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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 internationÂalism 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
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.
Finally, thanks to Benjamin Balthaser, the Jewish left has a voice which has been suppressed in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
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 interÂviews, and readings of imaginative literature affords a coolly reasoned argument for a diasporic internationÂalism 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.