On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780691119229)

A new intellectual history that looks at "Jewish self-hatred"

Today, the term "Jewish self-hatred" often denotes a treasonous brand of Jewish self-loathing, and is frequently used as a smear, such as when it is applied to politically moderate Jews who are critical of Israel. In On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred, Paul Reitter demonstrates that the concept of Jewish self-hatred once had decidedly positive connotations. He traces the genesis of the term to Anton Kuh, a Viennese-Jewish journalist who coined it in the aftermath of World War I, and shows how the German-Jewish philosopher Theodor Lessing came, in 1930, to write a book that popularized "Jewish self-hatred." Reitter contends that, as Kuh and Lessing used it, the concept of Jewish self-hatred described a complex and possibly redemptive way of being Jewish. Paradoxically, Jews could show the world how to get past the blight of self-hatred only by embracing their own, singularly advanced self-critical tendencies--their "Jewish self-hatred."

Provocative and elegantly argued, On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred challenges widely held notions about the history and meaning of this idea, and explains why its history is so badly misrepresented today.

Author: Paul Reitter
ISBN-10: 0691119228
ISBN-13: 9780691119229
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/29/2012
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.80w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2012
Publishers Weekly 03/19/2012 pg. 80
Library Journal 06/15/2012 pg. 88
Choice 10/01/2012