https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Alex_Aronson_authorAlex Aronson author - Revision history2026-07-30T16:18:44ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Alex_Aronson_author&diff=105675&oldid=prev>4meter4 at 12:15, 20 June 20212021-06-20T12:15:01Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox writer<br />
| name = Alex Aronson <br />
| image = <br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1912|10|30}}<ref name="statesman"/><br />
| birth_place = Breslau, then in Germany<br />
| death_date = {{Death date|df=yes|1995|12|10}}<ref name="statesman"/><br />
| death_place = [[Haifa]], Israel<br />
| occupation = Teacher, author<br />
| nationality = German / Israeli<br />
| notableworks = <br />
| spouse = <br />
| children = <br />
| awards = Deshikottama (D Litt) from [[Visva Bharati University]]<br />
}}<br />
'''Alex Aronson''' (30 October 1912 — 10 December 1995) was a German author and educator.<br />
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==Early life==<br />
He was born on 30 October 1912 at Breslau, then part of Germany (now [[Wroclaw]] in Poland). As a young man he fled the rise of Hitler, studying comparative literature at [[Montpellier]] and [[Toulouse]] and then English literature at [[Cambridge]]. A German Jew he sought refuge from the impending [[The Holocaust|holocaust]] then showing its initial signs in Europe by opting to leave and settle in [[Santiniketan]]. On contacting [[Rabindranath Tagore]] he was asked to get in touch with [[Amiya Chakravarty]] and [[Charles Freer Andrews]], who were in London at that time. Aronson reached Santiniketan in November 1937.<ref name="statesman">{{cite web | url = http://www.martin-kaempchen.de/?page_id=228| title = Alex Aronson Lives|work= 8th Day| publisher = The Statesman, 4 November 2012 |accessdate = 12 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="centenary">{{cite web | url = http://www.martin-kaempchen.de/?page_id=224| title = Alex Aronson's Centenary Birthday|work= Lecture at Visva Bharati | publisher = Martin Kämpchen |accessdate = 12 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="fusion">{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xUPEyvGt2H0C&q=alex+aronson+Tagore&pg=PA225| title = (In) Fusion Approach |work= Notes on page 225| year = 2006 | publisher = University Press of America | isbn = 9780761834649 |accessdate = 12 August 2019}}</ref><br />
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==Santiniketan==<br />
Santiniketan provided shelter to Aronson during a troubled period the world around. In one of his letters to [[Martin Kämpchen]] he wrote, “The hospitality I received there goes beyond all praise. It is something I shall never forget and for which I shall be forever grateful.” He plunged into his teaching career, preparing students for the BA examination of the University of Calcutta. He was a voracious reader and tried to understand the Eastern mind. He played the piano and listened to music with [[Satyajit Ray]], then an art student at Visva Bharati. He contributed book reviews and articles for Santiniketan's official journals, ''Visva Bharati Quarterly'' and ''Visva Bharati News''. In time, he emerged as one of the most prolific writers from Santiniketan of that period.<ref name="statesman"/><br />
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With the outbreak of World War II, Aronson suddenly became an “enemy alien” for the British colonial rulers in India. He was sent to an internment camp first at [[Fort William, India|Fort William]] and then to [[Ahmednagar]]. With the repeated intervention of Tagore, he was able to return after two months. However, it was a traumatic experience for him.<ref name="statesman"/><br />
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Tagore had a vast collection of newspaper clippings that had been collected during his foreign tours. He asked Aronson to put them in order. With many months of dedication and hard work, he classified the newspaper articles and correspondence, and laid the foundations of the archives at Santiniketan. With the wealth of information, he had, Aronson wrote a book ''Rabindranath Through Western Eyes''. It was published in 1943, after Tagore's death. It became an iconic book that has been mentioned and quoted till the present times. Tagore's impact outside India was seen in a totally unromantic, unsentimental and critically sober manner. It obviously did not go down well with the Santiniketan intelligentia. In 1944, he wrote ''The Story of a Conscience'', a book on Tagore's friend, [[Romain Rolland]]. Jointly with [[Krishna Kripalani]] he edited ''Rolland and Tagore'', a collection of letters and essays. In 2000, Visva Bharati published ''Dear Mr. Tagore'', a collection of letters from well known writers, scholars and public figures in Europe and America. It was a major archival contribution of Aronson. In 1946, he wrote, ''Europe looks at India, a study in Cultural Relations''. This book on Europe's cultural response to India opened Aronson's horizon beyond Tagore.<ref name="statesman"/><br />
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==Israel==<br />
Aronson worked in the University of Dhaka for two years before immigrating to Palestine. He took up different teaching assignments. After establishment of [[Israel]] he joined the English department at [[Tel Aviv University]] and finally settled in [[Haifa]]. He continued writing – ''Music and the Novel'', two books on Shakespeare, one on twentieth century diaries and three volumes of his autobiography.<ref name="fusion"/><ref name="statesman"/><br />
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==Awards==<br />
[[Visva Bharati University]] conferred on him its highest award, Desikottama (D Litt), in 1993. At the request of the vice-chancellor, Martin Kämpchen went and delivered the Insignia of Desikottama at his home on the slopes of Mountain Carmel, overlooking Haifa.<ref name="fusion"/><ref name="statesman"/><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aronson, Alex}}<br />
[[Category:People associated with Santiniketan]]<br />
[[Category:English-language writers from Germany]]<br />
[[Category:1912 births]]<br />
[[Category:1995 deaths]]</div>>4meter4