Boek over de verhouding tussen joden en niet-joden

David J. Wertheim, van wie eerder zijn proefschrift verscheen, Salvation through Spinoza, A Study of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany [Leiden: Brill, 2011 – cf. blog van 29 nov. 2011] redigeerde de volgende bundel die dit jaar uitkwam:

David J. Wertheim (Ed.), The Jew as Legitimation: Jewish-Gentile Relations Beyond Antisemitism and Philosemitism. [Palgrave/Mcmillan] Springer, 2017 – books.google
In de door David Wertheim geüploade Table of Contents HTML PDF zitten fouten, cf. de inhoudsopgave bij Amazon .

 

 [Blurb] This book traces the historical phenomenon of “the Jew as Legitimation.” Contributors discuss how Jews have been used, through time, to validate non-Jewish beliefs. The volume dissects the dilemmas and challenges this pattern has presented to Jews.

Throughout history, Jews and Judaism have served to legitimize the beliefs of Gentiles. Jews functioned as Augustine’s witnesses to the truth of Christianity, as Christian Kabbalist’s source for Protestant truths, as an argument for the enlightened claim for tolerance, as the focus of modern Christian Zionist reverence, and as a weapon of contemporary right wing populism against fears of Islamization.

This volume challenges understandings of Jewish-Gentile relations, offering a counter-perspective to discourses of antisemitism and philosemitism.

 
[De cover geeft de gravure in ouderwetse stijl
naar de tekening die Pelissier maakte naar het olieverfschilderij
"De wandelende jood" van Gaston Melingue,
zoals deze in 1874 in het Magasin Pittoresque werd afgedrukt]

 

Er is geen hoofdstuk of paragraaf over Spinoza. Wel schrijft Wertheim in de Inleiding op blz. 3 deze merkwaardige alinea, waarin hij - net als onlangs  David N. Myers die schreef dat antisemitisme de paradoxale kracht leek die de joden juist stand doet houden [cf. blog] - de mening die Spinoza in de TTP zou hebben neergelegd, weergeeft:

Understanding Jewish–Gentile relations only in terms of assimilation triggered (and/or resisted) by discrimination, persecution, and the promise of social mobility, however, has its limitations. One problem is the question why, in spite of all attempts at persecution and discrimination, and in spite of all the social and material benefits that could be gained, the Jews never completely assimilated and continued to exist as a distinctly recognizable people up until the present day. It has been difficult to account for this without taking recourse to divine providence. One way to do so was by making the case, already put forward by Spinoza, that it was the very hatred of the nations that strengthened the sense of Jewish belonging. Although there may certainly be more than a grain of truth in this argument, it merely makes the point that discrimination and persecution need not result in a Jewish desire for assimilation. It does not explain why a powerful hostile non-Jewish environment failed to eliminate the Jewish people over the course of thousands of years. Conversely, it also does not explain why in quiet times Jews did not vanish through assimilation. in fact, Spinoza based his argument on his belief that Judaism would in fact vanish without persecution. Even though some scholars still think this will be the fate of Jewry in a non-hostile world, many observers of Jewish his-tory see another—opposite—picture."

Merkwaardig vind ik dat een zin als deze uit zijn toetsenbord rolt: "It has been difficult to account for this without taking recourse to divine providence." Dit is taal van gelovigen...
                                                    _____________________________

David J. Wertheim schreef ook de Inleiding van
Hans Blom, David J. Wertheim, Hetty van den Berg, Bart Wallet (Eds.), Geschiedenis van de joden in Nederland. Uitgeverij Balans, 2017 - books.google - cf. ook dit blog

                          
Anet Bleich in de Volkskrant van 27 mei 2017 vond het: "Een prima standaardwerk over de relatie tussen Nederlanders en zijn Joden"