Judaism within Modernity: Challenge to Survival

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Judaism within Modernity: Challenge to Survival

Leonard H. Ehrlich

This chapter is part of: Leonard H. Ehrlich et al. 2004. Textures and Meanings: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Description
Adelman’s observations and reflections lead to Leonard H. Ehrlich’s incisive philosophical analysis of what was and is at stake in the encounter between Judaism and modernity. He distills essential features of Jewish history to show that the encounter with modernity during the past 250 years marks a decisive caesura, one that “makes the very existence and future of the Jewish people and of Judaism problematic as never before.” He explores the paradox of emancipation, in which Jews are torn between civil equality and the need to respond to continuing labeling of themselves as Jews. On the one hand, Jews become powerful contributors to the forces of modernity, but, on the other hand, they are radically threatened by the very same forces, which undermine an authentic Judaism, a form of life “in accordance with the direction received from the divine ground of Being.” For Ehrlich, it is this radical challenge that defines the import of the Nazi ideology and Nazi totalitarianism in its drive to annihilate not only the Jews but Judaism from modern life. “The aim of the ‘Holocaust’ was not only the physical extermination of the Jews, but the destruction of Judaism itself, the annihilation of Jewish spiritual essence.” This essence includes the conviction that “man’s destiny is to realize himself in justice,” and is thus a direct threat to the totalitarian will. In the last section of his essay, Ehrlich turns to the need for a Jewish political power base, a need that emerged in the developments of modernity even before the Nazi onslaught, but has now become critical to the continuity of a living Judaism that can affirm the possibility of a redemption that takes place in the world of human temporality.

Description

Adelman’s observations and reflections lead to Leonard H. Ehrlich’s incisive philosophical analysis of what was and is at stake in the encounter between Judaism and modernity. He distills essential features of Jewish history to show that the encounter with modernity during the past 250 years marks a decisive caesura, one that “makes the very existence and future of the Jewish people and of Judaism problematic as never before.” He explores the paradox of emancipation, in which Jews are torn between civil equality and the need to respond to continuing labeling of themselves as Jews. On the one hand, Jews become powerful contributors to the forces of modernity, but, on the other hand, they are radically threatened by the very same forces, which undermine an authentic Judaism, a form of life “in accordance with the direction received from the divine ground of Being.” For Ehrlich, it is this radical challenge that defines the import of the Nazi ideology and Nazi totalitarianism in its drive to annihilate not only the Jews but Judaism from modern life. “The aim of the ‘Holocaust’ was not only the physical extermination of the Jews, but the destruction of Judaism itself, the annihilation of Jewish spiritual essence.” This essence includes the conviction that “man’s destiny is to realize himself in justice,” and is thus a direct threat to the totalitarian will. In the last section of his essay, Ehrlich turns to the need for a Jewish political power base, a need that emerged in the developments of modernity even before the Nazi onslaught, but has now become critical to the continuity of a living Judaism that can affirm the possibility of a redemption that takes place in the world of human temporality.

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Published	Published By
Aug. 1, 2004	University of Massachusetts Amherst
Citation
Ehrlich L. 2004. Judaism within Modernity: Challenge to Survival. In Leonard H. Ehrlich et al. 2004. Textures and Meanings: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst