2024-01-03 19:42:00
German-Israeli philosopher and former employee of the Israeli counterintelligence Shabak, who dreams of a common state for Jews and Palestinians? Yes, it exists. His name is Omri Böhm, and he is the winner of the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding 2024 for his book Radical Universalism: Beyond Identity.
The jury said in a statement that Boehm defends the essence of humanistic universalism, a commitment to the equality of all people and opposes any relativization.
For universalism and against identity politics
Omri Böhm vigorously defends his point of view, which often provokes a violent reaction. In the essay “Israel: Utopia,” published in 2020, he calls Zionism incompatible with humanistic values and advocates for a rethinking of Israeli statehood. Instead of a two-state solution in his Utopia, he talks about an Israeli-Palestinian federation – one country for both peoples.
Omri Böhm at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022Photo: STAR-MEDIA/IMAGO
Even after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 and the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Boehm did not change his position. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, he said: “We are dealing with an intolerable situation where the impossible must be done. (…) We must find ways for a political solution in the future. The only alternative to a full-scale war is a compromise in the form of a federation.”
Secret Service Agent and Model Student
Omri Böhm was born in Haifa in 1979 and grew up in the small village of Gilon in the Galilee – “under the influence of an educated German Jewish grandmother and a tradition-conscious Iranian-Jewish grandfather,” as he was once quoted by the Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper. He served in the Israeli secret service Shin Bet. Thanks to excellent grades, he studied at Tel Aviv University as part of the interdisciplinary Adi Lautman program for gifted students, and the topic of his doctoral dissertation at the famous Yale University in the USA was Emmanuel Kant’s criticism of the works of Spinoza.
It’s not just my grandmother who connects Boehm with Germany. He studied for some time in Heidelberg, and in 2010 he worked as a research fellow at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and carried out scientific research in Berlin. He has German and Israeli citizenship. Today Omri Boehm lives in the USA, where since 2010 he has been an assistant professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. In addition to his research and teaching activities, he writes about Israeli politics for major international publications such as Time, Die Zeit and The New York Times. But Böhm is known not only for his clear political position and works on Kant, Spinoza and Descartes.
Böhm puts ethics above obedience
Omri Böhm is not afraid, as the Leipzig Book Prize jury put it, “to demand metaphysical justifications for universalism.” He finds them in “bridging the gap between the philosophy of Kant and the heritage of the biblical prophets.” According to Böhm, absolute truths are necessary in modern society “to make human equality and dignity unshakable.”
Even after the Hamas attack on Israel and the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Boehm insists on the need for a “political solution to the conflict.” Photo: Ismael Mohamad/UPI Photo/IMAGO
In his first book, The Binding of Isaac: A Religious Model of Disobedience, published in 2007, Boehm argues that Abraham refuses to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac, being disobedient instead. The part of the scripture in which God sends an angel to explain the test to Abraham at the last second and save him from killing his own son was added later, according to Boehm. The philosopher believes that in the original version of the Book of Genesis, Abraham, of his own free will, violated God’s command and slaughtered a ram instead of Isaac. Therefore, according to Boehm, the cornerstone of the Jewish faith is not obedience, as is commonly believed, but disobedience.
The Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding has been awarded since 1994 and is considered one of the most important literary awards in Germany. Its amount is 20 thousand euros. The awards are organized by the state of Saxony, the city of Leipzig, the German Book Trade Association and the Leipzig Book Fair. The award ceremony will take place on its opening day, March 20, 2024, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. French-Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz, his friend and comrade-in-arms, will give a welcoming speech to Omri Boehm.
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