On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice

Excellent book from an excellent organization. Very enlightening!

This book helped me understand antisemitism - how it has endured as an ideology of hatred throughout the millennium but has been transformed into an ideology of racism and oppression in recent decades. These seminal writers explained the difference between Christian anti-Semitism and Islamic anti-Semitism. Authors explain how the creation of the State of Israel as a Jewish state (not a democratic state), buttressed by a right-wing political Zionism, resulted in progressive social justice movements relinquishing fights against anti-Semitism. It is essential reading for people who struggle for social justice and who clearly link the struggles against racism with the struggle against anti-Semitism and for the liberation of Palestinian people.

Wonderful idea, essays by many individual, very informative.

As someone involved in the Palestinian solidarity movement, but largely unaware of Jewish movements, this book was incredibly necessary. A complex analysis of antisemitism's roots and manifestations, this book presents a lot of difficult proposals for its readers (whatever side of the Palestine issue you may be on). I found it convincing in its claims of the dilution of the claim of antisemitism by its placed on all Palestine advocates and how this detracts from combating the rising antisemitism on the right, which finds a strange manifestation in a combination of disregard for actual Jewish PEOPLE with a strong support for supposedly Jewish institutions (like the state of Israel, which has largely been a state for a certain KIND of Jewish people). But also found the book to be a greatly needed resource to ensure that just because some accusations of antisemitism might be placed on us simply for our support of the BDS movement, this doesn't mean antisemitism isn't present in some places on the Left (just as it is present everywhere). We all have a responsibility to eradicate antisemitism, and I think this book is an honorable contribution to that endeavor.

The whole point of this book, not clear from the title, is that people opposed to the existence of the Jewish state do not automatically deserve the accusation of being antisemitic. I accept the book's premise, because many Jews and others have been anti-Zionist for many reasons ever since the modern concept of Zionism arose. As a supporter of J Street I have spoken against bills and other repressive measures that hinder the free speech rights of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions activists. But there are too many discordant and even bizarre things about this book for it to serve its purpose well. For instance, only two of the many contributors is willing to face the extent of Arab and Moslem anti-Jewish prejudice (which is "old antisemitism" in its most virulent form) and--on top of the terror such people perpetrate overwhelmingly against other Moslems--their violence against Israelis and other Jews. Several authors say that false applications of the term "antisemitic" to anti-Zionists have weakened the response of the Jewish community to real antisemitism, for which I see no evidence. One author claims that Jews are no long major participants to African-American rights movements, which I see on a daily basis to be false. I won't take up more space with the attitudes with which I disagree, because the authors apply a rigid template to a complex Middle Eastern situation, but I will admit that I learned several useful perspectives from it, such as the roles of Mizrahi Jews, who make up the majority of Israelis and are in the U.S. as well.

Important read for our time, includes a diversity of points of view on the topics of antisemitism, racism and Islamophobia.

According to JVP, there is no anti-Semitism in our modern world- there is only Islamophophia. Where they really lost me in this book? Their claim that Jewish racism towards Arabs is inherited through epigenetics.They make up history, they make up science. This is not a scholarly publication.I'd give it 2 stars if it was listed as satire or comedy, but its not.

This is a useful volume of essays, mostly written by Jewish anti-racist activists, which explore issues around antisemitism, boycott campaigns directed against Israeli apartheid, the false allegations of antisemitism directed at anti-Zionist campaigners and intersectional issues.As a UK reader, I found it interesting but probably too focused upon issues internal to the USA. I found Omar Barghouti's article challenging the smear of antisemitism directed against solidarity with the Palestinians the most relevant and the Jewish Voice for Peace's own definition of antisemitism more appropriate than the IHRA because it is rooted in a better understanding of racism generally and an awareness of the way in which false allegations of antisemitism are used in an attempt to silence critics of Zionism.

Clear, concise and up to date relevant information by a range of authors on unravelling of the conflation on use of the word anti-semitism and any criticism of the policy by the state of Israel towards Palestinian people.

Perceptive, accessible, very helpful. Diverse voices.