In this Book
- Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: Brandeis University Press
- Series: Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry & HBI Series on Jewish Women
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
summary
German-born Gerhard (Gershom) Scholem (1897–1982), the preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, delved into the historical analysis of kabbalistic literature from late antiquity to the twentieth century. His writings traverse Jewish historiography, Zionism, the phenomenology of mystical religion, and the spiritual and political condition of contemporary Judaism and Jewish civilization. Scholem famously recounted rejecting his parents’ assimilationist liberalism in favor of Zionism and immigrating to Palestine in 1923, where he became a central figure in the German Jewish immigrant community that dominated the nation’s intellectual landscape in Mandatory Palestine. Despite Scholem’s public renunciation of Germany for Israel, Zadoff explores how the life and work of Scholem reflect ambivalence toward Zionism and his German origins.
Table of Contents


- Title Page
- pp. iii-v
- Dedication
- p. vii
- Acknowledgments, Contents
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Introduction: The Metaphysical Clown
- pp. xv-xxi
- Part I: “Continuity of the Crisis”
- 1. Cultural Contexts
- pp. 3-37
- 2. A Political Circle: Brit Shalom
- pp. 38-59
- 3. Religious Contexts
- pp. 60-72
- Part II: The Unparalleled Catastrophe
- 4. Responses to the Holocaust
- pp. 75-94
- 6. The Heart of Odysseus
- pp. 142-154
- Part III: Ein Tiefes Heimweh
- 8. Between Israel and Germany
- pp. 189-221
- 9. Berlin, Again: The Finale
- pp. 222-250
- Afterword: From Berlin to Jerusalem
- pp. 251-258
- References
- pp. 295-316
- Index of Names
- pp. 317-320
Additional Information
ISBN
9781512601145
Related ISBN(s)
9781512601121, 9781512601138
MARC Record
OCLC
1106368390
Pages
320
Launched on MUSE
2019-08-19
Language
English
Open Access
Yes
Creative Commons
CC-BY-NC-ND
Copyright
2017