From Admission Ticket to Contribution: Remarks on the History of an Apologetic Argument
Keyword(s):
Post War
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This chapter probes the delicate balance forged by nineteenth-century German-Jewish intellectuals between an array of desiderata. It analyses Jewish acculturation, Jewish participation and partnership in the culture of the enlightened Christian majority, as well as the retention of an essential Judaic character that is deemed superior and unique. The chapter identifies the heroes of Shavit's story that envisioned neither Nazism nor the Final Solution, in which Shavit wonders if their endeavour proved a vain waste of the Jews' cultural vitality and productivity and a disastrous self-delusion. It talks about the renewal of German-Jewish culture and the birth of German-Jewish Studies as an academic discipline in post-war Germany.