The First Modern Jew (ebook)

Argumento de The First Modern Jew (ebook)

"This is a spectacular book, deeply researched and brilliantly written, on a riveting subject--the historical reception of Spinoza from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Schwartz demonstrates his command of European philosophy, modern European Jewish history, Hebrew and Yiddish literature, and Zionist culture. A tour de force."--David Biale, University of California, Davis

"In this daring and outstanding book, Schwartz does a superb job of bringing Spinoza back to life in a number of diverse and intriguing historical contexts. A full-bodied cultural history, attentive to the various settings in which Spinoza was rediscovered and revivified, this is the most wide-ranging, historically grounded, and illuminating book that has been written on the subject."--David N. Myers, University of California, Los Angeles

"Whether Baruch Spinoza was 'the first modern Jew,' as the title of this outstanding volume suggests, has been a subject of continuing debate. . . . Schwartz displays admirable versatility in tracing the idolizations, disputes, and ambivalences evoked by Spinoza in Germany (Moses Mendelssohn and Berthold Auerbach) and eastern Europe (Salomon Rubin), within Zionism (Yosef Klausner), and in Yiddish literature (Isaac Bashevis Singer). . . . Essential."--M. A. Meyer, Choice

"Schwartz has written a superb study that not only presents Spinoza as a thinker who fits uneasily into the modernist categories of ‘religious’ and ‘secular’: he has also composed a daring challenge to the popular interpretation of the modern age as a purely secular affair that left religion behind over 300 years ago."--Grant Havers, European Legacy

"We have long needed a thorough and careful study of the various ways in which Spinoza has been appropriated by Jewish causes and movements. Daniel Schwartz's welcome book takes a close look for the first time at what the author calls 'the rehabilitation of Spinoza in Jewish culture.'"--Steven Nadler, Times Literary Supplement

"[P]assionate arguments, of the kind now richly documented by Schwartz, about Spinoza's Jewishness and his relevance to our times, still enrich and enrage . . . and probably will continue to do so--without end."--Allan Nadler, Forward.com

"This is the first full-scale history of Spinoza's reception among Jews. . . . [I]t clearly demonstrates how this excluded philosopher could be viewed as religious or secular, as more Baruch or more Benedict, but almost necessarily as a touchstone in defining Jewish identity in the modern age."--Choice

Co-Winner of the 2012 Salo Wittmayer Baron Prize, American Academy for Jewish Research
Finalist for the 2012 National Jewish Book Award in History

"With extensive and helpful notes, an index and a bibliography, this work is highly recommended for all academic collections that deal with Jews and Judaism in the modern age."--Marion M. Stein, Classical World0List of Illustrations ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Note on Translations and Romanization xvii
Introduction 1
Spinoza's Jewish Modernities
Chapter 1: Ex-Jew, Eternal Jew: 15
Early Representations of the Jewish Spinoza
Chapter 2: Refining Spinoza: 35
Moses Mendelssohn's Response to the Amsterdam Heretic
Chapter 3: The First Modern Jew: 55
Berthold Auerbach's Spinoza and the Beginnings of an Image
Chapter 4: A Rebel against the Past, A Revealer of Secrets: 81
Salomon Rubin and the East European Maskilic Spinoza
Chapter 5: From the Heights of Mount Scopus: 113
Yosef Klausner and the Zionist Rehabilitation of Spinoza
Chapter 6: Farewell, Spinoza: 155
I. B. Singer and the Tragicomedy of the Jewish Spinozist
Epilogue: 189
Spinoza Redivivus in the Twenty-First Century
Notes 203
Bibliography 247
Index 265