Eric Jacobson

The Anarchism of Jewish Tradition:
Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin and political theology

This presentation will focus on the mediating relationship between Anarchism and Judaism, drawing on the recently completed study of the early political theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem (Metaphysics of the Profane, Ph.D, Institute for Jewish Studies, Free University of Berlin, 1999). I would like to present a few key elements of this reasearch in the context of the meaning of anarchism in Jewish tradition. I will first seek to address the idea of tradition in Judaism (mazoret, halacha, kabbalah), followed by a discussion of four Judaic conceptions of anarchism in the work of Gershom Scholem. His writings on the messianic idea and the early exchange with Walter Benjamin on law, violence and justice (1915-1924) will form the body of the presentation. In the final section, I would like to speculate on the dynamics of destruction and creation in tradition, leading to a general discussion of the future of anarchism.