Adorno conceived of the Jews as the universal proletariat of the enlightenment process

Evidence

In one of the many ideas and suggestions he was constantly producing, Adorno thus put in a nutshell what was to motivate both him and Horkheimer later on when they were working together on the project: the idea of the Jews as the proletariat of the world-historical process of enlightenment, deprived of every vestige of power. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1140

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School’s broader abandonment-of-working-class theme; the proletariat role in critical theory shifts onto the Jews. — connects to: The fate of the Jews absorbed the proletariat’s world-historical role for Adorno — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1139; Enlightenment humanism exoticized Jews to make them serve as proof of universal humanity — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 196; For Adorno, antisemitism casts Jews as embodying modernity’s repressed other side (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• For Adorno, antisemitism casts Jews as embodying modernity’s repressed other side #corroborates (0.90)
• Enlightenment humanism exoticized Jews to make them serve as proof of universal humanity #expands (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 196
• Horkheimer and Adorno saw Jews as embodying happiness free of purposive rationality #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1288