Correspondence, 1939 - 1969

"The correspondence between Theodor Adorno and Gershom Scholem reveals an intriguing friendship and one of the most important philosophical genealogies of the twentieth century. The relation between critical theory and Jewish mysticism comes to life in their exchange, clarifying how these mammoth intellectuals illuminated each other's scholarship. Asaf Angermann's Introduction to the volume is brilliant and insightful."
Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
 
"Gershom Scholem and Theodor Adorno were an odd couple: the first a Zionist and scholar of Kabbalah, the second a neo-Marxist philosopher who returned to Germany after the war. Yet their surprising thirty-year friendship, wonderfully expressed in this correspondence, reveals the broad horizons of these two towering intellectuals of the twentieth century."
David Biale, University of California - Davis
 
"Brought together by their mutual regard for Walter Benjamin and shared grief at his death, Gershom Scholem and Theodor Adorno began an unlikely, yet increasingly intense epistolary friendship. Scrupulously annotated and masterfully introduced by Asaf Angermann, their letters open a window letting in the twilight glow of a once vibrant German-Jewish culture before its passing into history."
Martin Jay, University of California - Berkeley
 
"The friendship between Theodor Adorno and Gershom Scholem was as fascinating as it was improbable. Dialectics came into explosive contact with the history of mysticism, sending sparks of light in a thousand directions. Their correspondence, now available in English with a superb editorial apparatus, ranks as one of the most exhilarating documents in the entire history of twentieth-century thought."
Peter Gordon, Harvard University
 
"Theodor Adorno said of Walter Benjamin's correspondence: 'The level and quality of letters is always also determined by its addressee.' The quality of the Adorno-Scholem correspondence, intelligently introduced by Asaf Angermann and elegantly translated by Sebastian Truskolaski and Paula Schwebel (with assistance from Stepahie Graf), is correspondingly high. It's well worth lifting our eyes to see it."
Jewish Review of Books