Podcasts about jerusalem memories

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Best podcasts about jerusalem memories

Latest podcast episodes about jerusalem memories

A Very Square Peg: The Strange and Remarkable Life the Polymath Robert Eisler

In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler's infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler's 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler's frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books Network
A Very Square Peg: A Podcast Series about Polymath Robert Eisler. Episode 4: Women’s Coats and Beach Cabanas

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2020 49:24


In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler’s infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler’s 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler’s frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Biography
A Very Square Peg: A Podcast Series about Polymath Robert Eisler. Episode 4: Women’s Coats and Beach Cabanas

New Books in Biography

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2020 49:24


In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler’s infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler’s 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler’s frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in German Studies
A Very Square Peg: A Podcast Series about Polymath Robert Eisler. Episode 4: Women’s Coats and Beach Cabanas

New Books in German Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2020 49:24


In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler’s infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler’s 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler’s frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Intellectual History
A Very Square Peg: A Podcast Series about Polymath Robert Eisler. Episode 4: Women's Coats and Beach Cabanas

New Books in Intellectual History

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2020 49:24


In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler's infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler's 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler's frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

New Books in Israel Studies
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)

New Books in Israel Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 74:11


Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in German Studies
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)

New Books in German Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 74:11


Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Biography
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)

New Books in Biography

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 74:24


Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Jewish Studies
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)

New Books in Jewish Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 74:11


Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books Network
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 74:11


Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Intellectual History
Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)

New Books in Intellectual History

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2018 74:24


Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices