The Jew as Legitimation: Jewish-Gentile Relations Beyond Antisemitism and Philosemitism

This book traces the historical phenomenon of “the Jew as Legitimation.” Contributors discuss how Jews have been used, through time, to validate non-Jewish beliefs. The volume dissects the dilemmas and challenges this pattern has presented to Jews.Throughout history, Jews and Judaism have served to legitimize the beliefs of Gentiles. Jews functioned as Augustine’s witnesses to the truth of Christianity, as Christian Kabbalist’s source for Protestant truths, as an argument for the enlightened claim for tolerance, as the focus of modern Christian Zionist reverence, and as a weapon of contemporary right wing populism against fears of Islamization.This volume challenges understandings of Jewish-Gentile relations, offering a counter-perspective to discourses of antisemitism and philosemitism.

About the Author

David J. Wertheim is Director of the Menasseh ben Israel Institute for Jewish Cultural and Social studies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which is an academic partnership between the University of Amsterdam and the Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam. He is the author of Salvation through Spinoza, a Study of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany .