Daniel B. Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142913
- eISBN:
- 9781400842261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142913.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter considers why the hallmark of modern Jewish identity is its resistance to—and, at the same time, obsession with—definition. Like battles over national identity in the modern ...
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This introductory chapter considers why the hallmark of modern Jewish identity is its resistance to—and, at the same time, obsession with—definition. Like battles over national identity in the modern state, clashes over the nature and limits of Jewishness have frequently taken the shape of controversies over the status—and stature—of marginal Jews past and present. The Jewish rehabilitation of historical heretics and apostates with a vexed relationship to Judaism has become so much a part of contemporary discourse that it is difficult to imagine secular Jewish culture without it. Yet this tendency has a beginning as well as a template in modern Jewish history, which the chapter introduces in the figure of Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677)—“the first great culture-hero of modern secular Jews,” and still the most oft-mentioned candidate for the title of first modern secular Jew.Less
This introductory chapter considers why the hallmark of modern Jewish identity is its resistance to—and, at the same time, obsession with—definition. Like battles over national identity in the modern state, clashes over the nature and limits of Jewishness have frequently taken the shape of controversies over the status—and stature—of marginal Jews past and present. The Jewish rehabilitation of historical heretics and apostates with a vexed relationship to Judaism has become so much a part of contemporary discourse that it is difficult to imagine secular Jewish culture without it. Yet this tendency has a beginning as well as a template in modern Jewish history, which the chapter introduces in the figure of Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677)—“the first great culture-hero of modern secular Jews,” and still the most oft-mentioned candidate for the title of first modern secular Jew.
Ezra Mendelsohn
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112030
- eISBN:
- 9780199854608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112030.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter reviews the writings of the French Jewish critic Alain Finkielkraurt called The Imaginary Jew. Finkielkraut is the son of Polish immigrants to France who gradually became disconcerted by ...
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This chapter reviews the writings of the French Jewish critic Alain Finkielkraurt called The Imaginary Jew. Finkielkraut is the son of Polish immigrants to France who gradually became disconcerted by left-wing insensitivity to Jewish concerns and by attacks on Israel. The chapter describes Imaginary Jew as a book of occasionally perspicacious insight and one which touches the raw, exposed nerves of a modern, secular Jew.Less
This chapter reviews the writings of the French Jewish critic Alain Finkielkraurt called The Imaginary Jew. Finkielkraut is the son of Polish immigrants to France who gradually became disconcerted by left-wing insensitivity to Jewish concerns and by attacks on Israel. The chapter describes Imaginary Jew as a book of occasionally perspicacious insight and one which touches the raw, exposed nerves of a modern, secular Jew.
Daniel B. Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142913
- eISBN:
- 9781400842261
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142913.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Pioneering biblical critic, theorist of democracy, and legendary conflater of God and nature, Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was excommunicated by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in ...
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Pioneering biblical critic, theorist of democracy, and legendary conflater of God and nature, Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was excommunicated by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in 1656 for his “horrible heresies” and “monstrous deeds.” Yet, over the past three centuries, Spinoza's rupture with traditional Jewish beliefs and practices has elevated him to a prominent place in genealogies of Jewish modernity. This book provides a riveting look at how Spinoza went from being one of Judaism's most notorious outcasts to one of its most celebrated, if still highly controversial, cultural icons, and a powerful and protean symbol of the first modern secular Jew. Ranging from Amsterdam to Palestine and back again to Europe, the book chronicles Spinoza's posthumous odyssey from marginalized heretic to hero, the exemplar of a whole host of Jewish identities, including cosmopolitan, nationalist, reformist, and rejectionist. The book shows that in fashioning Spinoza into “the first modern Jew,” generations of Jewish intellectuals—German liberals, East European maskilim, secular Zionists, and Yiddishists—have projected their own dilemmas of identity onto him, reshaping the Amsterdam thinker in their own image. The many afterlives of Spinoza are a kind of looking glass into the struggles of Jewish writers over where to draw the boundaries of Jewishness and whether a secular Jewish identity is indeed possible. Cumulatively, these afterlives offer a kaleidoscopic view of modern Jewish culture and a vivid history of an obsession with Spinoza that continues to this day.Less
Pioneering biblical critic, theorist of democracy, and legendary conflater of God and nature, Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was excommunicated by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in 1656 for his “horrible heresies” and “monstrous deeds.” Yet, over the past three centuries, Spinoza's rupture with traditional Jewish beliefs and practices has elevated him to a prominent place in genealogies of Jewish modernity. This book provides a riveting look at how Spinoza went from being one of Judaism's most notorious outcasts to one of its most celebrated, if still highly controversial, cultural icons, and a powerful and protean symbol of the first modern secular Jew. Ranging from Amsterdam to Palestine and back again to Europe, the book chronicles Spinoza's posthumous odyssey from marginalized heretic to hero, the exemplar of a whole host of Jewish identities, including cosmopolitan, nationalist, reformist, and rejectionist. The book shows that in fashioning Spinoza into “the first modern Jew,” generations of Jewish intellectuals—German liberals, East European maskilim, secular Zionists, and Yiddishists—have projected their own dilemmas of identity onto him, reshaping the Amsterdam thinker in their own image. The many afterlives of Spinoza are a kind of looking glass into the struggles of Jewish writers over where to draw the boundaries of Jewishness and whether a secular Jewish identity is indeed possible. Cumulatively, these afterlives offer a kaleidoscopic view of modern Jewish culture and a vivid history of an obsession with Spinoza that continues to this day.
Jack Wertheimer
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520220430
- eISBN:
- 9780520936911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520220430.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This chapter reminds that citizens do not come to the culture wars as abstract Americans but as carriers of distinctive religious and ethnic traditions; the split between secular modernist Jews and ...
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This chapter reminds that citizens do not come to the culture wars as abstract Americans but as carriers of distinctive religious and ethnic traditions; the split between secular modernist Jews and their Orthodox brethren, even as it participates in the broader dynamic of cultural contention, has its own distinctive accents. The chapter notes that at a time of multicultural ferment, when gays, blacks, Latinos, women, fundamentalist Christians, and just about everybody else ebulliently promotes their own identities and interests in public, Jews are loathe to give credence to positions based on the particularistic traditions of Judaism. It observes that much of the public policy agenda of the organized Jewish community is still rooted in a post-World War II conception of American civil religion that soft-pedals particularism. It recommends that this approach warrants rethinking because American society has changed in recent decades and many minority groups now unabashedly put forward their own demands.Less
This chapter reminds that citizens do not come to the culture wars as abstract Americans but as carriers of distinctive religious and ethnic traditions; the split between secular modernist Jews and their Orthodox brethren, even as it participates in the broader dynamic of cultural contention, has its own distinctive accents. The chapter notes that at a time of multicultural ferment, when gays, blacks, Latinos, women, fundamentalist Christians, and just about everybody else ebulliently promotes their own identities and interests in public, Jews are loathe to give credence to positions based on the particularistic traditions of Judaism. It observes that much of the public policy agenda of the organized Jewish community is still rooted in a post-World War II conception of American civil religion that soft-pedals particularism. It recommends that this approach warrants rethinking because American society has changed in recent decades and many minority groups now unabashedly put forward their own demands.
Alan Montefiore
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153003
- eISBN:
- 9780231526791
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153003.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter explores the notion of a purely secular version of Jewish identity. It begins by considering the Posen Foundation's approach that “views a cultural perception of Judaism as one of ...
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This chapter explores the notion of a purely secular version of Jewish identity. It begins by considering the Posen Foundation's approach that “views a cultural perception of Judaism as one of several possibilities available to the modern secular Jew, along with outlooks such as national or ethnic perceptions.” It then examines the ways in which the identification of Jews as Jews is tied up with reference to traditional Jewish religious beliefs and practice. It also discusses problems associated with the very notion of a Jewish State, problems that would seem to remain even for the most secular of versions of its Jewish identity. Finally, it evaluates the claim that Israel is a democracy and correlates it with the issue of citizenship given the government's treatment of its non-Jewish citizens.Less
This chapter explores the notion of a purely secular version of Jewish identity. It begins by considering the Posen Foundation's approach that “views a cultural perception of Judaism as one of several possibilities available to the modern secular Jew, along with outlooks such as national or ethnic perceptions.” It then examines the ways in which the identification of Jews as Jews is tied up with reference to traditional Jewish religious beliefs and practice. It also discusses problems associated with the very notion of a Jewish State, problems that would seem to remain even for the most secular of versions of its Jewish identity. Finally, it evaluates the claim that Israel is a democracy and correlates it with the issue of citizenship given the government's treatment of its non-Jewish citizens.
Yair Zakovitch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814740620
- eISBN:
- 9780814724798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814740620.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter narrates how secular Jews in Europe, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, came to associate rabbinic literature with narrow-minded orthodoxy. Secular Zionists, in ...
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This chapter narrates how secular Jews in Europe, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, came to associate rabbinic literature with narrow-minded orthodoxy. Secular Zionists, in particular, wished to disassociate themselves from the shtetl—the life of traditional Jews in eastern Europe. The hand that severed the Jewish tree of knowledge left a void between the biblical period and contemporary era. The reason for this forgoing of old writings and holding on to the Bible alone can be traced to the Enlightenment, when the Jews aspired to establish their culture on the component it shared with the surrounding Christian society, to renounce the old image of the Jew, the world of the heder and the yeshiva, and to erect in its place a new Jew who jumped from the biblical period to the modern day.Less
This chapter narrates how secular Jews in Europe, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, came to associate rabbinic literature with narrow-minded orthodoxy. Secular Zionists, in particular, wished to disassociate themselves from the shtetl—the life of traditional Jews in eastern Europe. The hand that severed the Jewish tree of knowledge left a void between the biblical period and contemporary era. The reason for this forgoing of old writings and holding on to the Bible alone can be traced to the Enlightenment, when the Jews aspired to establish their culture on the component it shared with the surrounding Christian society, to renounce the old image of the Jew, the world of the heder and the yeshiva, and to erect in its place a new Jew who jumped from the biblical period to the modern day.
Alan M. Wald
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835869
- eISBN:
- 9781469601502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807837344_wald
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This book, the final volume of a trilogy, brings the author's multigenerational history of Communist writers to a climax. Using new research to explore the intimate lives of novelists, poets, and ...
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This book, the final volume of a trilogy, brings the author's multigenerational history of Communist writers to a climax. Using new research to explore the intimate lives of novelists, poets, and critics during the Cold War, it reveals a radical community longing for the rebirth of the social vision of the 1930s and struggling with a loss of moral certainty as the Communist worldview was being called into question. The resulting literature, the author shows, is a haunting record of fracture and struggle linked by common structures of feeling, ones more suggestive of the “negative dialectics” of Theodor Adorno than the traditional social realism of the Left. Establishing new points of contact among Kenneth Fearing, Ann Petry, Alexander Saxton, Richard Wright, Jo Sinclair, Thomas McGrath, and Carlos Bulosan, the author argues that these writers were in dialogue with psychoanalysis, existentialism, and postwar modernism, often generating moods of piercing emotional acuity and cosmic dissent. He also recounts the contributions of lesser-known cultural workers, with a unique accent on gays and lesbians, secular Jews, and people of color. The vexing ambiguities of an era the author labels “late antifascism” serve to frame a collective biography.Less
This book, the final volume of a trilogy, brings the author's multigenerational history of Communist writers to a climax. Using new research to explore the intimate lives of novelists, poets, and critics during the Cold War, it reveals a radical community longing for the rebirth of the social vision of the 1930s and struggling with a loss of moral certainty as the Communist worldview was being called into question. The resulting literature, the author shows, is a haunting record of fracture and struggle linked by common structures of feeling, ones more suggestive of the “negative dialectics” of Theodor Adorno than the traditional social realism of the Left. Establishing new points of contact among Kenneth Fearing, Ann Petry, Alexander Saxton, Richard Wright, Jo Sinclair, Thomas McGrath, and Carlos Bulosan, the author argues that these writers were in dialogue with psychoanalysis, existentialism, and postwar modernism, often generating moods of piercing emotional acuity and cosmic dissent. He also recounts the contributions of lesser-known cultural workers, with a unique accent on gays and lesbians, secular Jews, and people of color. The vexing ambiguities of an era the author labels “late antifascism” serve to frame a collective biography.
