Is this anti-semitism?

What do people think of The Alien Corn, by Maugham? I'll admit that I love Maugham, and know very little about anti-semitism, so after re-reading it this morning I was wondering if it was thought of as anti-semitic at all.

He does seem to present British Jews as being 'apart' from 'Englishness', but I'm not sure if he's describing something he perceives or whether there is a normative/essentialist position behind it.

It did make me realise (why it hadn't occurred to me before I don't know) that Jewish people in the First World War faced a double-prejudice because of their 'German' names. Anyway, just an idle question.

I read the story today just to do justice to your question and imo it was a very sensitive treatment of English Jewry and spoke directly to issues of acculturation and alienation. I certainly found nothing in it objectionable or offensive. Even were he to present something normative/essentialist in it (which I don't think is necessary to read and it certainly feels more observational to me) I don't think that would inherently be problematic. I mean I think what you're noticing is this idea that "Jewishness" is baked in, even generations removed. But here it had never completely gone away and the family's Jewishness continued to play a role in their lives - both in terms of neuroticism (as they try to escape it), glib superficiality (telling Jewish stories), and ultimately this kind of direct grappling w/ it (in the case of George). But to that last point it is also a story about being caught between worlds as George observes the Jews in Germany and feels utterly alienated from them as well - linguistically, culturally - he's afraid he'll be thrown out of synagogue for doing something wrong. I quite liked it and I like these twin themes of repression/denial + explosion between this ethnic/religious heritage that they willingly repress but continues to come back, and this artistic urge that literally explodes by the end of the story. Certainly in comparison to some of my favorite writers (like Gogol) this is a world's apart in its treatment of Jewish characters and even Jewish themes.

OT Tablet published this today - http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/231133/gorka-forward-vitezi-rend-trump . nb that I know nothing about Vitezi Rend and have no authority to contest or confirm Leibovitz's conclusions here. nbx2 I went to Yeshiva with a student whose grandfather, a Hungarian poet, was one of the 1,600 Jews that Kastner saved in exchange for condemning the rest of Hungarian Jewry to death. At the time he was studying Hungarian to try and translate his grandfather's poetry. We were fairly close being as how we were the only two (maybe there was a third) students in the school with any interest in literature of any kind. I saw him a few year's later - he was the counselor at a Jewish summer camp my brother was attending. We haven't been in touch since.

Cool, thanks for reading it.

so now i know how to get mordy to read something

Terry Teachout says of it: "Some find “The Alien Corn” anti-Semitic, and I can see why, but my old friend Samuel Lipman, who wrote of it with great eloquence in Music and More, thought it by way of being a minor masterpiece." But he gives no details.

The story definitely deals with antisemitism (and self-hate) but to read the story itself as antisemitic imo creates a standard impossible to meet. I'd be curious to hear from the "some" who find it antisemitic and hear their precise criticisms. ime ppl can find ways to be offended by anything.

Probably just people trying to dissuade him from writing an opera based on it.

jews for bannon are an interesting crew

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/state-department-anti-semitism-office-unstaffed-article-1.3273439

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/the-anti-semitism-around-donald-trump.html

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-islamic-preacher-calls-on-allah-to-annihilate-the-jews/

disgusting story obv but from strictly an anthropological perspective his linked sermon is fascinating.

new book that is relevant to my interests:
https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Semitism-Left-David-Hirsh/dp/1138235318

Today’s antisemitism is difficult to recognize because it does not come dressed in a Nazi uniform and it does not openly proclaim its hatred or fear of Jews.

really

i wouldn't pay too much attention to the copy. i've read his work elsewhere (like in Engage) and he's v good he has a strong grasp of the history of the left + its intersections w/ antisemitism.

most anti semitism these days actually comes from Yair Netanyahu

This is the most interesting nugget in that story about Facebook selling ads against the "jew hater" category https://t.co/L8xE0iWdJh pic.twitter.com/d9Jd5CyY3Z

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) September 14, 2017

Today’s antisemitism is difficult to recognize because it does not come dressed in a Nazi uniform and it does not openly proclaim its hatred or fear of Jews.

lol, that's a pretty untimely blurb

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170914/gpd-receives-complaint-against-hot-cop

so, so difficult to recognize

w/ uk left's embrace of important jewish communities like Jewdas (ffs) it's hard to understand how they've completely lost the jewish vote. republicans pray that the dem party acts as philosemitic as labour.

clearly not completely ;)

I don't know much about Jewdas, but the Daily Mail/Guido Fawkes et al deciding which Jews are good and which are bad doesn't seem to be going down too well, even among Corbyn's critics.

aren't Jewdas the ones who describe Israel as 'sewage'?

Sincerely, yesterday was the first time I've ever felt "othered" as a Jew in the UK.

It does seem to have provided Jewdas with some sub-Onion beetroot material though.

guys think about what their name means for just a second

put aside good jew or bad jew and consider whether 99% of jews relate to an org called Jewdas

I was about to genuinely ask your take on that particular organization, could you elaborate a little?

And yes, the name is definitely the kind of sarcastic thing that makes me feel like their approach is orthogonal to "serious politics"

they seem fine as a small group doing their own thing but as representatives of the broader jewish community idgi at all. first of all they're named after the figure who christiandom used as an excuse to persecute jews for centuries. second of all, they're a self-declared outsider group which, again, is totally fine but means that definitionally they can't speak for mainstream jewry. i think it's great that it exists for the participants but if you're a politician trying to signal to a larger community you should try imo to speak to someone who isn't doing an edgy fringe anarchist take on the religion. the whole good jew vs bad jew thing isn't the right take imo. it's not like he met with reform jews and the orthodox were complaining or vice-versa. he met with a tiny enclave of alienated and critical of jewry jews who seem primarily satirical in their aesthetic. and if it was a personal thing he was doing i wouldn't care but it's too obviously a PR move and as that it seems insanely idiotic.

it's not a precise analogy but it would be like meeting with Heeb Magazine. i didn't begrudge the existence of Heeb magazine at all but i would begrudge politicians treating Heeb magazine like a legitimate representative of the Jewish community. (it's not precisely the same bc i'm not clear that Jewdas is quite as vulgar as Heeb but in terms of antagonism to the broader community / fringeness / etc it's comparable i think.)

yeah it's a really weird thing to do, a sort of 'fine I'll do it but I'm not going to sell out about it' attitude, even though he says he was there only in personal capacity.

It was a personal thing - the group is based in his constituency, has supported him for years and the invitation had been open for weeks. The only reason it made the press in the first place is that a far-right blog got someone to secretly film it.

if he was really there in just a personal capacity why do any of us know about it?? maybe it's a bit much to ask for a politician to go to a Jewdas seder and no one find out but otoh it's a bit much to believe that he went bc he's just really into the Jewdas seder experience.

Anecdotal evidence Mordy, fwiw, but your comment about Labour that Labour have "completely lost the Jewish vote" is utterly wrong. You ideally need to get your information from sources other than the Centralist and right-wing press and media, because they are the only ones parroting that idea. My Jewish friends and their parents and relatives in London are not falling for the antisemitism bullshit, like, at all.

my take in general on corbyn is that he's probably not an antisemite he's just an idiot. but he's def not a guy who is really into Passover. the whole thing is bizarre.

xp what percentage of the Jewish vote did Labour get last election?

first of all they're named after the figure who christiandom used as an excuse to persecute jews for centuries

not that i agree w/their stupid name but i'm pretty sure that this ^ is the point of it

second of all, they're a self-declared outsider group which, again, is totally fine but means that definitionally they can't speak for mainstream jewry

i don't think they ever claimed they do?

if you're a politician trying to signal to a larger community...

corbyz is bad-to-hopeless at "signalling" i.e. PR moves

Well Corbyn is useless at anything to do with PR and the media, idiotic is a fair criticism, except this WAS a personal thing which got picked up by Guido Fawkes.

xps ...and it just so happened the day after a brouhaha about antisemitism. I'm being cynical here, but would he have attended if it hadn't have been for the antisemitism scandal?

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/236063/why-just-13-percent-of-british-jews-say-they-will-vote-for-labour-in-the-general-election

if that's anywhere near accurate that's a brutal figure

if he was really there in just a personal capacity why do any of us know about it?

It was leaked to a far-right blog, as I said.

It’s difficult for anyone not familiar with the area to understand but Jewdas is very much within the tradition of a radical strand of Jewish politics centred around Highbury / Stoke Newington - Corbyn’s home and political base - that has been influential on the local party / political scene since the sixties, at least. It is not representative of the wider London Jewish community necessary but is absolutely a part of Corbyn’s left.

by comparison Trump got something like 25% of the jewish vote

https://www.timesofisrael.com/american-jews-voted-70-25-in-favor-of-clinton-over-trump-poll-shows/

xp what percentage of the Jewish vote did Labour get last election?

― Mordy, Wednesday, 4 April 2018 16:50 (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Point being that it hasn't significantly changed anyone's minds. Jewish voters who intend(ed) to vote Labour will still do so, those who intend to vote Tory will still do so.

SV: radical Jewish politics have a long tradition not just in the UK but throughout Europe and the US but often that tradition is antagonistic to traditional Judaism (often itself veering into antisemitism - nb I'm not accusing Jewdas on this tho the name is certainly troubling) and represents small percentages of the Jewish community. i think you have to consider when dealing w/ small radical splinter groups that you're potentially poking the community in the eye even more than not engaging at all. you're dealing w/ a group that is openly hostile to most Jews and Jewish groups/practices. i don't have a problem with internal dissent but when an outsider sides with them it gives the impression that *they're* the one playing good jews vs bad jews.

xp i don't know how you can say that. 13% is an extremely low and ahistorical figure for the Jewish vote iirc. (nb i haven't researched this since the election but iirc Labour used to be able to count on a far higher percentage of Jewish voters.)

"jews who mock and dislike mainstream jewish organizations and communities? those are the jews for me."

by comparison Trump got something like 25% of the jewish vote

Is this really a worthwhile comparison??

it's pretty damning imo but explain to me what i'm missing. Trump, a guy who openly fraternized w/ white supremacists, got a higher percentage of the Jewish vote than Labour.

By Yair Rosenberg
May 30, 2017 • 2:06 PM

White supremacists or no, aren't the republicans considered far more pro-likud than democrats?

Oh, and if you want clickbait about Jewish voters:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/how-ed-miliband-lost-the-jewish-vote/