Philosemites Or Antisemites

This book of essays provides a significant reappraisal if discussions of antisemitism and philosemitism. The contributors demonstrate that analysis of philosemitic attitudes is as crucial to the history of representations of Jews and Jewish culture as are investigations of antisemitism.

A broad and ambitious overview of the significance of philosemitism in European and world history, from antiquity to the present.

The attitude toward Jews of evangelical Christians is dualistic; it is the most complex and ambivalent of all Christian, and non-Christian, modern attitudes toward Jews. These Christian fundamentalists view contemporary Jews both as heirs to biblical Israel and as crucial to the coming of the messianic age. At the same time, unless they accept Jesus, Jews are spiritually and morally lost and, hence, require extensive missionary efforts. Leading evangelists often resort to negative stereotypes of Jews, although they support the State of Israel as a precursor of their messianic age. Concludes that evangelicals are neither philosemitic nor antisemitic. While some evangelical Christians opposed Hitler and Nazism, and a number even took part in the rescue of Jews, they attributed the Holocaust not to antisemitism but to the temporary triumph of anti-Christian values.

Philosemitism, Antisemitism and 'the Jews' both honours and carries on the work of The Rev. Dr. James Parkes (1896-1981), a pioneer in the many different fields involving the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations. The collection is designed to examine both the specific and broader themes of Parkes' life work in relation to tolerance and intolerance. From antiquity to today, Jews have often been defined as 'aliens'; these essays consider the effects of such legislative and socio-cultural exclusion on the self-definition of the dominant society. Philosemitism, Antisemitism and 'the Jews' employs an interdisciplinary framework, bringing together the work of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic and Israel, who work in history, theology, political philosophy, legal theory and literary studies. Eminent historians and theorists of tolerance and intolerance, including Gavin Langmuir, David Theo Goldberg, Norman Solomon and Tony Kushner, are joined by younger scholars researching new developments in the field.

Philosemitism, as Alan T. Levenson explains it, is "any pro-Jewish or pro-Judaic utterance or act." The German term for this phenomenon appeared in the language at roughly the same time as its more famous counterpart, antisemitism, and its emergence signifies an important, often neglected aspect of German-Jewish encounters. Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism offers the first assessment of the non-Jewish defense of Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness from the foundation of the German Reich in 1871 until the ascent of the Nazis in 1932, when befriending Jews became a crime.Levenson takes an interdisciplinary look at fiction, private correspondence, and published works defending Jews and Judaism in early-twentieth-century Germany. He reappraises the missionary Protestant defense of Judaism and advocacy of Jewry by members of the German peace movement. Literary analysis of middle-brow novels with positive Jewish characters and exploration of the reception of Herzlian Zionism further illuminate this often overlooked aspect of German-Jewish history. Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism shows the dynamic process by which a generally despised minority attracts defenders and supporters. It demonstrates that there was sympathy for Jews and Judaism in Imperial and Weimar Germany, although its effectiveness was bounded by the values of a bygone era and scattered across the political and social spectrum.Alan T. Levenson is a professor of Jewish history at Laura and Alvin Siegal College of Judaic Studies.

This fascinating book has two aims. The first is to draw attention to the existence of a persisting and virtually unrecognised tradition of 'philosemitism' which manifested itself in Britain and elsewhere in the English-speaking world during every significant international outbreak of antisemitism during the century after 1840. The second is to offer a typology of philosemitism, distinguishing between varieties of support for the Jewish people.

Published in Open Access with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation Historical criticism of the Bible emerged in the context of protestant theology and is confronted in every aspect of its study with otherness: the Jewish people and their writings. However, despite some important exceptions, there has been little sustained reflection on the ways in which scholarship has engaged, and continues to engage, its most significant Other. This volume offers reflections on anti-Semitism, philo-Semitism and anti-Judaism in biblical scholarship from the 19th century to the present. The essays in this volume reflect on the past and prepare a pathway for future scholarship that is mindful of its susceptibility to violence and hatred.

Philosemitism is admiration and support for Jews by non-Jews, especially during times of anti-semitic persecution. This work discusses philosemitism in Britain, America, Australia and Canada during the century between the Damascus blood libel of 1840 and the Holocaust (with a further chapter on the post-1945 situation). Philosemitism draws attention to a powerful and widespread movement which befriended the Jewish people during times of persecution, and which is all but unknown to most historians.