Language:
German
Year of publication:
2009
Titel der Quelle:
Naharaim
Angaben zur Quelle:
3,2 (2009) 218-236
Keywords:
Finkielkraut, Alain
;
Lévy, Benny,
;
Holocaust (Jewish theology)
;
Secular Jews
;
National characteristics, Israeli
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Jews History 21st century
;
Israel History
;
Philosophy
Abstract:
Compares Alain Finkielkraut's and Benny Lévy's views on memory of the Shoah, secularization, and antisemitism, as expressed in dialogues conducted at the Lévinas center in Jerusalem between 2001-03. Finkielkraut argues that memory of the Shoah has become obsessive and omnipresent and, instead of protecting Israel, leads to a simplified, black-and-white worldview, which ultimately works against Israel. "Absolute politics", the belief that evil can be totally erased, fits in with today's French secular culture, which absolutizes individual freedom and equality, and views every entity limiting human rights as the incarnation of evil. The Jews are persecuted because their national identity, in reaction to the Shoah, conflicts with today's assimilatory tendencies. Lévy, on the other hand, views the memory of the Shoah as threatened by Christian "Paulian" society's tendency to forget, as opposed to Judaism, which regards memory as imperative. The current surge of antisemitism and harsh criticism of Israel proves that the Shoah has been forgotten. However, he agrees with Finkielkraut that secularization in the non-Jewish world threatens the Jews, whose vertically-oriented "being" conflicts with the horizontal universalism of others. Since the Jews are ontologically and metaphysically different from others, memory of the Shoah can be perpetuated only by them. Concludes that although the classical type of secularism embraced by Finkielkraut, in the face of today's secularity, is forced to defend the idea of a supra-individual entity, like that expressed by the religious Lévy, the two philosophers cannot agree on other points. Mattern views Lévy as the winner of the debate.
DOI:
10.1515/naha.2009.013
URL:
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