Jewish religious architecture: from Biblical Israel to modern Judaism

Abstract

L. Daniel Staetsky offers a well-grounded empirical study of the reactions of British and French Jews to these issues. In a brilliant expose of the dynamics of anti-Zionist and antisemitic discourse, Alan Johnson convincingly demonstrates that, in the writings of Norman Finkelstein and others, “what the demonized and essentialized ‘Jew’ once was, demonized and essentialized Israel now is: malevolent in its very nature, all-controlling, full of blood lust, and the obstacle to a better, purer, and more spiritual world” (115). This malign view of Israel and, by extension, Jews, in general, is common in certain leftist circles and some Muslim countries and communities, as Dave Rich, Rusi Jaspal, and Matthias Kὕntzel all deftly show in their contributions. Rich’s chapter is particularly valuable for exposing antisemitic conspiracy theories among Muslims in Great Britain. Jaspal elaborates upon this theme in studying anti-Jewish sentiments within segments of Britain’s Pakistani Muslim communities. The views he uncovers include a pervasive strain of Holocaust denial as well as the notion that to quote one of his interviewees, “Zionism is evil. It’s no different than Nazism” (164). Those who participated in his study, Jaspal concludes, “manifested a firm commitment to anti-Zionism and generally perceived Israel’s destruction as an Islamic mission” (180). Kὕntzel reaches similar conclusions in his study and adds a note of lament in the face of “the British left’s inability to identify and fight Islamic antisemitism” (197-98). The role of intellectuals in fostering these destructive views is clearly spelt out in the book’s concluding chapters, one by David Seymour in his commentary on Alain Badiou and the radical tradition of antisemitism and, in more subtle ways, in Robert Fine’s chapter on Hannah Arendt. Much of this book’s focus is on antisemitism within Great Britain, but the problems treated here are part of a global phenomenon, making Unity and Diversity in Contemporary Antisemitism an eye-opening collection of essays for anyone wishing to learn about today’s widespread and growing anti-Jewish hostility.