Jewish orientalists subverted individual claims but never escaped the orientalism framework

Evidence

Jews did produce critical responses that challenged dominant scholarly trends as well as dominant images of the East. Susannah Heschel has pointed out the subversive aspects of Abraham Geiger’s scholarship on both early Christianity and on Muhammad. Indeed, in this context, Geiger may be seen as similar to other Jewish intellectuals who also subverted some aspects of modernity through the participation in the general discourse. It seems to me, however, that Jews did not really offer an alternative approach to orientalism. Religious reform of Judaism by scholars such as Geiger was directed by the intention to divest the religion of its “irrational” aspects and was presented in obvious orientalist terms. Even if one can argue that Jewish orientalists expressed a more positive attitude toward the East than their Christian counterparts, the attempt within Jewish studies to distinguish Judaism from the Muslim East expressed a clearly orientalist dimension. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 637

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what would count as a genuine ‘alternative approach’ to orientalism versus mere subversion within it.