Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

80 } Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany

Moser specifies that Jewish and European, or Christian, culture converge

(laufen zusammen)

insofar as the disparity between the cultural condition of our nation and the

state (the sense in which I use the word surely needs no explanation) can be

overcome (aufzuheben ist); and they again diverge insofar as national reli-

gious education, on the one hand, confronts (gegenübersteht) ecclesiastical

religious education, on the other. In other words: the ideal Judaism (Juden-

thum) must appear to us (muß uns erscheinen) as completely reconciled with

the state, insofar as it is conditioned by civic culture (bürgerliche Kultur), but

in decided opposition to the prevailing church as such (mit der herrschenden

Kirche als solcher), and with regard to her dogmas. This idea [is] the founda-

tion of our entire endeavors.^124

Moser evokes the Hegelian state as the entity into which Jews can be fully inte-

grated, in contrast to a state allied with the Christian church and its dogmas. In

Moser’s opposition between national-religiöse and kirchlich-religiöse Bildung

we see a version of Hegel’s rational versus polemical religion. Moser does not

oppose Jewish national culture to the religious culture of the church; rather,

he opposes religious culture that is compatible with the state with dogmatic

religion, which is not compatible. According to this interpretation, Moser is

proposing that Judaism can and should be integrated into national-religiöse

Bildung along with salubrious forms of Christianity. Whether Jewish or Chris-

tian, religion should be integrated into the organic cultural fabric of the state;

in Hegel’s idiom, it should be a foundation for the state, not a corrosive, po-

lemical force. Dogmatic religious culture remains detrimental to the state, and

Judaism must remain firmly opposed to it. Since conversion can happen only

by confirming Christian dogmas, it must ultimately be at cross-purposes with

the highest goals of humanity. Conversion would thus not bring Judaism into

harmony with the organic rationality of the state but only with the narrow, sub-

jective, oppositional posture of dogmatic Christianity. Instead, Judaism must be

reconceived and reorganized so that it, while remaining Judaism, can be part of

the confluence that is Hegelian ethical totality.

Moser returns to his vision of what it would entail to replace (ersetzen) the

state near the end of the memorandum he read at the Verein’s inaugural meet-

ing. The context is important because it shows how Moser mobilizes the Hege-

lian state in order to critique Prussia’s policy toward the Jews:

In view of the sad neglect on the part of the state to which the Jews are sub-

ject and which remains very prejudiced (befangen) toward this segment of