ABSTRACT
One of the major difficulties that confronts any attempt to dwell on the problem of Jewish identity lies in the relationship between that identity and the history of anti-semitism. Is Jewish identity the identity given to Judaism and hence to the Jew by that history, or is there an affirmative conception that seeks to overcome the continual historical enactment of antisemitism? While there is a straight-forward theological answer to this question it is one that is constrained to ignore even a dialectical relationship with anti-semitism. It is therefore one that does not confront the contemporary reality of the problem. A way into this apparent dilemma is provided by one of Christian thought’s most dramatic presentations of the Jew; the allegorical figure of the synagogue. Its importance lies in the fact that it presents the logic in terms of which the question of Jewish identity is answered by Christianity. It is of course an answer that is intimately connected to anti-semitism. It is precisely in terms of the identity-giving frame constructed by the logic of the synagogue that Kitaj’s preoccupation with Jewish identity needs to be situated. It also provides a way of assessing some of the critical writings that surround Kitaj’s paintings; or at least those paintings concerned with the Jew. It will also be suggested that the question of identity is a larger concern in Kitaj’s work.
