Mapping the New Left Antisemitism: The Fathom Essays - Paperback

by Alan Johnson (Editor)

Mapping the New Left Antisemitism: The Fathom Essays provides a comprehensive guide to contemporary Left antisemitism.

The rise of a new and largely left-wing form of antisemitism in the era of the Jewish state and the distinction between it and legitimate criticism of Israel are now roiling progressive politics in the West and causing alarming spikes in antisemitic incitement and incidents. Fathom journal has examined these questions relentlessly in the first decade of its existence, earning a reputation for careful textual analysis and cogent advocacy. In this book, the Fathom essays are contextualised by three new contributions: Lesley Klaff provides a map of contemporary antisemitic forms of antizionism, Dave Rich writes on the oft-neglected lived experience of the Jewish victims of contemporary antisemitism and David Hirsh assesses the intellectual history of the left from which both Fathom and his own London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, as well as this book series, have emerged. Topics covered by the contributors include antisemitic antizionism and its underappreciated Soviet roots; the impact of analogies with the Nazis; the rise of antisemitism on the European continent, exploring the hybrid forms emerging from a cross-fertilisation between new left, Christian and Islamist antisemitism; the impact of antizionist activism on higher education; and the bitter debates over the adoption of the oft-misrepresented International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

This work will be of considerable appeal to scholars and activists with an interest in antisemitism, Jewish studies and the politics of Israel.

Author Biography

Alan Johnson is the founder and editor of Fathom journal. A professor of democratic theory and practice, he has served on the editorial boards of Socialist Organiser, Historical Materialism and the US socialist journals New Politics and Dissent. His writings on the left, and on antisemitism, include 'Aurum de Stercore: anti-totalitarianism in the thought of Primo Levi', in Thinking Towards Humanity. Themes From Norman Geras, edited by Stephen De Wijze and Eve Garrard (2012), and the report Institutionally Antisemitic: Contemporary Left Antisemitism and the Crisis in the British Labour Party (2019).