Gola ve-Nekhar: The Riddle of Jewish Survival

In 1927, Bialik wrote of Kaufmann’s first great work: “A redeemer has been found for Hebrew thought.” This lecture examines Gola ve-Nekhar – a vast study of Jewish history – and its central question: why did the Jewish people survive dispersion while others assimilated? Kaufmann’s unequivocal answer is that the Jewish religion alone, based on radical monotheism, prevented absorption. The lecture traces his distinction between gola (exile) and nekhar (estrangement), examines the critical test case of the Babylonian exile, and explores his prophetic 1920s warnings about the catastrophic dangers gathering over European Jewry.

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