Horkheimer and Adorno saw Jews as embodying happiness free of purposive rationality

Evidence

For both of them, the Jews stood for an inability to achieve full assimilation into a social system characterized by radical self-preservation and totally purposive rationality. The Jews stood for a form of happiness free of the struggle for life, free of work, free of purposiveness. For both Horkheimer and Adorno, social theory, `theological discussion’ and the theory of anti-Semitism appeared to be closely connected. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1288

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the Horkheimer/Adorno theses on Jewish non-assimilation within their anti-Semitism theory — useful for reference-level synthesis.
• XREF: Connects to Weber’s rationalization thesis and to Adorno/Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment account of the Jews as the ‘other’ of instrumental reason. — connects to: Adorno conceived of the Jews as the universal proletariat of the enlightenment process — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1140; Horkheimer’s worldview drew on collective Jewish experience, not only Marxism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 440; For Adorno, antisemitism casts Jews as embodying modernity’s repressed other side (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• For Adorno, antisemitism casts Jews as embodying modernity’s repressed other side #expands (0.85)