Can Antisemitism Be Solved? (Lecture 2)

In this week’s class, we shift from the medieval Jewish condition into the world of modernity—where the entire discussion around Zionism, anti-Zionism, Jewish identity, and political belonging transforms.

Last session, we explored the long-standing paradox at the heart of Zionism:

👉 Is Zionism a continuation of Jewish tradition—or a radical break from it?
Today, we move into the 18th–20th centuries to understand why political Zionism emerged, what it was responding to, and why Jewish anti-Zionism actually predates Zionism itself. Through Enlightenment thought, emancipation, and the rise of liberal nation-states, Jews faced a profound question:
Are Jews a religion?
A nation?
An ethnic group?
Something else entirely?
This lecture analyzes:
🔹 The “Jewish Question” in 19th-century Europe
🔹 The impact of emancipation, Kant, and the Enlightenment
🔹 How Reform Judaism redefined Jewish identity
🔹 Moses Hess and the first secular arguments for Jewish nationalism
🔹 Herzl’s political Zionism and his claim that antisemitism is structural, not solvable
🔹 The German Jewish anti-Zionist tradition (Geiger, Lucien Wolf, Hermann Cohen)
🔹 Martin Buber’s philosophical Zionism and the debate over Jewish peoplehood
🔹 Why Zionism gained traction only when Jewish liberals realized their project had failed
At the center is one meta-question that continues to shape Jewish life today:
Can antisemitism actually be solved—or can it only be managed?
This class demonstrates how the answer to that single question determined whether Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries became Zionists or anti-Zionists, and how the same frameworks still animate debates on campuses, in politics, and within Jewish communities worldwide.
Whether you’re studying Jewish history, understanding modern political thought, or trying to make sense of today’s discourse around Israel, this session provides the intellectual roadmap.

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