Critical Theory and Zionism

Lecture, New York, Manhattan, March 27, 12.30 PM

By Dr. Clemens Heni, political scientist, former Post-Doc at Yale (2008/09), currently director of The Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA), most recently author of Antisemitism: A Specific Phenomenon (2013, in English), Critical Theory and Israel (2014, forthcoming, in German)

In his talk, the author will show the relationship of critical theory to Zionism and the Jewish state of Israel. Based on mostly German sources he analyzes the writings on Zionism by the founder of critical theory in 1937, Max Horkheimer, and his fellow theorists like Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, and Leo Loewenthal. What would Adorno have said about Judith Butler being awarded the Adorno Prize in 2012? What is the relationship of New York City to German-Jewish intellectuals and their take on Israel? Why did the leading scholar of the Frankfurt School promote Butler in New York City? Was critical theory anti-Israel? Or has critical theory become anti-Zionist? If so, why? This talk will provide answers to some of the most troubling questions in regard to critical theory, one of the leading schools of philosophy of the 20th century.

 At the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP)

All interested parties must RSVP prior to the seminar by contacting the ISGAP Coordinator, Jenny Pigott.
Email: jenny.pigott@isgap.org
Phone: (212) 230-1840

All seminar are located in the ISGAP Center.
165 East 56th St.
(on the corner of 56th St. and 3rd Ave.)
New York, NY 10022