 Written in the wake of Simmel’s Religion (1906), which painted a vivid picture of the profound role religion continues to play in modern culture and society, “Judentum und Kultur” argues against the call for assimilation and for the enduring and vital significance of Judaism’s role in modern culture. In an early gesture towards interfaith dialogue, the essay suggests, without referencing Leo Baeck’s argument in The Essence of Judaism (1905), that Judaism is not a religion of dogmas, thereby adding to Baeck’s argument a striking and unexpected point. Western culture, she notes, rests on Christian foundations that inform modernity, inflecting its deepest longings and desires for redemption. Taking off the “straightjacket” of Christian religion would be tantamount to ripping apart the arteries and pulses of the culture—in short, it would amount to a collapse of “our whole culture”. While Christianity, unlike Judaism, has become a completely universalized religion that envisions human redemption in purely universal terms, its history is also