Are there any good Jewish authors or philosophers?

Are there any good Jewish authors or philosophers?

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>implying any jew has ever had an original thought besides "muh sheckles!"

Underrated

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Rosenzweig

I didn't ask about originality though

Ayn Rand

>Ayn Rand
>good

TRIGGER WARNING for the /pol/tards: I'm on the fence about the Jewish question as a Roman Catholic who leans right. However I definitely do think here in America we exaggerate the Holocaust relative to other atrocities in World War II (Nanking, Allied bombing, the London Blitz, everything the Soviets pretty much did). On the other hand, I think the far-right and far-left equally over-exaggerate the Jewish influence on politics and culture.

The authors of the Bible obviously created the greatest work of literature of all time. But you want authors and philosophers known by name. I'm going by "great" rather than "good."

Philosophers: Maimonides, Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Arendt, Marx, Benjamin, Derrida... etc. You might also be able to put Einstein and Freud in this category.

Writers: Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Singer, Kafka, Mailer, Wiesel, Heller, Salinger, Koestler, Primo Levi, Asimov, Proust, Bruno Schulz, Auster, Pasternak... etc.

As far as the authors on these lists go, I mostly prefer Kafka, Singer, and Schulz. Or at least I did like them at one time. I haven't read too many Heebs to be honest. I was not impressed by any of the Jewish philosophers on this list besides Maimonides whom I have not read.

Personally I'm unfamiliar with Israeli literature but I would be curious to hear their story.

Solomon Maimon

Obviously the Tanakh.
Some of the "Pirkei Avot".

Philosophy:
Spinoza
Bookchin
Robert Paul Wolff
Walter Kaufmann (see his translations of Nietzsche)
Marx
Writers:
Joseph Heller
Proust

>However I definitely do think here in America we exaggerate the Holocaust relative to other atrocities in World War II (Nanking, Allied bombing, the London Blitz, everything the Soviets pretty much did).

I think for a lot of people the Holocaust has become the central myth of a sort of secular religion. When I say "myth" I don't mean that it didn't happen, just that it's assumed the role of a myth.

The Holocaust is like Calvary for a certain type of person.

i was just about to post this actually

i suppose he isn't that obscure, but i'm really surprised to see him mentioned

Almost any great writer has Jewish heritage.

Jewish philosophy is incredible!

I would definitely suggest Martin Buber but there are lots more from the 20th century and going all the way back to Philo.

I was reading a one-volume encyclopedia of Jewish philosophy (read maybe 40 big fat pages) and it was some of the most intensely interesting shit I've ever read.

Spinoza is not a good example. Guy was only Jewish by birthright. He was ex-communicated by his synagogue and was even set up for assassination for his weird ideas at the time by the local Jewish leaders. Spinoza, if anything, is a philosopher outside his culture and time. Still to this day you can find Jews that don't consider him Jewish.

>I think the far-right and far-left equally over-exaggerate the Jewish influence on politics and culture.

All the wars we've been fighting since 2001 were based on neocon policy, which were primarily influenced by not just American Jews, but also had ties to Israeli foreign policy. This isn't a conspiracy theory, it's true if you read the genealogy of the ideas and people. I would say that it is not an exaggeration at all to talk about things like Jewish influence on politics, especially foreign policy given the impact these wars have had on the globe. Downplaying this aspect, or calling people anti-semitic for raising questions about it, is why you get pushback in the form of garbage like /pol/. If you aren't going to give room for criticism of the Jews in the mainstream, then the outsider elements of politics will take the ball and run with it (which they have).

>The authors of the Bible obviously created the greatest work of literature of all time.
Even the meme translations can't save it.

Has shitposting gone too far?

Chaim Potok
Sholem Aleichem

>Jewish influence on culture

I don't tend to bark on about Jewish influence, but there's no denying their disproportionate numbers in Hollywood and US mass media.

Harlan Ellison

Seconding this. These two, albeit not that well known, are the greatest yiddish writers and are amazing.

Other than that, there are a shitload of great jewish thinkers born and raised in jewish environments but eventually becoming atheist/agnostic: Kafka, Proust, Freud, Marx, Wittgenstein, Spinoza, Roth, Wiesel, Lispector, Stein, ...