ABSTRACT
In this survey of Kierkegaard's presence in Israel and the study of his thought, this chapter speculates about certain reasons for his somewhat delayed and sometimes ambivalent reception in Zion. Undoubtedly, Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber, Hugo Bergman, and Isaiah Leibowitz were the four towering figures who significantly facilitated the introduction of Kierkegaard to Palestine and then to Israel. When the state of Israel became a reality, those intellectuals moved in the opposite direction from before, namely, not from Jewish religiosity to secular Hebraism but from secularity to more pronounced feelings of a deepening identity with Jewish religiosity. Not surprisingly, Bergman devoted to Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling quite an extensive treatment. After some unfortunate delays, today Kierkegaard's thought is very much alive in Israel, and there are good reasons to hope that he will continue to flourish in a land that was so close to his heart.
