The principal contemporary significance of German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig is in his theories of a Judeo-Christian alliance that reduced Islam to idolatry, according to Dr. Yossi Schwartz.

"In Rosenzweig's book 'The Star of Redemption,' he develops what he considered religious perfection. The first part is devoted to removing Eastern and idolatrous religions from the game. The second part is devoted to opposing Islam, and the third part further develops his stance, combining the basic assumptions of both Christianity and Judaism," says Schwartz, a professor at the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University.

"His argument is that a serious religion needs internal tension among various interpretations. In Judaism this is the tension between the written law and the oral law, and in Christianity it is the tension between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Whereas in Islam, he claims there is no such tension, and therefore it is an atrophied religion - idolatry camouflaged as monotheism."

Schwartz believes that not only was Rosenzweig mistaken about the facts, but his mistake is also liable to be very dangerous now, of all times: "He ignored the Hadith [the narrations of the life of Mohammed, and his sayings and customs] interpretative texts that exist in Islam exactly as in Judaism. But more than that, his mistake is particularly dangerous in our times, when we see the tendency in Israel and the Jewish world to once again link Judaism and Christianity in a common struggle against Islam. That is one of the more dangerous steps a Jew can take at present [because of the location of the State of Israel - Y.S.], certainly much more dangerous now than in Rosenzweig's time."

Thanks to Yom Kippur

Rosenzweig was born in 1886 in the city of Kassel, Germany to an assimilated Jewish family. Some of his friends and relatives converted to Christianity, and in 1913 he was about to do the same. According to a myth, he told his friends that before converting he wanted one serious taste of Judaism so he would know the world he was leaving. He decided to attend Yom Kippur services once, and then convert. But that prayer service moved him so profoundly that he gave up the idea of converting and became a committed Jewish philosopher, who saw his religion as preferable to Christianity.

He opened a beit midrash school for Jewish studies in Frankfurt mainly for secular Jews, and it became an important educational institution among German Jewry at the time. Among the teachers in the institution were Martin Buber, Erich Fromm (author of "The Art of Loving") and Akiva Ernst Simon. He also began to work with his friend Buber on translating the Bible into German.

Schwartz will present his thesis about Rosenzweig on Tuesday, at a special session on the contemporary aspects of his philosophy. The session is part of an international conference in Jerusalem, organized jointly by the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College and the Conservative movement's Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. Every two years, the international association for Rosenzweig studies organizes a conference on his philosophy, and this year, for the first time, the conference will be held in Israel.

Other participants in the conference's discussions of contemporary matters include Prof. Hannah Safrai of Hebrew Union College; Prof. Eliezer Schweid of Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and Dr. Yossi Turner, professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Schechter Institute and one of the conference's organizers (the other is Prof. Yehoyada Amir of Hebrew Union College).

Schweid also plans to attack Rosenzweig, but over another central aspect of his philosophy: His view of Judaism as a supra-historical entity, whose importance lies in the fact that it is not political but presents a spiritual ideal only - as opposed to Christianity, which operates within history and makes a constant effort to enlist new believers. For this reason, Rosenzweig was opposed to Zionism. He saw it as a blow to the Jewish ideal of an apolitical spiritual life. Only at the end of his life (he died in 1929) did he agree to accept, as a result of talks with Buber, the idea that Zionism is important for spiritual reasons, in order to create a spiritual center for the Jewish people.

Schweid attacks this position sharply: "It was total nonsense even in Rosenzweig's day, and certainly in our time, after the Holocaust. In Rosenzweig's time, after World War I, the anti-Semitic awakening could be seen in Germany, and there is certainly no point in talking about a non-political ideal after the Holocaust. The entire issue of a nation living 'outside history' is romantic nonsense. Nations, like human beings, cannot live 'outside history,' and even in the Diaspora the Jews conducted a political life."

Like the Copts

Can the existential threats to Israel strengthen Rosenzweig's stance? Schweid doesn't think so. "Anyone who thinks Zionism came to provide the Jews with an insurance policy is mistaken. States in general are a natural need for the existence of nations, even if that doesn't guarantee those same states will not be destroyed. Can the French nation or the British nation see its state as an insurance policy for its independent existence? Not necessarily. After all, they are being conquered from within by Islam," he says.

On this issue in fact, Schwartz tends to accept Rosenzweig's supra-historical viewpoint: "It is true that supra-historical life does not exist in any nation. But positing the idea of an emphasis on a spiritual and religious life seems correct to me. Zionism undermined the unique status of the Jewish people, which essentially is first of all based on a religion, with a few ethnic characteristics, like the Armenian or Coptic religion."

Turner agrees with Schweid that Rosenzweig erred in positing a non-political ideal for the Jews and in his opposition to Zionism, but nevertheless thinks his goal, and the questions he arouses, are important even if one doesn't agree with his conclusion. "It is important we be aware of the price we pay for a political life at the expense of the spiritual and ethical image of the Jewish legacy. It is important we treat the non-political, spiritual aspect of Judaism as a criterion for decisions we make in our political and public lives," he says.

In 1922 Rosenzweig fell ill with a serious muscular degenerative disease. He was forced to leave the administration of the beit midrash, and he dictated his last articles to his wife by blinking his eyes, after his body had become totally paralyzed. He died at the age of 43.

With all the disagreement, it is not clear what the secret is to the fascination he holds, at least for scholars of Jewish philosophy, who have been preoccupied with him in recent decades. Schweid thinks it is no coincidence that the general public is not interested in Rosenzweig's philosophy, "and only the academicians are interested in him." This is due to the "enigmatic quality" of Rosenzweig's biography and thought, the enigma of an assimilated Jew who returned to Judaism right on the brink of conversion, and nevertheless developed a philosophy that considers Judaism and Christianity two sides of the same coin.

As Schwartz puts it: "Rosenzweig identified with the missionary aspect of Christianity, because he claimed nobody can reach the Father without the Son. He only thought the Jews were an exception to this rule, because they are already 'with the Father.'"

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