Jewish Past, Mnemonic Constitutionalism and the Politics of Citizenship

The “never again” theme, addressed in this Verfassungsblog symposium, has been a core historical paradigm in Europe, fostering a certain culture (Erinnerungskultur) of mnemonic constitutionalism. Furthermore, these patterns have been implicitly or explicitly replicated elsewhere in the liberal democracies too – even beyond countries directly affected by the tragedies of the Shoah. For this symposium essay, I will focus on the Jewish past, with its tragedies extending beyond and preceding the Holocaust as a master narrative unfolded by mnemonic constitutionalism. Specifically, I will reflect on how citizenship laws – as the foundational cluster of constitutional law in liberal democracies, including the countries without a formal constitution – have built constitutional ontologies upon the Jewish past and the “never again” theme through three central examples involving “Jewish citizens”.