Is this anti-semitism?

there are also at the time French mathematicians who say that German mathematicians are abstract and calculating while French mathematicians are the intuitive true geometers.

Which is funny given that it was the French who dragged geometry into the world of the ultra-algebraic and abstract once and for all in the 60s! But maybe they didn't see Grothendieck as "truly French."

yeah these French passages are from the late 19th century. & the role/status of Jewish mathematicians in France has been / continues to be profound, Grothendieck, Schwartz, and many others. in this way it's not so different from the USA.

I want to think more about your questions Euler, especially since I don't have a good intellectual history of the jews/germans dichotomy for you. When I was studying Grimm Fairy Tales I remember some scholars (Maria Tater most notably iirc) traced certain tropes in latter German + then Nazi antisemitism back to oral storytelling traditions and we've definitely talked about fairy tales like "The Jew in the Brambles" before on ILX. But I'm not sure that there an obvious antecedent for specifically this idea of abstract v. concrete. That said - there is an element even there of the Jew as rootless cosmopolitan which does fit into the broader curves of the dialectic (rootlessness being its own sort of abstraction v. the concrete man of the land).

I don't quite get this mechanic. if the ruled long for these things (e.g. happiness without power), then why don't they just take them? move to the sticks, marry a wife, catch rainbow trout. I also don't understand your phrase "which inflicts them under conditions of capitalism").

If I understand your question here you are asking why people don't just opt out of Capitalism by going off the grid? That's really its own discussion (I'm inclined to say that going off the grid is not a relevant decision for most people's lives) but I want to emphasize that this vision of the Jew who has what the proletariat wants is not true in reality - the Jew is not somehow liberated from Capitalism. It's just the image of the Jew - the rootless Jew who is not tied down, who maybe could go off the grid (or could emigrate), also the Jew who owns fluid capital (both bc this has some truth in reality like Adorno was quoted above regarding how "power shifted to corporations, the economic power of the Jews stayed in Finance," and because it fits the symbolic image of the Jew). The infliction of capitalism are all these elements that Marx had noted - the alienation from one's own surplus labor, the poor conditions of the factory-focused urban economy, fear + uncertainty etc. Someone suffering from this who looks at the antisemitic caricature of the Jew will not blame the Capitalist for the pain in their lives but will instead accuse the Jew who represents a kind of exposed obvious power (by contrast to the *real* hidden power of Capitalism). So these violent reactions to the exploitive system are channeled against the Jews instead thus preserving the true hegemonic forces in German society.

This particular phenomenon (using Jews as a firewall to protect the ruling classes) predates Capitalism and was an effective tool in feudal Europe. It also seems relevant to the Jewish State today which, I think is uncontroversial to say, is often used as a scapegoat in poorly performing Middle Eastern countries. Sometimes this appears as an explicit conspiracy ("The Jews are forcing the Shias and Sunnis to fight") sometimes as just a way of distracting the populace from poor leadership/stewardship through deflection.

oh sorry I screwed up (or autocorrect again): I meant, "if the RULERS long for those things..."

Oh, I don't think it's the rulers who long for them. Adorno writes: "These characteristics are hated by the rulers because the ruled secretly long to possess them." The ruled want to possess these freedoms. The rulers resent them because it makes it harder to keep a lid on the populace.

I read some texts on anti-semitism last year but it's only now opening up to me conceptually, so I'm happy to have this space to talk about it.

right now I'm reading the first volume of Richard Evans' trilogy on the third reich. it's a historical rather than philosophical text but it's pointing out to me some of the joints, where distinct ideas come together, in the Nazi mindset, so that I can push on those next. after these I'll read Adam Tooze's The Wages of Destruction, on the Nazi economy. I picked up the Herf book you mentioned above too. obv I am going to have read more Marx, but I really don't know where to start. & Goethe too I think.

re Marx : if I want to understand Marx's idea of "alienation from one's own surplus labor", what should I read? the word "alienation" in Marxist contexts confounds me, because alienation seems like a psychological term, but one's labor is not a psychological thing: so what kind of relation is alienation?

oh & xp, the passage of Adorno's that you quoted, to which I was responding, is:

"the Jews as such may be like, their image, as that of the defeated people, has the features to which totalitarian domination must be completely hostile: happiness without power, wages without work, a home without frontiers, religion without myth. These characteristics are hated by the rulers because the ruled secretly long to possess them."

right: the RULED long to possess them, my mistake.

then I have a more elementary, maybe trivial, question: why must totalitarian domination be completely hostile to happiness without power?

If you're interested in reading more about Marxism + antisemitism, Moishe Postone is my favorite on this topic. This is a really great interview with him on some of these topics: http://www.krisis.org/2010/zionism-anti-semitism-and-the-left/ and this paper is relevant as well (and speaks directly to the question of German antisemitism): https://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/moishe-postone-anti-semitism-and-national-socialism-notes-on-the-german-reaction-to-holocaust.pdf -- the Marxism + antisemitism field is decently sized and there's an entire organization dedicated to its study: http://criticaltheoriesofantisemitism.net -- a lot of the people listed as members are worth looking into imho.

Re Marx himself and alienation / surplus labor, etc, he discusses estrangement from the self in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm and in The German Ideology. Kostas Axelos divides Marx's alienation into 4 major categories: Economic and Social Alienation, Political Alienation, Human Alienation, and Ideological Alienation. In economic alienation the more productive the worker is, the more he is devalued, Marx writes:

The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and size. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. The devaluation of the world of men is in direct proportion to the increasing value of the world of things. Labor produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity – and this at the same rate at which it produces commodities in general.

This fact expresses merely that the object which labor produces – labor’s product – confronts it as something alien, as a power independent of the producer. The product of labor is labor which has been embodied in an object, which has become material: it is the objectification of labor. Labor’s realization is its objectification. Under these economic conditions this realization of labor appears as loss of realization for the workers[18]; objectification as loss of the object and bondage to it; appropriation as estrangement, as alienation.[19]

So much does the labor’s realization appear as loss of realization that the worker loses realization to the point of starving to death. So much does objectification appear as loss of the object that the worker is robbed of the objects most necessary not only for his life but for his work. Indeed, labor itself becomes an object which he can obtain only with the greatest effort and with the most irregular interruptions. So much does the appropriation of the object appear as estrangement that the more objects the worker produces the less he can possess and the more he falls under the sway of his product, capital.

This is also the answer for why Capitalist domination is completely hostile to happiness without power - because it requires the alienation of the worker from his labour to continue to exist. True liberation requires the end of Capitalism (which is obv unfathomable to the Capitalist).

Generally speaking I find this idea that antisemitism is useful for perpetuating hegemonic domination to be compelling, but insufficient. I recommend Nirenberg's 2014 Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition for a broader look at how antisemitism has occurred in various epochs (and it is dense w/ primary texts + v careful analysis). iirc he begins his history with Egyptian antisemitism (which obv historically predates the development of Capitalism by quite a lot) and so his theory of antisemitism is necessarily broader (and then some of these more direct critiques of Capitalism, or of Leftist antisemitism which emerges from Marx's own critiques of Capitalism are a kind of particularized historical version of longer trends + ideological lacunas).

From that Postone interview:

On the other hand there were Jews, many of them members of Communist parties, who viewed any expression of Jewish identity as anathema to their own notions of what I would call abstract Enlightenment notions of humanity. For example, Trotsky, in an earlier phase, referred to the Bund as “sea-sick Zionists”. Note that the critique of Zionism here had nothing to do with Palestine or the situation of the Palestinians, since the Bund was focused entirely on autonomy within the Russian empire and rejected Zionism. Rather, Trotsky’s equation of the Bund and Zionism implied a rejection of any form of Jewish communal self-identification. Trotsky, I think, changed his mind later on, but that attitude was fairly typical. Communist organisations tended to be very strongly opposed to Jewish nationalism of any sort, whether cultural nationalism, political nationalism, or Zionism. This is one strand of anti-Zionism. It is not necessarily anti-semitic, but rejects Jewish collective self-identification in the name of abstract universalism. Yet, frequently, this form of anti-Zionism is inconsistent – it is willing to accord national self-determination to most peoples, but not to Jews. It is at this point that what presents itself as abstractly universal becomes ideological. Moreover, the meaning of such abstract universalism itself changes with historical context. After the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel, this abstract universalism serves to veil the history of Jews in Europe. This fulfils a very useful, historically “cleansing” dual function: the violence historically perpetrated by Europeans on Jews is erased; at the same time the horrors of European colonialism now become attributed to the Jews. In this case, the abstract universalism expressed by many anti-Zionists today becomes an ideology of legitimation that helps constitute a form of amnesia regarding the long history of European actions, policies and ideologies toward the Jews, while essentially continuing that history. The Jews have once again become the singular object of European indignation. The solidarity most Jews feel toward other Jews, including in Israel – however understandable following the Holocaust – is now decried. This form of anti-Zionism has become one of the bases for a programme to eradicate actually existing Jewish self-determination. It converges with some forms of Arab nationalism – now coded as singularly progressive.

(I want to post so many more excerpts from that Postone interview. If you do read it, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. There's a lot of provocative material regarding the contemporary Left and its failures that should line up in interesting ways w/ German pre-war antisemitism vis-a-vis antisemitism as an emancipatory project.)

I will read it but not right away! also the Nirenberg, which was also recommended to me by someone eephus might know (though I won't badger him about it)

Another relevant Postone article: https://libcom.org/library/anti-semitism-national-socialism-moishe-postone

No functionalist explanation of the Holocaust and no scapegoat theory of anti-Semitism can even begin to explain why, in the last years of the war, when the German forces were being crushed by the Red Army, a significant proportion of vehicles was deflected from logistical support and used to transport Jews to the gas chambers. The specificity of the Holocaust requires a much more determinate mediation in order even to approach its understanding.

If you wanted to know more about the expulsion of Arab Jewry:
http://forward.com/culture/199257/the-inconvenient-truth-about-jews-from-arab-lands/

One of the surprising discoveries he made was about the powerful bond with their roots felt by many of the roughly 1 million Jews in North Africa and the Middle East who left their homes in the decade after the creation of Israel.

“The story I knew,” Weinstock relates in a Skype interview from his home in Nice, in the south of France, “was that the Jews were happy to leave the Arab countries the moment they were given the opportunity to do so. We were not told anything about the Jews’ deep connection with Arab culture, for example. It was only later that I learned that Jewish writers were the foundation of Iraqi literature. And that in mid-19th-century Egypt, the man who invented the nationalist slogan ‘Egypt for the Egyptians,’ and was known as ‘the Egyptian Molière,’ was a Jew named Jacob Sanua.

“In the course of my research,” he continues, “I found out that the story we had been told – that the Jews left the Arab countries because they were Zionists – was for the most part wrong. True, they had an affinity for the Land of Israel – that is certainly correct – but the organized Zionist movement was very weak in the Arab countries. The great mass of Jews left under duress. They were expelled. They were subjected to such enormous pressure that they had no choice but to leave.”

I had no idea about Sanua.

I have a good friend who is a French speaking Jew from Alexandria, Egypt, and her family was kicked out of Alexandria in the 1940s, after the founding of Israel. in fact they were stateless for a while, and ended up in a refugee camp in the south of France, where she learned French, and then ended up, reluctantly, in Tel Aviv. nowadays she shuttles between Europe and Israel, but longs to be back in Egypt, which of course is impossible.

in fact I know a lot of French Jews with roots in North Africa but this friend I'm speaking of is the one who best fits the story of that article.

In 1969, Weinstock published “Zionism: False Messiah,” an anti-Zionist pamphlet (in French; an English translation came out a decade later) that quickly became the bible of anti-Israeli propaganda in France. Gradually, however, he says, he became aware of “the anti-Semitic nature of the blind assault on Israel. First, ‘the Zionists’ are condemned, then the ‘Zionist takeover’ of the media, and finally ‘Zionist world domination.’ When I was quoted, my criticism of the Palestinians, however minor, was always omitted. In the end, I understood that I had been used. My listeners took no interest whatsoever in me. For them, I was a Jewish alibi for their anti-Jewish posture.”

i'm always amazed when ppl come to this realization as tho it hadn't occurred to them before that they might be a fig leaf for less noble motivations.

But I mean what are you supposed to do if you're an anti-Zionist Jew? Keep quiet about it because you know you're going to be a useful source of selective quotation by anti-Semites? I'm a Zionist as you know but I feel for people in that position. I feel like all you can do is say what you have to say and then loudly protest that the anti-Semites "know nothing of my work"

I guess if you're a fervent anti-Zionist you should speak your truth, it's just odd to me that an otherwise bright person would not know immediately that they were being used as a token Jew. You might say "well, ppl are going to misuse my stand but I'm willing to take that risk," but to not understand this entire dynamic seems like a glaring blindspot. Especially when so often Jewish critics of Zionism are presented in this "As a Jew..." rhetoric, or in this modality of "one of the good Jews." Like don't they realize that the impact is painting the vast majority of Zionist (or Zionism sympathetic) Jews as "bad Jews" who can be dismissed and marginalized for the common good?

spotted in the wild:

Outside my suburban PA train station someone posted fliers on all the telephone polls that ask people to "Research, Google, Youtube Khazar Jews, NWO, Rothschild Bloodline" for the sake of their children's souls.

Disgusting. What station??

Jenkintown

i didn't realize you were so close to me! i grew up in elkins park! (i was actually in jenkintown a couple months ago to see a generator in Fox Pavilion (that I think is now just called Pavilion)).

(obviously disappointing hearing about the posters there but - ugh, whatever - ppl are assholes)

Coincidentally Ezra Pund lived in Jenkintown as a child

http://forward.com/opinion/335007/inside-the-twisted-anti-semitic-mind-of-oberlin-professor-joy-karega/
https://jewishphilosophyplace.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/adjacent-intersectional-terrain-anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism-joy-karega-at-oberlin-college/

http://www.thetower.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-02-24_125817_Joy_Karega_01202016.jpg

what a fucking lunatic. why hasn't oberlin fired her yet?

Lol wat

it goes against the academic principles of the university to interfere with inquiries into the methods thru which the rothschild family control the world

slate: Compare Oberlin’s response with the recent firing of James Tracy, a tenured communications scholar, by Florida Atlantic University, related to declarations on his blog that the 2012 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, was really an elaborate government play for more gun control laws. (A termination letter sent to Tracy in January said that he was being terminated for failing to turn in outside employment or professional activity reforms in a timely manner, but the letter referenced activity on his blog and Tracy maintains his case is about free speech.)

Sounds like they make some great hires over there

has everyone here already read this james baldwin essay? i hadn't and it's v powerful (even if there are points i disagree with or have a different perspective on): https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-antisem.html - i really need to read more of his work his writing is so achingly beautiful

I read it out of the Library of America James Baldwin collection while standing in the bookstore a while ago and was basically blown away, agree on achingly beautiful.

One thing I am REALLY tired of in the whole zionism debate is hearing from world-racism-expert college students who say "Zionism's racism is also evidenced by its treatment of Mizrahi Jews." I am fine with accusing Israel of racism, but this particular statement displays no understanding or concern whatsoever for the people being used as a political football, who (1) are vast majority "zionist," and (2) who experience nothing close to the level of discrimination experienced by African Americans in this country -- intermarriage rates are very high and gaps in income and achievement are closing. It's much more comparable to something like lingering WASP prejudice against "ethnic" whites than it is to the kind of racism they think it supports.

Not to mention that a lot of them experienced far greater discrimination in the countries they were forced out of.

well written thoughtful piece about anti-semitism at stanford:
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/04/07/on-gabriel-knight-and-what-anti-semitism-really-means/

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4639165,00.html

has this UN women's rights report been discussed here yet? A friend posted about it on FB and it was just WTF?

No not posted here. I had seen it but at this pt outrageous anti Israel bias from the UN is very dog bites man and I try not to be a broken record.

it's also biased against women, specifically, the women in countries that actually are dire and oppressive of women

http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2016/04/Vlodymir-a-waiter-who-calls-himself-Moishe-at-the-Pid-Zolotoju-Rozoju-restaurant-in-Lviv-on-March-14-2016.-Cnaan-Liphshiz-965x543.jpg

http://www.timesofisrael.com/i-ate-jewish-food-in-lviv-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale/

oops -- http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2016/04/Vlodymir-a-waiter-who-calls-himself-Moishe-at-the-Pid-Zolotoju-Rozoju-restaurant-in-Lviv-on-March-14-2016.-Cnaan-Liphshiz-965x543.jpg

:|

holy moly

Yeah, I think I might have posted about that place before. It is run by a chain that has a bunch of very odd theme restaurants in the city - one is dedicated to the Ukrainian nationalists who sided with Hitler to try to defeat Russia, one which actually sounds quite cool which is faux masonic and hidden in an apartment block and this one. They are all designed to reflect the history of Lviv in some way. There doesn't seem to be any overarching political animus behind it, it's all for joeks, but clearly both hugely offensive and reflective of a lot of the latent antisemitism and stereotypes that still remain in that part of the country. As reported, the trad Jewish food is apparently pretty good. Lviv is a great city but politically quite odd. It is supposedly the most European-focused part of the country but has very deep nationalist roots which, like a lot of nationalist roots in the region, often overlaps with strong antisemitic sentiment.

jfc i cannot handle that

the restaurant, i mean.

jfc could be a p good guaranteed-kosher chicken franchise

ha!

a hopeful take on what the recent bernie anti-semitism moment means
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2016/04/boos-and-cheers-from-bernies-harlem.html

translation of an excellent text posted by the Italian editorial collective Il Lato Cattivo in July 2014 that speaks to a lot of the issues of antisemitism + communism we've discussed above: https://thecharnelhouse.org/2016/04/29/letter-on-anti-zionism/

from the same blog: https://thecharnelhouse.org/2016/04/30/reflections-on-left-antisemitism/