The Re-Emergence of the Jewish Question

Major economic transformations over the past forty years have produced wrenching social changes. These have now generated a strong anti-globalist reaction that is expressing itself in extremist political movements throughout Europe, America, and other parts of the world. Antisemitism is an integral element of this reaction in its far-right, far-left, and Islamist instantiations. These developments have caused a re-emergence of the question of the place of Jews in the non-Jewish world. Both the anti-globalist reaction, and many of the Jewish responses to it, are backward looking. They are attempting to deal with new economic and political challenges by re-running ideologies from the past. The rise of antisemitism in this context is indicative of the failure of anti-globalist movements to cope effectively with these challenges. A new progressive politics is urgently needed to deal with them. To be effective, the Jewish response to the threat posed by widespread antisemitism must be informed by the lessons of recent Jewish history. Keywords: Jewish Question, anti-globalism, rightwing antisemitism, leftwing antisemitism, new diasporism, economic dislocation