On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a Jew

Abstract

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Force Inside Identity: Self and Other in Améry’s “On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a Jew”

“…6 Améry accepts this idea, but declares Sartre unaware, in Reflections, of the element of extreme force involved: "in his short phenomenological sketch Sartre could not describe the total, crushing force of antisemitism." 7 Améry's critique, which will be delineated further in what follows, is similar to that of another thinker influenced by Sartre on freedom and dignity, Frantz Fanon. In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon agrees with Sartre that the self is determined to an extent by how another sees one--"the look" of the other, as Sartre calls it.…”

“…Yes, one could say, to the extent that one is capable in a focused way of resisting physical force, more specifically, "of punching a human face." 15 If the element of extreme force makes us less our own author and less subject to the charge of inauthenticity if we deny or ironize our facticity, the possiblity of focused physical resistance gives us back an element of dignity, as Sartre, Fanon and Améry all would agree. Sartre says in the introduction to Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, "The native cures himself of colonial neurosis by thrusting out the settler through force of arms.…”

“…19 It is not unusual, in the history of Jewish life, for someone to become a Jew even though they do not find being a Jew in their memories. Such a person chooses being a Jew and chooses, in a specific sense, to take on the history of the Jews as their own history.…”

“…20 As for Jewish culture, he does not know much about it. "I know very little about Jewish culture," he says, presumably because of the death of his Jewish father and the fact that he was raised by his Catholic mother in the non-Jewish cultural surroundings of Bad Ischl.…”

“…He goes on: "The necessity and impossibility of being a Jew, that is what causes me indistinct pain." 18 Typically, Jewish identity is considered an unusual identity category not based on origin but on an amalgam of (some or all of) religion, culture, language, family and nation. Améry does not see himself falling into any of these categories.…”