Gustav Landauer’s Judaism: Exile, Anarchy, and His Influence on the Early Jewish Settlements in Mandatory Palestine
This essay examines Gustav Landauer’s original conception of Judaism, his redemptive conception of community, his theory of revolution, and the influence of his writings on the voluntary organizing of settlements in the pre-state community of Mandatory Palestine—all of which are relevant in accounti...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
University of Pennsylvania Press
2022
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In: |
Journal of ecumenical studies
Year: 2022, Volume: 57, Issue: 1, Pages: 77-99 |
RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BH Judaism TK Recent history |
Online Access: |
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Summary: | This essay examines Gustav Landauer’s original conception of Judaism, his redemptive conception of community, his theory of revolution, and the influence of his writings on the voluntary organizing of settlements in the pre-state community of Mandatory Palestine—all of which are relevant in accounting for the impact of Landauer’s work upon German Jewry in the 1920’s, as well as upon the Yishuv, the emerging body of Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine in the decade 1920–30. How his thought was received by his contemporaries has not been analyzed from a scholarly perspective. Though he became aware of his Jewish identity only gradually, Judaism played a central role in his political thought. Landauer interpreted the term “diaspora” as an implicitly anarchistic category. To see oneself as living in a diaspora means that one is perceived as not investing full legitimacy and credence in the actual state that one inhabits. In terms of his view of diaspora, Landauer transformed into a virtue what others saw as a flaw in Jewish exile existence. For him, diaspora Judaism potentially constituted a vanguard movement for overcoming the state. |
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ISSN: | 2162-3937 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of ecumenical studies
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/ecu.2022.0006 |