Jews and the Left: The Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance PDF
Preview Jews and the Left: The Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance
Jews and the Left AlsobyPhilipMendes AUSTRALIA’SWELFAREWARS:ThePlayers,thePoliticsandtheIdeologies AUSTRALIA’SWELFAREWARSREVISITED INSIDE THE WELFARE LOBBY: A History of the Australian Council of Social Service THENEWLEFT,THEJEWSANDTHEVIETNAMWAR,1965–72 HARMMINIMISATION,ZEROTOLERANCEANDBEYOND:ThePoliticsofIllicit DrugsinAustralia(co-editedwithJamesRowe) JEWSANDAUSTRALIANPOLITICS(co-editedwithGeoffreyBrahmLevey) YOUNGPEOPLELEAVINGSTATEOUT-OF-HOMECARE:AResearch-basedStudy ofAustralianPolicyandPractice(withGuyJohnsonandBadalMoslehuddin) Jews and the Left The Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance Philip Mendes AssociateProfessor,andDirector,SocialInclusionandSocialPolicyResearchUnit, DepartmentofSocialWork,MonashUniversity,Australia ©PhilipMendes2014 Softcoverreprintofthehardcover1stedition2014 978–1–137–00829–9 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2014by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-43557-9 ISBN 978-1-137-00830-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137008305 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. Contents Preface viii Acknowledgements ix AbouttheAuthor x ListofAbbreviations xi Introduction 1 WhoisaJew? 3 WhatistheLeft? 4 ContributingfactorstoJewishengagementwiththeLeft 5 TheJewishnessofJewishradicals 15 TheuniquecontributionofJewishinternationalism 18 MostJewsnotsympathetictotheLeft 19 Thestructureofthebook 23 1 ThebeginningsoftheJewishattractiontotheLeft 25 1 TheinfluenceoftheEuropeanEnlightenment 25 2 Theinfluenceofthe1789FrenchRevolution 27 3 TheConservativebacklashagainstJewishequality 28 4 TheinfluenceoftheHaskalah 29 5 Jewishinvolvementinthe1830and1848European liberalrevolutionsandearlysocialism 30 6 JewishinvolvementinearlyRussianradicalism 34 2 Anti-SemitismandsupportforJewishrights:ananalysis ofsocialistattitudestotheJews 37 1 Earlysocialistanti-Semitism,1843–1917 38 2 SupportforJewishrightsintheearlysocialistmovement 48 3 Socialdemocraticandothernon-communistLeft attitudestoJews1917–1967 57 4 CommunistInternationalandSovietUnionattitudes toJews1917–1991 64 5 Thenon-communistLeftandtheJewsafterthe1967 SixDayWar 79 v vi Contents 6 ExamplesofLeftanti-Semitism 82 7 Whendoesanti-Zionismbecomeanti-Semitism? 88 3 Socialism,ZionismandtheStateofIsrael 96 1 EarlysocialistoppositiontoZionism 97 2 TheCommunistInternationalandZionism,1917–1942 99 3 TheemergenceofsocialdemocraticsupportforZionism, 1914–1948 102 4 TheCommunistInternationalandZionism,1942–1967 106 5 Socialdemocraticandothernon-communistLeft supportforIsrael,1948–1967 110 6 TrotskyandtheTrotskyists 115 7 TheseachangeinLeftattitudesfollowingthe1967 SixDayWar 117 8 KeychronologicaltrendsinLeftattitudes,1967–2014 122 4 Fromtheuniversalisttotheparticular:Jewish involvementintheLeft 127 1 AspectrumofJewishinfluencesandidentity 127 2 1890–1950 129 3 Jewsandtransnationalissues,activities andmovements 199 5 AcriticalanalysisofthemythofJudeo-Communism 219 1 ThehistoricalcontextoftheJudeo-Communisttheory 220 2 DeconstructingtheJudeo-Communisttheory 225 3 JewishcommunisminColdWarAmerica 229 4 OtherexamplesoftheJudeo-Communisttheoryaround theglobe 230 5 RecentexamplesoftheJudeo-Communisttheory 233 6 ThepostwardeclineoftheJewish–Leftalliance:From theinternationaltothenationalsolution 235 1 Theimpactoffourkeyhistoricalevents 235 2 Otherinfluentialfactors 239 7 Exceptionstotherule:Thecontinuingprominence ofleft-wingJewsinthepostwarperiod 244 1 TheriseandfalloftheMuscovites 244 2 JewishinvolvementintheNewLeftcivilrightsand anti-VietnamWarmovement 248 3 Jewsandnewersocialmovements 258 Contents vii 8 Left-wingJewishcriticsofZionismandIsrael 266 1 JewishattitudestoZionismpriortothefounding ofIsrael 267 2 Left-wingJewishattitudestoZionismfrom 1945to1967 269 3 TheemergenceofJewishDissentonIsrael1967–1993 272 4 ThediversificationofJewishviewsonIsrael, 1993–2014 275 5 TheriseofcontemporaryJewishAnti-Zionism 277 9 Conclusion 285 References 290 Index 331 Preface ThedisproportionatehistoricalcontributionofJewstothepoliticalLeft hasbeenwelldocumented.Bothasindividualtheoristsandactivistsof the stature of Marx, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Léon Blum and Emma Goldman, and as organized mass labour movements in, for example, revolutionary Russia and early–mid 20th century Warsaw, Amsterdam, Paris, Toronto, Buenos Aires, New York and London, Jews have been conspicuousfortheirsocialistandcommunistaffiliations. It can in fact be argued that from approximately 1830 till 1970, an informal political alliance existed between Jews and the political Left. ThiswasneveranallianceofallJewsandallLeftgroups.Butitwasan alliancebetweenkeysectionsoftheLeftandkeysectionsofpolitically activeJewsatvarioustimesandinvariousplaces.Bothpartnerstothis allianceweremotivatedbyacombinationofpragmaticself-interestand idealismoraltruism. HistoricalanalysisofthedynamicsofthisJewish–Leftalliance,how- ever, has been far less conclusive. Considerable dissonance exists, for example, concerning the factors which attracted Jews to the Left, the extent to which leading Jewish Left activists were originally motivated by or subsequently influenced by explicitly Jewish concerns, and the degreetowhichonecanreasonablyspeakofaspecificoruniqueJewish contribution to the international Left. In addition, discussion of these factors has often been inhibited by concerns regarding the use of the allegedJewish–BolshevikconspiracybytheNazisandotheranti-Semitic groups. This book is the first publication to provide a systematic historical and political overview of the relationship between Jews and the Left. It argues that Jews had a double reason to join the proletarian revo- lution. They were discriminated against both on class grounds and on ethnic/racialgrounds.Equally,thesubsequentdeclineofJewishinvolve- mentintheLeftcanbeattributedtorelativelyobjectivefactorssuchas theHolocaustandthecreationoftheStateofIsraelwhichtransformed Jewishdependencefrominternationaltonationalforces. viii Acknowledgements Thistextistheresultof30yearsofengagementwithJewishLeftpolitics, history and ideas as a researcher, activist and sometimes critic. Many peoplehavehelpedalongthisjourney.TheyincludemostnotablyMarla Brettschneider,NickDyrenfurth,DougKirsner,AndrewMarkus,Bernard Rechter, David Rosenberg, the late Norman Rothfield, Bill Rubinstein, SuzanneRutland,RalphSeliger,HenrySrebrnikandUriWindt. Thanks also to the following people for making constructive com- mentsorprovidingrelevantmaterialonindividualchapters:Jean-Yves Camus, Barry Carr, Egon Friedler, Marilyn Friedman, Sina Arnold and GuyPerville. Aboveall,IwouldliketothankmywonderfulwifeTamarLewit,who has provided as always the constant and unqualified encouragement and confidence needed to complete the project; my exceptional chil- dren Miranda and Lucas for inspiring my ongoing life adventure; and mydearmotherMaryforherloveandguidance. ix
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