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Jewish Messianismand LibertarianUtopia
in CentralEurope (1900-1933)
by MichaelLowy
1. "EconomicDemocracyandCulturalCreation,"1961,in Goldmann,Epistemologyand
PoliticalPhilosophy(Paris,1978),p. 217.
2. KarlMannheim,Ideologieund Utopie,5th ed. (FrankfurtamMain,1969),pp. 195-196,
210,214.
3. PaulHonigsheim,"SoziologiederMystik,"in Versuchezu einerSoziologiedes Wissens,
ed. MaxScheler(Leipzig,1924),p. 343.
105
106 Lowy
4. GershomScholem,"ZumVerstandnisdermessianischenIdeeimJudentum,"JudaicaI,
(Frankfurtam Main, 1963),pp.'41-42.
5. Ibid., pp. 12-13.
6. Mannheim,Ideologieund Utopie,p. 196.
Messianismand Utopia 107
9. Scholem,"ReflectionsonJewishTheology,"in OnJewsandJudaisminCrisis(NewYork,
1976),pp. 285-287.
10. Mannheim,Ideologieund Utopie,pp. 173, 189, 195-196.
11. Scholem, "ZumVerstandnis,"pp. 41-50and"TheCrisisof Traditionin JewishMessia-
nism," in The Messianic Idea in Judaism (New York, 1971), p. 55.
12. Mannheim, Ideologie und Utopie, p. 190.
Messianism and Utopia 109
diverseanddistantunderthesameroof.Letusstate,first,thatwithoutconsti-
tuting a group in the concrete and immediatesense of the term, they are,
nevertheless,linkedbya complexandsubtlesocialnetwork.Relationshipsof
deep friendship and/or intellectual, and political affinity unite Gustav
Landauer and Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin,
ErnstBloch andGeorgLukacs,MartinBuberandFranzRosenzweig,Gustav
LandauerandErst Toller.Scholemwasattractedto Buberandto Landauer,
Buber correspondedwithKafka,BlochandLukacs.At the centerof thisnet-
work, at the intersectionof all thesespiritualcurrents,containingin itselfthe
most opposingpoles, WalterBenjamin,the close friendof Scholem,linked
with ErnstBloch, profoundlyinfluencedbyLukacs,RosenzweigandKafka,
interestedbut criticalreaderof LandauerandBuber.
However, that is not the essentialpoint. Whatpermitsus to conceiveof
these nine men as a group- whichcouldbe expandedwithfurtherresearch
to include other thinkers of the time - is the fact that within a culturalneo-
romantic background and in a relationship of elective affinity, their work
contains a Jewish messianic dimension and a utopian-libertariandimension.
For some, this constellationwas a transientepisode of their intellectual
itinerary (Lukacs); for others it was the central axis of all their work
(Benjamin).Of course,therespectiveweight,therelativeimportanceof each
one of the twodimensionswasnotthesame.Forsome(Rosenzweig)itwasthe
religious componentthat dominates;for others (Bloch) it was the utopian/
revolutionaryproject;but the two aspectscouldbe foundamongthemall.
It would be uselessto look amongthese nine authorsfor a systematicand
explicitpresenceof the two structuresin theirentirety.Jewishmessianismas
well as libertarianutopiaare foundin theirworkaspowerfulcurrents,some-
times underground,sometimesvisible, manifestingsometimesone of their
themes, sometimesanother(accordingto the authorsor thedifferentperiods
of the same author), sometimes separate, sometimesarticulatedbetween
them, sometimes explicit, sometimesimplicit, sometimesdominatingthe
thinker'swork, sometimessimplysparklinghere andtherein his writings.
On the basisof thepredominantroleof one oranotherdimension,it seems
possibleto dividethegroupintothreesets:I - theanarchisticreligiousJews:
Franz Rosenzweig, MartinBuber, GershomScholem.The lattertwo were
Zionists, the first, ratherhostileor reticenttowardZionism.In spiteof their
refusalto assimilateand theirreturnto Judaism(as a religionanda national
culture), political and spiritual(utopianand libertarian)preoccupationsof
universalcharacterarepresentin theirworkandseparatethemfroma narrow
or chauvinisticnationalism(BuberandScholem,afterleavingforPalestine,
were among the foundersof the pacifistorganizationBrit Shalom, which
advocatedfraternizingwith the Arabpopulationandopposedthe establish-
ment of an exclusively Jewish national state). II - The religiousJewish
anarchists:Gustav Landauer,Franz Kafka, and WalterBenjamin.These
three are characterizedby a contradictoryandtornattitudetowardsJudaism
andZionism,whichtheyperiodicallyapproachedanddrewawayfrom.Their
Messianism and Utopia 113
anarchisticutopiais stronglytintedwithreligiosityanddrawnfrommessianic
sources(usuallyJewishbutsometimesChristian,too). III - Theassimilated,
atheist-religious,anarcho-BolshevikJews:GeorgLukacs,ErnstToller,Ernst
Bloch. Contraryto the others,they tendedto abandontheirJewishidentity,
while keeping, nevertheless,an obscurelink with Judaism.Theirreligious
atheism (Lukacs'term) was nourishedby Jewishas well as Christianrefer-
ences, and their political evolution led them from a utopian-libertarian
problem toward Marxismand Bolshevism,or resultedin an attemptat a
synthesisof the two (thatgoes for Benjaminalso).
The differences between these three groups reveal that the elective
affinitybetweenJewishmessianismandanarchistutopiaalsoincludesananti-
nomic element.It is a questionof a tension, if not a contradiction,between
Jewish particularism(national-cultural)of messianismand the universal
character(humanist-internationalist) of emancipatoryutopia. In the first
group, the predominance of Jewish particularitytends to relativizethe
universal revolutionary aspect of utopia without making it disappear
completely. In the third, on the contrary,the universalityof utopiais the
preponderantdimension,and messianismtends to be devoid of its Jewish
specificity- whichis not, in spiteof everything,entirelyerased.The inter-
mediategroupis characterizedby a fragileandunstableequilibriumbetween
particularismand universalism,Judaismandinternationalism,Zionismand
anarchism.
As we havealreadymentioned,thelistof namescitedaboveis notlimited.
On the other hand, the three tendencies outlined here are not the only
possibleones (withinthe commonproblem).In orderto concretizethesetwo
remarks, the example of Rudolf Kayser, a friend of Benjamin and his
"protector"in the FischerPublishingCompanyis useful.Kayser,a historian
and writer, became editorof the principalliteraryjournalin Germany,Die
Neue Rundschau,in 1924.His doctoraldissertation(1914)wasdedicatedto
romanticliterature(Amim andBrentano),but he was also interestedin the
Jewishreligion.In 1921,he publishedMosesTod(TheDeath of Moses). As
contributorto the journal Der Jude edited by MartinBuber in 1919, he
published a surprisingarticle which placed him in a separate category,
halfwaybetween BuberandLandauer.WhilerefusingZionism,he favored
the establishmentof a "NewAlliance"(NeueBund),a "JewishAssociation"
(jiidische Genossenschaft)- which he compared to the Taborites and
Hussites of the 15thcentury- whose missionwouldbe to "preparefor the
era of the Messiah"by helpinghumanityto passfrom"thehell of politics"to
the "messianicparadise."This missionimpliedthe abolitionof the State, a
taskforwhichthe Jewsarecalleduponto fillanessentialrole, inso faras "one
can imagineno communityfartherfromthe Statethanthis, religiousethicof
the Jews .... The idea of the State is a non-Jewish (unjiidisch) idea." The
Hebraicreligiouscommunitywasdistinguishedfromthe Statebythe absence
of relationshipsof domination:power belongsto the divineidea alone. In
conclusion: "Here then is the mission of the Jews: remainingthemselves
114 Lowy
themselvesthenin a marginaland"free-floating"position,whichconstituted
the most favorablesociologicalcontextforrevolutionary,notablylibertarian
currents.
2) The youngZionistsocialistsof the HapoelHatzair(theYoungWorker)
movement, which had been profoundlyinfluenced by Martin Buber as
well as by GustavLandauer,and,whoweregoingto tryto applytheirideasof
a socialistruralcommunityin the kibbutzimin Palestine.
3) The Hungarianrevolutionaryanarchistsof Jewishorigin,like Erwin
Szabo, who diedin 1918butis consideredthe "spiritualfather"of thegenera-
tion, who led the Revolutionof the Workers'sCouncils,andwhosedisciples
became communists.They constituted,aroundLukacs,the groupof "ethical
Bolsheviks"in 1919:ErwinSinko, Bela Balaszand, to a certainextentOtto
Korvin, the chief of the Red Securityof the HungarianRepublicof Councils
(shot by the Whites in 1919).
4) Some Jewishwritersor thoseof Jewishorigin,of revolutionarypacifist
and/or anarchisttendencyparticipatedin the expressionistmovementand
notably in the journal Die Tat (Action): LudwigRubiner, FranzWerfel,
Walter Hasenclever (friend of Ernst Toller), Albert Ehrenstein, Rudolf
Leohand, etc.
Only a preciseanalysisof the significantstructureof the thoughtof these
different authors or personalitiescan prove whether Jewish messianism
played a role in the constitutionof their politicalanarchist,anarchisticor
libertarianvision (in a broadsense). If the responseis positive,it is possible
that the nine great thinkerswere only the most visibleand most prominent
expression of a vast currentthat crossed all of CentralEurope and which
touched a significativefractionof the radicalJewishintelligentsia.