Where Do We Go from Here? Tortured Expressions of Solidarity in The
Where Do We Go from Here? : Tortured Expressions of Solidarity in the German Jewish Travelogues of the Weimar Republic A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of German Studies of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences By Wesley Todd Jackson, Jr. 2015 M.A. University of Cincinnati, December 2008 B.A., Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 2006 Committee Chair: Dr. Todd Herzog, Professor University of Cincinnati Abstract This dissertation examines three travelogues written by German Jewish intellectuals during the Weimar period of Germany, just after World War I. x Das ostjüdische Antlitz (The Face of Eastern European Jewry), by Arnold Zweig, published in 1920. x Reise in Polen (Travels in Poland), by Alfred Döblin, published in 1926. x Hawdoloh und Zapfenstreich (Havdalah for Sabbath and Taps for Curfew), by Sammy Gronemann, published in 1924. Each of these travel writers addressed the issue of how German Jews were to navigate national and cultural identities in an environment of political, economic, and social instability after World War I. In response to mass migrations of impoverished, Eastern European Jews and exclusivist, anti-Semitic definitions of national identity, these travel writers articulated an inclusive, porous vision of European Jewish identity that was rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic to “love thy neighbor.” Each author proposed a different mechanism to bring about such a sense of spiritual renewal and of neighborly hospitality—particularly toward the Eastern European Jews. Arnold Zweig relied on the inspirational power of art and poetry; Alfred Döblin as a psychiatrist pointed to a complicated process of individuation and sublimating one’s ethnic or national identity to the greater good of a common state; and Sammy Gronemann advocated a return to religious Orthodox ritual.
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