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ERIC JACOBSON, Theories of Justice, Profane and Prophetic: Scholem on the Bolshevik Revolution. (Translation of Scholem's \"The Bolshevik Revolution\" (1918) with commentary drawn from Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence) in: Gershom Scholem. In Memoriam, Vol. II. Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, No. 21, ed. Joseph Dan, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007, 59-75.

My dissertation is intended to analyze the work of Gershom Scholem with the scope of outlining his importance within the context of twentieth century Jewish thought. A great deal of this thesis is thus devoted not only to Scholem's political interventions and interviews, indeed a marginal part of his research, but also to detect the trace of a constant philosophical interest in his scholarship. First chapter provides the historical context, dealing briefly with some of the most important figures of the German-Jewish philosophical scene: Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, and Franz Rosenzweig. The role of Ahad Ha'am and cultural Zionism is also presented. Second chapter is devoted to Scholem's conception of language and to the analysis of the notions of Revelation and Tradition as developed in some of his most important essays. Central in this context is the role played by Franz Kafka, whose novels can be seen indeed as a sort of paradigm through which Scholem interpreted not only the main figures of Kabbalah, but also the whole theology of Judaism. An investigation of Scholem's methodology and conception of history is to be found in third chapter. Three elements that contributed very much to shape Scholem's scholarship are taken in particular account. First of all, Scholem's polemics against the Wissenschaft des Judentums, which finds its ground on an organicistic and non-essentialistic approach to Jewish history. Then, the early appreciation for Nietzsche and Lebensphilosophie, though later neglected by Scholem, is here seen as a possible source for the vitalistic and anarchic elements that characterize his research. Finally, a great part of this chapter is dedicated to a comparison between Scholem's conception of Jewish history and Walter Benjamin's Thesis on the concept of History (1940). Although much of scholarly effort has already been devoted to the relation between Scholem and Benjamin, the presence of Benjamin's last work in Scholem's research still needs to be considered in all its significance. With the aim of investigating Scholem's approach to Jewish history and historiography, two essays are taken in particular consideration: Memory and Utopia in Jewish History (1946), a lecture Scholem gave in the aftermath of the Holocaust in front of a Zionist audience, and On History and Philosophy of History, the text of Scholem's response to a talk on "History and Hermeneutics" given by Paul Ricoeur within the context of the "First Jerusalem Philosophical Encounter" (1974). Chapter four deals with Scholem's conception of messianism. After showing the importance of messianism in Scholem's research and the originality of his interpretation, the relevance of Scholem's position is highlighted through the analysis of the two most important polemics in which Scholem has been involved. The critiques of Scholem's opponents, Baruch Kurzweil and Jacob Taubes, have been taken here as a tool to show the philosophical and political concerns hiding behind the core of Scholem's analysis. With the help of some unpublished material, the last part of the chapter presents an overview of the relation between messianism and zionism in Scholem's work. His early zionism being loaded with metaphysical and messianic overtones, after moving to Palestine Scholem had to face a strong disenchantment, which lead him to separate his zionist affiliation, as a part of a historical responsibility and political decision, from messianism, which indeed he considered to be something rather un-historical and confined to an utopian plane. Fifth chapter intends to show the peculiarity of Scholem's attitude toward secularization. According to Scholem, the passage through secularism in Judaism has to be intended as a necessary moment, though not definitive, being part of a dialectics that cannot be foreseen in advance. An analysis of Scholem's 1926 letter to Rosenzweig is also offered, showing the philosophical significance of Scholem's reflections on the importance and the risks entailed in the secular revival of the Hebrew language.

Walter Benjamin beschimpfte ihn 1924 als »Lausejungen«, Josef Stalin nannte ihn einen »tollen Burschen«, sah ihn jedoch bald als lästigen »Dummkopf«. Ähnlich Ernst Thälmann, der vor »Scholemismus« warnte. Für den Philosophen Gershom Scholem hingegen war er jedoch vor allem eins: der große Bruder. Aufgewachsen in einer Berliner jüdischen Familie starteten beide eine Revolte gegen den autoritären Vater und den Chauvinismus des Ersten Weltkrieges. Werner inspirierte den jüngeren Bruder zum Zionismus, er selbst bekannte sich nach langer Sinnsuche zum Kommunismus. Werner Scholem stieg schnell auf, in den Reichstag und die KPD-Zentrale. Als Organisationsleiter »bolschewisierte« Scholem die KPD, nur um 1926 als erbitterter Gegner Stalins aus der Partei geworfen zu werden. 1933 wurde Scholem unter mysteriösen Umständen verhaftet, 1935 überraschend vom NS-Volksgerichtshof freigesprochen, jedoch nie freigelassen. Scholem wurde 1940 im KZ Buchenwald ermordet. Bis heute ranken sich literarische Legenden um seine Verhaftung. Franz Jung und Alexander Kluge erzählten sie als Spionagedrama, eine besondere Rolle spielte Scholem auch in Hans-Magnus Enzensbergers Roman »Hammerstein oder Der Eigensinn« (2008). War Scholem Agent im Auftrag der Sowjetunion? Verführte er die Generalstochter Marie-Louise von Hammerstein, um ihr die Aufmarschpläne der Reichswehr gen Osten zu entlocken? Ralf Hoffrogge erzählt – mit Hilfe unveröffentlichter Quellen aus einst geheimen Archiven – die Geschichte eines Menschen, der um eine Utopie kämpfte und an den Widersprüchen seiner Zeit zugrunde ging.

Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem are regarded as two of the most famous and influential Jewish thinkers and writers of the twentieth century, and their late work is well-known. The importance of the intense intellectual partnership they forged in the years between the First World War and 1923, however, is less appreciated and understood. This is the first book to make the works of this untranslated and unpublished early period -- including Benjamin's and Scholem's ideas on messianism, language, divine justice, and the quest for a philosophy of Judaism -- accessible to a wider audience