Yirmiyahu Yovel is Schulman Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hans Jonas Professor at the Graduate Faculty, the New School for Social Research, New York. He is the author of Spinoza and Other Heretics (1989).
Yirmiyahu Yovel's Dark Riddle is a well-crafted and much-needed contribution to three scholarly literatures: on Hegel, on Nietzsche, and on the situation and the perception of the Jewish people in nineteenth-century Europe. Yovel shows precisely how Judaism and the Jews were 'thematized' in the work of two influential philosophers. His deep going study of Nietzsche, in particular, is a surprise, setting a much misunderstood record straight. This book is engaging and fascinating reading for anyone who cares about the interplay of philosophical ideas with the events of modern history. --Stephen Crites, Wesleyan University Nietzsche, Yovel has provided a well balanced and dispassionate study of a topic that probably is more important philosophically than previous scholarship has conceded. --Robert C. Holub, SHOFAR Impartial and gentlemanly to the core, Yovel presents a valuable exposition of two of the thinkers, whose works span the gamut from the completion of the modern project of rationality (Hegel) to its complete rejection from an anti-modern perspective (Nietzsche). The guiding question of this exposition is how Hegel and Nietzsche view and represent Jews and Judaism. The result is remarkable. --Michael Zank, Modern Judaism