Jews Out of the Question. A Critique of Anti-Anti-Semitism. Introduction (original) (raw)
Critical theories of antisemitism
1999
Critical Theories of Antisemitism Distinguishing between different ways of thinking about antisemitism, this study concentrates on those theories that understand antisernitism as a uniquely modern phenomenon. Covering the period from the mid-19th century to the present day, it first examines the work of Marx and Nietzsche and then moves on to those theorists who wrote in the immediate aftermath of the holocaust and concludes with the postmodern writings of Bauman and Lyotard. It argues that these critical theories of antisemitism all relate the emergence of antisemitism to modern forms of political emancipation and questions the impact of the holocaust upon this body of thought. The study argues that the fluidity and open-endedness by which the early writers characterise modernitymost notably the ambivalence within modernity itself between the possibility of full emancipation and barbaritycomes to be replaced by an increasing pessimism that sees antisernitism as modernity's only possible outcome. It argues that this change is accompanied first by increasing the centrality of antisemitism to modernity, and also by defining more rigidly the concepts by which antisemitism is explained, most noticeably, the concept of "the Jews". This study argues that as a result of these interrelated developments, critical theories replicate many of the assumptions of the antisemitic worldview identified in the early works. By calling for a cautious and critical return to these earlier ways of explaining antisemitism, the study concludes by pointing to an approach that remains within the tradition of critical theory, but which re-establishes the critical distance between ways of accounting for antisemitism and the phenomenon itselfone in which the "Jewish question" is de-centred, the explanatory concepts reopened to question and the promise of emancipation reinvigorated.
Confronting Antisemitism from the Perspectives of Philosophy and Social Sciences: Introduction
An End to Antisemititsm! vol. 4, 2021
The present,fourth volume of An End to Antisemitism! combines articles that address the studyofa ntisemitism from perspectiveso ft he social sciences,i ncluding psychology, philosophy, and pedagogy. The contributions to this final volume of the proceedings series essentiallym irror the general approach to combating antisemitism that is suggested by the whole five-volume series An End to Antisemitism! One of the series' main arguments is that successful strategies to fight antisemitism must be based on at horough scholarlya nd scientific analysis of Jew-hatred. Such an analysis begins with the assessment not onlyo ft he level of antisemitism in ag iven population and time but alsob yi dentifying which forms of Jew-hatred wereo ra re more prominent thano thers. Thisa ssessment is followed by an interdisciplinary theoretical reflection of antisemitisma nd by an analysis of the assessed data. Such theoretical reflection must be the basis for the development of successful strategies to combat antisemitism. This first part is followed by articles dedicatedtothe theoretical reflection of antisemitism on philosophical, sociological, and psychological levels. Historical and religious perspectiveshavebeen discussed in previous volumes.¹ The results of these theoretical contributions point the wayt ot heir implementation in the form of pedagogical studies and as examples of best practices. Assessmento fA ntisemitism Assessment of the level of antisemitism has been established as one of the key prerequisites to successfullyf ight it-bothi nv olume 1o ft he present series as well as in the respective official catalogue of measures for combatingantisemitism.² Onlyanin-depth understanding of the level and nature of antisemitism in
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2017
This impressive book, offering essays by 19 authors on the topic of the recent upsurge in virulent anti-Jewish hostility, is daunting, not by sheer size, which is considerable, but by the very fact of its existence, the very fact of what must be its focus the worldwide rise of a pernicious, persistent anti-Semitism. The topic of course must be explored, and is explored with painstaking scholarship, intensive scrutiny of the subject itself, commitment, eloquence, and passion. The book is the outgrowth of a four-day conference involving 45 scholars from 10 countries at Indiana University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) in April 2014. The 19 authors represented in the book live in, and/or are affiliated with colleges and universities in Austria, England, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, and the United States. It is important, and impressive, that the contributors to the book are international, because anti-Semitism is a burgeoning international problem. The book is organized into four parts, (I) Defining and Assessing Antisemitism, (II) Intellectual and Ideological Contexts, (III) Holocaust Denial, Evasion, Minimization, and (IV) Regional Manifestations. The second chapter, ''The Ideology of the New Antisemitism,'' by Kenneth Marcus, is useful in identifying some key psychoanalytic issues. He sets the stage by underscoring that antisemitism is an ideology, quoting Sartre, who described antisemitism as a ''conception of the world'' (p. 21), giving us a broad, inclusive perspective to consider. He identifies the irrationality of otherwise educated, knowledgeable people who accept an ideology that includes the infamous blood libel, that Jews murder Christian babies to use their blood in making Passover matzoh. He continues by citing Holocaust-denial statements that Jews invented stories about a Holocaust that never happened, and by citing the belief that the antisemitic forgery, ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'' is true. He anchors his discourse in an acknowledgment of Freudian thought, that ''the ideology of hatred is a symptom of repressed desire'' (p. 25). Marcus discusses trauma as underlying antisemitic ideology, citing projection and displacement as essential to further understanding how people deal with the conflicts generated by repressed desire, in an attempt to rid themselves of forbidden desires. He delineates various ways in which Jews are blamed for everything, quoting a 19th century CE (Common Era) tract that traces everything evil to Jews, and contemporary Islamic thought that attributes every ''catastrophe'' to Jews (p. 37).
Adam Katz and Eric Gans, The First Shall Be the Last: Rethinking Antisemitism (review)
Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2018
This book by Adam Katz and Eric Gans makes a significant and original contribution to the study of antisemitism. It serves as a new stage in the development of the theory and method of generative anthropology developed by Gans and his school, as well as of philosophical anthropology as the study of the mechanisms of sign and culture origination in general. At the foundation of Gans’s theory lies the idea that the human collective is formed at the moment when the “gesture of appropriation” in relation to the object of desire characteristic of the “pecking order” is aborted and deferred, is transformed into an originary sign, a symbol of this object. The sacral is the object that is designated as unassignable. The aborted gesture becomes the first sign of both language and morality, which henceforth transforms from a tribal codex into a universal correlative of the sacral as such.
2021
Contrary to my usual practice of honing in on ap articularlyi llustrative close readingofrelevant material, this chapter will consist of seventeen fairlyapodictic bullet points of varying length, which takeaprogrammatic rather than descriptive approach to the topic in question. That said, the explicit and implicit criticisms Im ake are obviouslyp redicatedo na na nalysis of the erroneous ways in which antisemitism is all too oftent reated. My arguments draw on and utilize the approach to antisemitism developed by and in the tradition of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School.¹ (1) Antisemitism is aproduct of, not afundamental aberration from, the values prevalent in Western and Muslim societies. Both Western culture, whether in its pagan or Christian inspiration, and Muslim culturehavedeveloped their selfunderstanding in no small measure by contrasting themselvestowhat they conceivedo f(or rather: constructed in their imagination) as being negative Jewish traits.² In the West,b oth the Enlightenment'sp roponents and its opponents have contributed to the perpetuation of this tradition. In both cultures,the transformations required to put an end to antisemitism are so fundamental that they far outstrip what anyofuscould possiblyimagine. If, hypotheticallyspeaking,it werepossible to erase all the products of Western and Muslim culturetainted by antisemitism at one stroke, both cultures would effectively have to start from scratch. Iamskeptical, then, as far as the goal of putting an end to antisemitism anytime soon is concerned. This does not,however,changethe fact thatitneeds
The hbtorical inexplicability of anti-semitism
Contemporary Jewry, 1980
At the outset of The Origins of Totaluarmmsm Hannah Arendt pomts out the fallacses revolved m three common explanaUons of ann-Semmsm, the last two of winch are germane here The first of these two m the scapegoat theory the nouon that the wcums of anu-SenuUsm are entirely innocent and arbRranly chosen