Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem

by George Prochnik

Book Overview

Prochnik revisits the life and work of Gershom Scholem, whose once prominent reputation, as a Freud-like interpreter of the inner world of the Cosmos, has been in eclipse in the United States. He vividly conjures Scholem's upbringing in Berlin, and compellingly brings to life Scholem's transformative friendship with Walter Benjamin, the critic and philosopher. In doing so, he reveals how Scholem's frustration with the bourgeois ideology of Germany during the First World War led him to discover Judaism, Kabbalah, and finally Zionism, as potent counter-forces to Europe s suicidal nationalism.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590517768
• ISBN13: 9781590517765
• Release Date: March 2017
• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.2" x 9.1"