32nd Belin Lecture: “’God Shed His Light on Thee’: American and Jewish Exceptionalism in the Thought of Meir Kahane”

Shaul Magid, Dartmouth College

This talk will explore notions of American exceptionalism and Jewish exceptionalism in the diasporic and Zionist thought of Meir Kahane. Magid will show how Kahane valued American democracy and viewed America as exceptional while at the same time felt that America could not ultimately protect the Jews. Alternatively, Jews had their own exceptional status that made them unique among collectives, and needed to express that status in a variety of ways, including the establishment of a non-democratic and thus abnormal state. Jewish exceptionalism demanded continued Jewish abnormality, the “normalization” of the Jew viewed as abandoning Jewish exceptionalism.

This is a hybrid event. Advanced registration is required for the virtual stream: https://myumi.ch/DJwAG

The Belin lecture series was established in 1991 through a generous gift from the late David W. Belin of Des Moines and New York to provide an academic forum for the discussion of contemporary Jewish life in the United States. Previous scholars to hold this honor include Deborah Lipstadt, Samuel Freedman, Ruth Messinger, Jim Loeffler, Beth Wenger, and Lila Corwin Berman among others. Each year, the lecture is also published in written form in collaboration with Michigan Publishing.