Towards a Left Judeo-Pessimism: A Reading List
“One way or another the day always comes when you discover that you are a Jew, just as you discover that you are mortal, not because of the collective and abstract promise of death, but because of your own individual condemnation.” – Albert Memmi, Portrait of a Jew
The past days have had a seismic effect on Jews worldwide. The violence in Israel and Gaza leaves us all feeling shattered. We fear for the lives of our families and friends; we fear for the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.
For Jews of the Left, another challenge presents itself. Here there are feelings of loneliness, horror, and political paralysis, not only at the violence but at the callous and cruel responses of people we once considered friends and political allies. All this as a wave of antisemitism threatens Jews in the diaspora. I do not think I exaggerate when I say that these events will fundamentally alter our political position for decades to come.
In some ways this is unprecedented. But it is also extremely familiar. What is new? Only the collective feeling of panic. Many Jews faced similar panics – but never so globally, not in recent memory. Up to this point, the creeping realization of our Jewish alienation has been an isolating experience by its very nature. Momentarily, we have a different possibility: collective education, political reformation. I certainly prefer it to endless news consumption.
We are not alone in this work. We never have been. An important body of knowledge analyzes the unique position of the Jew of the Left and presents an unflinching critique of antisemitism.
My title references a term coined by Shaul Magid. Much as a certain strain of critical race theory treats racism as a constitutive element of American society, scholars sometimes treat antisemitism as an inescapable fact of the world in which we live. Magid is ambivalent about this frame, but he admits that sometimes “a problem can best be understood, not by positing ways to solve it, but through assessing its contours, its origins, and its reach.” It is with this approach in mind that we call these works Judeo-Pessimist. One could equally speak of a critical theory of antisemitism.
Most of the work presented here is easily accessible online. It includes academic articles, journalistic work, and blog posts, with a particular focus on post-Holocaust antisemitism on the Left. The frames range from liberal to Marxist to anarchist, some Zionist, some not. I recommend going through sequentially, although some may find it more appealing to browse the early articles of each section before digging in to the heavier content.
“The Jew-of-the-Left”: An introduction to Albert Memmi
Why, as Jews, do we hold the politics we do? How can one exist on the Left and remain a Jew? How can one exist as a Jew and remain on the Left?
The single most significant thinker in this collection is Albert Memmi. The Tunisian-French philosopher is best known for his work The Colonizer and the Colonized (1957), a groundbreaking analysis of colonialism. He was also an engaged critic of antisemitism. After his emigration to France, he was shaken by the persistence of French antisemitism and by the ignorance and callousness of the French Left. Unfortunately, most of Memmi’s work is not so easily accessible online. Both The Portrait of the Jew and The Liberation of the Jew are absolutely essential reads – reach out to me for help finding a digital copy. For now, these introductions from David Schraub help to anchor our discussion moving forward. Schraub also appears throughout the pamphlet.
The Debate Link: Albert Memmi on the Jew-of-the-Left (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
The Debate Link: Memmi on the "Mistaken" Belief of Jewish Suffering (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
Schraub is one of the sharpest contemporary analysts of antisemitism. He expands further on some essential ideas in the following texts.
The Debate Link: Why Left Anti-Semitism? (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
On Loving -Jews- and Hating Jews (associationforjewishstudies.org)
For a more comprehensive discussion of the Left’s “Jewish problem,” I also recommend the article “Looking Left at Antisemitism” by Spencer Sunshine.
Looking Left at Antisemitism – Spencer Sunshine (transformativestudies.org)
The Left critique of anti-Zionism
The following talk by British sociologist and Marx scholar Robert Fine provides a critical introduction to Holocaust memory, antisemitism after the Holocaust, and the role of Israel. He critiques an anti-Zionism that condemns Israel as a unique evil. A well-known saying calls antisemitism “the socialism of fools”; Fine critiques this anti-Zionism as an “anti-nationalism of fools.”
Steve Cohen provides a more confrontational and anarchistic perspective on a similar topic. “As an opponent of Israel I will not exceptionalise Israel. And as an opponent of Zionism I do not, will not, demonise Zionism.”
Writing as a Jewish traitor - Steve Cohen | libcom.org
I also highly recommend Cohen’s book That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Antisemitic.
This 1982 text from preeminent left Jewish editors, published in the American-Jewish leftist journal Jewish Currents, expresses the (now often forgotten) desperation and disillusionment of Jews on the Left, faced with the transparent antisemitism of Soviet anti-Zionism. They denounced the Soviet Union’s decades-long suppression of Jewish life and culture as a “historic act of destroying a people by tearing up its culture by the roots” and a “rape” of “the most elementary principles of humanism and socialism.”
Next is an essential, if dense, article by Schraub that analyzes Black Republicans and Jewish anti-Zionists as a unique political phenomenon of the dissident minority: a group within a minority that dissents on a political question considered by most of that minority group to be of existential importance. The question, for Schraub, is not about the abstract validity of Jewish anti-Zionism (or Black conservatism) but the objective role these groups play in antisemitic and racist societies.
Pulling from thinkers like Hannah Arendt and critical race theorist Derrick Bell, Schraub draws out the basic contradiction: groups that exclude Jews for holding politics representative of Jewish opinion on Israel and antisemitism will, simultaneously, prop up the “dissenting minority” because they are Jews. This perversion of identity politics provides a Jewish alibi for an antisemitic environment. “Me, antisemitic? Some of my best friends are Jews; and they happen to agree with me!”
An accessible summary of the concept in application:
The Debate Link: The Issue is Mizrahi Power (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
The article in full:
The Distinctive Political Status of Dissident Minorities | David Schraub - Academia.edu
Epistemic antisemitism
Any Jew who speaks about antisemitism on the Left learns to expect an incredulous or hostile reaction. Suddenly, they become an object of suspicion. Indeed, the dominant notion for many on the Left and Right is that Jews lie systematically about antisemitism: smearing, libeling, weaponizing. Thus, an accusation of antisemitism, even one made by a long-term ally, is to be treated with a default cynicism. A Jew must prove that they are exceptionally trustworthy – more trustworthy than most other Jews – if they are to be heard at all.
In its softer version, epistemic antisemitism treats the Jew as neurotic, overly sensitive, censorious, and empowered beyond reason by the Holocaust. In a twist of anti-Jewish logic, the fact of past anti-Jewish oppression supposedly proves that we are today too careful about antisemitism.
British author Howard Jacobson provides a sharp critique of this condition:
Will We Ever Be Forgiven for the Holocaust? – Howard Jacobson – The Forward
David Schraub gives a more systematic and logical overview of the central problems with epistemic antisemitism in this academic article (he also coins the term):
The Epistemic Dimension of Antisemitism | David Schraub - Academia.edu
As per usual, he has a more accessible approach to the subject on his blog:
The Debate Link: The Antisemitism that Keeps Me Up at Night (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
Mizrahi Jews
Of the many sickening comments made after October 7 by supporters of terror, the ones that cut me deepest insisted that the Jews killed are merely “whites,” or “Europeans,” or (in its most antisemitic form) “Brooklyn landlords.” Needless to say, the “whiteness” of a Jew does not justify their murder. Most Jews living in Israel who might be described as white descend from Holocaust survivors and refugees. They have nowhere else to go.
Moreover, a majority of Israel’s Jewish population is manifestly non-white. They descend from refugees of violence in the Middle East; indeed, many of them were persecuted in the name of anti-Zionism.
It is not sufficient – it seems practically impossible – to make clear to the world the basic facts of Israeli demographics. This terrifies me. It is increasingly evident, first, that the historic and continued antisemitism of the Arab world shapes Israel and the conflict; second, that the erasure (and cynical appropriation) of Mizrahi Jews serves an ideological purpose for antisemitic anti-Zionism globally.
This classic essay by Albert Memmi, part polemic and part biography, describes his experiences as a Tunisian Jew and forcefully refutes the revisionist and romanticized histories of “Arab Jews” offered by opponents of Israel.
Who is an Arab Jew? – Albert Memmi – JIMENA
This article by Analucía Lopezrevoredo and David Schraub contends with the failures of both non-Jews and Jews of European background to acknowledge the unique perspective of Mizrahi Jews.
This is a sprawling and indispensable analysis of the history and present of “Arab Jews.” Noémie Issan-Benchimol et Elie Beressi reassert the distinctness of Mizrahi history, sharply criticize the possessive and imperialist attitude of anti-Zionist academics towards “Arab Jews,” and emphasize the role of “Arab Jews” in shaping the Jewish state as a constituent element of the modern Middle East.
"Arab Jews": Another Arab Denial ? - Jews, Europe, the XXIst century (k-larevue.com)
A stellar analysis of Jews, whiteness, and intersectionality by Karin Stoegner, which critiques the association of Jews with whiteness and presents a new feminist-intersectional framework for understanding antisemitism.
Fathom – Intersectionality and Antisemitism – A New Approach (fathomjournal.org)
Finally, a heartbreaking essay from Cléo Cohen, who survived a terror attack on a Tunisian synagogue. She reflects on the trauma, the reentry of antisemitism into Tunisian society, and the callous reaction of cross-Mediterranean francophone intellectuals.
The Boycott Movement
This past week, we have watched most proponents of that “non-violent” boycott movement against Israel loudly celebrate the murder, rape, and dismemberment of “Zionists.” Of course, this is not true of all boycott supporters. Celebrating violence against Jews does, however, appear to me to be a structural tendency of the boycott or anti-normalization movement as it is actually practiced, for the simple reason that it denies the salience of antisemitism while removing any guardrails against antisemitism.
These pieces from David Schraub effectively summarize the problem.
First, many progressive organizations have determined that they do not need most Jews and feel justified in cutting their institutional ties to the vast majority of Jews.
The Debate Link: Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
Second, he critiques the legal basis for public institutions marginalizing Zionist Jewish groups. A common argument, for example, runs that excluding Zionists is legitimate and non-antisemitic, because not all Jews are Zionists. Yet, “If anti-discrimination law requires a perfect match-up where the discriminatory act perfectly and without mediation targets the entirety of the covered group, then we might as well not have anti-discrimination law at all.”
Finally, this very clever blog post reflects on what happens when boycott movements do try to account for Jews. A system of rights, prohibitions, and privileges is constructed, allowing Jews to exist in regulated forms – so long as they consent to their legal subordination.
The Debate Link: The Sovereign's Grace, Kosher Food, and BDS at UofT (dsadevil.blogspot.com)
Antisemitism and white supremacy
While it is not the central focus of this collection, I highly recommend this classic essay by Eric K. Ward, an anti-fascist activist who explains the role of conspiracist antisemitism within American white supremacy.
Skin in the Game | Political Research Associates
Recommended by others
I’m already getting some great texts recommended. Rather than work to incorporate them into the core list, I will link them down here.
This excellent old essay by Schraub cuts to some of the central themes of his legal writing. The key points being: 1. Jews do possess political power in America; 2. Jews are not automatically protected by American legal structures; 3. The Jewish exercise of political power prevents the reestablishment of a manifestly anti-Jewish status quo; 4. Jewish equality and political agency is therefore frequently seen as abnormal and illegitimate.
Jews with Power versus Empowered Jews | Alas, a Blog (amptoons.com)
Here, a classic essay of Marxist philosopher Isaac Deutscher from 1954, only nine years after the Shoah and six after the founding of Israel. Includes some foundational reflections on the developing national character of the new state and the complex relationship between Zionism and socialism before and after the Shoah. An anti-Zionist for most of his career, Deutscher acknowledges the importance of the Jewish nation state while warning against nationalism for its own sake.
Israel's Spiritual Climate by Isaac Deutscher 1954 (marxists.org)
A recent article by Bruno Karsenti & Danny Trom that rethinks the Israel-diaspora relationship based on the tragedy of past weeks. Only in French for the moment, and densely theoretical, but very valuable. “The Israel-diaspora polarity comprises an exilic center of Pogrom-neutralization on the one hand, diasporic centers of potential pogrom on the other. [...] It is the diasporic foundation of being Jewish on which [Israel] stands that was uncovered.”
Depuis le pogrom - K. Les Juifs, l’Europe, le XXIe siècle (k-larevue.com)
A recent reflection by labor activist Daniel Randall problematizing the use of Holocaust references in anti-Zionist discourses.
A critique of anti-Zionism from Michael Walzer