Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture
Subtitle: Between Moses and Buddha, 1890–1940
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: Oct 21, 2019
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9783030274689
Description: In Germany at the turn of the century, Buddhism transformed from an obscure topic, of interest to only a few misfit scholars, into a cultural phenomenon. Many of the foremost authors of the period were profoundly influenced by this rapid rise of Buddhism--among them, some of the best-known names in the German-Jewish canon. Sebastian Musch excavates this neglected dimension of German-Jewish identity, drawing on philosophical treatises, novels, essays, diaries, and letters to trace the history of Jewish-Buddhist encounters up to the start of the Second World War. Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, Theodore Lessing, Jakob Wassermann, Walter Hasenclever, and Lion Feuchtwanger are featured alongside other, lesser known figures like Paul Cohen-Portheim and Walter Tausk. As Musch shows, when these thinkers wrote about Buddhism, they were also negotiating their own Jewishness--back cover.
Notes: Source title: Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture: Between Moses and Buddha, 1890–1940 (Palgrave Series in Asian German Studies)