From Occupation to Occupy

Sina Arnold, Jacob Blumenfeld

Description

The recent rise of antisemitism in the United States has been well documented and linked to groups and ideologies associated with the far right. In From Occupation to Occupy, Sina Arnold argues that antisemitism can also be found as an "invisible prejudice" on the left.

Based on participation in left-wing events and demonstrations, interviews with activists, and analysis of left-wing social movement literature, Arnold argues that a pattern for enabling antisemitism exists. Although open antisemitism on the left is very rare, there are recurring instances of "antisemitic trivialization," in which antisemitism is not perceived as a relevant issue in its own right, leading to a lack of empathy for Jewish concerns and grievances. Arnold's research also reveals a pervasive defensiveness against accusations of antisemitism in left-wing politics, with activists fiercely dismissing the possibility of prejudice against Jews within their movements and invariably shifting discussions to critiques of Israel or other forms of racism.

From Occupation to Occupy offers potential remedies for this situation and suggests that a progressive political movement that takes antisemitism seriously can be a powerful force for change in the United States.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Antisemitism Old and New
2. A Quick Look Back
3. What's Left of the Left: Recent Movements, Recent Debates
4. Interviews with Activists
5. Conceptualizations of Antisemitism and Jews
6. Antiracism
7. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
8. Holocaust Remembrance
9. The USA and Its Political Structures
10. Critique of Capitalism: Occupy Wall Street as Case Study
11. "Different Ways of Being Jewish": Jewish-Left Identities
The Invisible Prejudice: Conclusions
Appendix I: Overview of the Interviews
Appendix II: Transcription Rules
Appendix III: Abbreviations
References
Index

Sujets

• Religious Intolerance
• Jewish Studies
• Social Science
• Jewish
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Jews
• Israel
• Christian Zionism
• Anti-racism
• Judaism
• Dimitrov
• Discrimination

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 06 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253063151
• Langue: English

Extrait

FROM OCCUPATION TO OCCUPY
STUDIES IN ANTISEMITISM
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, editor
FROM OCCUPATION TO OCCUPY
Antisemitism and the Contemporary American Left
Sina Arnold Translated by Jacob Blumenfeld
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.org
Originally Published in German as: Das unsichtbare Vorurteil. Antisemitismusdiskurse in der US-amerikanischen Linken nach 9/11
2017 by Hamburger Editions HIS Verlagsges. mbH, Hamburg, Germany
This revised translation from German is published by arrangement with Hamburger Edition.
English Translation 2022 Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2022
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International-Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG WORT and the B rsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers Booksellers Association).
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-06312-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-253-06313-7 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-253-06314-4 (e-book)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Antisemitism Old and New
2. A Quick Look Back
3. What s Left of the Left: Recent Movements, Recent Debates
4. Interviews with Activists
5. Conceptualizations of Antisemitism and Jews
6. Anti-Racism
7. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
8. Holocaust Remembrance
9. The United States and Its Political Structures
10. Critique of Capitalism: Occupy Wall Street as Case Study
11. Different Ways of Being Jewish : Jewish-Left Identities
The Invisible Prejudice: Conclusions
Appendix I: Overview of the Interviews
Appendix II: Transcription Rules
Appendix III: Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A BOOK ABOUT A MOVEMENT CANNOT BE CREATED without a movement. Many people have contributed to this research over the years, some of whom I would like to name.
Friends and family, including Andrzej Profus, Anna Voigt, Blair Taylor, Brigitte Arnold, Carl Melchers, Dirk von Lowtzow, Doris Liebscher, Dorothea and Rainer Arnold, Gunnar Meyer, Hark Machnik, Jana K nig, Juni Aharon, Kolja Linder, Markus End, Momme Schwarz, Niko Baumann, Sarah Speck, Sebastian Bischoff, and Yvonne Wolz, who were there for discussions, feedback, and free time. More recently, Nikita Juli Arnold has slowed down the process of finishing this manuscript but sped up my heart in the most beautiful way imaginable.
Werner Bergmann and Eva-Maria Ziege provided me with professional support as my PhD supervisors. My international colleagues in the research network Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism of the European Sociological Association offered annual exchanges and much inspiration for critical antisemitism research, among them Philip Spencer, G nther Jikeli, Christine Achinger and the late Robert Fine. Discussions with colleagues or comrades like Ilka Schr der, Kim Robin Stoller, Becka Tilsen, Robert Ogman, Spencer Sunshine, and Klaus Holz were also important for the development of this text over the years-as were workshops with the Institute for Social Ecology and its members, like Peter Staudenmaier. My colleagues at the Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA) at Technische Universit t Berlin and the Berlin Institute for Empirical Research on Integration and Migration (BIM) at Humboldt-Universit t zu Berlin, especially Naika Foroutan, Uffa Jensen, and Stefanie Sch ler-Springorum, have always been incredibly supportive of my work.
Rainer Arnold, Carl Melchers, and Blair Taylor helped greatly in editing the original manuscript, as did Sabine Lammers at Hamburger Edition. I would also like to thank Paula Bradish and J rgen Determann at Hamburger Edition for their firm support over the years. With Dee Mortensen, Ashante Thomas, Anna Francis, Nancy Lightfoot, and Gary Dunham, I was lucky to work with reliable and competent editors and publishers at Indiana University Press. David Lat provided me with his photo taken at the Occupy Wall Street protests for the book s cover. And my sincere thanks also go out to Alvin Rosenfeld, who very much encouraged my publication.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung enabled my research in the first place through a doctoral funding scholarship. A grant from the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University helped in the final phase of the project. Funding from Geisteswissenschaften International finally made the translation possible. It was done by Jacob Blumenfeld, with whom I had a wonderful opportunity to work and whose linguistic and political insight helped in revising the manuscript substantially.
Three anonymous peer reviewers gave me valuable, varied, and very detailed feedback for the first version of the manuscript, which made it better and more precise.
And finally, many thanks to my interview partners, who gave me new perspectives on the history and present of the US Left.
This text is a thoroughly revised and substantially updated translation of the book Das unsichtbare Vorurteil. Antisemitismusdiskurse in der US-amerikanischen Linken nach 9/11 , Verlag Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2016.
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International-Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG WORT and the B rsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers Booksellers Association). Additional funding for indexing was received from Hamburger Stiftung zur F rderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur.
Translated by Jacob Blumenfeld.
FROM OCCUPATION TO OCCUPY
INTRODUCTION
F OR A LONG TIME, THE U NITED S TATES SEEMED to be one of the few places in the world where antisemitism was no longer a serious threat. Of course, there were isolated incidents, but all in all, Jews had finally found a home in American society. In recent years, however, something has drastically changed. In 2017, Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia were vandalized; in 2019, numerous assaults were carried out against Jewish people in New York City, while deadly shootings took place at a Poway synagogue and a kosher supermarket in Jersey City and a stabbing occurred at a Hanukkah party in Monsey. And, most deadly, the fatal attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 in which eleven people lost their lives. All Jews must die, shouted the assassin, ranting about the extinction of the white race and hounding Muslims and migrants on the internet. His worldview reflects the deadly presence of the extreme Right in America today: in 2020, there were at least 838 right-wing hate groups in the United States. 1 These are the groups that chanted Jews will not replace us at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017 while surrounded by swastikas, Hitler salutes, and banners with inscriptions like Jews are Satan s children. 2
This kind of overt antisemitism has also been encouraged by Donald Trump s presidency. When a participant of the rally killed a counterdemonstrator in Charlottesville, Trump proclaimed that there is blame on both sides. 3 In the 2016 election campaign, Trump s populism created a breeding ground for positions compatible with antisemitic stereotypes. He focused on a global financial elite and shadowy power structure that supposedly pulls the strings of the US government, depriving it of sovereignty in order to push through the specific interests of multinational banks and corporations. Moreover, the president, who claimed to be the least antisemitic person you have ever seen in your life, also showed astonishing indifference to the threat of rising antisemitism. 4 When Trump did not mention Jewish victims in his statement on Holocaust Memorial Day 2017, the neo-Nazi online magazine Daily Stormer speculated that it was not a coincidence. They interpreted it as subtle nod to us. 5 A study by the University of Kansas concluded that Donald Trump s election shifted socially accepted norms to include the expression of prejudice. While this may not have created new ones, it certainly unleashed prejudices in people who already had them. 6 This changed climate of acceptable hostility toward ethnic or religious minorities has had a direct impact on the life and well-being of American Jews. According to a study by the American Jewish Committee, 55 percent of Jews in 2018 felt less secure than the year before. 7
Given this background, why focus on left-wing attitudes to antisemitism? On the one hand, left actors have also contributed to this dangerous discourse and thus to a feeling of insecurity among Jews in recent years. Be it the controversy surrounding the Women s March in 2017, in which Jewish women felt excluded and expressed concern about the courting of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam known for his antisemitic statements, 8 or the expulsion of three Jewish activists from the Chicago Dyke March that same year because of their rainbow flag with the Star of David, which reminded some participants of the Israeli flag. Or the increase in antisemitic incidents at colleges and universities-a severe problem according to the US Commission on Civ