Rosenheim, Uri Felix, 1913-1973

Felix Rosenheim (the Hebrew name “Uri” was adopted after moving to Israel) was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1912, the second youngest of nine children. His father, Jacob Rosenheim would eventually become the leader of the world movement of Agudas Israel, the political exponent of Torah Jewry. Felix, however, apparently found the numerous commandments restrictive and rebelled against the traditions promoted by his parents. After completing secondary education and attending, unwillingly, one of the famous Lithuanian Yeshivot, he took courses at the University of Kiel, studied carpentry in Birschheim (Strasbourg) and lived for some time in Brussels before deciding to make aliyah in 1936.

Self-described as having oversensitive and overstressed nerves, he sought to relieve his tensions in an ever-mounting outpouring of poetry and aphorisms. Completely absorbed by his creative urge and susceptible to nervous breakdowns, he failed to come to grips with the mundane task of making a living. His occasional jobs were mostly manual including carpentry, working at an orange orchard, a beer brewery, in advertising, and as the co-owner of a second-hand bookstore. Only in his later years did he gain some security as librarian in the multilingual Alliance high school in Tel Aviv.

In his private life, Rosenheim was a sensual and romantic personality, writing thousands of passionate poems dedicated to women with whom he was intimately involved. One of the most important was Ruth Lewy (1903-1956), whom he met in 1936 when she lived with his sister in Israel. Her sudden and premature death in 1956 cut short their close relationship of 18 years and left Felix devastated. In her memory he penned multiple (unpublished) volumes of poetry including Brunnen und Stern and In Wolken . Their motives for never marrying and terminating an earlier pregnancy are unclear; they evidently remained in close and intimate contact until Ruth’s death. Despite his many liaisons, Felix wed none of his youthful amours. Nevertheless, a few years prior to his death in 1973 of an unknown illness, he finally married Sonia (maiden name unknown).

In 1968 his book Verbannung (Exile) appeared to critical acclaim in German-speaking countries, but failed to reach a wide audience. He was a prolific writer, but he wrote almost exclusively in German, never comfortably shifting to either English or Hebrew, a fact which possibly contributed to his frustrated desire to achieve broader recognition. Embodying, in the words of friend and fellow-writer Walter Abish, the “eternal European,” he dealt with conflicts of identity throughout his life. While often referring to Israel as his Heimat and voicing relief at having escaped the “foreign civilization,” on the other hand he frequently rhapsodized on his longing for the cities, environment, and cultural milieu he knew in Europe and he remained devoted to the German classical literary and musical tradition throughout his life. Though he sought advice and support from such well-known authors as Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, Max Brod et al. and though his widow Sonia approached numerous publishers after Felix’s death, very little of his voluminous work has been published.

From the guide to the Uri Felix Rosenheim, 1930-1981, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)