Good Jew, Bad Jew Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Assault on Meaning (An Interview with Steven Friedman)

• Published in: Theoria (Pietermaritzburg) Vol. 70; no. 177; pp. 54 - 76
• Main Authors: Friedman, Steven, Piper, Laurence
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Afrikaans; English
• Published: New York Berghahn Books, Inc 01-12-2023
• Subjects: Antisemitism; Colonialism; Jewish people; Loyalty; Racism; White supremacy; Zionism
• DOI: 10.3167/th.2023.7017703
• EISSN: 1558-5816
• ISSN: 0040-5817

Abstract
In
Good Jew, Bad Jew
Steven Friedman argues that the meaning of anti-Semitism favoured by the Israeli government and its allies prioritises loyalty to the Israeli state over identification with the Jewish people. On this view, ‘good Jews’ are those who support the Israeli state, and ‘bad Jews’ are those who criticise Zionism. This framing reflects a discursive transition over decades linked to the desire to make Israel part of Europe politically and culturally. Not only has the Zionist version of anti-Semitism inverted traditional notions of Jewishness but it has transformed ‘Jewishness’ from the ‘other’ to whiteness, to an ally of white supremacists. This racial embrace goes hand in glove with the brutal practice of colonial violence evident in Gaza. Friedman makes his case drawing on the work African scholars such as Biko, Fanon and Mamdani, Southern scholars such as Ashis Nandy, as well as established scholars of the North.