Jewish Self-Hate (Paperback)

Theodor Lessing

ISBN 10: 1789209927 / ISBN 13: 9781789209921

Published by Berghahn Books, Oxford, 2021

About this Item

Paperback. A seminal text in Jewish thought accessible to English readers for the first time.The diagnosis of Jewish self-hatred has become almost commonplace in contemporary cultural and political debates, but the concepts origins are not widely appreciated. In its modern form, it received its earliest and fullest expression in Theodor Lessings 1930 book Der juedische Selbsthass.Written on the eve of Hitlers ascent to power, Lessings hotly contested work has been variously read as a defense of the Weimar Republic, a platform for anti-Weimar sentiments, an attack on psychoanalysis, an inspirational personal guide, and a Zionist broadside.The truthful translation by Peter Appelbaum, including Lessings own footnotes, manages to make this book more readable than the German original. Two essays by Sander Gilman and Paul Reitter provide context and the wisdom of hindsight.Frank Mecklenburg, Leo Baeck InstituteFrom the forward by Sander Gilman:Theodor Lessings (18721933) Jewish Self-Hatred (1930) is the classic study of the pitfalls (rather than the complexities) of acculturation. Growing out of his own experience as a middle-class, urban, marginally religious Jew in Imperial and then Weimar Germany, he used this study to reject the social integration of the Jews into Germany society, which had been his own experience, by tracking its most radical cases. Lessings case studies reflect the idea that assimilation (the radical end of acculturation) is by definition a doomed project, at least for Jews (no matter how defined) in the age of political antisemitism. This new edition makes Theodor Lessings seminal work Der Juedische Selbsthass accessible to English readers for the first time, supplemented with explanatory footnotes by translator Peter Appelbaum and illustrative essays by historian Sander L. Gilman and German scholar Paul Reitter. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781789209921

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Jewish Self-Hate (Paperback)
• Publisher: Berghahn Books, Oxford
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789209927
• ISBN 13: 9781789209921
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A seminal text in Jewish thought accessible to English readers for the first time.

The diagnosis of Jewish self-hatred has become almost commonplace in contemporary cultural and political debates, but the concept’s origins are not widely appreciated. In its modern form, it received its earliest and fullest expression in Theodor Lessing’s 1930 book Der jüdische Selbsthaß.

Written on the eve of Hitler’s ascent to power, Lessing’s hotly contested work has been variously read as a defense of the Weimar Republic, a platform for anti-Weimar sentiments, an attack on psychoanalysis, an inspirational personal guide, and a Zionist broadside.

“The truthful translation by Peter Appelbaum, including Lessing’s own footnotes, manages to make this book more readable than the German original. Two essays by Sander Gilman and Paul Reitter provide context and the wisdom of hindsight.”―Frank Mecklenburg, Leo Baeck Institute

From the forward by Sander Gilman:
Theodor Lessing’s (1872–1933) Jewish Self-Hatred (1930) is the classic study of the pitfalls (rather than the complexities) of acculturation. Growing out of his own experience as a middle-class, urban, marginally religious Jew in Imperial and then Weimar Germany, he used this study to reject the social integration of the Jews into Germany society, which had been his own experience, by tracking its most radical cases…. Lessing’s case studies reflect the idea that assimilation (the radical end of acculturation) is by definition a doomed project, at least for Jews (no matter how defined) in the age of political antisemitism.

About the Author

Theodor Lessing was a German-Jewish philosopher. He taught at Hanover Technical College until right-wing student protests forced him to leave in 1926, after which he worked as an independent scholar and journalist. He was assassinated in 1933 by two National Socialists.