Gershom Scholem: From Berlin To Jerusalem And Back (the Tauber Institute Series For The Study Of European Jewry)
by Noam Zadoff /
2017 / English / EPUB
8.2 MB Download
The German-born Gerhard (Gershom) Scholem (1897–1982), the
preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, delved into the historical
analysis of kabbalistic literature from late antiquity to the
twentieth century. His writings traverse Jewish historiography,
Zionism, the phenomenology of mystical religion, and the spiritual
and political condition of contemporary Judaism and Jewish
civilization. During his lifetime, he published over forty volumes
and close to seven hundred articles and trained at least three
generations of scholars of Jewish thought, many of whom still teach
in Israel, Europe, and North America.
The German-born Gerhard (Gershom) Scholem (1897–1982), the
preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, delved into the historical
analysis of kabbalistic literature from late antiquity to the
twentieth century. His writings traverse Jewish historiography,
Zionism, the phenomenology of mystical religion, and the spiritual
and political condition of contemporary Judaism and Jewish
civilization. During his lifetime, he published over forty volumes
and close to seven hundred articles and trained at least three
generations of scholars of Jewish thought, many of whom still teach
in Israel, Europe, and North America.
Scholem famously recounted rejecting his parents’ assimilationist
liberalism in favor of Zionism and immigrating to Palestine in
1923, where he became a central figure in the German Jewish
immigrant community that dominated the nation’s intellectual
landscape in Mandate Palestine until the World War II. Despite
Scholem’s public renunciation of Germany for Israel, Zadoff
explores how life and work of Scholem reflect ambivalence toward
Zionism and his German origins.
Scholem famously recounted rejecting his parents’ assimilationist
liberalism in favor of Zionism and immigrating to Palestine in
1923, where he became a central figure in the German Jewish
immigrant community that dominated the nation’s intellectual
landscape in Mandate Palestine until the World War II. Despite
Scholem’s public renunciation of Germany for Israel, Zadoff
explores how life and work of Scholem reflect ambivalence toward
Zionism and his German origins.
Zadoff divides the book into three parts. He first examines how
Scholem created new academic and social circles in Palestine, while
at the same time continuing to publish in German and take part in
Jewish cultural projects in his country of origin. Zadoff then
turns to the reaction of Scholem to the Holocaust and its
aftermath, which constituted a turning point in his life. The third
part of the book deals with Scholem’s gradual return to the German
intellectual world after World War II.
Zadoff divides the book into three parts. He first examines how
Scholem created new academic and social circles in Palestine, while
at the same time continuing to publish in German and take part in
Jewish cultural projects in his country of origin. Zadoff then
turns to the reaction of Scholem to the Holocaust and its
aftermath, which constituted a turning point in his life. The third
part of the book deals with Scholem’s gradual return to the German
intellectual world after World War II.
Zadoff's erudite interpretations of Scholem’s scholarship, embedded
in its rich social and cultural contexts, show anew the remarkable
contested worlds Scholem inhabited, resisted, and accommodated
to—sometimes in ways that ran counter to his own
self-portrait.
Zadoff's erudite interpretations of Scholem’s scholarship, embedded
in its rich social and cultural contexts, show anew the remarkable
contested worlds Scholem inhabited, resisted, and accommodated
to—sometimes in ways that ran counter to his own
self-portrait.Hardcover is un-jacketed.
Hardcover is un-jacketed.