Gordin Yakov Itzikovich (1896-1947)

Gordin Yakov Itzikovich (22.10.1896, Dvinsk, Vitebsk province - August 1947, Portugal) - philosopher.

Yakov Gordin was born in the family of a merchant engaged in flour trade. In 1899 the family moved to St. Petersburg. At the age of 15 Gordin graduated from school with a silver medal, but he was not able to enter the university immediately because of the percentage norm limiting the number of Jewish students. In 1914 he entered St. Petersburg University, where he studied philosophy and Orientalism. In the same year he met the philosopher Hermann Cogen (1842-1918), who came to Petrograd and awakened Gordin's interest in neo-Kantianism. In his attitude to the 1917 revolution he inclined to Bakunin's views, although he was not an anarchist.

In 1918 he travelled to Ukraine, communicated with local Kabbalists, studied Hasidism and Jewish mysticism. In 1921 he returned to Petrograd. In 1923, together with a group of scholars, he emigrated to Berlin, where he met his future wife Raela. Soon they had a daughter. In Berlin Yakov Gordin entered the Scientific Academy of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentus), from which he graduated in 1929. In the same year he published his thesis ‘Studies on the Theory of Infinite Opinions’. He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Worked at the Higher School of Jewish Studies. In 1928-1934 he participated in the work on the Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jewish Encyclopaedia), published by Yaakov Klatskin. The Nazis' rise to power prevented him from completing the work. In 1933 Gordin went to Paris, where he lectured on medieval Jewish philosophy at a rabbinical school and published in Jewish newspapers. Until 1940 he worked as a librarian in the General Jewish Union (Alliance Israélite Universelle).

After the Nazi occupation of northern France, Yakov Gordin and his family moved to Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne. In 1944 he moved to Shormage, where he taught scout functionaries the basics of Judaism, philosophy and Kabbalah. In 1945 he returned to Paris and resumed his work in the library. He retired from literary work and devoted himself entirely to teaching Jewish tradition and religious philosophy. He worked at the Documentation Centre, taught in a number of schools and summer courses. He organised courses for teachers-philosophers, called ‘schools of prophets’. Gordin's work influenced the development of Jewish thought and Jewish education in France, and the so-called ‘Gordian school’ emerged. Among his listeners was, in particular, Emmanuel Levinas (1906, Kovno - 1995, Paris) - one of the propagators of phenomenology and existentialism, who tried to combine Western European philosophy with Jewish thought, represented in the sacred texts.

In the last years of his life he suffered from severe lung disease. He died in a clinic in Portugal. His last words were ‘I am a Jew’ (‘sono ebreo’).

Lit.: Рочко И. Французский философ из Двинска. Секрет (Rochko I. French philosopher from Dvinsk. Secret) (supplement to the newspaper ‘Vesti’, Israel). № 689. С. 43.