Leda (Lederer), Eduard
LEDA (Lederer), EDUARD
LEDA (Lederer ), EDUARD (1859–1944), Czech author and one of the leaders of Jewish assimilation in Czechoslovakia. Leda was born in Chotoviny, Bohemia. In his novels and short stories Leda portrayed many Jewish characters, often expressing through them his own thoughts on various aspects of the Jewish problem. The best known are Zápisky hrbá?ovy ("Diary of a Hunchback," 1923), Rakušák ("The Austrophile," 1942), and Lelí?ek Redivivus (1928). He also wrote two biblical plays, Mojžíš ("Moses," 1919) and Zrádce ("The Traitor," 1921), the latter intended as a vindication of Judas Iscariot. He wrote several books on the Jewish question: N?mecký a ?eský anti-semitismus ("German and Czech Anti-Semitism," 1899), ?eskožidovská otázka ("The Czech-Jewish Question," 1899), Židé v dnešní spole?nosti ("Jews in Modern Society," 1902), and Kapitoly o židovství a židovstvu ("Chapter on Judaism and Jewry," 1925). In all of these he was an uncompromising advocate of assimilation. Leda died in Theresienstadt.
bibliography:
O. Donath, Židé a židovství v ?eské literatu?e 19. a 20. století (1930); Hostovský, in: Jews of Czechoslovakia (1967), 446. add. bibliography: Lexikon ?eské literatury 2/ii (1993); A. Mikulášek, Literatura s hv?zdou Davidovou, vol. 1 (1998)
[Avigdor Dagan /
Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)]