Despite the highly controversial content of this section, my overall position on the Jewish role in the history of the world, and in the humanistic (in the best sense of this much-abused word) culture of what used to be known as Western Civilization, is by and large sanguine.
No one, however, will deny that the so-called Jewish question, Judenfrage, is by no means a chimera, or an anti-Semitic invention of some kind, but an immensely intriguing, provocative, and at the same time perfectly legitimate inquiry into the nature of the Jewish phenomenon, which exercises such a tremendous influence on the course of world events.
When a delegation of French Jews came to see Napoleon, his first question to them was, “Are you Jews, or French first?” Their immediate answer was “French!,” but the question itself was too tricky to be answered either way in good faith. Holding on to the restrictive Jewish identity, to the exclusion of all other ties to the surrounding environment, or trying to lose it altogether, are the extremes, which do not give us a meaningful in any way picture of the true nature of this complicated issue.
Assimilationism and dissimilationism are empty words in the Jewish context, particularly since the surge of Zionism in the second half of the nineteenth century, and especially after the creation of the modern State of Israel, when families firmly committed to assimilationism for many generations would suddenly produce an exceptionally strong crop of Jewish nationalists repudiating the Gentile-convert culture of their parents and wholeheartedly embracing Judaism and Zionism, either moving to Israel altogether, or at the least acquiring double citizenship and pledging to promote the Jewish/Israeli cause. Should Napoleon’s question be addressed to them today, there is no need to be guessing as to their answer.
Thus, what is most intriguing here is neither the question, nor the possible answer, but the socio-political, as well as cultural-historical, undercurrents, which decide the special extra-semantic significance of the Jewish question, as singled out of all other "Napoleonic" variations.
If we wish to comprehend the Jewish phenomenon on the global stage today, we must approach it carefully, without any preconceived ideas, and while doing away with all verbal or mental clichés.
No one, however, will deny that the so-called Jewish question, Judenfrage, is by no means a chimera, or an anti-Semitic invention of some kind, but an immensely intriguing, provocative, and at the same time perfectly legitimate inquiry into the nature of the Jewish phenomenon, which exercises such a tremendous influence on the course of world events.
When a delegation of French Jews came to see Napoleon, his first question to them was, “Are you Jews, or French first?” Their immediate answer was “French!,” but the question itself was too tricky to be answered either way in good faith. Holding on to the restrictive Jewish identity, to the exclusion of all other ties to the surrounding environment, or trying to lose it altogether, are the extremes, which do not give us a meaningful in any way picture of the true nature of this complicated issue.
Assimilationism and dissimilationism are empty words in the Jewish context, particularly since the surge of Zionism in the second half of the nineteenth century, and especially after the creation of the modern State of Israel, when families firmly committed to assimilationism for many generations would suddenly produce an exceptionally strong crop of Jewish nationalists repudiating the Gentile-convert culture of their parents and wholeheartedly embracing Judaism and Zionism, either moving to Israel altogether, or at the least acquiring double citizenship and pledging to promote the Jewish/Israeli cause. Should Napoleon’s question be addressed to them today, there is no need to be guessing as to their answer.
Thus, what is most intriguing here is neither the question, nor the possible answer, but the socio-political, as well as cultural-historical, undercurrents, which decide the special extra-semantic significance of the Jewish question, as singled out of all other "Napoleonic" variations.
If we wish to comprehend the Jewish phenomenon on the global stage today, we must approach it carefully, without any preconceived ideas, and while doing away with all verbal or mental clichés.
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