State of the Jews

Edward Alexander is professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has been a member of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, the National Association of Scholars, and the Washington Association of Scholars. He is the author of The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies, The Holocaust and the War of Ideas, and Irving Howe: Socialist, Critic, Jew.

• Introduction; I: The Victorian Background; Dr Arnold, Matthew Arnold, and John Stuart Mill; II: History; Britannia Waives the Rules: Antisemitism, English-Style; British Philosemitism: A Thing of the Past?; Medieval Zionism: Yehuda Halevi; Hitler’s American Professors; Hitler’s (Palestinian) Arabs; Beethoven and the Holocaust in Hungary; Israel’s “Original Sin”: The Refugees of 1948; “If I Am Not for Myself, Who Will Be for Me?” The History of Commentary Magazine; End of the Holocaust?; III: Politics; Survival Precedes Definition: Ruth Wisse’s Moral Imperative; “Pharaoh Who Knew Not Joseph”: Obama Demotes the Jews; The Meaning of Criticism; Professors for Suicide Bombing: The Explosive Power of Boredom; Back to 1933: How the Academic Boycott of Israel Began; Afrocentrism, Liberal Dogmatism, and Antisemitism at Wellesley College; Tom Paulin: Poetaster of Murder; Jewish Israel-Haters Convert Their Dead Grandmothers: A New Mormonism?; The Antisemitism of Liberals: A Gentile’s View; IV: Literature; Lionel Trilling: The ( Jewish) Road Not Taken; Metaphor and Memory in Cynthia Ozick: Pro and Con; Foreign Bodies: Americans Abroad in Post-Holocaust Europe; Saul Bellow’s Jewish Letters; Lublin Before It Became Majdanek: Jacob Glatstein’s Autobiography; Abba Kovner: Partisan, Poet, Curator, Avenger; Ashamed Jews: The Finkler Question; Daniel Deronda: “The Zionist Fate in English Hands” and “The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews”

"Alexander's most scathing analysis focuses on academic anti-Semitism and the collaboration of Jewish liberals in the demotion of Israel to the fetid sewer of illegitimacy until recently reserved for Nazi Germany and South Africa... Edward Alexander's critical appraisal of "the state of the Jews" reinforces his place of primacy in the continuing war, waged by far too few of our academic or intellectual colleagues, against Israel." --Jerold S. Auerbach, Algemeiner "To anyone conscious of the extent to which the higher journalism today, both in America and Europe, trades in willed self-delusion, these essays will come as a decided relief. Witty, pungent, brutally intelligent and wickedly well informed, they demonstrate that the American mind, in spite of everything, is alive and kicking. Alexander's range is enviably wide... Inevitably, many of these essays touch on the antisemitism once again haunting intellectual discourse. Because antisemitism has killed so many people, we tend to treat it, sometimes grudgingly, with respect. These essays reveal it squarely for what it is: a delusion of the very stupid; a standing offence against the wit, humanity, intelligence, and decency that Alexander's work so abundantly embodies." --Bernard Harrison, Emeritus E. E. Ericksen Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah, emeritus professor in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Sussex, UK "Edward Alexander is... one of the better informed writers on matters Jewish... Alexander's decades in front of his classes come through not as direct statements of the one true fact but rather as discussions of the varying experiences and writings of philo- and anti-semites, and as a good professor leaves his students wanting to learn more. Especially in an age in which the study of classics of Western thought is ignored, or chastised as irrelevant or oppressive to current ideological fervors, Alexander's precis and discussion of many famous authors' works does a service in awakening the reader's interest in delving further... [I]n 238-pages the reader can delve into the past few hundred years of culture that shaped today's anti-semitism." --Bruce Kesler, San Diego Jewish World "By turns tough-minded and elegant, witty and contentious, Edward Alexander's essays and reviews engage their subjects in bracing and always illuminating ways. Anyone who wants to learn about 'the state of the Jews' will find Alexander a perceptive and provocative guide. A brilliant polemicist, he has few rivals among commentators on contemporary Jewish themes." --Alvin H. Rosenfeld, professor of English and Jewish studies, Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies, director, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, Indiana University ""Alexander's book, in each exquisitely polished entry, identifies what Rabelais used to call 'the essential marrow' of the issue...[He] is a powerful polemicist who possesses a biting sense of humor...In this collection of essays, all of which display Alexander's matchless English prose style, it is difficult to single out favorites."" --Arnold Ages, Chicago Jewish Star "To open the lid of this much-traveled steamer trunk is to experience Alexander's perceptive mind, dry humor, and exquisite sense of irony. Alexander is an entertaining dinner guest at your mental dining room table." --Robert Wilkes, jtnews.net ""[A] besieged people shows signs of cracking under the pressure as many of its most talented sons and daughters join the attackers, flaunting their cowardice and betrayal in hues of moral grandeur. However appalling much of the subject matter, Edward Alexander's wit, erudition, and insight make this a desirable and important book to read."" --P. David Hornik, FrontPage "One reads this book with moral and aesthetic admiration. Its frightening message is that the so-called 'new antisemitism' is really the old antisemitism in a new disguise. It is a page-turner. Edward Alexander is battle-toughened in the trenches of intellectual combat. He knows his Jews, his Judaism, his history, and he sees through the disguises of their enemies with the accuracy of a veteran marksman. You could not find a better guide through the underworld of latter-day Jew-hatred. On top of this, Edward Alexander never wrote a dead sentence in his life. Here is an object lesson in the congruence of character and style, moral courage, and intellectual clarity." --Abigail L. Rosenthal, professor of philosophy emerita, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, author of A Good Look at Evil and Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir