Rootism, Modernity, and the Jew
Antisemitism and the Reactionary Imaginary, 1789–1945
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12673173 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ishay Landa (0000-0002-3139-6023, Associate Professor, Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel Petah Tikva Israel, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 124-162 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Historical Materialism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-4466 • E-ISSN: 1569-206X |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/1569206x-bja10053 |
| OpenAlex | W4403159419 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
The far-right identification of Jews with modernity has been noted by many scholars, yet most analyses have fallen short of offering a properly dialectical account of antisemitism, one that will scrutinise the antinomies at the heart of the antisemitic discourse and trace their relations to the contradictions of modernity itself. In this paper, I will make modernity as movement the focus of the analysis. Modernity, philosophically underpinned by the Enlightenment, and politically ushered in by the French Revolution of 1789, was seen by its reactionary and fascist opponents both as a time of great upheaval, constant change and social disruption, but also as the setting-up of an era of stasis and degeneration. It was paradoxically decried, sometimes simultaneously, as both helplessly nomadic and incurably sedentary . And in both respects ‘the Jew’ and ‘the Jewish spirit’ were often placed, no matter how spuriously, at the very centre of attacks. Qua ‘wandering’ or ‘eternal’, the Jews were seen as embodying the spirit of restlessness and lack of roots, undermining tradition and fixed national and racial identities; their dynamic role as revolutionaries, conspirators and rabble rousers was ritually denounced. Jews were also condemned, however, as a major obstacle to movement and expansion, the arch-enemies of imperialism, seeking to establish a realm of universal brotherhood, peace and egalitarianism. By attacking the Jews, reactionaries and fascists thus attempted to settle their scores with a modernity that they feared and loathed in equal measure
Aesthetics · Antisemitism · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Jewish question · Judaism · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Reactionary · Realm · Theology · German legal, social, and political studies · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity · Religious studies
Zakhor, Jewish history and Jewish memory
The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Political Thought
Grundrisse
Historical Materialism Book Series
Der Faschismus in Seiner Epoche
Germans, Jews and the Claims of Modernity
Selected Writings. Volume 1
Revolt Against the Modern World
Building the Visible Immortality of the Nation
A World without Jews
Inhumanities
Ponderings XII–XV
Anti-Semitism and National Socialism
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |