Antisemitism Viewed from the Left: A Reading List

While antisemitism is a topic heavily dealt with by antifascists, antiracists, and the radical left, the loudest voices on antisemitism today are often from the center and the right. It’s books like Bari Weiss’ How to Fight Antisemitism or Deborah Lipstadt’s Antisemitism: Here and Now that are our best known resources on antisemitism, which often locate antisemitism on both the “far-right and far-left.” No one should deny that the left has an antisemitism problem (the whole world does), but that should not mean that the idea of radical egalitarian social change should become suspect. This has created a lack of congruence in how to consider antisemitism, and there needs to be more voices that determinedly from the left and refuse to make apologies for that fact. Instead, we should see the leftist critique of antisemitism as a foundational antiracist project that we need to continue building.

This is why I put together a reading list of essays and articles (and a couple videos) on antisemitism from a decidedly left-wing perspective. Some of these build on the Frankfurt School work on antisemitism, some of them talk about antisemitism inside of socialist movements written by actual socialists, some of them talk about how the far-right uses antisemitism to fuel their ideologies, and some of them discuss the confusing creeping nature of antisemitism into contemporary social movements. There are a lot of ideas represented here, some I agree with and some I don’t, but they make up a range of how the left can think about the problem of Jewphobia. 

This list is only a starting point, and we should work to build not only a canon of writing, but a real platform for how to think and eradicate antisemitism. If we don’t, it will be up to the center to stake its claim and to reinforce a liberal consensus rather than looking at the root causes of antisemitism and all oppression.

Essential Reading

• That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Antisemitic – An anti‐racist analysis of left anti‐semitism – Steve Cohen
• Antisemitism and National Socialism – Moishe Postone
• Notes on Antisemitism – Werner Bonefeld
• Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism – Eric Ward
• Looking Left at Antisemitism – Spencer Sunshine
• The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Antisemitism Part of All Of Our Movements – April Rosenblum
• Antisemitism and the Power of Abstraction: From Political Economy to Critical Theory – Werner Bonefeld

Contemporary Discussion

• Taking Aim at Multiracial Democracy: Antisemitism, White Nationalism, and Anti-Immigrant Racism in the Era of Trump – Ben Lorber
• The Anti-Black And Anti-Semitic History Of “Outside Agitators”: An Interview With Spencer Sunshine
• Steve Bannon’s Washed Out Antisemitism – Spencer Sunshine
• Understanding Antisemitism: An Offering to Our Movement – Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JREJ)
• The New Christian Zionism and the Jews: A Love/Hate Relationship – Rachel Tabachnick
• ‘The Zionists Are Our Misfortune’: On the (not so) New Antisemitism – Mark Gardner
• Soros, ‘Cultural Marxism’ and QAnon: How the GOP Is Energizing and Entrenching Antisemitism in America – Shane Burley
• Jew Hating is Never About Jews – Shane Burley
• End Times Antisemitism – Steven Gardner
• Anti-Semitism and Zionism Have Formed a Brutal Alliance – Wendy Elisheva Somerson

Far Right Antisemitism (All sections address this as well)

• Principal enemy: demystifying far right antisemitism – Matthew N. Lyons
• Understanding Alt Right Antisemitism – Ben Lorber
• Anti-Semitism in the White House: Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump and the Alt-Right – Shane Burley
• Encountering Holocaust Denial – Lin Collette
• Some Thoughts on Antisemitism – John Ganz
• Anti-Semitism & The Revolutionary Right – Kersplebedeb

Frankfurt School Critical Studies on Antisemitism (Also see “Essential Reading” section)

• Dialectic of Enlightenment (Chapter 5: Elements of Anti-Semitism: Limits of Enlightenment) – Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer (Also read this study guide summary)
• History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism – Moishe Postone
• Who’s Afraid of the Frankfurt School? “Cultural Marxism” as an Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory – Joan Braune
• Capitalism, the nation and societal corrosion: Notes on ‘left-wing antisemitism’ – Marcel Stoetzler
• Interview with Moishe Postone: “Critique and Dogmatism” by Anej Korsika
• Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism: On Society as Economic Object – Werner Bonefeld

Intersectionality and Antisemitism

• The Eradication of “Talmudic Abstractions”: Anti-Semitism, Transmisogyny and the National Socialist Project – Jonah Eliza Cohen
• The Fools of National Socialism: Thoughts on Antisemitism and the Fight Against Trumpism – Dan Berger
• Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, and the bitter fruits of Philo-Semitism – Houria Bouteldja
• Intersectionality and Antisemitism – A New Approach – Karin Stögner
• The Evolution of Identity Politics: An Interview with Eric Ward
• Identity Politics and anti-Semitism on the Left
• Antisemitism Meets Transphobia – Ben Lorber and Heron Greensmith

Radical Politics Confronting Antisemitism

• Why the Jews? Thoughts by an Anarchist Jew on the Rise in Anti-Semitism – Wayne Price
• Introductory Draft of (((The Conspiracy))): A Political Economy of Antisemitism, Crisis and the Socialism of Fools – J.S. Khoom
• Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and the Three Way Fight – Michael Staudenmaier (Only Michael’s contribution in this “debate” is a part of this Canon. The responses are not.)
• Principal enemy: demystifying far right antisemitism – Matthew N. Lyons
• Jewphobia – Barnaby Raine
• Debate and background on left antisemitism – Worker’s Liberty
• The Left and antisemitism: an overview – Worker’s Liberty

Conspiracy Theory (See all the other sections as well)

• Conspiracy theories about Soros aren’t just false. They’re anti-Semitic. – Talia Lavin
• How to Overthrow the Illuminati – Will, Chno, Saudade and Mamos
• How anti-Semitism festers online – An Interview With Talia Lavin
• The American Roots of a Right Wing Conspiracy – Andrew Woods
• ZOG Ate My Brain – Chip Berlet
• A conspiracy theory that weakens the movement – Chris Harman
• Antisemitism After September 11th – Esther Kaplan 
• Google Jewish Bankers – Shane Burley
• The Fools of National Socialism: Thoughts on Antisemitism and the Fight Against Trumpism – Dan Berger
• The Soros Myth – Dove Kent
• Acid fascism: Past and present ties between occultism and the far right – Phil Jones
• Critiquing neocons and scapegoating Jews: an exchange with a “heartland Democrat” – Matthew N. Lyons

Antisemitism on the Left (Also see “That’s Funny” book, “Looking Left” and Frankfurt School Section)

• The Socialism of Fools – Shane Burley
• Antisemitism and the Left: Confronting an Invisible Racism – Sina Arnold and Blair Taylor
• Antisemitism and the British Labour Party – Marcel Stoetzler
• From Occupation to Occupy: Antisemitism and the Contemporary Left in the United States – Sina Arnold
• Leftists Must Root Out Antisemitism in Their Ranks – Spencer Sunshine
• Atzmon Critique – Collective Letter
• Is left anti-Zionism anti-Jewish? – Matthew N. Lyons
• Beware of Left Anti-Semitism – Marxist Humanist Initiative
• Antisemitism as a “blindspot” for the Left – Ross Wolfe
• ‘The anti-imperialism of fools’: a cautionary story on the revolutionary socialist vanguard of England’s post-9/11 anti-war movement – Camila Bassi
• The shame of antisemitism on the left has a long, malign history – Philip Spencer
• The Right Hand of Occupy Wall Street – Spencer Sunshine
• A note on left wing anti-Semitism from an anti-Zionist Jew
• Jewish Currents Goes Back to Brunch: On Antisemitism and Left Strategy – Benjamin Balthaser

Organizing Against Antisemitism

• The Left Feels Palestinian Pain. It Must Also Recognize Jewish Fears. – Shane Burley
• 5 ways to push antisemites out of the Palestinian solidarity movement – Shane Burley
• The Fight Against Antisemitism is the Fight for Total Liberation – Daniel Randall, Shane Burley

Older Works

• Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate – Jean-Paul Sartre
• Antisemitism: Its History and Causes – Bernard Lazare
• On Zionism – Emma Goldman

Videos

• Why the Far Right Kills – Talia Lavin and Chip Berlet
• Examining Antisemitism One Year After Tree of Life Webinar – Steven Gardiner, Ben Lorber, Dove Kent, Alyssa Rubin, Greisa Martinez, Brandon Mond
• Deconstructing Left-Wing Antisemitism in Post-Colonial India – Priya Singh
• Video: What is left antisemitism, and how can it be confronted? – Daniel Randall
• JFERJ Antisemitism Training – Dove Kent, Leo Ferguson, Clemmy Brown, Sonia Alexander

Full Books to read:

• Antisemitism and the left: On the return of the Jewish question – Robert Fine and Philip Spencer
• Labour’s Antisemitism Crisis: What the Left Got Wrong and How to Learn From It – David Renton
• Confronting Antisemitism on the Left: Arguments for Socialists – Daniel Randall
• Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and the Limits of Diversity – Keith Khan Harris
• Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism – Elly Bulkin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Barbara Smith
• That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Antisemitic – An anti‐racist analysis of left anti‐semitism – Steve Cohen
• The Socialism of Fools: Anti-semitism on the Left – Michael Lerner