Labor and anti-Semitism: these are the roots of the problem on the left

Some thought that there was something peculiarly problematic about Jews. This was not just their particular religion (seen as worse even than Christianity which at least had the virtue of making a universalist claim) but their behavior and particular identity (as a “nation within a nation”). Even some of those who thought that Jews should now be included and given rights did so conditionally. The rights should be given on the basis that their supposedly “bad” behavior should improve and their loyalties to each other be abandoned. If not, the door was left open to the possibility that Jews should be got rid of.

As anti-Semitism developed into an ultimately genocidal ideology, the persistence of the notion of a “Jewish Question” helped shape the response to it among some on the left. To them, anti-Semitism was somehow understandable because of the way Jews supposedly behaved, and that anti-Semitism might even be harnessed to the socialist cause, since anti-Semites were laying the blame for the evils of capitalism on Jews. This has been described as the “socialism of fools” (not that helpful a formulation actually insofar as it suggests anti-Semitism is still some kind of socialism).

During and immediately after the Holocaust this way of thinking played its part in the reluctance of some to prioritize solidarity with Jews or to recognize the catastrophe that had befallen them. Worse, it helped shape a new form of Stalinist anti-Semitism in the communist bloc. Jews were violently attacked for their supposed disloyalty and treachery to the cause.

It was then that key elements of the latest reformulation of the “Jewish Question” were developed – in the form of an anti-Zonism. This way of thinking focuses obsessively on Israel, where, not coincidentally, large numbers of Jews now live after the catastrophe that nearly destroyed the whole group. This state is regarded by some as uniquely evil. It is guilty of the worst of all crimes – of genocide, crimes against humanity and apartheid – and is the gravest threat to world peace. Once again, Jews have supposedly failed the test for inclusion in the modern world, now in the form of the world of legitimate nation states.

There has always been, on the left, another way of thinking – not about an imagined “Jewish Question”, but about anti-Semitism. From this perspective, the problem is not, and never has been, the behavior, identity or religion of Jews, which is no worse than that of other groups. The problem is a view of the world which projects all the problems of society (at the national or international level) onto Jews.

It’s a view which not only fails to grasp the threat posed by anti-Semitism but condones and colludes with it. It’s a view that others (sadly) on the left need to challenge. They need to reject the whole idea of a “Jewish Question” in favor of an elemental and principled solidarity with Jews as they come under attack once again.

Philip Spencer is Emeritus Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Kingston University. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation (under Creative Commons-Attribution / No derivative)