The Book of Job and the Fate of the Jewish People

In 1945, philosopher Margarete Susman wrote The Book of Job and the Fate of the Jewish People in Zurich. In view of the Shoah, »this moment of global catastrophe«, it is an attempt to explain the history of the Jewish people through the lens of the Book of Job, its struggles with God, its desire for justice. Susman interprets the Book of Job anew in individual sections on the creation, on guilt, persecution, Zionism, hope. The biblical story that has been handed down to us proves to be of undiminished currency. Susman’s interpretation of Job, which she first put forward in an essay on Franz Kafka in 1929, has influenced Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem and Paul Celan. For her, the entire post-biblical tradition revolves around the question of God’s justification before His people. In her afterword, the Frankfurt-based rabbi Elisa Klapheck details the topicality of Margarete Susman’s philosophy.

»The central question of Susman’s Job ... is and remains insoluble. The book holds historical significance as an early, completely unprotected attempt to face the catastrophe of the century without acceding to the loss of one’s faith ... this attempt is unique.« Wolfgang Matz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung