A „Polytropos" Zionist: The life and literary production of Zakharia Klyuchevich Mayani
Abstract
The kaleidoscope of pseudonyms behind which he hid himself on the pages of the Russian- Jewish weekly Rassvet is a reflection of the multifaceted personality of Zakharia Klyuchevich. Historian, archaeologist, linguist, teacher, political activist, journalist, caricaturist, painter, poet, screenwriter, biologist, it is difficult to find an area into which he did not venture. The spectrum of languages he mastered, or tried as an author, is equally colorful: from his native Russian to quasi-native French, through English, Hebrew, German, Yiddish, Polish, Ancient Greek, Turkish, up to Albanian and Etruscan, two languages he tried to link by identifying the latter as a protolanguage of the former. The amount of material left behind by this polyhedric author is voluminous. Correspondence in various languages (Italian, Russian, English, and French), diaries, theater screenplays (Hebrew, English), essays (French), poetry (French, Russian, and Hebrew), authored language textbooks (French-Hebrew, Russian-Hebrew), sketches, paintings, and newspaper clippings are preserved at the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv. Through a thorough analysis of this material, we will try to draw the portrait of this ish eshkolot, this Renaissance type of intellectual, who has been forgotten in their treatises by historians of literature, Zionism, art and archeology, perhaps precisely because of the difficulty in tracing his movements and activities, the excessive chameleon-like nature of his occupations and cryptonyms.
Keywords
Zachary Kluczewicz Majani; „Rassvet”; russian-jewish journalism; jewish community
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Mayani’s works
Scholarly works
L’arbre sacré et le rite de l’alliance chez les anciessemites. 1935 (PhD dissertation).
Les Hyksos et le monde de la Bible. Payot, 1956.
Les Etrusquescommencent à parler. Arthaud, 1961.
La fin dumystereétrusque. Maleine, 1971.
Literary works
Z. Eilati. Ha bazal igija (Hebrew, The onion came).
Zecaria Mayani. Dodi nach (Hebrew, My uncle relaxes).
Zecaria Mayani. Dodi poteachkhida. (Hebrew, My uncle uncovers a riddle, 1937).
Zecaria Mayani. Gentlemen, leave us alone! (comedy in two acts).
Zecaria Mayani. Ha pgisha (Hebrew, The meeting).
Zecaria Mayani. Pesha dodi (Hebrew, My uncle’s crime).
Zecaria Mayani. Les premiers déboirs de Tchékov (French, Chekov’s first setbacks).
Zecaria Mayani. Les premiers déboirs de Tchékov (French, Chekov’s first setbacks).
Z. Mayani, “The end of Europe.” Haaretz, March 23, 1945.
Z. Ravich. Tikhajapristan’(dnevnikkervkogocheloveka). (Russian, Quite Harbor, diary of a church man).
Z. Ravich. Ha maahafilim (Hebrew, The illegal immigrants, theatrical comedy in three acts).
Z. Ravich. Purim shelkol ha kitot (Hebrew, Purim of all classes, theatrical comedy in eight acts).
Z. Ravich. Khalukat hateudot (Hebrew, Report card, theatre play).
Z. Mayani. Jugement dernier (French, The last judgement).
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
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