Son of Spinoza : Georg Brandes and Modern Jewish Cosmopolitanism

Georg Brandes redefines Jewish identity through a Spinozist cosmopolitan lens, linking Jewishness to a broader European legacy. His choice to identify as a 'son of Spinoza' challenges conventional views while unveiling forgotten historical ties that later fueled antisemitic and Nazi ideologies.

Son of Spinoza sheds light on the interconnectedness between Jewishness and cosmopolitanism in the oeuvre of the Danish-Jewish intellectual Georg Brandes (1842-1927). Today, the historical tradition of interconnecting these concepts has largely been forgotten, although the construction of a somewhat synonymous relation between them became a key structuring element of modern antisemitism and later Nazi ideology. In this context, Georg Brandes–his writing and practice–stands as a crucial European cosmopolitan archive, due to the great influence he enjoyed throughout the European continent. Son of Spinoza challenges the presentation of Brandes in previous research as a so-called assimilated Jew who distanced himself from Jewishness, instead recognizing Brandes' own self-identification as a Spinozist cosmopolitan and his depiction of himself and other modern Jews as 'sons of Spinoza'.