Book Description: Paul Reitter, On the origins of Jewish self-hatred
Bibliographic Information Reitter, Paul, On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012) ISBN: 9780691119229
Summary
Paul Reitter’s short book is a well-written and scholarly examination of a topic that all too often seems to lack clear writing and analytic examination. Reitter accepts the notion that Conceptual history is “different” from what he calls “other kinds of history (following Reinhardt Koselleck). He notes that it has its challenges, particularly what he terms “linguistic resemblance.”He notes related terms in Modern German-Jewish history such as Jewish self-contempt, Jewish antisemitism, Jewish self-alienation, and others. These obscured the meaning of “Jewish self-hatred,” which he traces to the Viennese journalist Anton Kuh in his 1921 book “Jews and Germans.” While other historians suggest that it originated as a concept before WW1, Reitter suggests that the term “enjoyed neither prevalence nor prominence before the Great War.” Moreover, he suggests that the term “Jewish self-hatred” appeared as a dialectical oppositional response to those earlier formulations. Theodor Lessing’s 1930 book “Jewish Self-Hatred” resembled a self-help book “where your sufferings give you opportunities for self-transcendence and improving the world.” Lessing used the term “Jewish self-hatred” with a mixed positive/negative valence, seeking to identify ways Jews could free themselves from the condition. Moreover, Lessing saw Jewish self-hatred as an iteration of a widespread modern human affliction. He saw Jews well-positioned to offer the world a way out of this affliction in a redemptive way.
Context
German Jewry and its encounter with European modernity are the backgrounds for the ideational tumult described by Reitter. That Jewish context no longer exists after the Shoah. Nevertheless, to the extent that there is a general Jewish experience of Diaspora life as a minority in modern society, and even more generally to the extent that there is a broad experience of minorities and integration/rejection from majority societies, this book could have wide application.
Style
Reitter is clear, succinct, and courteous, virtues much honored in the breach.
Classroom
While high school-age students will probably not be able to use it, this book can fill many roles in academic teaching. Reitter’s clarity makes it useful in classes on Conceptual History as an academic pursuit, minorities, and majorities in society. It can also illustrate academic disagreement such that it opens grounds for further discussion rather than closing them.