Makers of Jewish Modernity: Thinkers, Artists, Leaders, and the World They Made

by Jacques Picard (Editor), Jacques Revel (Editor), Michael P. Steinberg (Editor), Idith Zertal (Editor)

Overview

A unique reference to leading Jewish figures who helped shape the modern world

This superb collection presents more than forty incisive portraits of leading Jewish thinkers, artists, scientists, and other public figures of the last hundred years who, in their own unique ways, engaged with and helped shape the modern world.

Makers of Jewish Modernity features entries on political figures such as Walther Rathenau, Rosa Luxemburg, and David Ben-Gurion; philosophers and critics such as Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler; and artists such as Mark Rothko. The book provides fresh insights into the lives and careers of novelists like Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth; the filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen; social scientists such as Sigmund Freud; religious leaders and thinkers such as Avraham Kook and Martin Buber; and many others. Written by a diverse group of leading contemporary scholars from around the world, these vibrant and frequently surprising portraits offer a global perspective that highlights the multiplicity of Jewish experience and thought.

A reference book like no other, Makers of Jewish Modernity includes an informative general introduction that situates its subjects within the broader context of Jewish modernity as well as a rich selection of photos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691164236
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/09/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Jacques Picard is professor of modern and Jewish history and cultures at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Jacques Revel is a cultural historian and former president of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in France. Michael P. Steinberg is vice provost for the arts, the Barnaby Conrad and Mary Critchfield Keeney Professor of History, and professor of music and German studies at Brown University. Idith Zertal is an Israeli historian and essayist who has taught at the University of Basel, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Zertal's books and essays have been published in many languages.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Thinking Jewish Modernity, 1

Jacques Picard, Jacques Revel, Michael P. Steinberg, Idith Zertal

2. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Judaism Essential and Mysterious, 16

Lydia Flem

3. Émile Durkheim (1858–1917): Modern Society and the Jews, 30

Bruno Karsenti

4. Theodor Herzl (1860–1904): Sovereignty and the Two Palestines, 46

Raef Zreik

5. Simon Dubnow (1860–1941): Reluctant Secularism, 61

Dan Diner

6. Bernard Lazare (1865–1903): Radical Modernism and Jewish Identity, 75

Nathaniel Berman

7. Avraham Yitzhak Ha-Cohen Kook (1865–1935): Revelation and Redemption, 92

Yehudah Mirsky

8. Aby Warburg (1866–1929): “Thinking Jewish” in Modernity, 108

Griselda Pollock

9. Walther Rathenau (1867–1922): Bildung, Prescription, Prophecy, 126

Leon Botstein

10. Else Lasker-Schüler (1869–1945): Poetic Redemption, 144

Vivian Liska

11. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919): Universalism and Particularism, 159

Kevin B. Anderson and Peter Hudis

12. Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): Sonic Allegories, 173

Ruth HaCohen

13. Martin Buber (1878–1965): The Theopolitical Hour, 187

Christoph Schmidt

14. Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Solidarity and Ambivalence, 204

Robert Schulmann

15. Horace Kallen (1882–1974): Pragmatic Modernism, 220

Jacques Picard
16. Franz Kafka (1883–1924): Writing in Motion, 233

Galili Shahar

17. David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973): The Politicization of the Jews, 249

Yar on Ezrahi

18. Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929): On the Idea of Diaspora, 265

Peter E. Gordon

19. René Cassin (1887–1976): Human Rights and Jewish Internationalism, 278

Samuel Moyn

20. Shmuel Yoseph Agnon (1888–1970): Baptism by Fire, 292

Ariel Hirschfeld

21. Walter Benjamin (1892–1940): Anti-apocalyptic World Politics, 306

Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky

22. Peretz Markish (1895–1952): Modern Marxist and Yiddishist, 320

David Shneer and Robert Adler Peckerar

23. Gershom Scholem (1897–1982): Mystical Modernism, 335

David Biale

24. Leo Strauss (1899–1973): Protestant Judaism and Its Islamic Remedy, 350

Leora F. Batnitzky

25. Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994): A Believer’s Voyage, 364

Avi Sagi

26. Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969): Auschwitz and Commodity Fetishism, 379

Moshe Zuckermann

27. Mark Rothko (1903–1970): Beyond Absence, 393

Ulrike Gehring

28. Elias Canetti (1905–1994): A Difficult Contemporary, 407

Galin Tihanov

29. Emmanuel Levinas (1905–1995): Tradition and Its Other, 423

Raphael Zagury-Orly

30. Hannah Arendt (1906–1975): Being in the Present, 436

Martine Leibovici

31. Arnaldo Momigliano (1908–1987): Judaism Past and Present, 450

Silvia Berti

32. Simone Weil (1909–1943): A Jewish Thinker?, 466

Maud S. Mandel

33. Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997):

Unpretentious Passion, 480

Yuli Tamir

34. Nathan Alterman (1910–1970): Poetry National and Political, 493

Hannan Hever

35. Saul Bellow (1915–2005): Athens and Jerusalem, 507

Steven Jaron

36. Primo Levi (1919–1987): Memory and Enlightenment, 520
Enzo Traverso
37. Paul Celan (1920–1970): The Word Proscribed, 535

Arnau Pons

38. Clarice Lispector (1920–1977): A Woman of Spirit, 550

Nelson H. Vieira

39. Juan Gelman (1930–2014): The Bereaved Bird, 564

Pablo Kirtchuk

40. Jacques Derrida (1930–2004): Judeities, 583

Joseph Cohen

41. Philip Roth (1933–): Writing the American Jewish Century, 597

Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi

42. Dahlia Ravikovitch (1936–2005): Poetry, Power, Powerlessness, 613

Chana Kronfeld and Chana Bloch

43. Joel and Ethan Coen (1954–/ 1957–): Finding Rabbi Marshak, 629

Daniel Herwitz

44. Judith Butler (1956–): Between Ethics and Politics, 642

Bonnie Honig and John Wolfe Ackerman

Acknowledgments 655

List of Contributors (Editors and Authors) 657

Illustration Credits 661

Index 663

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A rich, fresh, and important contribution to the literature on Jewish modernity."—Daniel B. Schwartz, author of The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image

"Intriguing, stimulating, and enjoyable. These intelligent, informative essays are marvels of concision and presentation."—Jeremy Dauber, author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye

Editorial Reviews

07/25/2016
The editors of this essay collection exceed their stated goal of showing how various Jewish public figures “transformed the 20th century,” through 43 profiles of subjects both expected (Freud, Einstein, Kafka, Ben-Gurion) and surprising (novelist Clarice Lispector, poet Dahlia Ravikovitch, filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen). The target audience is more academic than lay, as section headings such as “Pragmatism and Boasian Anthropology” suggest. However, those nonacademics willing to struggle through sometimes dense prose (“The codes of any transformation can generally be read in shifting episteme (or epistemes)”) will find thought-provoking explorations of the varying ways Jewish identity has influenced, and been influenced by, changes in every imaginable field, including science, art, and politics. The mix of subjects is truly diverse, embracing Jews who were deeply religious (such as Rabbi Avraham Kook) and those who were fiercely secular (such as Rosa Luxembourg), and the diversity extends to geography as well. The entries, which assume no prior knowledge, convey a great deal of information and cogent analysis in a short space. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Substantial. . . . It weaves together accounts of both the thoughts and lives of these varied but influential twentieth-century Jews."

Theology

Winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award in Anthologies and Collections, Jewish Book Council

From the Publisher

2016-06-01
An intellectual history of 20th-century Judaism.An adept crew of editors and writers takes on the arduous task of documenting two difficult-to-define concepts: modernity and Judaism. The result is a hefty collection of 44 biographical essays of Jews born as early as the 1850s and as late as the 1950s. The editors identify a full range of individuals to profile, from poets to artists to scientists to politicians. The work begins with a somewhat cumbersome introduction authored by the four editors. "Modernity…can be understood, as we have seen, as a border- and contact-zone: as liminal spaces and liminal times, in which rituals of transformation and of renewal and conversion are believed and staged—and this is expressed in a great deal of critique." Indeed, each contributor puts forth his or her own expression of what "modernity" is—at least in regards to their own particular subject matter. Various themes run throughout the book, perhaps chief among these being assimilation. Virtually every person profiled is or was, in one way or another, "assimilated" into another, non-Jewish culture. In some cases, that assimilation was muted, though quite real (Abraham Isaac Kook); in other cases, it was quite complete (Simone Weil). Socialism is another recurring theme, as various individuals promoted or at least confronted the new realities of socialist theory and practice in 20th-century Europe. Of course, also playing significant roles are such motifs as anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the inescapable reality of Hitler's reign. Readers will find an impressive range of personalities from a wide variety of disciplines, including the arts (Mark Rothko), the sciences (Freud, Einstein), literature (Elsa Lasker-Schüler, Kafka, Bellow, Levi, Lispector), statecraft (David Ben-Gurion), philosophy (Buber, Derrida), and a host of others. A worthwhile collection for scholars and readers interested in Jewish affairs.

Kirkus Reviews