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Citizens of the Whole World:Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish Left
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After a tumultuous century, the Jewish radical tradition lives on in the United States
Since October 7, 2023, the world has witnessed a massive American Jewish uprising in support of Palestinian liberation. Through sit-ins in Congress or Grand Central Terminal, through petitions and marches, thousands of Jews have made it known the Israeli state is not acting in their name. This resistance did not come out of nowhere. Citizens of the Whole World returns us to its roots in the “red decade” of the 1930s and, from there, traces the history of American Jewish radicals and revolutionaries to the present day.
Benjamin Balthaser delves into radical Jewish novels and memoirs, as well as interviews with Jewish revolutionaries, to unearth a buried if nonetheless unbroken continuity between leftist Jewish Americans and the diasporic internationalism of today.
Covering more than just the politics of anti-Zionism, Citizens of the Whole World explores the Jewish revolutionary traditions of Marxist internationalism, Jewish solidarity with Third World struggles, and relations between Jewish and Black radicals during the Civil Rights era.
Balthaser’s book stages an intervention into current anti-Zionist politics, suggesting activists can learn from past struggles to help form a future politics in a world after Zionism.
Reviews
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As more American Jews join the ranks of those calling for a world free of the institutions that wield Judaism and antisemitism as a means to justify and entrench genocide, Benjamin Balthaser offers a deep dive into the roots of today’s Jewish anti-Zionist left.
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Finally, thanks to Benjamin Balthaser, the Jewish left has a voice which has been suppressed in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
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Citizens of the Whole World is in a class by itself. Bracingly original, edgy and provocative, witty and cerebral, Balthaser’s tour de force provides a stunning rebuke to the myth that the twenty-first century alignment of radical Jews with Palestinian self-determination is discontinuous with the past. His punchy amalgam of social movement history, oral interviews, and readings of imaginative literature affords a coolly reasoned argument for a diasporic internationalism with Jewish characteristics that is a fresh manifestation of a laudable tradition.
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Once, not very long ago, many Jews believed that our distinctive historical experiences and cultural traditions presented us both the opportunity and the obligation to practice a universal solidarity—a solidarity whose content was socialist, anti-colonialist, and anti-racist. Balthaser recovers this memory for us as it flashes in
a moment of danger. -
Citizens of the Whole World soberly and expertly excavates ideas long marginalized, thereby enabling us to better understand the complexities of the Jewish past and the possibilities for a more variegated and robust Jewish future.
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As Balthaser tracks in his new book, the vision of Jewish identity on display in Jewish-led Palestine solidarity demonstrations organized by groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and the Jewish Anti-Zionism Network is the latest stage in a long history that sees Jewish identity as in relationship with all communities facing oppression and on a diasporic model of internationalism.
, Jacobin -
Citizens of the Whole World is brilliant, captivating, and persuasively argued, and will stand out as perhaps one of the best books ever written about the US Jewish left. Part of what makes it so valuable is that, on top of his expert scholarship, Balthaser knows this material in a way that archival research and plucky interviews will never teach you: this model of Jewishness only exists if we choose to build it. As the situation continues to devolve in Palestine and young Jews shift away from the earlier infrastructure of Jewishness, there are going to be more people who feel as though that choice has already been made for them as they consider what it means to be Jewish and who our allies are in that fight. We are already citizens of the whole world. We remember what our ancestors taught us.
, Spectre -
Balthaser charts the complex relationship between Jewish leftist thought and the Zionist movement in this insightful intellectual history… weaving in revealing discussions of how Zionism and anti-Zionism play out in books by the likes of Philip Roth, Jess Row, and Joshua Cohen. The result is a powerful showcasing of a long-standing and robust strain of anti-Zionist sentiment in American politics.
Publishers Weekly -
Citizens of the Whole World acts as both archive and intervention — a rigorously argued and timely assertion that the Jewish radical imagination has always blazed bright as an alternative and a response to fascism.
, Forward -
Balthaser is a genius of unexpected continuities. His book is devoted to the proposition that the mass rebellion of ordinary Jews against Israel’s ongoing genocide only looks like a radical novelty because of the poverty of our historical vision.
, Jewish Currents