Editors:
Provides in-depth discussions of a number of historical cases in which Jews serve as the legitimization of non-Jewish ideas, values, decisions, and exploits
Shows the complexity of inter-ethnic and religious relationships by emphasizing the legitimizing value of the (Jewish) minority for the (non-Jewish) majority
Takes understanding of inter-ethnic and religious relationships beyond the polarities of oppressors and oppressed, dominating and dominated, and colonizing and colonized
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Table of contents (16 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Throughout history, Jews and Judaism have served to legitimize the beliefs of Gentiles. Jews functioned as Augustine’s witnesses to the truth of Christianity, as Christian Kabbalist’s source for Protestant truths, as an argument for the enlightened claim for tolerance, as the focus of modern Christian Zionist reverence, and as a weapon of contemporary right wing populism against fears of Islamization.
This volume challenges understandings of Jewish-Gentile relations, offering a counter-perspective to discourses of antisemitism and philosemitism.
Reviews
“This volume brings together an array of distinguished scholars to pose a new and stimulating question: how have the Jews--or more accurately, the idea of the Jews--served as a source of legitimation for non-Jews? Ranging from the Augustinian notion of Jewish witness to the Catholic deployment of Jews in the post WWII opening, these essays chart out the wide, though largely unexplored, terrain between triumphalist and lachrymose accounts of the Jewish past. David Wertheim is to be applauded for encouraging the contributors to shed new conceptual light on old, but important, questions.” (David N. Myers, University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
“This book is one of the most important collections dealing with the tenuous and often conflict-riddled relationships between various forms of Judaism and Christianity in Western Europe from the early Church to the post war periods. Each essay brings new and important insights into how Jews and Judaism have been made to seem instrumental to arguments that often have little to do with actual Jews or Jewish practice. This book is more than useful; it’s an important addition to our understanding of the public use of Jews in contexts that define as well as limit them.” (Sander L. Gilman, Emory University, USA)
Editors and Affiliations
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Menasseh ben Israel Institute for Jewish Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
David J. Wertheim
About the editor
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Jew as Legitimation
Book Subtitle: Jewish-Gentile Relations Beyond Antisemitism and Philosemitism
Editors: David J. Wertheim
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42601-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-42600-6Published: 07 February 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-82617-2Published: 15 July 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-42601-3Published: 20 January 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 304
Number of Illustrations: 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: Jewish Cultural Studies, History of Modern Europe, Comparative Religion