Contested Terrain

Not Just a Smear Tactic. Review of “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All of Our Movements”

Matthew N. Lyons

April Rosenblum. The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All of Our Movements. Self-published, 2007. Download at www.thepast.info

In July of 2006, Bluestockings bookshop in New York City announced it was hosting a workshop for social justice activists on “opposing anti-Semitism in the movement.” The announcement sparked a heated online discussion on New York’s Indymedia website. Some people asked if the workshop was going to be “some Zionist bullshit” and why it wasn’t going to address other forms of discrimination, such as “Zionist anti-Semetism [sic]” against Palestinians. Critics doubted the existence of any real anti-Semitism on the left, or they suggested that it was caused by “right-wing Jews” having “cried wolf too many times.” One charged that “whining about anti-Semitism is like whining about ‘anti-white,’ or ‘reverse racism.’” They added that “Jews are one of the wealthiest groups in the world with the most privilege.”

Other participants countered by providing accounts of anti-Jewish comments made by leftists: “I’ve seen accusations made that Jews control the US government, media, economy, and so on.” One person wrote, “I’m Palestinian, and for some reason every freakin’ Tom Dick and Harry I meet thinks he can bitch to me about ‘the Jews’.” Another commented, “the virulence with which critics have attacked this workshop illustrates how needed it is.”

As this brief survey suggests, talking about anti-Semitism on the left is a complicated business. The Zionist right has systematically misused the charge of anti-Semitism to smear critics of Israel, while glossing over anti-Jewish attitudes and policies among some of Israel’s allies and even within the Zionist movement itself. However, leftists have sometimes trivialized or dismissed concerns about anti-Semitism. This dismissive attitude has the effect of bolstering real anti-Jewish tendencies and supporting the myth that Jews will find their true friends on the right.

For confused leftists looking for help in navigating this mess, a useful starting point is April Rosenblum’s new pamphlet, The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All of Our Movements. Rosenblum, a Philadelphia activist, was a panelist at the Bluestockings workshop, and she is familiar with both the reality of anti-Semitism and the ways in which the term has been abused. Rather than focusing on Jewish concerns in isolation, she emphasizes how countering anti-Jewish oppression should be integrated into other struggles and “has to come from a perspective of justice for all people” (1).

Read more here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 4:59 pm and is filed under antisemitism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.