To Be a Jew: Joseph Chayim Brenner as a Jewish Existentialist

Description

To Be a Jew deals with the question of the meaning and rationale that the writer Joseph Chayim Brenner attributes to Jewish existence. Many of Brenner’s readers assumed that Brenner completely negated Jewish existence and sought to form a new way of life completely disconnected from the traditional Jewish existence. In contrast to this perception, Avi Sagi proves that not only did Brenner not reject the value of the Jewish existence, but the core of his creation was written out of a deep Jewish commitment. Brenner’s greatest innovation is found in his new conception of Jewish existence. To be a Jew, according to Brenner, involves the willingness to discover solidarity with actual Jews, to participate in a society in which Jews can live a free life and to fashion their culture as they wish. Sagi presents the idea that Brenner’s is not a Utopian, but a realistic, conception of Jewish existence. Thus this unique conception of Jewish existence is founded on an infrastructure of existential thought. To Be a Jew Contents Preface A Preliminary Outline of Brenner’s Approach Brenner the Personal Writer Brenner and the Existentialist Meaning ofLiterature An Existentialist Analysis of Life The ‘Riddle of Life’ and the Absurd The Personal and the Jewish Dimensions Moulding Jewish Life The Critique of Judaism Jewish Existence as Thrownness Ahad Ha-Am and Brenner: Genealogy and Voluntarism The Pragmatic Meaning of Hebrew Literature Jewish Existence and Nationalism The Diachronic Dimension How to Build a New Jewish Life Nationalism and Zion The Individual and the People Affirming Jewish Destiny: Brenner and Soloveitchik Brenner’s Manifesto: ‘On the “Vision”of Apostasy’ The Existentialist Manifesto Idea vs. Existence Epilogue Bibliography Index