Jewish self-hatred

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The term Jewish self-hatred is intended to describe the alleged behavior of individual Jewish personalities who, according to the “self-hatred theory”, turn against Judaism and their own membership in Judaism in an overly critical or psychologically self-destructive manner.

Characteristic

On the one hand, proponents of the theory usually assert that the assumed “Jewish self-hatred” is an attempt to break out of an existence that is vilified and perceived as inferior; one's own identity is negated or negatively charged - not least because of hostility. In this respect, “Jewish self-hatred” is a consequence of anti-Semitism . On the other hand, historical documents of alleged Jewish self-hatred are often used to serve as a cause or reinforcement of anti-Semitic views. Ultimately, expressions of “Jewish self-hatred” made by Jews themselves are assessed as having an anti-Semitic and anti-Semitic effect.

Concept history

The expressions “Jewish self-hatred” and “Jewish anti-Semitism” were coined within German-Jewish journalism at the turn of the 20th century. Particularly influential were the observations of Theodor Lessing , who in 1930 published a book with the Jüdischer Verlag with the title The Jewish Self-hatred .

Even the original conceptualization and relevant publications, such as Lessing's much-received work, met with much criticism. More recent research has consistently rated the term problematic - for example in this form:

“As an explanatory model for the behavior of Jewish intellectuals, however, the term 'Jewish self-hatred' probably introduces more problems than it claims to solve. Above all, the term tends to demand a normative definition of Jewish identity that has not been available since the Enlightenment at the latest. "

Attributions

In his book on the subject, Theodor Lessing dealt with Paul Rée , Otto Weininger , Arthur Trebitsch , Max Steiner , Walter Calé and Maximilian Harden, whom he declared to be exemplary .

Arno Lustiger saw Jewish self-hatred in Jewish converts like Pablo Christiani , Nicholas Donin and Johannes Pfefferkorn , who campaigned for the persecution of Jews by the church. He also named Karl Kraus , Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Egon Friedell , Noam Chomsky , Moshe Menuhin , Alfred Grosser , Abraham Melzer as examples . Lustiger assumed that anti-Zionism amounts to anti-Semitism. Wolf Biermann attributed Hans-Joachim Schoeps to Jewish self-hatred.

literature

  • WML Finlay: Pathologizing dissent : Identity politics, Zionism and the self-hating Jew, in: British Journal of Social Psychology 44/2 (2005), pp. 201-222.
  • Sander L. Gilman : Jewish self-hatred . Antisemitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, Frankfurt am Main 1993 (translation of the English first edition: Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews , Baltimore 1986).
  • Sander L. Gilman: Jewish Writers and German Letters . Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, in: The Jewish Quarterly Review 77 / 2-3 (1986-87), pp. 119-148.
  • Susan Anita Glenn: The Vogue of Jewish Self-Hatred in Post-World War II America , in: Jewish Social Studies 12/3 (2006) (New Series), pp. 95-136.
  • Walter Grab : "Jewish self-hatred" and Jewish self-esteem in German literature and journalism 1890 to 1933 , in: Conditio Judaica. Judaism, anti-Semitism and German-language literature from the 18th century to the First World War, ed. by Horst Denkler and Hans Otto Horch, Tübingen 1989, pp. 313–336.
  • Marie Haller-Nevermann: Jewish origin and its negation - Jew and Judaism in Anna Seghers' work. In: Argonautenschiff 6 (1997) pp. 307-323.
  • Hans Dieter Hellige: Generational conflict, self-hatred and the emergence of anti-capitalist positions in Judaism . The influence of anti-Semitism on the social behavior of Jewish merchant and entrepreneur sons in the German Empire and in the KuK monarchy, in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 5/4 (1979), pp. 476-518.
  • Allan Janik: Viennese Culture and the Jewish Self-Hatred Hypothesis. A Critique , in: Ivar Oxaal, Michael Pollak, Gerhard Botz (eds.): Jews, Antisemitism and Culture in Vienna, Routledge / Kegan Paul, London-New York 1987, pp. 75-88.
  • Theodor Lessing: The Jewish self-hatred , Jüdischer Verlag, Berlin 1930. ( digitized at archive.org ) New edition with a foreword by Boris Groys . Matthes & Seitz Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-88221-347-7 .
  • Kurt Lewin : Self-Hatred Among Jews , in: Contemporary Jewish Record, June 1941, reprinted in: Ders .: Resolving Social Conflicts . Selected Papers on Group Dynamics, ed. by GW Lewin / GW Allport, Harper & Brothers, New York 1948, pp. 186-200. Page no longer available , search in web archives: German translation online@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.gth.krammerbuch.at
  • Peter Loewenberg: Anti-Semitism and Jewish self-hatred . A mutually reinforcing social-psychological double relationship, in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 5/4 (1975), pp. 455-475
  • Jacob Neusner : Zionism and "The Jewish Problem" , in: Midstream 15/9 (1969), 34-53.
  • Jacob Neusner: SELF-HATRED, JEWISH , in: Encyclopaedia Judaica 2. A., Vol. 18, pp. 264f.
  • Carsten Schapkow: Images of Jews and Jewish self-hatred. Attempt to determine Ernst Toller's position. In: Stefan Neuhaus u. a. (Ed.): Ernst Toller and the Weimar Republic. An author in the field of tension between literature and politics. Würzburg 1999, pp. 71-87.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Hambrock: The establishment of outsiders: the Association of national German Jews 1921–1935 , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne - Weimar - Vienna 2003, p. 521; Gilman 1993, 210ff.
  2. ↑ Jeffrey Grossman: 'The Mastery of Language': Functions of Yiddish in German Culture from Heine to Frenzel, in: Jürgen Formann / Helmut J. Schneider (eds.): 1848 and the promise of modernity, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003 , Pp. 165-179, here p. 165.
  3. ↑ Arno Lustiger: Short course on self-hatred , FAZ from September 18, 2008.
  4. ↑ W. Biermann: Jewish self-hatred and hatred of Jews ( Memento from June 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Tacheles for the Theodor Lessing Prize on March 6, 2008 in Hanover.