A Homeland for the Jews? A refuge from antisemitism and the cruelty of the mob! Relief from grinding poverty. Freedom from the caprices of despots! A place for Jewish religion and culture to flourish! The dream that Theodor Herzl gave voice to at the end of the 19th century was largely a response to discrimination against Jews and Jewish poverty…
In Stranger in a Strange Land, George Prochnik revisits the life and work of Gershom Scholem, whose once prominent reputation, as a Freud-like interpreter of the inner world of the cosmos, has faded in the United States. He vividly recreates Scholem’s upbringing in Berlin and brings to life Scholem’s transformative friendship with Walter Benjamin, the critic and philosopher. In doing so,…
In March 1968, in reaction to a student rebellion, the communist government of Poland launched a noisy propaganda campaign against the alleged Zionists, who were accused of a conspiracy to undermine socialist Poland. The campaign of slander, harassment, and persecution forced half of Poland’s Jews into exile and deeply affected the life of those who remained. For the fiftieth anniversary…