THE RELEVANCE OF ROSENZWEIG IN THE EYES OF HIS ISRAELI CRITICS

Abstract

The centennial of the birth of Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929), the GermanJewish philosopher and educator, provides an obvious occasion for an examination of his relevance to Jewish life today. However, there are a number of factors that would seem to frustrate the meaningful encounter with Rosenzweig's thought by the two largest contemporary Jewish communities, Israel and North America. The particular Jewish community for which he wrote was destroyed less than two decades after his death. There has been a continual controversy surrounding his thought as to whether it is authentically Jewish, or too influenced and distorted by either Christianity or Idealist philosophy to be considered as a legitimate statement of Jewish thought. Finally, Rosenzweig, at first glance, seems to have paid scant attention to the central foci of the present-day selfunderstanding of the Jewish communities in Israel and America, Zionism and the dangers from anti-semitism and assimilation. In Rosenzweig's magnum opus, The Star of Redemption, he implicitly rejected Zionism as a betrayal of the eternal purpose of Judaism and he did not view either anti-semitism or assimilation as a major problem for even modern Jews. The former was simply evidence of the metaphysical envy or hatred of Judaism by Christianity and the latter was said to threaten only the borders, but not the center of the community. In light of these preliminary statements, we might question whether it is possible for Rosenzweig to be regarded as truly relevant to the Jewish communities in Israel and America. Yet, a survey of the writings of some of the most important thinkers within these communities during the last few decades indicates that the thought of Rosenzweig is often being plumbed for insight and guidance. Such a survey is important not only because it tells us about the continuing influence of this philosopher, but also because it allows us to learn much about Jewish life in Israel and America. For in investigating the ways that contemporary writers describe Rosenzweig's contributions to us, utilize some of his analyses of challenges that face Jewish life, and cite and extend some of the solutions that he proposed, we are engaging in a study of these communities themselves. This wrestling with the thought of Rosenzweig has many dimensions, among them the probing of the nature of Jewish history and the place of