Adorno and Antisemitism

Abstract Although only marginally discussed in the literature, the problem of antisemitism and the atrocities of Auschwitz profoundly reshaped Theodor W. Adorno’s political and social thought. This article explores Adorno’s contribution to both antisemitism research and theory and their meaning for his critical theory at large. Adorno understands authoritarianism and the conditions that generate it as important driving forces behind antisemitic social paranoia. Yet he defies monocausal explanations for the phenomenon and its recurring social, psychological, and political appeal in modern society. Adorno’s multifaceted critique of antisemitism encompasses generalizable as well as particular features, functions, and origins of Judeophobia. In this view, antisemitism is based on diverse false projections, offers pseudo-orientation in an estranged world as the modern conspiracy fantasy sui generis, and construes Jews as an existential enemy of humanity who need to eliminated for humankind’s redemption. Moreover, Adorno’s post-Holocaust analyses provide a framework for understanding new dynamics of antisemitism in democracies. This includes the emergence of camouflaged and “secondary” forms. Adorno’s insights remain relevant in view of resurging antisemitic politics, boosted by authoritarian governments and movements in a new global age of unreason and embedded in postfactual media systems. Against this current, Adorno’s critical theory points to genuine cosmopolitan politics and upholds the idea of truth in the historical moment of its downfall.