Full Description
The relationships, past and present, between Jews and the political left remain of abiding interest to both the academic community and the public. Jews and Leftist Politics contains new and insightful chapters from world-renowned scholars and considers such matters as the political implications of Judaism; the relationships of leftists and Jews; the histories of Jews on the left in Europe, the United States, and Israel; contemporary anti-Zionism; the associations between specific Jews and Communist parties; and the importance of gendered perspectives. It also contains fresh studies of canonical figures, including Gershom Scholem, Gustav Landauer, and Martin Buber, and examines the affiliations of Jews to prominent institutions, calling into question previous widely held assumptions. The volume is characterized by judicious appraisals made by respected authorities, and sheds considerable light on contentious themes.
Contents
Introduction Jack Jacobs; Part I. Political Implications of Judaism: 1. The strangeness of Jewish Leftism Michael Walzer; Part II. Antisemitism and the Left: 2. The dualisms of capitalist modernity: reflections on history, the Holocaust, and antisemitism Moishe Postone; 3. Marxism's other Jewish questions Lars Fischer; Part III. Israel, Zionism, and the Left: 4. Socialist Zionism and nation building Anita Shapira; 5. Delegitimation of Israel or social-historical analysis? The debate over Zionism as a colonial settler movement Yoav Peled; 6. Does the Left have a Zionist problem? From the general to particular Mitchell Cohen; Part IV. Jews and Communism: 7. Jews and Communism in the Soviet Union and Poland Antony Polonsky; 8. Jews and American Communism Harvey Klehr; Part V. Gendered Perspectives: 9. Gesia Gelfman: a Jewish woman on the Left in Imperial Russia Barbara Alpern Engel; 10. Manya Schochat and her travelling guns: Jewish radical women from Progrom self-defense to the first Kibbutzim Deborah Hertz; 11. The gender of Jews and the politics of women: a reflection Alice Kessler-Harris; Part VI. Canonical Figures: 12. Gershom Scholem and the Left Steven E. Aschheim; 13. The romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer Michael Löwy; 14. Martin Buber between Left and Right Uri Ram; Part VII. Case Studies: 15. The Soviet Union, Jewish concerns, and the New York electoral Left, 1939-44 Daniel Soyer; 16. Jews and the Left at the New School Judith Friedlander; 17. Deutscher and Jews: on the non-Jewish Jew - an analysis and personal reflection Samuel Farber.
