Language:
English
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
Jerusalem Quarterly
Angaben zur Quelle:
52 (1989) 126-144
Keywords:
Antisemitism History
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
;
National socialism Philosophy
Abstract:
An examination of the views of Shmuel Ettinger on the origins of modern antisemitism, and a reexamination of a number of fundamental concepts, proposing alternative ways of characterizing the phenomenon, its causes, and implications. Ettinger proved the inherence of the critique of Judaism as a source of anti-Jewish ideology in the main philosophical, social, and political currents of modern Europe. Traces this critique from the English Deists through the French rationalists, the Young Hegelians, Richard Wagner, and National-Socialist ideology. The critique of Judaism (and of Christianity and Marxism, seen as its offshoots) was part of an attempt at self-examination by a society and culture in crisis. The ideological, social, and political manifestations of antisemitism were concentrated in two trends: the anti-Christian, radical-rationalist critique of Judaism, which identified it with the ills of contemporary Christian society, and the conservative critique of Judaism, which identified it with the spirit of modernism. What distinguished Nazi antisemitism was its tendency to combine these two trends in an attempt to revolt against the roots of Western civilization.
Note:
Another version appeared as "The critique of Judaism in modern European thought: genuine factors and demonic perceptions" in "Demonizing the Other" (1999) 196-209.
,
Appeared also in his collected articles "German Jews in the Era of the "Final Solution", Essays on Jewish and Universal History" (2020) 63-76.
URL:
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