Against the Grain: Jewish Intellectuals in Hard Times

Published by Berghahn Books 2013

Against the Grain

Jewish Intellectuals in Hard Times

Edited by: Ezra Mendelsohn , Stefani Hoffman and Richard I. Cohen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782380030

Overview
Contents

About this book

Highlighting the seminal role of German Jewish intellectuals and ideologues in forming and transforming the modern Jewish world, this volume analyzes the political roads taken by German Jewish thinkers; the impact of the Holocaust on the Central and East European Jewish intelligentsia; and the conundrum of modern Jewish identity. Several of German Jewry’s most outstanding figures such as Scholem, Strauss, and Kohn are discussed. Inspired by Steven E. Aschheim’s work, several contributors focus on the fraught relationship between German and East European Jews (the so-called Ostjuden) and between German Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors. More generally, this book examines how Central European Jewish thinkers reacted to the terrible crises of the twentieth century—to war, genocide, and the existential threat to the very existence of the Jewish people. It is essential reading for those interested in the triumphs and tragedies of modern European Jewry.

Author / Editor information

Ezra Mendelsohn (1940-2015) was Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry and in Russian Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was author of Painting a People: Maurycy Gottlieb and Jewish Art (2002).

Stefani Hoffman is the former director of the Mayrock Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Research at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is co-editor of Insiders and Outsiders: Dilemmas of East European Jewry (with Richard I. Cohen and Jonathan Frankel, 2010).

Richard I. Cohen holds the Paulette and Claude Kelman Chair in French Jewry Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has recently edited Visualizing and Exhibiting Jewish Space and History (vol. 26 of Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2012).

Ezra Mendelsohn (1940-2015) was Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry and in Russian Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was author of Painting a People: Maurycy Gottlieb and Jewish Art (2002).

Reviews

“…a stellar anthology that belongs not only in every university library but also in the libraries of Jewish institutions serving serious readers.” · Jewish Book World

“[T]he essays are well-written, clear, and interesting…the collection reads well and is informed by a high level of scholarship and expertise and has a diversity that should appeal to many readers.” · Michael L. Morgan, Chancellor’s Professor, Emeritus, Indiana University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Editors’ Note Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: Reading Steven Aschheim Ezra Mendelsohn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Strauss, Scholem, Arendt, Benjamin
Chapter 1 A Zionist Critique of Jewish Politics: The Early Thought of Leo Strauss Jerry Z. Muller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter 2 Leo Strauss Reading Karl Marx during the Cold War Adi Armon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
Chapter 3 Gershom Scholem, Einst und Jetzt: Zionist Politics and Kabbalistic Historiography David Biale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Chapter 4 Death or Birth: Scholem and Secularization Zohar Maor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
Chapter 5 Fragments from a Correspondence (Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem) A Poem Zvi Jagendorf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
Part II Politica Positioning in Hard Times
Chapter 6 In Heidegger’s Shadow: Ernst Cassirer, Emmanuel Levinas, and the Question of the Political Jeffrey Andrew Barash Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter 7 Walther Rathenau’s Dilemma: Modernity and the Human Soul Shulamit Volkov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
Chapter 8 “Nothing But a Disillusioned Love”? Hans Kohn’s Break with the Zionist Movement Adi Gordon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Chapter 9 Historicism and the Event Martin Jay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Part III Brothers and Strangers: The Issue of Identity
Chapter 10 Asiatic Brothers, European Strangers: Eugen Hoeflich and Pan-Asian Zionism in Vienna Hanan Harif Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Chapter 11 “Brothers and Strangers” The American Example Pierre Birnbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Chapter 12 “Man Kann Verjuden” Paradoxes of Exemplarity Vivian Liska Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Part IV In the Shadow of the Holocaust
Chapter 13 A “Usable Past” and the Crisis of European Jews: Popular Jewish Historiography in Germany, France, and Hungary in the 1930s Guy Miron Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Chapter 14 Three Jewish Émigrés at Nuremberg: Jacob Robinson, Hersch Lauterpacht, and Raphael Lemkin Michael R. Marrus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Chapter 15 The Frankfurt School and the “Jewish Question,” 1940–1970 Anson Rabinbach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Chapter 16 Holocaust History and Survivor Testimony: Challenges, Limitations, and Opportunities Christopher R. Browning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 320
Keywords: Jewish Studies; History: 20th Century to Present

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9781782380030