A Fourth Dimensional Mind

A lot of DeCasseres own material is in pamphlet/booklet form. This is a small booklet that appears to be an article about DeC, with the following description as being sold from a Judaica website:

Decasseres, Benjamin) Rudens, S. P. BENJAMIN DECASSERES; A FOURTH DIMENSIONAL MIND… No Place, No Publisher (The Author?), 1928. 1st Edition (?). Paper Wrappers, Very Good Condition; 16mo; 12 pages; 22 cm. Pocket-sized reprint from the Reflex, December, 1927. Author was at the time Assistant Director of the Jewish People’s Institute in Chicago. DeCasseres was a Philadelphia-born Sephardic writer and essayist (1873-1945) (AMR-27-41) (ID #6885) $30.00.

 

Looking at the style of the booklet, it’s probable that DeCasseres reprinted the article himself, as it is similar in format to some of his other booklets.

Reflex” was a Jewish journal and “is, according to editorial announcement, to be dedicated to “critical opinion and the secular interest of the Jewish people.” The article appeared in Volume 1 no. 6 (1927).

Reflex was edited by Samuel Max Melamed who “took deep and active interest in Zionism, and was Chairman of the Central Zionist Committee of Chicago. Samuel wrote extensively in Hebrew, German, Yiddish, and English on problems of Jewish nationalism, sociology, and philosophy.”

This is the same S.M. Melamed (can there be more than one?) who wrote a book titled “Spinoza and Buddha: Visions of a Dead God” that DeCasseres wrote the booklet “Spinoza Agains the Rabbis” in response to. In “Against the Rabbis” DeC says:

“As this essay is an investigation of the competence or incompetence of the logician, the scholar, the research man to pass judgement on or to expound genius, I have chosen (Melamed’s book) as the best sample of such an undertaking.”

The rest of that essay is less than kind to Melamed.
FourthDimesionalMind

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