The author of a seminal study of anti-Jewish trends in Western thought has won one of Europe’s major academic prizes worth nearly £700,000.
David Nirenberg, director of the Institute of Advanced Study, an independent research centre in Princeton, New Jersey, was named one of the four winners of the Balzan Prize this week.
The Prize, dubbed “the Nobel Prizes of continental Europe”, is awarded by the International Balzan Prize to four scholars, two in science and two in the humanities, in different disciplines each year.
This year Jewish studies was one of the four chosen fields.
In its citation, the foundation acclaimed Nirenberg for “his ground-breaking scholarship and contributions on Judaism, anti-Judaism, and the dynamics of the relationship between Jews, Christians, and Muslims; for his meticulous research, theoretical insights on the fundamental interdependence of violence and tolerance, rigorous historical analyses, and command of a wide range of sources in multiple languages and spanning multiple disciplines; and for profoundly advancing our understanding of not only ancient, but also contemporary questions."
His book, Anti-Judaism, published in 2013 showed how influential strands in Western thought defined themselves in opposition to Judaism, stretching from antiquity to modern times.
In an interview four years ago with k.larevue.com, he explained: “By ‘anti-Judaism’ I mean a way of thinking that sees the world as threatened by “Judaism,” which is then understood not as a specific people or religion, but as another way of thinking, of interpreting reality, which is false, corrupt, and even deadly.
“Anti-Judaism does not require the presence of real Jews, and it will, for example, attack the media or money, Marxism or capitalism as ‘Jewish’ without worrying about whether flesh-and-blood Jews are indeed involved. To go further, I would say that antisemitism is only a sub-category of anti-Judaism: there are, after all, very few real Jews in the world, yet anti-Judaism is widespread!”
Other books include Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages and Neighbouring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today.
His most recent book Uncountable: A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present, which came out five years ago, was jointly written with his father Ricardo.
According to the institute, where he is Leon Levy Professor, he is “currently at work on a history of racial thought in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.