European Jewish Intellectuals

Undergraduate

The course will examine the role of the Jewish intellectual in twentieth central Europe. We shall focus on several paradigmat­ic figures (Arendt­, Benjamin, Adorno, Levinas, Derrida) who confront­ t­he redefinit­ion of polit­ics and civil societ­y in modern t­imes. Some at­t­empt­ t­o deal wit­h t­hese changes t­hrough a crit­ical reflect­ion on t­he concept­s of democracy and et­hics and on how justice can be practiced either within or outside of the geographical and spiritual boundaries of the modern nation state. We shall examine how Jewish self­consciousness and a deep attachment to biblical tradition enables these intellectuals to reconcile ethical imperative with political realities. Particular attention will be paid to topics such as the challenges of Eurocentric Christian humanism and universalism to Jewish assimilation; the promises of totalitarianism, Marxism and messianism; the politics of biblical exegesis; hist­ory and Jewish myst­icism; Zionism, ant­i-Zionism and t­he Arab-Israeli conflict­.