Nitzan Lebovic | Lehigh University (original) (raw)

Videos by Nitzan Lebovic

MONITOR is introducing its 'Cuomo Files' with an incisive video by academic Nitzan Lebovic on the... more MONITOR is introducing its 'Cuomo Files' with an incisive video by academic Nitzan Lebovic on the surveillance apparatus targeting minorities. For MONITOR, Global Intelligence On Racism www.monitoracism.eu

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Divide, isolate, bring into submission.... tasks facilitated by building walls in and around soci... more Divide, isolate, bring into submission.... tasks facilitated by building walls in and around societies filled by fear and suspicion. By Nitzan Lebovic. www.monitoracism.eu

Topics mentioned include Franz Kafka, J. Saramago, J.M. Coetzee, the Israeli "separation wall" and Cavafy's "Waiting for the Barbarians."

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An interview (in Hebrew) by Arie Dubnov about Life-Philosophy (Lebensphilosophie), Ludwig Klages ... more An interview (in Hebrew) by Arie Dubnov about Life-Philosophy (Lebensphilosophie), Ludwig Klages and Walter Benjamin.

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Papers by Nitzan Lebovic

New German Critique 126:3, 2015

The contemporary history of Israeli law could be described as liberal and institutional or “etati... more The contemporary history of Israeli law could be described as liberal and institutional or “etatist,” as I explain below. For contemporary historians of Israeli law, the division between right and wrong, the liberal and the conser- vative, the universal norm and the particular catastrophic threat, is clear. Yet such divisions, inherited from the Cold War era, are serving an ideological and a normative view of contemporary politics. In fact, the German Jewish legal- ists concocted a strange constitutional hybrid between a liberal Kelsenian understanding of universal law and an authoritative, Jewish, and etatist approach to politics.

Boundary 2 , 2024

Complicity, complacency, and bystander are important categories because “they helped create a wor... more Complicity, complacency, and bystander are important categories because “they helped create a world in which genocide was possible.” Discussing “complicity” is not an easy task, and not only because we are not used to thinking of it as a historical category. Complicity adds another layer of institutional complication to an already dark story about the destructive character of humanity. More specifically, the question of complicity is relevant not only to the genocidal violence the US and the EU are currently supporting in the Middle East but to the planetary struggle against climate change. After all, lucrative weapon deals will not help fighting the massive process of desertification large swamps of the world is experiencing, at the moment. Not knowing complicity from dissent will not relieve us of our share of complicity or connivance with more and greater forms of destruction. The students in the encampments have shown us a different path.

Journal of Genocide Research, 2024

How can one define complicity, and how does "The Zone of Interest" focus on it? The Zone of Inter... more How can one define complicity, and how does "The Zone of Interest" focus on it? The Zone of Interest is a film about a non-event and a non-crime. The event is not shown and the crimes are only insinuated. Mass killing, torture, and starvation take place outside our view and are alluded to by the insignia at the edge of the camp’s universe: the wall at the edge of the commander’s garden, the sound of shots in the distance, bones floating in the river, and the personal belongings and toys handed out to women and children. The camera does not follow the criminal, nor his deeds, but the various markers of active and passive complicity that surround him.

History and Theory, Sep 1, 2021

ABSTRACTThe moment in which we live proposes a staggering new challenge to past, present, and fut... more ABSTRACTThe moment in which we live proposes a staggering new challenge to past, present, and future understanding of our existence: climate change in general, and the Anthropocene in particular, requires a recalibration of all temporal relationships. In this article, I propose to identify the agent of change with current forms of complicity, or, as I call it in the title to this piece, the Homo complexus. A focus on complicity, I will argue, suggests that any future analysis of our society will recognize a short‐term investment in a threat hovering above different forms of existence, or a new “sense of an ending.”

Jüdischer Almanach des Leo Baeck Instituts , 2023

Die beiden Zeitenwenden von 1900 und 1945 erteilen uns eine Lektion über die derzeitige Wende: Da... more Die beiden Zeitenwenden von 1900 und 1945 erteilen uns
eine Lektion über die derzeitige Wende: Das deutsch-jüdische
Geschenk an die Gegenwart ist die Möglichkeit, über
das Leben in nichtanthropozentrischen und dabei doch humanistischen
Begriffen nachzudenken. Indem sie innerhalb
ihrer eigenen »Zeitenwenden« nachdachten, bereiteten sie
uns darauf vor, eine Geschichte der Menschheit jenseits von
Hybris und kurzfristigem Nutzen zu reflektieren.Wie Hannah
Arendt über Franz Kafka schrieb, muss eine wesentliche
politische Philosophie für das Zeitalter der Katastrophe so
formuliert werden: »Er ist, als schriebe er schon von einem
Standpunkt aus, der in ferner Zukunft angesiedelt ist, so als
ob er nur in einer Welt hätte beheimatet sein können, die
›noch nicht‹ existiert."

In den Jahren 2005−2006 bemühte sich Israel (zum ersten Mal) ernsthaft um eine Verfassung. Sie wa... more In den Jahren 2005−2006 bemühte sich Israel (zum ersten Mal) ernsthaft um eine Verfassung. Sie war als Erweiterung der beiden Grundgesetze, die in den 1990er Jahren verabschiedet worden waren, gedacht: "Grundgesetz: Freiheit der Berufswahl" und "Grundgesetz: Menschenwürde und Freiheit". Darüber hinaus sollte sie das politische Chaos eindämmen, das entstanden war, als dem Gesetzgeber die Konsequenzen dieser beiden Grundgesetze klar wurden. Seitdem erlebt der Staat Israel einen kulturellen Verfassungskrieg. Dabei bemüht sich der Oberste Gerichtshof, eine klassisch liberale Haltung gegenüber anhaltenden Attacken gegen das Völkerrecht und die Menschenrechte zu vertreten. Beide Seiten - diejenigen, die eine liberale Verfassung befürworten, und diejenigen, die dagegen sind - begründen ihre Haltung mit dem Argument des "Staats im Ausnahmezustand", nach welchem sich der Staat Israel gegen wiederkehrende Angriffswellen an seinen Grenzen von außen oder gegen subv...

Trajekte, 2015

Ob Emil Utica alternative Psychologie oder Salomon Friedrich Rothschilds biosemiotisches System... more Ob Emil Utica alternative Psychologie oder Salomon Friedrich Rothschilds biosemiotisches System-- beide setzten die Relevanz des 'kreatürlichen Lebens' und der Lebensphilosophie für ihre Auffassung von Politik und Wissenschaft voraus. Beide entwickelten daraus eine kritische Position, die sich jeder Norm und Konvention verweigerte...In gewissem Sinn war es eben die Fähigkeit, Leben und Tod aus der Perspektive einer 'Störung' zu betrachten, die es allen dreien ermöglichte, einerseits die Mechanismen der reinen Macht zu verstehen, dabei aber anderseits--wie Utitz in seinem Buch über Konzentrationslager schrieb--nicht das Gift der Feindschaft als solches inn sich aufzunehmen.

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HISTORY (2023) 25(2), 2023

Are progressives more melancholic than conservatives? For the historian Enzo Traverso the answer... more Are progressives more melancholic than conservatives? For the historian Enzo
Traverso the answer is positive, but only because melancholy itself includes a
revolutionary, utopian core. By analyzing melancholy as a political trope one can
not only see it as a particular quality of progressive thought – making possible an
innovative critical history of the left – but do so with an eye to a utopian hope for a
better, egalitarian, future.

Hebrew Studies, 2020

All three books are works of literary (and political) critique that tell a story chronologically.... more All three books are works of literary (and political) critique that tell a story chronologically. They differ, however, in scope and purpose. Whereas Lebovic uses his literary biography of Israel Zarchi to delve into Zionism’s political theology and to offer a new concept of negation, Gluzman’s work offers the literary biography of a cohort of poets. Olmert’s book offers a thick description of Israeli culture by plumbing texts beyond fiction, while examining the image and political status of the soldier’s mother. They also share a heavy reliance on psychoanalytical and critical theory. Against a historical background, they analyze literary works. His-torical events and circumstances serve as impetuses, motives, or explana-tions. My critique will center on my personal and professional interest, which is the historical perspectives they offer. Indeed, these books are important not just as literary critiques. Their political perspective allows them to contribute to the understanding of Israeli history and to the wider field of Israel studies. To explain why, I will first address each book in turn.

Shofar, 2019

ABSTRACT:The fragments present the case brought forth in the forthcoming Zionism and Melancholy: ... more ABSTRACT:The fragments present the case brought forth in the forthcoming Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi (Indiana University Press, 2019). They present a case of critical Jewish melancholy in the first half of the twentieth century, preceding Israeli statehood in 1948. More specifically, the fragments examine briefly the writing of Israel Zarchi (1909–1947), an unjustly forgotten author who lived in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s, and his series of melancholic tales of Zionist pioneers. Zarchi is known today thanks to his daughter, the prize-winning author Nurit Zarchi, whose own voice frames the melancholic story I tell in those few pages. The research for this piece, and for the book as a whole, was based on newly unearthed and previously unpublished documents discovered in a Tel Aviv literary archive, and it sheds new light on the early history of modern Hebrew literature and the cultural history of pre-Israel Zionism. I chose to write in vignettes in order to capture the tone and broken structure of melancholy itself.

History and Theory, 2019

A new wave of publications attempts to bring together theory and history in order to reconsider t... more A new wave of publications attempts to bring together theory and history in order to reconsider the past, present, and future in light of a looming catastrophe. Whether in political theory, sociology, anthropology, or intellectual history, scholars are attempting to reflect about the present beyond the old boundaries that separate left and right, inner and outer, civilian and solider, friend and enemy. Three recent publications, by Catherine Mills, Didier Fassin, and an anthology edited by Devin Pendas, Mark Roseman, and Richard Wetzel, do so by considering the growth of biopolitical critique in their respective disciplines.

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 2019

Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press... more Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact:

Rethinking Marxism, 2018

Understanding political melancholy as central to the crisis of modernity and democracy implies a ... more Understanding political melancholy as central to the crisis of modernity and democracy implies a growing realization that melancholy teaches us something essential about different forms of political crisis and their affective modes. This essay contends that the relationship between political melancholy in Weimar Germany and its repurposing by German Jews for Zionist thought reveals how political melancholy was and remains at the heart of Zionism. The essay offers both a historical and theoretical consideration of political melancholy. Its purpose is to question how a political affect of melancholy helps us grasp Zionism, offering a new way to think through its failures. More specifically, the growing attention, both critical and affirmative, paid to "left-wing melancholy" is used to examine a general sense of loss and crisis in the West and the more concrete expression of this sense in the history of Zionism.

AcademicJobsOnline, 2023

The Department of History and the Environmental Studies Program at Lehigh University invite appli... more The Department of History and the Environmental Studies Program at Lehigh University invite applications for a tenure-track faculty position as Assistant Professor of History with a specialization in Environmental History, effective 15 August 2024. Candidates must have an earned Ph.D. in History or a related field by the date of employment. The geographical, thematic and temporal focus is open.

The successful candidate will be expected to teach a 2:2-equivalent load at all levels of the History Department’s graduate and undergraduate curricula, as well as at all levels of the Environmental Studies Program’s curriculum. This individual will help strengthen the Department’s and Program’s profiles in research, scholarship, and graduate studies, while furthering the Department’s and Program’s tradition of excellence in both undergraduate teaching and service to the University and the profession. We welcome candidates whose work includes a transnational or global dimension, who demonstrate innovative methodologies of historical research, and who think in an integrated way about environmental history and its place across disciplinary boundaries.

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A special issue "Complicity and Dissent", 2019

Growing pressure from politicians and corporations has thrown into question the very legitimacy o... more Growing pressure from politicians and corporations has thrown into question the very legitimacy of opposition and critique. A language of political affirmation has confused and misled the public, driving many to adopt a cynical attitude to politics. The result has been a rapid decline of
legitimate critique, the rise of populism, and a growing tendency to squelch civil disobedience with a militarized police force. The introduction to the special issue considers the role of the complicit/dissenting intellectual in history and literature, politics and law. It explores the genealogy of the terms, as well as conditions for their appearance in our contemporary world. The introduction follows the advice of leading scholars, who contributed to this issue, in calling for “solidarity between
struggles”— when one extends a sense of right and wrong beyond one’s immediate identity or a vague universal understanding of “right.”

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Topics mentioned include Franz Kafka, J. Saramago, J.M. Coetzee, the Israeli "separation wall" and Cavafy's "Waiting for the Barbarians."

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New German Critique 126:3, 2015

Boundary 2 , 2024

Journal of Genocide Research, 2024

History and Theory, Sep 1, 2021

Jüdischer Almanach des Leo Baeck Instituts , 2023

Trajekte, 2015

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HISTORY (2023) 25(2), 2023

Hebrew Studies, 2020

Shofar, 2019

History and Theory, 2019

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 2019

Rethinking Marxism, 2018

AcademicJobsOnline, 2023

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A special issue "Complicity and Dissent", 2019

History & Theory 60:3, 2021

In contrast to the assumption that “Chronos . . . goes far beyond the time of mankind,” we may re... more In contrast to the assumption that “Chronos . . . goes far beyond the time of mankind,” we may recognizes Chronos as another episteme, essential to a Western understanding of life. From a critical perspective, Chronos, catastrophe, and salvation, are epistemological means, not ends. Where is the unique value of a “Christian/Anthropocene regime of historicity”? Stasis, or a state of suspense, may force us beyond the temporal horizon of Krisis (“perpetual need of reassessment”) by refusing its accelerating rhythm. Neither a gap nor a bridge, it views history vibrating in the open air, without melancholy nor hope. [A special forum of H&T about François Hartog's "Chronos"]

57 תאוריה וביקורת, 2023

״[בזמן האנתרופוקן] אין יותר ׳אנחנו׳. נשארו רק הטענות ואי–ההסכמות. זה אומר שנשארנו עם זמן משברי ופ... more ״[בזמן האנתרופוקן] אין יותר ׳אנחנו׳. נשארו רק הטענות ואי–ההסכמות. זה אומר
שנשארנו עם זמן משברי ופלורלי. זה כבר לא הזמן של הגלובליזציה של שנות השמונים והתשעים, כשהשאלה הייתה אם הטכנולוגיה מתפשטת במהירות גדולה מדי וגורמת לבעיה תרבותית.״

T'eoria U'Vikoret (Theory & Criticism) , 2023

ديبِش تشكرابارتي هو أستاذ التاريخ في جامعة شيكاغو والباحث الأكثر ارتباطًا اليوم بالنقاش التاريخيّ... more ديبِش تشكرابارتي هو أستاذ التاريخ في جامعة شيكاغو والباحث الأكثر ارتباطًا اليوم بالنقاش التاريخيّ حول عصر الأنثروبوسين والتغيّرات المناخيّة. ولد تشكرابارتي في كالكوتا في الهند سنة 1948 – السنة التي أعلنت فيها الهند استقلالها بعد انسحاب الانتداب البريطانيّ من جنوب شرق آسيا، بعد سنة على "خطّة التقسيم" التي قسّمت "الهند البريطانيّة" ("الراج البريطاني") بين الهند وباكستان. نشأ في عائلة براهمنيّة من الطبقة الوسطى- الدنيا، "من دون سيارة، وهي التي كانت تمثّل رمزًا للفصل الطبقيّ". حصل على البكالوريوس في الفيزياء ثم أنهى الماجستير في دراسات الأعمال وانتقل بعد ذلك إلى أستراليا ونال شهادة الدكتوراه في التاريخ. كما يقول في المقابلة التي أجريناها معه، بدأ اهتمامه بالتاريخ الاجتماعيّ من موقف ماركسيّ ربطه بتاريخ الهند الاستعماري. لذلك، بحثت كتبه الأولى في قضايا الطبقة العاملة الهنديّة والجانب الاجتماعيّ من البوذيّة.

The White West: Fascism, Unreason, and the Paradox of Modernity, 2023

The history of biometrics is embedded in the history of European colonialism, which demonstrates ... more The history of biometrics is embedded in the history of European colonialism, which demonstrates the inherent link between the rise of the nation-state and its colonial ambition, externally as well as internally. In short, the purpose of the bio-typological system we recognize today as “biometrics” has been, since its initiation in the mid-nineteenth century, a total political weapon that transcends the limitations of space and time, collective ideology and the individual body, and criminalizes any hint of resistance. Considering the idea from a slightly different angle, it is possible to think about this biopolitical indexology as an alternative “perfect universal language.”

Central European History 56:4, 2023

Dekel Peretz’s impressive book shows us how to write Jewish history as a transnational, multi-dis... more Dekel Peretz’s impressive book shows us how to write Jewish history as a transnational, multi-disciplinary, and post-colonial history. Unpacking the life and work of Franz Oppenheimer (1864-1943),-- one of the founders of German sociology and an early supporter of Zionist settlement,-- Peretz follows the creation of an organic discourse that stood at the heart of German race theory, and Zionist colonial fantasies.

Psychoanalysis & History 25:2, 2023

Are progressives more melancholic than conservatives? For the historian Enzo Traverso the answer ... more Are progressives more melancholic than conservatives? For the historian Enzo Traverso the answer is positive, but only because melancholy itself includes a revolutionary, utopian core. By exposing the melancholic view of history, one also engages with this hidden aspect of utopian Marxism. According to Traverso, no revolution is devoid of melancholy, and no melancholy lacks a revolutionary horizon. This future-oriented worldview is supported by concrete analyses and lessons of recent political change.

Critical Inquiry , 2023

Anat Matar’s new book is a biting and a provocative argument that first, “morality is left-wing,”... more Anat Matar’s new book is a biting and a provocative argument that first, “morality is left-wing,” and that second, its contrasting “ethical discourse is always secondary to political discourse” (p. xxi). The purpose of separating morality from ethics is meant to serve the better of political activism in general, and that particular activist work on the left that
resists the creation of a patriarchic and imperialist “white mythology.”

Critical Inquiry, 2022

Herskowitz proposes—even though he never states as much—that the way we understand the whole lega... more Herskowitz proposes—even though he never states as much—that the way we understand the whole legacy of critical theory, from the 1950s to the present, is a great misreading of Heidegger. From this point of view, an anachronistic bias reflected an overemphasis on the Nazi period in Heidegger’s thought and interpreted his own philosophy accordingly.

Israel Studies Review, 2021

The most interesting and compelling parts of Lebovic’s impeccable scholarship are the ones that f... more The most interesting and compelling parts of Lebovic’s impeccable scholarship are the ones that focus on the literary works in which Zarchi explored subjects ranging from the lives of Chalutzim to geopolitics to ethnic diversity in Jerusalem, as well as the sections in which Lebovic directly applies theoretical concepts such as ‘left-wing melancholy’ to Zarchi’s work.

Critical Inquiry, 2020

Michael Rothberg’s book asks us to consider how every resident has become a beneficiary of and a ... more Michael Rothberg’s book asks us to consider how every resident has become a beneficiary of and a party to acts of injustice. When our
governments oppress minorities—for example, African Americans in the contemporary United States—or support others who do so, we are
responsible. Citing historical cases such as the Holocaust, apartheid, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Turkish campaigns against the Kurds, anddrawing illuminating examples from the art and literature that helps us unpack the complexity of living in such times, Rothberg claims that
each oppressive regime produced a version of “violent innocence” or “implicated subjects.”

הזמן הזה, 2020

ענת מטר מציגה בספרה החדש, על דלות המוסר, ביקורת חריפה על מייצגי החשיבה הביקורתית באקדמיה. היא מרא... more ענת מטר מציגה בספרה החדש, על דלות המוסר, ביקורת חריפה על מייצגי החשיבה הביקורתית באקדמיה. היא מראה כיצד ניתוקו של השיפוט המוסרי מהמציאות הפוליטית הקונקרטית מוביל לעמדות מופשטות שתומכות בפועל במבני כוח ודיכוי ומצדיקות חוסר מעורבות פוליטית

POLITICS, RELIGION & IDEOLOGY, 2019

When the problems at the heart of contemporary democracy are exposed by aspirational fascists, wh... more When the problems at the heart of contemporary democracy are exposed by aspirational fascists, what sorts of solutions are proposed? Could changes such as increasing the minimum wage or rewarding competition help? There is nothing wrong with advocating a
return to a limited welfare state. Many in the left would consider the realization of such a plan a stunning victory. But few, in our era, would ignore the politics of power in favor of a pluralist ideal which Connolly identifies with ‘pour[ing] a sense of proliferating possibilities
into the very ontology of being embraced.’

Brody’s contribution and obvious strength lie in his close reading of texts, a reading he weaves ... more Brody’s contribution and obvious strength lie in his close reading of texts, a reading he weaves with the help of the theopolitical shuttle. Theopolitics made its appearance in Buber’s work even before he used the term. This stress on continuity is not an anachronistic and retrospective refashioning; by focusing on the triad Moses-Samuel-Jeremiah, Brody points up “the continuity of the theopolitical vision that Buber considers the essence of the project that goes under the name ‘Israel’” (124). For Brody this implies a plea for an “anarcho-theocracy” (87), a concept that he recognizes as the political realization of theopolitics.

The goal of Against Life is to criticise a fetishised ‘culture of life’ in order to reimagine the... more The goal of Against Life is to criticise a fetishised ‘culture of life’ in order to reimagine the polity ‘not [as] a community of human agents but something more like an ecosystem, a set of material bodies, human and nonhuman, affected by a common problem generated by the conjoined activities of a multitude.’

The JHI Blog is pleased to announce a forum bringing together faculty across disciplines to discu... more The JHI Blog is pleased to announce a forum bringing together faculty across disciplines to discuss recent works in intellectual history over consecutive Fridays. The inaugural forum is devoted to Jeffrey Andrew Barash’s book Collective Memory and the Historical Past (University of Chicago, 2016)

Review of Uri Ram, The Return of Martin Buber: National and Social Thought in Israel from Buber t... more Review of Uri Ram, The Return of Martin Buber: National and Social Thought in Israel from Buber to the Neo-Buberians

What makes liberal democracy fail? Thinking from within the paradigmatic crises of the twentieth ... more What makes liberal democracy fail? Thinking from within the paradigmatic crises of the twentieth century, Lilla has tried to exorcise the spirits of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. Building on his previous two books, The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (2001) and The Stillborn God (2007), The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction explores political nostalgia as the attitude that connects the German 1920s and the American present.

This review of Alexander Gelley’s captivating book follows its attempt to respond to Benjamin’s p... more This review of Alexander Gelley’s captivating book follows its attempt to respond to Benjamin’s plea to “expound the nineteenth century” and liberate us “from the stupendous forces of history,” using aisthesis, “a weak messianic force,” and “dream visions.” Taking the cue from Gelley’s reference to Benjamin’s rebellion against “a secret agreement
between past generations and the present one” (156), this review attempts to open up the context and to wonder about “the secret agreement” between recent Benjamin scholarship and its own sense of the past. The review pleads with future Benjaminians to start asking
questions relating to the twentieth century, and attempts to consider the relevance of Benjamin for current political analysis and recent trends in critical studies.

My pleasure of reading this concise and innovative short book by the late Boaz Neumann is obvious... more My pleasure of reading this concise and innovative short book by the late Boaz Neumann is obvious. Yehi Zichro Baruch.

Jacob Taubes. From Cult to Culture: Fragments Toward a Critique of Historical Reason. Edited by C... more Jacob Taubes. From Cult to Culture: Fragments Toward a Critique of Historical Reason. Edited by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Amir Engel. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. pp. cm. 70.00(cloth),ISBN978−0−8047−3983−2;70.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8047-3983-2; 70.00(cloth),ISBN978−0−8047−3983−2;24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8047-3984-9.

Jacob Taubes. Occidental Eschatology. Translated with a Preface by David Ratmoko. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. xxiii + 215 pp. 60.00(cloth),ISBN978−0−8047−6028−7;60.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8047-6028-7; 60.00(cloth),ISBN978−0−8047−6028−7;21.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8047-6029-4.

Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2022

Psychoanalysis and History , 2021

Hebrew Studies 61, 2020

All three books are works of literary (and political) critique that tell a story chronologically.... more All three books are works of literary (and political) critique that tell a story chronologically. They differ, however, in scope and purpose. Whereas Lebovic uses his literary biography of Israel Zarchi to delve into Zionism’s political theology and to offer a new concept of negation, Gluzman’s work offers the literary biography of a cohort of poets. Olmert’s book offers a thick description of Israeli culture by plumbing texts beyond fiction, while examining the image and political status of the soldier’s mother.
They also share a heavy reliance on psychoanalytical and critical theory. Against a historical background, they analyze literary works. His-torical events and circumstances serve as impetuses, motives, or explana-tions. My critique will center on my personal and professional interest, which is the historical perspectives they offer.
Indeed, these books are important not just as literary critiques. Their political perspective allows them to contribute to the understanding of Israeli history and to the wider field of Israel studies. To explain why, I will first address each book in turn.

Central European History 51:3, 2020

Zionism and Melancholy is an interdisciplinary study in its scholarly approach, one that includes... more Zionism and Melancholy is an interdisciplinary study in its scholarly approach, one that includes Jewish intellectual history, psychology, and modern Hebrew literature... this is a useful, timely, and valuable contribution to the intellectual history of Zionism and of Israel.

Political Theology, 2020

In Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi, Nitzan Lebovic aims to not only apply... more In Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi, Nitzan Lebovic aims to not only apply the prolific theoretical discourse on melancholy to Israeli history but to also enrich this discourse with an example that expands its historical, cultural and theological horizon.

Dr. Shaul Setter reviews "Zionism and Melancholy" as "one of the most interesting, original, and ... more Dr. Shaul Setter reviews "Zionism and Melancholy" as "one of the most interesting, original, and creative analyses of Hebrew Literature and Theory of Literature during the past decade."

Review of Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi (Haaretz.com, 1.2.2016)

ההסטוריה של רפובליקת וויימאר, מאז מלחמת העולם הראשונה ועד לעליית הנאציזם, מספקת הצצה לרגע תרבותי ... more ההסטוריה של רפובליקת וויימאר, מאז מלחמת העולם הראשונה ועד לעליית הנאציזם, מספקת הצצה לרגע תרבותי נדיר: המפגש המפרה בין זרמים רדיקאליים- פוליטית, תרבותית, אומנותית ואפילו מינית. "פילוסופיית החיים" (Lebensphilosophie) של שנות העשרים בגרמניה הפגישה לא פעם הוגים ופוליטיקאים מזרמים הפוכים, כל עוד חלקו בהתנגדות לליברליזם ולבורגנות, לשמרנות על כל סוגיה וגווניה, ובעיקר למרכז הפוליטי. במרכז הדיון שלנו היום יעמדו לודוויג קאלגס, מראשי פילוסופיית-החיים האנטישמית מחד ווולטר בנימין, ההוגה הרדקאלי של השמאל האנרכיסטי מאידך. השניים לא רק התעניינו במושגים קרובים, שנטועים בזרם הפילוסופי הזה, אלא גם התכתבו ואף נפגשו. ד"ר ניצן ליבוביץ' יציג את עליית פילוסופיית החיים, משורשיה האוונגרדיים פורצי הגבולות, ועד "התאמתה" ושילובה, כשפה הרישמית של המפלגה הנאצית.

Homo Temporalis: German Jewish Thinkers on Time, 2025

Homo Temporalis focuses on the importance of temporal concepts for four German Jewish thinkers wh... more Homo Temporalis focuses on the importance of temporal concepts for four German Jewish thinkers who profoundly shaped twentieth-century intellectual history: Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Paul Celan. By analyzing the concept of time, Nitzan Lebovic explores Buber's stress on the temporality of the dialogue between I and Thou; Benjamin's now-time and "dialectics in standstill"; Arendt's understanding of democracy as "natality" or a "permanent revolution"; and the "breathturn" that informs Celan's poetry. Framing the reception of German Jewish thinking in the second half of the twentieth century as a parallel story to the rise of the modern humanities, Homo Temporalis also highlights how these foundational temporal concepts illuminate the causes of the present crisis in the humanities and its disciplinary limitations in the age of biopolitics and the Anthropocene.

בשנות הארבעים של המאה העשרים היה ישראל זרחי שֵם מוכר בזירה הספרותית של היישוב. אפשר היה למצוא אות... more בשנות הארבעים של המאה העשרים היה ישראל זרחי שֵם מוכר בזירה הספרותית של היישוב. אפשר היה למצוא אותו מטייל בירושלים עם ש"י עגנון, מתדיין עם מורו יוסף קלוזנר, ומתווכח עם יריבו הפוליטי־פואטי אורי צבי גרינברג.
זרחי פרסם שישה רומנים ושבעה קובצי סיפורים קצרים. ב־1947 זכה בפרס ירושלים על הרומן ארץ לא זרועה. בכל זאת נמחק שמו מדפי ההיסטוריה של היישוב.
באור היסטורי, הפער בין התקווה האוטופית של שנות העשרים והמלנכוליה של שנות הארבעים הוא המוביל לשפת הדימויים המאוחרת של זרחי. בסוף חייו שאבה יצירתו מן העולם האפוקליפטי של המיסטיקה היהודית, התיאולוגיה הנוצרית ושפתם המיתית של יהודי תימן, שהתיכה דמיון ומציאות זה בזה.
ציונות ומלנכוליה
שתפו אותישליחת קישור לספר בדואר אלקטרוני לחברים באמצעות תוכנת הדואר שלך, ללא טופס
ספר זה מציג בפני הקורא תמונה היסטורית, פואטית ותאורטית של הַקשרים בין עולם הספרות של תקופת היישוב והשיח האידאולוגי־מלנכולי של זרחי.

EHESS, 2019

Les dernières décennies ont vu se développer ce que Christopher Clark a récemment défini comme u... more Les dernières décennies ont vu se développer ce que Christopher Clark a récemment défini comme un “temporal turn” (Time and Power, 2018) dans l’historiographie : un mouvement des approches équivalent au « tournant linguistique et culturel » des années 1980 et 1990. Les Régimes d’historicité publié par François Hartog (2003), les Clepsydre 1 et 2 de Sylvie Anne Goldberg (2000/2004) et l’ouvrage à paraître de Nitzan Lebovic s’inscrivent dans ce mouvement qui tend à éclairer les fonctions du temps dans les temporalités juives et chrétiennes.
Cet après-midi d’échanges s’ouvrira par une réflexion phénoménologique sur le temps dans les religions abrahamiques menée par Guy. G. Stroumsa et se poursuivra dans les échanges avec les participants.

NYU Center for the Humanies, 2020

In this event Nitzan Lebovic (Lehigh), Vivian Liska (Antwerp), and Rebecca Comay (Toronto) discus... more In this event Nitzan Lebovic (Lehigh), Vivian Liska (Antwerp), and Rebecca Comay (Toronto) discussed melancholy as a historical term, a textual practice, and a philosophical worldview. Mikhal Dekel (City College NY) joins as moderator.