The National Being and the Jewish Community

Horace M. Kallen

1942

[ . . . ] If against the assimilationist the American spirit affirms the right to be different, against the segregationist it affirms the right of free association of the different with one another. But it points also to a certain prior community of the Jewish group with the national being. This community is established in and through the Old…

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Creator Bio

Horace M. Kallen

1882–1974
The social philosopher Horace M. Kallen was born in Silesia, the son of a rabbi, but came with his parents to the United States in 1887. He was educated at Harvard and taught there, at Clark University, and at the University of Wisconsin. In 1919, he helped to found the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he taught for the rest of his life. His best-known contribution to American thought was his theory of cultural pluralism. Rejecting Israel Zangwill’s vision of the United States as a melting pot, he compared American society to a symphony orchestra, to which each immigrant group contributed its own distinctive sound. He opposed efforts to force the homogenization of American society and urged immigrants to cultivate and take pride in their national origins. Not surprisingly, he was a supporter of Zionism.

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