Good Jew, Bad Jew: Racism, anti-Semitism and the assault on meaning - Softcover

Friedman, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1776148487 ISBN 13: 9781776148486

Publisher: Wits University Press, 2023

Synopsis

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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Friedman is Research Professor associated with the Department of Politics in the Humanities Faculty, University of Johannesburg. He is a political scientist who specialises in the study of democracy; a public commentator; newspaper columnist and a former trade unionist.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wits University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1776148487
• ISBN 13: 9781776148486
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230