Reflections on "The Jewish Question"

Catalog description

In the mid-19th century, “the Jewish Question” became a galvanizing topic of debate among European thinkers with diverse political and theological orientations. In the wake of the French Revolution, and in an era of “questions” of minorities of all kinds, kindled by ideas of emancipation and equality, “the Jewish Question” centered on promoting or blocking Jewish “assimilation” and was driven by interpretations of Jewish otherness, the possibility of its transformation, and its meaning as a metonym for/a symptom of a secularized civil society. The goal of this seminar is to become acquainted with the history of “the Jewish Question” to reframe it for the contemporary historical moment; to do so without adopting the terms of the 19th century’s Question; and to understand the ways and meaning of asking “the Question” today without necessarily offering it any "solutions."