Resource on Antisemitism Rooted in a Commitment to Justice
In response to frequent calls for articles that offer a progressive/left analysis of antisemitism rooted in a commitment to racial justice, we offer the following articles that some of us and others have written. The articles offer different perspectives from those often put forth in Jewish, including progressive Jewish, communities. This is not a comprehensive list at all, but we thought each article reflected analysis and thinking that we found valuable and hoped others would as well. While we are also not focusing on the critiques of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which are plentiful, we offer two resources below.
Nina Mehta, Sheryl Nestel, Donna Nevel, Mark Tseng-Putterman, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Lesley Williams
Suggested Articles
1. Mark Tseng-Putterman, “Fear and Loathing in American Zion”
https://prtcls.com/article/fear-and-loathing-in-american-zion/
“Questions of Jewish complicity in white supremacy remain mostly silenced, obscured by fears of the “new antisemitism” (i.e. anti-Zionism) and a deep attachment to an exceptionalist narrative of Jewish persecution”.
“The well-worn metaphor of antisemitism as virus reflects the understanding that anti-Jewish prejudice is transhistorical — infecting communities across time, place, and nation.“
2. Lesley Williams, “We Cannot Fight Antisemitism and Anti-Black racism in Isolation” and “White Jews: Deal with your privilege and call out Jewish support for white supremacy”
https://truthout.org/articles/we-cannot-fight-anti-semitism-and-anti-black-racism-in-isolation/
“White supremacy is the fundamental problem, whether expressed as anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia or anti-Indigeneity. Rather than insisting on the exceptional and separate nature of anti-Semitism, we must acknowledge that it is yet another manifestation of the central evil of white supremacy. Too often the insistence on the exceptional nature of anti-Semitism, its supposed uniqueness and eternal persistence serve to diminish the pain of anti-Black racism, tragically misrepresenting the dangers both pose. We cannot fight these two in isolation, and we cannot keep pretending that any form of racism is more pernicious or more “eternal” than any other.”
3. Alana Lentin, “Why are anticolonial academics being accused of antisemitism?”
https://vashtimedia.com/2021/02/09/anticolonial-academics-antisemitism-antizionism-holocaust-israel-palestine/ also, Chapter 4 (Good Jew/Bad Jew) in “Why Race Matters”
“As I write in Why Race Still Matters (2020), the elevation of antisemitism as the racism above all racisms, and the contention that any discussion of the Shoah alongside other genocides renders it banal, constrains solidarity between Jews and other racialised people, thwarting a fuller understanding of race as a colonial mechanism and a technology of power for the maintenance of white supremacy.”
4. Professor Brian Klug, “What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Antisemitism’?:Echoes of Shattering Glass” Presented at the Jewish Museum, Berlin, November 2013 and ‘The Roots of Prejudice’ Freud Museum, London The Anna Freud Centre 15 November 2014
Quote from Professor Brian Klug: ”The ‘join the dots’ approach I take implies that I don’t see it as an either-or: either antisemitism is unique or it’s a manifestation of a general phenomenon called ‘racism’; i.e., racism against Jews. Both these positions seem simplistic to me. As I see it, there is a general logic of racism (and of Othering in general), which applies across the board, and a specific logic that applies with each particular kind of racism/Othering. To put it another way: every form of racism (and of Othering) has unique features, but they all have certain things in common. (They can also, of course, overlap, but that’s a different point.)Thus, to understand any given kind of racism (such as antisemitism), it is necessary both to bring that ‘dot’ into focus in its own right and to join it with the other ‘dots.’”
5. Tallie Ben Daniel, “Antisemitism, Palestine, and the Mizrahi Question” (pages 71–80) Jewish Voice for Peace, On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice
“Yet, when we talk about antisemitism, even in spaces that are ostensibly aware of the occupation and displacement of Palestinians ((page 73), European experiences are presented as the template for all Jews, everywhere, along with a cautionary tale of the unchanging, endless, permanent, or cyclical nature of antisemitism. We live in a world where Western Europe, and Western European history, is dominant so the tropes that characterize European antisemitism — like conspiracy theories in which Jews are secretly in control of financial systems or the media — are dominant as well. I do not doubt that antisemitism exists, nor do I think we should let it go unchecked. But I want an analysis of antisemitism that interrogates, rather than replicates, the Eurocentricity of the most common narrative.”
6. Donna Nevel and Mark Tseng-Putterman, “What Antisemitism Is and What It Is Not”
http://bostonreview.net/politics/donna-nevel-mark-tseng-putterman-what-anti-semitism-is
“I worry that the tendency to render anti-Semitism as abstract, cyclical, and permanent (language of anti-Semitism as a “virus” or an “ancient prejudice” abound) prevents us from looking closely at our current political conditions and from understanding anti-Semitism in relation to the escalation of racist state violence we are seeing in this moment.”
7. Barry Trachtenberg, “The New Kherem, or ‘Barry Trachtenberg does not represent Us!’: On speaking for and against Jewish self-interests
“There are those of us within the field of Jewish Studies who believe simultaneously that Jews have just as much a right to exist in the world as do all other peoples and who recognize that Jews have just as much a capacity for violence as all other peoples. It is our obligation, therefore, to use our positions to show solidarity with other peoples with similarly long histories of oppression, to link our fate with the undercommons, and to explore how, as “anti-representatives” of the Jewish community, we can call out abuses by the Jewish State and its defenders in the diaspora.”
8. Rabbi Brant Rosen, “After Pittsburgh, We Can No Longer Cry Wolf on Campus Antisemitism” and “Unacceptable and Inhumane: A Response to Rabbi Jill Jacobs”
https://rabbibrant.com/2018/11/03/after-pittsburgh-we-can-no-longer-cry-wolf-on-campus-anti-semitism/; https://rabbibrant.com/2018/05/25/unacceptable-and-inhumane-a-response-to-rabbi-jill-jacobs/
“The attempt to conflate criticisms of Israel on the left with bigoted anti-Semitism on the right is a tactic that has long been employed by the Israeli government and professional Israel advocacy organizations. Now that we are coming face to face with the deadly truth of neo-Nazi anti-Semitism in our country, however, it is becoming increasingly clear how their tactic not only enables violence toward Palestinians, but also puts Jews at greater peril by ignoring the resurgence of alt-right rhetoric and violence against them.”
On the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
· A Group of 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals, “Palestinian rights and the IHRA definition of antisemitism”
“We believe that the human values and rights are indivisible and that the fight against antisemitism should go hand in hand with the struggle on behalf of all oppressed peoples and groups for dignity, equality, and emancipation.”
· Independent Jewish Voice, Resources on Saying NO to the IHRA definition of antisemitism
“The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA-WDA) is designed to silence criticism of Israel and of Zionism by equating this criticism with antisemitism.
Yet since antisemitism is a type of racism, it must be opposed in solidarity with other anti-racist struggles. The real fight against antisemitism must be joined to the struggle for equality and human rights for all people in Canada, in Israel-Palestine and around the world.”
February 2021
