David N. Myers - Resisting History

RESISTING HISTORY

JEWS, CHRISTIANS, AND MUSLIMS FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE MODERN WORLD

SERIES EDITORS

R. Stephen Humphreys, William Chester Jordan, and Peter Schfer

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by Gretchen D. Starr-LeBeau

The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

by David M. Goldenberg

Resisting History: Historicism and Its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought

by David N. Myers

RESISTING HISTORY

HISTORICISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS IN GERMAN- JEWISH THOUGHT

DAVID N. MYERS

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2003 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place,

Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Myers, David N.

Resisting history : historicism and its discontents in German-Jewish thought / David N. Myers.

p. cm. (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 0-691-11593-1

eISBN 978-1-400-83256-9

1. Jewish learning and scholarshipGermanyHistory19th century. 2. Jewish learning and scholarshipGermanyHistory20th century. 3. JudaismHistoriography.4. HistoricismHistory. 5. Cohen, Hermann, 18421918Views on historicism.6. Rosenzweig, Franz, 18861929Views on historicism. 7. Strauss, LeoViews on historicism. 8. Breuer, Isaac, 18831946Views on historicism. I. Title. II. Series.

BM195.M94 2003

181'.06dc21 2003049790

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

https://press.princeton.edu/

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

R0

For Nomi

Yehuda Amichai (19242000)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A pair of grants in 1995 provided the initial impetus to embark on this project. A Leo Baeck Institute/DAAD Fellowship in German-Jewish History allowed me to delve into the life and thought of Franz Rosenzweig, a key figure in this book, by combing the archival holdings at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. Shortly thereafter I had the good fortune of spending a semester as a fellow of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies in Philadelphia. The Centers wonderful library, superb staff, convivial intellectual surroundings, and indefatigable director, David Ruderman, assisted me in laying out the first blueprint of this book.

I would also like to thank the staff and faculty colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where I served as a visiting scholar in the fall semester of 1997. This half-year in Israel gave me an opportunity to present my still rudimentary ideas on the problem of history in German-Jewish thought to learned audiences in Jerusalem and Beersheva. Three years later I was able to offer a more refined version of my thinking when a trusted colleague, Shmuel Feiner, invited me to deliver the Braun Lecture on the History of the Jews in Prussia at Bar-Ilan University in May 2000.

The bulk of this book was written in the following year in Los Angeles, when I had a sabbatical from the UCLA Department of History. I would like to extend sincere thanks to Dean Scott Waugh (Social Sciences), Dean Pauline Yu (Humanities), and Professor Brenda Stevenson (then chair of the History Department) for their generous support. Likewise, I thank the UCLA Academic Senate for its ongoing commitment to faculty research on campus, including my own.

A number of colleagues were generous enough to read parts of this book at different stages of writing. They include Arnold Band, John Efron, David Ellenson, Shaul Friedlnder, Maurice Kriegel, and Adam Rubin. I would especially like to thank a number of outstanding young scholars, all trailblazers in the study of German-Jewish thought, who offered illuminating comments upon various chapters: Leora Batnitzky, Peter Gordon, Samuel Moyn, and Eugene Sheppard. Excellent research assistance came from Jeff Blutinger, Dante Camargo, Stephanie Chasin, Tal Gozani, Didier Reiss, and the irrepressible Barry Trachtenberg. For stimulating conversation that contributed to (and, at times, thankfully distracted me from) this book, I owe a debt of gratitude to Jackie Ellenson and Chaim Seidler-Feller.

In the final stage of preparing the book for publication, Michael Brenner, Moshe Idel, and Richard Wolin read the entire manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions. I have tried to incorporate most of them, but fear that I have not done full justice to the richness of their insights. Thanks are also due Peter Schfer, who graciously agreed to consider this book for a series he coedits at Princeton University Press and then shared a most illuminating chapter of his own work that overlaps substantially with mine. The Press has been a delight to work with, especially Marsha Kunin, who copyedited the book and, above all, Brigitta van Rheinberg, who has been a most supportive and sage editor.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to two women who have left an indelible imprint on me. My grandmother, Libbye Myers zl, passed away in 2002, less than three months shy of her 106th birthday. In the course of her long and extraordinary life, she imparted to me an abiding respect for tradition (and its dynamism), perseverance, and the benefits of unconditional love.

Last but not least, Nomi Maya Stolzenberg has been my partner for half of my life. We have grown up together and, in the process, created our own familial web in which Avital, Noa, and Sara are enmeshed. For reasons not entirely clear, Nomi continues to tolerate me. For reasons that are much clearer, she continues to inspire me. Nomi is the true spiritual custodian of this book, having presided over its conception and maturation with her customary love, generosity, and keen mind.

A NOTE ON THE COVER

T he cover of this book features a painting entitled The Jew Etc. by R. B. Kitaj (in black-and-white on ), an artist whom I have always admired. It was one of the typically unexpected pleasures of living in Los Angeles that I came to meet Kitaj a short while after he moved back to the United States from London. Since that time, he has become a wonderful friend and conversation partner. When I asked him if I could use one of his paintings for the cover of this book, Kitaj instantly agreed, believing that reproduction was not only a sincere form of flattery, but also a continuation of the ceaseless interpretive practices of the Jews. Ever faithful to that tradition, Kitaj explains in an accompanying text to The Jew Etc. that the figure is possessed of an aesthetic of entrapment and escape, an endless, tainted Galut-Passage. I can think of no more fitting visual and textual entry into this book. Like those who most interest Kitaj, its main characters are Jews of