Good Jew, Bad Jew

120 pages. Temps de lecture estimé 1h30min.
Shows how and why the meaning of anti-Jewish racism has been distorted to serve the Israeli state and what this implies for anti-racism today.Good Jew, Bad Jew is a critique by one of South Africa’s foremost political theorists of mainstream understandings of Jewishness. Steven Friedman offers a searing analysis of the weaponisation of anti-Semitism in service of political objectives that support the Israeli state and global white supremacy. Looking specifically at the way in which language is used to shape identities, Friedman uses many examples to illustrate how anyone that opposes the interests and policies of the Israeli state is increasingly defined as anti-Semitic. The use of anti-racist language to defend racial domination distorts not only the meaning of what it is to be Jewish, but sheds light on how all dogmatic nationalisms function. Friedman uses India and South Africa as examples, but the analysis applies across the world too. This is a detailed, deeply researched and critical work that will appeal to both specialists and general readers looking for a considered view on how language shapes belief systems, and how the powerful forces of racism and nationalism – and their opponents – are being misrepresented.Acknowledgements Introduction The Tenacity of Race Bias Chapter 1 Turning Anti-Semitism on its Head Chapter 2 Making ‘Good Jews’ White and European Chapter 3 What Anti-Semitism Really Is Chapter 4 The Israeli State as a ‘Cure’ for Anti-Racism Chapter 5 Zionism as an Escape from Jewishness Chapter 6 Mimicking the Oppressor Chapter 7 Two Religions and the Nightmare the West Created Chapter 8 Colonising Anti-Racism Conclusion The ‘New Anti-Semitism’ and Politics Today References Index