Early life and literary debut The future Eugen Relgis was a native of
Moldavia region, belonging to the
local Jewish community. His father, David Sigler, professed Judaism, and descended from
tanners settled in
Neamț County. Eisig had two sisters, Adelina Derevici and Eugenia Soru, both of whom had careers in
biochemistry. Born in either
Iași or
Piatra Neamț, Eisig was educated in Piatra Neamț, where he became friends with the family of novelist and
Zionist leader
A. L. Zissu. It was in Zissu's circle that Relgis probably first met his mentor, the Romanian modernist author Tudor Arghezi; at the time, Arghezi was married to Constanța Zissu, mother of his photographer son
Eli Lotar. The young writer later noted that he and Zissu were both touched by the wild landscape of the
Ceahlău Massif and Piatra's
shtetl atmosphere. Taking his first steps in literary life, Eisig Sigler adopted his new name through forms of wordplay which enjoyed some popularity among pseudonymous Jewish writers (the case of
Paul Celan, born
Ancel). He was from early on a promoter of
Symbolist and modernist literature, a cause into which he blended his
left-wing perspective and calls for
Jewish emancipation. Writing in 2007, literary historian
Paul Cernat suggested that Relgis, like fellow humanitarian and Jewish intellectual
Isac Ludo, had a "not at all negligible" part to play in the early diffusion of Romanian modernism. Relgis' main contribution in the 1910s was the Symbolist tribune
Fronda ("The Fronde"), the three consecutive issues of which he edited, in Iași, between April and June 1912. Like Ludo's review
Absolutio (which saw print two years later),
Fronda stood for the radical branch of the
Romanian Symbolist movement in Iași, in contrast to both the left-leaning but traditionalist magazine
Viața Românească and the more conventional Symbolism of
Versuri și Proză journal. Its editorial board, Relgis included, went anonymous, but their names were known to other periodicals of the day and to later researchers. According to Cernat, Relgis was "the most significant
Frondiste", seconded by two future figures in Romanian Jewish journalism: Albert Schreiber and Carol Steinberg.
Fronda put out three issues in all, after which time Relgis became an occasional contributor to more circulated periodicals, among them
Rampa (founded by Arghezi and the socialist agitator
N. D. Cocea) and
Vieața Nouă (led by Symbolist critic
Ovid Densusianu). He published his first two books of poems during
World War I, but before the end of
Romania's neutrality period. The first one was a collection of
sonnets,
Sonetele nebuniei ("Sonnets of Madness"), printed at Iași in 1914; the second was published in the capital,
Bucharest, as
Nebunia ("Madness"). Some of these poems were illustrated with drawings in Relgis' own hand. In addition to Relgis and Nour,
Umanitatea enlisted contributions from Ludo and
Avram Steuerman-Rodion. The short-lived magazine, Boia writes, supported
land reform,
labor rights and, unusually in the context of "pronounced Romanian
antisemitism", Jewish emancipation. According to one account,
Umanitatea was closed down by Romania's military censorship, which kept a check on radical publications. Relgis resumed his literary activity early in the
interwar period. He authored his ideological essay
Literatura războiului și era nouă (Bucharest, 1919); another such piece,
Umanitarism sau Internaționala intelectualilor ("Humanitarianism or the Intellectuals' Internationale"), taken up by
Viața Românească in 1922.
Viața Românească also published Relgis' abridged translation of
The Biology of War, a pacifist treatise by German physician
Georg Friedrich Nicolai. The year 1923 witnessed the beginnings of a friendship between Relgis and the aspiring pacifist author
George Mihail Zamfirescu. Relgis prefaced Zamfirescu's book
Flamura albă ("The White Flag"), and contributed to Zamfirescu's magazine
Icoane Maramureșene ("
Maramureș Icons"). A prose volume,
Peregrinări ("Wanderings"), saw print with
Editura Socec the same year. Two new volumes of his topical essays saw print in later years: the first one, published by the printing offices of fellow journalist
Barbu Brănișteanu, was
Umanitarism și socialism ("Humanitarianism and Socialism", 1925); the second, printed in 1926, was titled
Umanitarismul biblic ("Humanitarianism in the
Bible"). Another Romanian researcher,
Henri Zalis, notes that Relgis was one of the many Jewish intellectuals whom Lovinescu cultivated in reaction to the tradition of
ethno-nationalist discrimination. However, according to critic
Eugen Simion, Lovinescu also greatly exaggerated Relgis' literary worth. Relgis' contribution to
Romanian literature was renewed in 1926, when he published
Melodiile tăcerii ("Melodies of Silence") and the collection
Poezii ("Poems"), followed in 1927 by
Glasuri în surdină ("Muted Voices"). chronicled Relgis' own difficulties with his
post-lingual deafness. At that stage in his career, Eugen Relgis was also a contributor to the Bucharest left-wing dailies
Adevărul and
Dimineața, part of a new generation of radical or pacifist authors cultivated by the newspaper (alongside Zamfirescu,
Ion Marin Sadoveanu and various others). The
Adevărul publishing house issued his 1925 translation of
Knut Hamsun's story
Slaves of Love. At around the same time, the Căminul Library, publishers of
popular education books, issued Relgis' translation from
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the classic novel of German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche. It endured as one of two Romanian-language versions of Nietzsche's main works to be published before the 1970s, together with George B. Rateș's
The Antichrist. Relgis' work as a translator also included versions of writings by Zweig,
Émile Armand,
Selma Lagerlöf,
Emil Ludwig and
Jakob Wassermann. He published his work in a variety of periodicals, from Vinea's modernist mouthpiece
Contimporanul, Ludo's
Adam review and the Zionist
Cuvântul Nostru to the Romanian traditionalist journal
Cuget Clar. With his publishing house Editura Umanitatea, Relgis also contributed a 1929 book of interviews, based on texts previously featured in
Umanitarismul:
Anchetă asupra internaționalei pacifiste ("An Inquiry about the Pacifist International"). The same year, Relgis lectured at the Zionist Avodah circle about the opportunities of
Jewish return to the
Land of Israel. He was a delegate to pacifist reunions in
Hoddesdon, England and
Sonntagberg, Austria (1928). reissued the same year in
Valencia, Spain, as
La Internacional Pacifista. In its new translated editions,
Apel către... was signed by a number of leading pacifist intellectuals of various persuasions, among them Zweig, Sinclair, Barbusse,
Campio Carpio,
Manuel Devaldès,
Philéas Lebesgue,
Rabindranath Tagore. The volume
Cosmometápolis, about the creation of a
world government, was first published in Bucharest by Cultura Poporului imprint, and reissued in Paris by Mignolet et Storz. Relgis' participation in left-wing causes was attacked at home by the antisemitic and proto-
fascist National-Christian Defense League, whose press organ
Înfrățirea Românească alleged that "squire Siegler" and his
Umanitarismul, together with the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, were fostering communist agitation. After the 1933 establishment of a
Nazi regime in Germany, Relgis' books of interviews became subject to
ceremonial burnings. The latter periodical was close to the
Romanian Social Democratic Party, and had a strongly
anti-fascist agenda. It published, in 1932, the Relgis essay
Europa cea tânără ("Young Europe"), which talked about civilization,
imperialism and war. Relgis' contributions to
Șantier also include a January 12, 1934 essay about "
anonymous works" and their impact on art history, which was later quoted in
Viața Românească. The same year, Relgis published the novel
Prieteniile lui Miron ("Miron's Friendships") with
Editura Cugetarea. In his subsequent activity as a journalist and publisher, Relgis combined his humanitarianism with topical interests. He was by then an advocate of
eugenics, an interest reflected in his 1934 (or 1935) tract
Umanitarism și eugenism ("Humanitarianism and Eugenism"), published by Editura Vegetarianismul company. In 1936, he also released the collection
Esseuri despre iudaism ("Essays on
Judaism") with Cultura Poporului. He was at the time active within the Jewish Cultural Institute, an annex of the
Bucharest Choral Temple. Another book of his political prose,
Spiritul activ ("The Active Spirit"), saw print the same year. but Relgis continued to write. His texts of the time include a posthumous praise of his pacifist disciple Iosif Gutman, the son of a Bucharest
rabbi, who had been killed during the
Bucharest pogrom. Relgis' own son fled Romania in 1942, and settled in Argentina.
Slove de martiri was eventually published that year, Relgis was again active in the political press, lending his signature to several independent newspapers:
Sebastian Șerbescu's
Semnalul,
Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște's
Jurnalul de Dimineață etc. He described himself as diametrically opposed to the process of
communization, as well as to the
Soviet occupation of Romania. During his last decades, Eugen Relgis dedicated himself to sociological research and political activism. He embarked on a series of university lectures, which carried him throughout Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. The effort was supported by the exiled
Spanish anarchist Abraham Guillén, and received documentary funds from Europe, but reputedly drew suspicion from
Uruguay police forces, and was consequently shut down. The same imprint released his essay
Las aberraciones sexuales en la Alemania nazi ("Sexual Aberrations in Nazi Germany"), which discussed in some depth the characteristics of
Nazi eugenics. In 1954, Relgis printed another biographical study, on Romain Rolland:
El hombre libre frente a la barbarie totalitaria ("A Free Man Confronts
Totalitarian Barbarity"). The following year, he gave a public lecture at the
University of the Republic, titled "A Writer's Confession", and reissued
Esseuri despre iudaism as
Profetas y poetas. Valores permanentes y temporarios del judaísmo ("Prophets and Poets. The Permanent and Timely Values of Judaism"). In November 1956, the same company issued Relgis'
Diario de otoño ("Autumn Diary"), a collection of notes he had kept during the war years. The same year, a volume of his collected Spanish texts and studies on his work was published in Montevideo, as
Homenaje a Eugen Relgis en su 60º aniversario ("Homage to Eugen Relgis on His 60th Anniversary"). and, in 1965, his biography of Nicolai saw print in Buenos Aires.
Final years and death In 1962, Eugen Relgis visited Israel and
Jerusalem, tightening his links with the Romanian Israeli community, including the Menora Association and Rabbi David Șafran. It was in Israel that Relgis published another volume of memoirs, in his native
Romanian language:
Mărturii de ieri și de azi ("Testimonies of Yesterday and Today"). During the 1960s and '70s, as a spell of
liberalization occurred in
Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania, Relgis was again in contact with Romanian intellectuals. Before the
massive earthquake of 1977 devastated Bucharest, he was in regular correspondence with scholar Mircea Handoca. Eugen Relgis lived the final decade of his life as a pensioner of the Uruguayan state—in 1985, a law raised his
pensión graciable to 20,000
new pesos a month. In the 1980s, Relgis was exchanging letters with Romanian cultural historian
Leon Volovici, and entertained thoughts about a recovery of his work by Romanian critics and historians. He died before this could happen, in Montevideo, at age 92. ==Political doctrine==