This volume collects some of Steven S. Schwarzschild's (1924-1989) most important essays on Jewish thinkers, including his unpublished Ph.D. dissertation from 1955 on Nachman Krochmal and Hermann Cohen as philosophers of history. The chapters present provocative perspectives on influential philosophical, theological, and cultural figures such as Yehuda Halevi, Ernst Cassirer, Theodor Adorno, Arnold Schoenberg and Rabbi Isaac Hutner. As one of the most original twentieth-century thinkers in the field of Jewish philosophy, Schwarzschild's analysis provides readers with new ways of understanding medieval and modern Jewish philosophy, Jewish religious tradition, and the relation between them. This volume appeals to researchers and students working in these fields.
1) Introduction.- 2) Two Modern Jewish Philosophies of History: Nachman
Krochmal and Hermann Cohen (1955).- 3) Proselytism and Ethnicism in R.
Yehudah HaLevy.- 4) Adorno and Schoenberg as Jews Between Kant and Hegel.- 5)
Judaism in the Life and Work of Ernst Cassirer.- 6) An Introduction to the
Thought of R. Isaac Hutner.
George Y. Kohler teaches at the Department of Jewish Philosophy and is Head of the Joseph Carlebach Institut at Bar Ilan University. His research focuses on German Jewish theology in the 19th century and on Jewish-Christian debates on religion during that time. He is the author of Reading Maimonides' Philosophy in 19th Century Germany (Springer, 2021) and he is the editor of a volume of Steven Schwarzschilds essays on Hermann Cohen.
Daniel H. Weiss is Polonsky-Coexist Professor of Jewish Studies and Philosophy of Religion, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He is author of Paradox and the Prophets: Hermann Cohen and the Indirect Communication of Religion (2012) and Modern Jewish Philosophy and the Politics of Divine Violence (2023), among other publications, and co-editor of multiple books, including Scripture and Violence (2020) and Tsimtsum and Modernity (2021). He is actively involved in Scriptural Reasoning and serves as Deputy Director of the Cambridge Interfaith Program.
