Language:
German
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Tribüne; Zeitschrift zum Verständnis des Judentums
Angaben zur Quelle:
158 (2001) 168-181
Keywords:
Kant, Immanuel,
;
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim,
;
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb,
;
Haskalah
;
Antisemitism History 1500-1800
Abstract:
Examines the attitudes of three representatives of the German Enlightenment toward Jews. Kant's remarks are marginal: he rejects Judaism as a religion of revelation, not reason, and really not a religion at all; and he notes as a strange fact that the Jews, especially in Poland, are a nation mostly of merchants and known for cheating. Lessing, in his dramas, pleads for mutual respect between Christians and Jews and respect for their religions. Fichte, in his Enlightenment phase, sees the Jews as a state within the state, and the mightiest enemy of the peoples amongst whom they live and whom they exploit, because of their dual morality. They must by no means be granted citizenship rights, unless it were possible "to cut off their heads and replace them with others in which there is not one Jewish idea". In conclusion, points out that all of the hostile references to Jews by thinkers of the Enlightenment are incidental; none wrote a work expressly dedicated to this theme. They upheld traditional prejudices, even though these conflicted with the values of the Enlightenment.
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