How To Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss
Feb. 25th, 2024 01:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
On 27 October 2018 the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bat mitzvah was the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. For most of us, the massacre in Pittsburgh came as a total shock. But to those who have been paying attention, it was only a more violent, extreme expression of the broader trend that has been sweeping Europe and the US for the past two decades.
No longer the exclusive province of the far right and far left, anti-semitism finds a home in identity politics and the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of ‘America first’ isolationism and the rise of one-world socialism. An ancient hatred increasingly allowed into modern political discussion, anti-semitism has been migrating toward the mainstream in dangerous ways, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all.
This timely book is a powerful case for renewing Jewish and liberal values to guide us through this uncertain moment.
Bari Weiss is a journalist, writer and editor. This thought-provoking polemic was written in the aftermath of the 2018 terrorist shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue where she had her bat mitzvah and her anger at that atrocity permeates it. Unfortunately the valid points she makes about anti-semitism on both the left and the right get lost as she bangs her anti-liberal drum and she ignores completely the role of her own free speech movement.
It’s difficult to review this book because I am not Jewish and this book is very much aimed at Jews. It’s intended to be a polemical call to arms to Jews to fight back against the anti-semitism that is on the rise in western societies, but in fact the steps that Weiss believes need to be taken to combat that do not come until the final chapter.
The book begins with how she was forced to face the fact of anti-semitism after the terrible attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, which saw 11 people murdered by a white nationalist anti-semite. Weiss was very familiar with this synagogue as it was where she held her own bat mitzvah and what really comes through is the shock and upset that she felt about this and how it forced her to confront her own views about what’s happening not just in America but in western Europe as well (she pays particular attention to anti-semitic murders in France to support this).
She then moves on to look at the history of anti-semitism. This is relatively brief, although she points out that the historic lies permeate early Christianity, and argues that the Enlightenment created secular justifications for anti-semitic behaviour, which she seems to suggest helped feed into Nazi and Communist oppression.
She does touch on historic Christian attitudes as feeding into Christian Identitarians in her chapter examining anti-semitism on the right, but she is coy about linking it into modern evangelical US christian groups, who increasingly seem to influence right-wing politics in the US. Instead she focuses on the Neo nazis and alt-right, making interesting points about how they hide behind irony. What’s frustrating is that in her full throated condemnation of Trump and the populists who support him contains no introspection of how her own work with and on behalf of right wing politics (notably her self proclaimed concern about free speech martyrs) helps to propagate these types of view. In fact it’s interesting that she talks about her horror of an infamous Nazi march that was allowed to take place in the late 1970s without any mention of how it was permitted on free speech grounds. And that is a major issue for me with this book because if Weiss wants to put herself into the text, then she at least needs to show some kind of self-introspection on how her views on anti-semitism chafe against her belief in free speech because she clearly believes that there are limits on what people should be able to say and do against Jews. There is also one ridiculous part where she talks about how Jews in authoritarian states like Hungary feel safer than those in liberal ones, which made me raise a quizzical eyebrow because (a) Hungary’s leaders are decidedly Islamophobic so they have merely turned their beam on that group instead and (b) history shows that when authoritarian regimes have finished demonising one group it’s not long before they turn to another and you have to wonder how safe those same Jews will feel then.
Her real ire comes out when it comes to critiquing the left’s attitude towards anti-semitism and how it seeks to hide it behind pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel arguments. To be fair she makes some good points about this - there is a mealy mouthed quality when it comes to the left calling out the left and there is a difference between criticising Israeli policy towards Palestine and calling it an illegitimate state with no right to exist. She also makes the fair point that being Jewish doesn’t mean that you have to answer for or are responsible for Israel’s actions (although I wish that she’d extended this to also make clear that being a Muslim doesn’t mean you should have to have to answer for or be responsible for Islamic extremism).
The problem is that she just can’t resist getting on her anti-liberal soap box and so she seeks to blame liberals for not calling out bad behaviour on the left even though she doesn’t seem to hold conservatives to the same standard. She’s also prone to making sweeping statements, e.g. (and bearing in mind this was published in 2019) she talks about the UK Labour Party having been captured by anti-semitic Leftists, which was ironically one of the things that’s pointed at as having played a part in their catastrophic election defeat later the same year. She mentions several times how Jews don’t feel safe in Germany following a rise in attacks, even as she also concedes that there was a campaign in reaction to that. She cites statistics throughout the book in support of her arguments but the ARC I had did not contain any sources for them and some of them looked a little janky, e.g. she repeatedly cites a study conducted by a Jewish group that shows how Jews don’t feel safe but without knowing the methodology behind that it’s impossible to know how much credence to give that.
Weiss’s chapter on radical islam makes some excellent points about the extreme factions but completely fails to consider the political drivers going on that feed into it and how it also ties in with wider Middle East relations. She also again seeks to use it as a stick to beat progressive Democrats like Ilan Omar who has said anti-semitic things and in turn seek to beat the party in a way that she doesn’t equally apply to Republicans.
Weiss’s prescription for how to fight anti-semitism is very broad and in some cases quite ironic, e.g. she talks about building community and engage with other groups within Judaism but at the same time condemns Jews who support Palestine or criticise other Jews as being disloyal and almost useful idiots.
Ultimately I think Weiss makes some good points and this clearly a book that comes from the heart but the fact that it is structured as a polemic and at times reads like a knee-jerk reaction that plays to her own prejudices and so reduces the impact.
The Verdict:
Bari Weiss is a journalist, writer and editor. This thought-provoking polemic was written in the aftermath of the 2018 terrorist shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue where she had her bat mitzvah and her anger at that atrocity permeates it. Unfortunately the valid points she makes about anti-semitism on both the left and the right get lost as she bangs her anti-liberal drum and she ignores completely the role of her own free speech movement.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
On 27 October 2018 the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bat mitzvah was the site of the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. For most of us, the massacre in Pittsburgh came as a total shock. But to those who have been paying attention, it was only a more violent, extreme expression of the broader trend that has been sweeping Europe and the US for the past two decades.
No longer the exclusive province of the far right and far left, anti-semitism finds a home in identity politics and the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of ‘America first’ isolationism and the rise of one-world socialism. An ancient hatred increasingly allowed into modern political discussion, anti-semitism has been migrating toward the mainstream in dangerous ways, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all.
This timely book is a powerful case for renewing Jewish and liberal values to guide us through this uncertain moment.
Bari Weiss is a journalist, writer and editor. This thought-provoking polemic was written in the aftermath of the 2018 terrorist shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue where she had her bat mitzvah and her anger at that atrocity permeates it. Unfortunately the valid points she makes about anti-semitism on both the left and the right get lost as she bangs her anti-liberal drum and she ignores completely the role of her own free speech movement.
It’s difficult to review this book because I am not Jewish and this book is very much aimed at Jews. It’s intended to be a polemical call to arms to Jews to fight back against the anti-semitism that is on the rise in western societies, but in fact the steps that Weiss believes need to be taken to combat that do not come until the final chapter.
The book begins with how she was forced to face the fact of anti-semitism after the terrible attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, which saw 11 people murdered by a white nationalist anti-semite. Weiss was very familiar with this synagogue as it was where she held her own bat mitzvah and what really comes through is the shock and upset that she felt about this and how it forced her to confront her own views about what’s happening not just in America but in western Europe as well (she pays particular attention to anti-semitic murders in France to support this).
She then moves on to look at the history of anti-semitism. This is relatively brief, although she points out that the historic lies permeate early Christianity, and argues that the Enlightenment created secular justifications for anti-semitic behaviour, which she seems to suggest helped feed into Nazi and Communist oppression.
She does touch on historic Christian attitudes as feeding into Christian Identitarians in her chapter examining anti-semitism on the right, but she is coy about linking it into modern evangelical US christian groups, who increasingly seem to influence right-wing politics in the US. Instead she focuses on the Neo nazis and alt-right, making interesting points about how they hide behind irony. What’s frustrating is that in her full throated condemnation of Trump and the populists who support him contains no introspection of how her own work with and on behalf of right wing politics (notably her self proclaimed concern about free speech martyrs) helps to propagate these types of view. In fact it’s interesting that she talks about her horror of an infamous Nazi march that was allowed to take place in the late 1970s without any mention of how it was permitted on free speech grounds. And that is a major issue for me with this book because if Weiss wants to put herself into the text, then she at least needs to show some kind of self-introspection on how her views on anti-semitism chafe against her belief in free speech because she clearly believes that there are limits on what people should be able to say and do against Jews. There is also one ridiculous part where she talks about how Jews in authoritarian states like Hungary feel safer than those in liberal ones, which made me raise a quizzical eyebrow because (a) Hungary’s leaders are decidedly Islamophobic so they have merely turned their beam on that group instead and (b) history shows that when authoritarian regimes have finished demonising one group it’s not long before they turn to another and you have to wonder how safe those same Jews will feel then.
Her real ire comes out when it comes to critiquing the left’s attitude towards anti-semitism and how it seeks to hide it behind pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel arguments. To be fair she makes some good points about this - there is a mealy mouthed quality when it comes to the left calling out the left and there is a difference between criticising Israeli policy towards Palestine and calling it an illegitimate state with no right to exist. She also makes the fair point that being Jewish doesn’t mean that you have to answer for or are responsible for Israel’s actions (although I wish that she’d extended this to also make clear that being a Muslim doesn’t mean you should have to have to answer for or be responsible for Islamic extremism).
The problem is that she just can’t resist getting on her anti-liberal soap box and so she seeks to blame liberals for not calling out bad behaviour on the left even though she doesn’t seem to hold conservatives to the same standard. She’s also prone to making sweeping statements, e.g. (and bearing in mind this was published in 2019) she talks about the UK Labour Party having been captured by anti-semitic Leftists, which was ironically one of the things that’s pointed at as having played a part in their catastrophic election defeat later the same year. She mentions several times how Jews don’t feel safe in Germany following a rise in attacks, even as she also concedes that there was a campaign in reaction to that. She cites statistics throughout the book in support of her arguments but the ARC I had did not contain any sources for them and some of them looked a little janky, e.g. she repeatedly cites a study conducted by a Jewish group that shows how Jews don’t feel safe but without knowing the methodology behind that it’s impossible to know how much credence to give that.
Weiss’s chapter on radical islam makes some excellent points about the extreme factions but completely fails to consider the political drivers going on that feed into it and how it also ties in with wider Middle East relations. She also again seeks to use it as a stick to beat progressive Democrats like Ilan Omar who has said anti-semitic things and in turn seek to beat the party in a way that she doesn’t equally apply to Republicans.
Weiss’s prescription for how to fight anti-semitism is very broad and in some cases quite ironic, e.g. she talks about building community and engage with other groups within Judaism but at the same time condemns Jews who support Palestine or criticise other Jews as being disloyal and almost useful idiots.
Ultimately I think Weiss makes some good points and this clearly a book that comes from the heart but the fact that it is structured as a polemic and at times reads like a knee-jerk reaction that plays to her own prejudices and so reduces the impact.
The Verdict:
Bari Weiss is a journalist, writer and editor. This thought-provoking polemic was written in the aftermath of the 2018 terrorist shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue where she had her bat mitzvah and her anger at that atrocity permeates it. Unfortunately the valid points she makes about anti-semitism on both the left and the right get lost as she bangs her anti-liberal drum and she ignores completely the role of her own free speech movement.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
