Jews Don't Count and Count Too Often: Reflections on Left Antisemitism
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2024
- Against the backdrop of rising antisemitic incidents around the world and ongoing debates on the subject within left movements, this online panel will address the complicated political, ethical, and historical questions at stake in contemporary discussions of antisemitism. The panel will critically examine widespread beliefs about Jews and power, exploring how antisemitic myths continue to connect Jews to capitalism, the slave trade, media, war, and more. The panelists will discuss what antisemitism shares with other forms of racism as well as what sets it apart, why it is central to yet irreducible to white supremacy, and debates surrounding its “weaponization” against the left. It will also reflect on a recent letter written by the panelists addressing the antisemitic content in Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s book The Sociology of Freedom, and subsequent discussions within the social ecology movement (social-ecology....
In addressing left tropes of "Jewish power," panelists will examine why the left often struggles to identify and address antisemitism in the very movements that are critical to our collective struggle to create a truly directly democratic and ecological world.
Panelists include Chaia Heller (PhD anthropology UMass Amherst, Institute for Social Ecology), Peter Staudenmaier (history, Marquette University), Alan Goodman (anthropology, Hampshire College), Robert Ogman (PhD sociology, antisemitism educator), and Blair Taylor (Institute for Social Ecology), moderated by Eleanor Finley (Umass Amherst anthropology, ROAR mag).
Sponsored by the Institute for Social Ecology, October 20, 2021.
Thank you so much for doing this panel and for doing so much work to try to get this discussed in the community. The existence of Rojava is such a source of hope and a model that so many of us look to as an alternative to the broken systems we live in. It is important to recognize errors in thought if we wish to build a better world, and we must recognize that any human is going to have things that they need to fix within themselves. As such, critiquing the antisemitism in Occalan's writing and in anticapitalist movements as a whole is vital for the health and wellbeing of the movements. If anyone calls themselves anti-racist, they must be willing to address and process their own racisms, including antisemitism. As the Avenue Q song says, "Everyone's a little bit racist," but the point is to recognize those failings and then to root the racism we find out of ourselves.
Just watched the panel -- this is AMAZING and so important! Thank you to ISE for having the moral courage and leadership to present this vital insight into the ways that anti-Jewish racism is all too pervasive in social justice movements in general and in the Kurdish liberation movement in particular. The panelists are fabulous! What would be truly helpful as a follow up is a course that teaches action steps for countering anti-Jewish racism in the left. I took the ISE course last year on antisemitism and found it a bit too academic and abstract.
A good attempt at discussing a very real problem on the left, by academics so ensconced in far-left activism they resort to impressive mental gymnastics to discourage the inevitable antisemitism in their fervent anti-capitalist and anti-western worldview. It amazes me how any Jew that’s studied history even badly can identify with hyper partisan politics.
I'm wondering if you could clarify your interesting comment. Are you saying that the panelists are exhibiting hyper partisan politics or that we're making a good enough attempt at 'discourage' antisemitism?
@@chaiaheller4117 some of the panelists clearly subscribe to radical leftist views like ‘dismantling capitalism’ whilst naively asserting those that believe in such a mission can avoid anti-Jewish bigotry which naturally arises with such thinking. In the book (appropriately named for this panel) “Jews Don’t Count” by David Baddiel, he explains how far leftists like Corbyn are blind to antisemitic tropes because they see the anti-capitalism in the sentiment first, before (or even if) seeing antisemitism. Antisemitism in far left activism is not a bug, it’s a feature. That’s the mistake repeated throughout this panel.
@@pathologicaldoubt Thanks for your comment. You assefrt that any movement or endeavor to counter the capitalist system will inevitably ignite antisemitic rhetoric. I assume by this statement that you either believe the capitalist system 'works' and is inevitable or you feel that the system is exploitative and destructive, but inevitable. While I agree obviously with you that the anticapitalist left is riddled with antisemitic tropes and myths, I believe a future world is not possible if we fail to transcend the capitalist system. Do we have to abandon the leftist cause because it is somehow inherently Jew-hating? Or can Jewish peoples as allies of Jewish peoples work to raise consciousness about the problem of hating 'Jews' as does David Baddiel, within the left, thus addressing anti-Jewish racism within a broader movement to transcend capitalism, the State, and all forms of hierarchy and racism, including anti-Jewish racism.
@@chaiaheller4117 David Baddiel is quite critical of the progressive left, and rightly so. A movement for reforming or ensuring capitalism is regulated is a more reasonable and pragmatic effort grounded in reality, and doesn’t lend itself as much to Jew hating sentiments. Whilst overthrowing / dismantling capitalism is another story. Have you read what Marx has said about Jews and their nature? I’m not a fan of corporatism but one needn’t be to grasp that capitalism isn’t the ephemeral catch-all boogeyman responsible for all social ills. The world is more nuanced than that..
@@pathologicaldoubt You're conveniently ignoring that antisemitism exists not only among "hyper partisans", but prominently as well among centrist liberal reformists. Ignoring the immediacy and scale of the changes needed to survive climate change is not more reasonable or pragmatic, but leads people to invent scapegoats for the problems they can't address, like "elite academics taking over Hollywood and universities," a common trope liberals use to wield antisemitism against the left.
I find it very telling that to you, "hyper partisan" is the word for extremist. Of course, the ISE seems very critical of party politics, especially by the Green Party, but if you see so much nuance that all of politics is Red vs Blue, you'd be forgiven for thinking "partisan" is an antonym of "centrist."