On March 6th, Professor Donatella di Cesare (Universita’ La Sapienza, Rome) gave a talk in the A.D. White House entitled “Heidegger and the Jews,” whose title referenced not only di Cesare’s own book on Heidegger’s Black Notebooks but also Jean-François Lyotard’s important book on Heidegger and “the Jews” from 1988. Di Cesare’s talk centered around close readings of several controversial passages from the Notebooks. Her analysis focused on what she saw as a necessary relationship in Heidegger’s writings between “Die Judenfrage” (the Jewish question) and “Die Seinsfrage” (the question of being), that is, between Heidegger’s antisemitism and the core of his philosophical project. As she argued, in Heidegger’s work the Jewish Question is inextricably tied to the question of Metaphysics more generally; as a result, the destruction of the Jews is directly connected to Heidegger’s investment in the destruction of “traditional” metaphysics. Di Cesare termed Heidegger’s antisemitism “a metaphysical antisemitism,” adding that the only way to overcome the “problem” of the Jewish question thus conceived was through a metaphysical “self-annihilation” that relieves everyone but the Jews themselves of the responsibility for their own destruction. In closing, Professor di Cesare turned to the Arendt-Heidegger relationship as a site of a potentially missed redemption within the intellectual trajectory of Heidegger’s thought.
Di Cesare’s in-depth analysis gave rise to a lively Q&A. Topics ranged from fine points of her readings to much larger questions concerning Heidegger’s relation to Karl Jaspers and other important post-war thinkers. One of the most chilling and insightful moments of her talk focused on Heidegger’s use of the term “weltlos” (world-less, without world) in reference to the Jewish people. As di Cesare ended her lecture by focusing on Arendt, it is helpful to highlight Arendt’s conception of “world” as precisely that space between individuals that must be carved out and cultivated in order to maintain any notion of humanity. This vital core of Arendt’s humanism is precisely what Heidegger was unwilling to grant the Jewish people, according to di Cesare. (Daniel Binswanger Friedman)
