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The Debate on Zionism Between Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber

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The Debate on Zionism Between Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber Jeffrey Andrew Barash Politicsand Theology: The DebateonZionism between Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber In 1915,shortlyafter the outbreak of the First World WarinEurope, Hermann Cohen published apamphlet expressingnationalistic convictions in favorof the German war effort,inwhich he at the same time underlined the Jewish his- torical contribution to German cultureand politics. On the basisofhis reflections in this pamphlet,entitled Deutschtum und Judentum,Cohen argued for the legiti- macy of aspecificallyJewish minority as an essential component of the German national identity.Followingthe appearance of this pamphlet,Cohen published an article entitled “Religion und Zionismus. Ein Wort an meine Kommilitonen jüdischen Glaubens” (Religion and Zionism. AWord Addressed to Fellow Mem- bers of the Jewish Faith) in which he sharplycriticized fellow JewishGermans who, instead of devoting theirefforts to the promotion of German cultural ideals and political goals in atime of war,wereconcerned aboveall with the creation of aseparate Jewishpolitical entity.Cohen’swritingsonthis theme were asourceof passionate commentary in this period among broad segments of the German in- telligentsia.They provided the occasion for afamousdebate Cohen engaged in with the young Martin Buber who, in direct response to Cohen’scritique of Zion- ism, articulated an influential argument in favorofthe creation of aJewish “homeland.”¹ Buber presented this plea in the article “Völker,Staaten und Zion. Brief an Hermann Cohen”,(Peoples, Nations and Zion. ALetter to Her- mann Cohen), which appearedinthe journal Der Jude,inJuly1916.Inresponse to this critique Cohen publishedafurther article entitled “Antwort aufdas offene Schreiben des Herrn Dr.Martin Buber an Hermann Cohen” (AnAnswer to the Public Writing of Dr.Martin Buber addressed to Hermann Cohen). Buber then an- swered this response with the article, publishedinthe September 1916 issue of In the earlydecades of the Zionist movement the so-called Endziel (ultimateobjective)was deliberately ill-defined and thus debated. The reference to a “homeland” (Heimstätte)served to maintain the ambiguity.Itwas onlywith the rise of Hitler to power and the intensificationof anti-Semitism that the movement decisively defined its objective to be the foundingofasov- ereign political state. Buber was affiliatedwith those Zionists whoevenatthis juncture rejected this envisioned Endziel. On the debates within the Zionist movement regarding its ultimate political objective,see BenHalpern, TheIdeaofthe JewishState (Cambridge:HarvardUniversity Press, 1961), ch.1. DOI 10.1515/9783110402223-004, © 2018 Jeffrey Andrew Barash, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. 50 JeffreyAndrewBarash Der Jude: “Der Staat und die Menschheit.Bemerkungen zu Hermann Cohens Antwort” (TheStateand Humanity.Remarks on Hermann Cohen’sResponse). It would reach beyond the framework of this brief essaytoprovide adetailed reexamination of the arguments advanced by Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber for and against the creation of aJewishhomeland,which have aroused great in- terest in recent years. Iwill focus, rather,onthe specifically political dimension of the debate. In highlighting the political ramifications of their pleas for and against the creation of aJewish State, Cohen and Buber each articulatedwhat seem to me to be paradoxical attitudes towardpolitics,expressingfrom diver- gent perspectivesthe complexity of Jewish political theologyinthe period of the First World War. Iwill begin by examining what Itake to be paradoxical in Hermann Cohen’s political opposition to Zionism and then,inabrief analysis of the critique direct- ed against him by Martin Buber,argue that Buber’spolitical interpretationofJu- daism led him to embrace aposition which was no less paradoxical than that of his opponent.AsIwill suggest,the paradoxeswhich theirrespective political po- sitions involvereflect both the specific problem of Jewishpolitical existence dur- ing this period of the Great Warthatsubsequent decades have done little to at- tenuate, and the more general difficulty,which is hardlylimited to theories elaborated by Jewish thinkers, of reconcilingtheologyand politics in 20th cen- tury conceptions of the State. I The paradoxical character of Hermann Cohen’sattitude towards Jewishpolitical existencecomestolight in his pamphlet Deutschtum und Judentum,which takes to task anyattempt on the part of German Jews to establish aState beyond Ger- man borders.Cohen’sargument drawsupon what he takes to be aprofound kin- ship between Germanity and Judaism basedonahistorical relation reaching back to the bible and to Greek antiquity.This kinship derivesfrom what was for him central to both Jewish and German Christian culture: their “idealism”. Accordingtothis argument idealism led Jewish thinkers,beginning with Philo of Alexandria, to seek acommon ground between the Old Testament and Plato as abasisfor ethical truth, and this quest similarlyinspired seminal Ger- man thinkers of the late middle ages and the Renaissance,such as Nicholas of Cusa. In alaterperiod and in asomewhat different perspective,Cohen identified idealismwith the German Reformation in its emphasis on spirituality and on the role of individual conscienceinthe quest for justification (Rechtfertigung)before God alone,independent of worldlyinfluences. ForCohen, the central place that The DebateonZionism between Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber 51 medievalthinkers such as Maimonidesaccorded to the transcendence of one God as the creator of the world, in opposition to all forms of polytheism and pan- theism which identify God with an immanent nature, had anticipated the Ger- man Reformation; it wasassuch the “emblemofProtestantisminmedieval Ju- daism.”² Adeep affinity became manifest in the idealistemphasis that both German Jews and German Protestants placed on individual judgment,ason the intellect and the pursuit of learning.Itwas confirmed by the importance both groups attributed to ethical action freelychosen in light of rationaldeliber- ation that Kant’sphilosophysubsequentlybrought to fruition. In bothJewish and GermanProtestant contexts idealism found further expression in the liturgi- cal role they each accorded to music. Cohen at the same time downplayedwhat had long been taken to be the radical distinction between Judaism and German Protestantism: the Jewishinsistence on the role of Halakha or lawand of works, as opposed to the Protestant belief in justification by faith. FollowingGrotius,as Cohen pointed out,the Protestant tradition revivedthe doctrineofnatural law which acknowledgedanexplicit sourceinMosaic law. And here Cohen drew support for his interpretationfrom the works of the great 19th century Aristote- lian scholar,Adolf Trendelenburg, who in his book on natural lawhad written that:”Perhaps no legislation, not even thatofRome, has done so much as the Mosaiclaw to propagatethe feeling for lawamong the cultivated nations.’“³ The full political ramifications of Cohen’sbroad historicalsketch come to light in his interpretation of the affinity between German Protestantism and Ju- daism thatcrystallized duringthe centuries following the Protestant Reforma- tion. He underlined aboveall the role of German humanism thatfound its clas- sical expression in Herder’s Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität. This work, for Cohen, expressing the religious conviction that mankind movesforward toward an ever higher expression of its humanity,brought to fulfillment Enlightenment hope, most eloquentlyvoiced by Lessing, concerning the future development of human culture. Herder’sphilosophicalformulation of this hope was of para- mountimportance for later generations, and its insight was more profound than that of his great Jewishcontemporary Moses Mendelssohn who, in his book Jerusalem,abandoned anyprospect of general advancementfor humanity. Herder’sefforts showed here aprofound affinitywith an earlier Jewish tradition of messianism, and it was important for Cohen in this perspective thatHerder “Wahrzeichen des Protestantismus im mittelalterlichen Judentum”,Hermann Cohen, Deutsch- tum und Judentum (Giessen: Töpelmann, 1915), 11. “Vielleicht hat keine Gesetzgebung, selbst nicht die römische, solche Verdienste um das Ge- fühl des Rechts unter den Kulturvölkern, als die mosaische.” Ibid., 12–13.Unless otherwise in- dicated, all translations aremyown. 52 Jeffrey Andrew Barash developedhis insight in his reflection on ancient Judaism and on the Old Testa- ment in his work Über den Geist der ebräischen Poesie. Herewediscover the deepestsourceofthe kinship between “Deutschtum” and “Judentum”,for Cohen, duringthe earlyperiod of the First World War: At this highpoint,everyone should once againfeel the inner community between German- ity and Judaism. Forthe concept of humanity originatedinthe messianism of the prophets of Israel. And, even aside from Herder,thereisnodoubt that the biblical spirit had amost profound impact on German humanism. Messianism, however,isthe foundation of Juda- ism; it is its crown and its root. It constitutes the creative and dynamic basis of monothe- ism, as Herder had alreadystressed: ‘As Jehovah was unique, the creator of the world: so was He also the God of all humans,ofall races’.And messianism is its supreme result. Ad- mittedlyitwas linked from the beginningtonational politics and to national religiosity.⁴ Whereas Jewishthinkers such as Mendelssohn no longer comprehended original JewishMessianic conceptions, German
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