Moritz Güdemann. Nationaljudentum.
AUCTION 73 |
Thursday, June 22nd,
2017 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Art
Lot 245
(ZIONISM).
Moritz Güdemann. Nationaljudentum.
Leipzig & Vienna: M. Breitenstein 1897
Est: $800 - $1,200
Anti-Zionist tract by the Chief Rabbi of Vienna published immediately following (and by the same publisher as) Theodor Herzl’s Judenstaat.
Güdemann (1835-1918) was opposed to Herzl’s primary focus upon the national element of Judaism, rather than its religious character. Moreover, he argued that a nationalist Jewish state "based on cannon and bayonets" was likely to be as warlike and intolerant as the increasingly belligerent states of Christian Europe.
For more on Herzl and Güdemann’s lengthy, contentious relationship see Ismar Schorsch, Moritz Güdemann: Rabbi, Historian and Apologist in: The Leo Baeck Institute Year-book (1966) pp. 42-66.