Book Description: David Hirsh, Contemporary Left Antisemitism

Bibliographic Information:
Hirsh, David, Contemporary Left Antisemitism (London ; New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2018)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23530-4 

Summary

To create this book, Professor David Hirsh gathered his work from his struggles in British left-wing fora, trade union activist organizations, and academia. Its perspective is unique. Primarily about struggles against embedded antisemitism in Britain over the last generation, it is the work of a scholar whose personal description of his guiding ideas places him firmly on the Left. His book gains in persuasiveness due to his clear commitment to the professional methodologies and insights derived from his professional focus as a professor of sociology. He writes a history of debates on the Left. Progressives, often in powerful positions and without self-awareness, resort to well recognized antisemitic tropes, mainly blood-libel-type material directed at Jews as child killers and conspiracy theories directed at Jews as practitioners of a covert plot to rule the world in secret. Hirsh published at the height of Jeremy Corbyn’s power in the Labour Party, prior to elections that resulted in the catastrophic Labour loss in Parliament and Corbyn’s withdrawal from its leading position. His application of standards drawn from sociology is damning in its conclusions. Too many people accepted antisemitic assumptions embedded in aspects of their worldviews. Too many chose to reject criticism of their bigotry. Hirsh popularized the term “Livingstone Formula” (after former London Lord Mayor and suspended Labour party member Ken Livingstone). Livingstone regularly responded to allegations that his criticisms of Jews, the Jewish community, Zionists, Israel, and Israelis were antisemitic. He claimed that these allegations were part of a conspiracy by pro-Zionist forces to stifle criticism of Israel. He does not seem to have engaged with the ideas expressed by his critics that it was not the fact of criticizing Israel but the content of the criticisms that promoted condemnation as a bigot.

Style

Professor Hirsh writes clearly. He has the knack we find among successful educators for making complicated ideas more readily understandable.

Classroom

The characteristics that will make this book valuable to some teaching environments, particularly graduate and other advanced academic classrooms, may create difficulties using parts of it in high school or undergraduate environments. Sometimes analyzing an event that took place a few years ago and (for non-British students) in a foreign country can open a comfort level among students in discussing the components of bigotry reflected in events. With this in mind, sections from Contemporary Left Antisemitism may find use in undergraduate and even high school environments far from Great Britain