirs): poem no. 70 from the Fruit-Gathering cycle, with Tagore's handwritten signature;