Customer Reviews

Judaism and Enlightenment (Ideas in Context)

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I can do no better than to point you to the review of this book in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Danny Postel to be seen at http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i25/25a01601.htm called The Rage of Reason: A scholar argues that Enlightenment thought was shaped by its obsession with Judaism.

I have often been astounded at the virulent view of Jews/Israel/Zionism taken by the various humanist, progressive, liberal, and yes, 'enlightened' movements, the media and academia etc. that often align them with what you might call their otherwise sworn enemies; reactionary neo-Nazi skinhead Holocaust revisionists, the regressive Islamic fundamentalist movements and so on.

Then there is the ridiculous 'Amen corner' of rabid anti-Zionists who pointedly call themselves Jewish as a validation of their advocacy: Israel Shahak, Israel Shamir, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Adam Shapiro, Bobby Fisher, Yossi Beilin, on and on and on, forgive me for not mentioning another ten thousand names well known to Jew haters.

Even after taking Soviet propaganda and personal psychotic factors into account, or the odd social or political gaffe in Israel, there still remains a 'chicken-and-egg' feeling that leaves one wondering at its source. This beautifully expressed book sheds the kind of genuine enlightenment on this topic that could be an epiphany for any Jewish person wishing to comprehend the unneccesary religious/intellectual dichotomy, as well as the past, present and future history of the Middle East.