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Home Front: Culture Wars
2011-12-30
Food for thought.

Excerpt:
The holiday of Hanukkah is, in part, a celebration of the victory of traditionalist Jews over Jews bent on assimilation to Greek Seleucid culture. As such, the second-century B.C.E. Maccabean revolt has resonated throughout the ages not only as a key historical contest, but as a wellspring for interpretations of the divergent moral and theological views of the Hebrews and the Greeks.

For almost every supposed difference between the two systems of thought, one can point to exceptions or actual similarities; yet certain very real divisions remain. In 1967, the philosopher Leo Strauss formulated his interpretation of "Hebraism" and "Hellenism." Provocative yet equanimous, Strauss believed that both the Hebrew prophets and the Greek philosophers had a divine mission--but the mission was not the same.

We re-publish his essay, "Jerusalem and Athens: Some Introductory Reflections" below, with the permission of Commentary, where it first appeared. And, in the spirit of ideological contentiousness, we present the classical scholar Louis H. Feldman's 1994 reconsideration, in which he argues that the sharp line drawn between the Hebraic and the Hellenic has sometimes prevented a more balanced understanding. --The Editors
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