The German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s idiosyncratic and deeply philosophical account of the German volk stood at the heart of his political support of National Socialism. This, however, did not prevent some of his Jewish thinkers to identify with the volkish elements in his philosophy and find them pertinent for describing their own condition as Jews in the modern world. This paper will try to explain how these Jewish readers drew on Heidegger’s thought while differentiating between his loathsome and anti-Jewish practical politics and his volkism, which was seen as fitting and useful for the Jewish case.

Bio:

Dr. Daniel M. Herskowitz is the Career Research Fellow in Jewish Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford. Prior to this he was the Stanley A. and Barbara B. Rabin Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Religion, Columbia University. His first book, Heidegger and His Jewish Reception, has recently been published with Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Herskowitz has published a variety of articles on modern theological and philosophical exchanges between Judaism and Christianity as well as on secularization, nationalism, technology, and translation.