Anthroposophy, Judaism and Antisemitism
The research project Anthroposophy, Judaism and Antisemitism aims to bring clarity to the attitude of Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy and the Anthroposophical Society towards Judaism
Are there any aspects of antisemitism to be found in Rudolf Steiner’s biography and lifework? What role does Judaism play in anthroposophy and the Anthroposophical Society? Was it viewed as a mere relic of the past to be ‘overcome’ in favour of anthroposophy and Christianity – or was there also a positive, future-oriented reception that included new spiritual developments in 20th century Judaism (philosophy of dialogue, Jewish mysticism and others)?
The accusation of antisemitism aimed at Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy has been the subject of public discussion for about forty years. It is thematized again and again with increasing asperity and partly also instrumentalized and strategically employed. What people ignore is Rudolf Steiner’s strong criticism of antisemitism and the fact that there was above-average representation of Jewish people in the Anthroposophical Society, including in leading positions, compared to society at large. What is also overlooked – or deliberately withheld – is the extent to which Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposophical Society were attacked by right-wing national socialists because of their ‘friendliness towards Jews’. That Rudolf Steiner’s farsighted criticism of a political and nationalist Zionism (but not of Martin Buber’s cultural Zionism which he espoused) was shared by many contemporary and later thinkers has also hardly been mentioned.
Humanistic future potential
The General Anthroposophical Section’s project Anthroposophy, Judaism and Antisemitism started in 2021 with a lecture series on Jewish Humanism at the Goetheanum (about Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig) and continued and will continue as follows:
• 2022: Primo Levi, Hans Jonas, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil
• 2023: Gustav Landauer, Maria Darmstädter, Emanuel Levinas, Paul Celan
• 2024: Margareta Susman, Franz Kafka, Gershom Scholem
• 2025: Hugo Bergman and Ernst Müller
Three books have been published in this context[1] and more are being prepared. The project team tries to demonstrate the humanistic future potential inherent in the anthropological approaches of selected 20th century Jewish thinkers and where they converge with anthroposophical perspectives and with Rudolf Steiner’s whole concept of a School of Spiritual Science.[2]
Studies of Rudolf Steiner
On 1 April 1925, two days after Rudolf Steiner’s death, the Hebrew University opened on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Hannah Arendt wrote that ‘it is typical that those speaking up most consistently and clearly for Jewish-Arab rapprochement came from the Jewish University.’[3] Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber, Hugo Bergman and many others were active at this university. Hugo Bergman, Franz Kafka’s friend from school days, who held the philosophy chair and became dean of the university in 1935, actively supported the realization of social threefolding and the overcoming of nationalistic thinking in Israel from as early as 1920. He was a lifelong student of Rudolf Steiner’s work and honoured Rudolf Steiner on his 100th birthday with an important address at the university.[4]
Read the article originally published in Anthroposophy Worldwide
Cover picture: The young Gershom, sitting in a sukkah, studying the Zohar (1923); unknown photographer. Source: National Library Israel. Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0. https://snl.no/Gershom_Scholem.
Notes
1 Cf. Peter Selg, Constanza Kaliks: Die Gegenwart des Anderen. Über Martin Buber und Franz Rosenzweig, Dornach 2022; Constanza Kaliks, Peter Selg, Udi Levy, Iftach Ben Aharon: Anthroposophie, Judentum und Antisemitismus, Dornach 2023; Peter Selg, Constanza Kaliks: Widerstand und Verantwortung – Primo Levi, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, Dornach 2023
2 Cf. Constanza Kaliks: Die Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft und der jüdische Humanismus; in: Constanza Kaliks, Peter Selg, Udi Levy, Iftach Ben Aharon: Anthroposophie, Judentum und Antisemitismus, Dornach 2023, pp. 151–175
3 Quoted in Peter Selg: Hannah Arendt, die Shoa und das Ringen um Israel, Arlesheim 2024
4 Cf. Peter Norman Waage: Eine herausfordernde Begegnung. Schmuel Hugo Bergman and Rudolf Steiner, Dornach 2006