This archives a balanced but disproportionate examination of Steiner's early writings on Judaism and the Jews.
Steiner's early articles included a series for the Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus, a magazine devoted to combatting anti-semitism in which he attacked the anti-semitism of his time and supported allowing the Jews to assimilate into the countries where they lived.[1][2] (Already at age 20 Steiner had described the anti-Semitic philosophy of Eugen Dühring as "barbarian nonsense".[3]) In his 30s, he continued to criticize what he described as the “outrageous excesses of the anti-Semites”, denounced the “raging anti-Semites” as enemies of human rights, and fully supported the complete legal, social and political equality of Jews to the point of complete assimilation, questioning the justification for founding a separate Zionist state. [4]
As early as 1888, Steiner was vocal about assimilating the Jews, their religion, culture and even their "way of thinking". He wrote:
- "It certainly cannot be denied that Jewry today still behaves as a closed totality, and as such it has frequently intervened in the development of our current state of affairs in a way that is anything but favorable to European ideas of culture. But Jewry itself has long since outlived its time; it has no more justification within the modern life of peoples, and the fact that it continues to exist is a mistake of world history whose consequences are unavoidable. We do not mean the forms of the Jewish religion alone, but above all the spirit of Jewry, the Jewish way of thinking."
- "The Jews could do nothing better than to mingle into, to mix in with the rest of humanity, so that the Jewish people would come to an end....Opposing this are many Jewish habits, but above all others' hate; this is exactly what must be overcome."[5]
References
edit- ^ Steiner's only reference to assimilation in these articles follows: "If the process of assimilation had not been artificially held up, the Jews would certainly not suffer from more exclusivity than, say, the Slavs in German lands."
- ^ Steiner wrote seven articles for this journal, appearing in his Collected Works GA (GesamtAusgabe) 31: Adolf Bartels, der Literarhistoriker. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 37 (1901), in: Gesammelte Aufsätze (GA 31), p. 382-386; Die "Post" als Anwalt des Germanentums. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 30 (1901), ibid. p. 387-388; Ein Heine-Hasser. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 38 (1901), ibid. p. 388-393; Der Wissenschaftsbeweis der Antisemiten. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 40 (1901), ibid. p. 393-398; Verschämter Antisemitismus. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 46-48 (1901), ibid. p. 398-414; Zweierlei Maß. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 50 (1901), ibid. p. 414-417; Idealismus gegen Antisemitismus. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus 52 (1901), ibid. p. 417-419. Steiner's complete early articles are collected in five volumes of the complete edition of his works, GA 29-33.
- ^ Rudolf Steiner: Briefe I (Letters I), pp. 44-5. (GA 38).
- ^ Rudolf Steiner: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte 1897-1901 (Collected Essays on Cultural History and Current Events), pp. 198-9. (GA 31).
- ^ Steiner, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Literatur p. 152