ABSTRACT
The Athens vs. Jerusalem dichotomy was predominantly developed during the Enlightenment period, and the greatest Western European thinkers of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries took part in the discussion regarding which civilizations had founded European civilization. Typically, the ancient Greek cultural tradition of Athens was deemed the substantial and solid ground of Europe, while the Jewish religious tradition of Jerusalem was downgraded to have less influence on Western development. In this context, the Danish Jewish fin-de-siècle intellectual Georg Brandes (1842–1927) and his writings represent a unique archive within the intellectual history of the Athens vs. Jerusalem debate. During the period when different European antisemitic-based nationalistic movements were growing, Brandes sought to reshape the dichotomy so that Jerusalem would be seen as an indispensable part of Western civilization. While Brandes accentuated the Jewish contributions to European civilization, however, he also emphasized a juxtaposed relationship between Athens and Jerusalem. Rather than elevating one city or the other, Brandes contended with the ideas of key European philosophers, such as G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche, who had characterized ancient Jewish civilization as a “false start” for European civilization and Judaism as a fossilized tradition in modern times.
