ABSTRACT
The publication of Rawls’s A Theory of Justice in 1971 was a turning point in contemporary political philosophy. The neo-Aristotelian response to Rawls coupled a critique of the latter’s presupposed anthropology, its view of the self as radically self-determining, with a critique of its values pluralism. Jewish nationalism, Zionism, was a communitarian response of the 19th century to the dilemma that liberalism posed for the modern Jew. The debate between liberals and neo-Aristotelian communitarians was further exacerbated by a supposed contrast between a liberal commitment to ahistorical universalism and a communitarian commitment to historicism. The modern period for Jews commences with desegregation and the gradual integration into European society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Paralleling such a reconciliation between liberals and communitarians one can envisage common ground between Jewish reformers and nationalists. The liberal response has generally been to ground reflection on the status quo upon transcendent, at least pre-political norms.
