From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel by Robert Wistrich (review)

Robert Wistrich has been writing about the relationship between Jews and the Left for many years, and has contributed a great deal to our understanding of that subject. He has published any number of works on related themes, based on extensive research in archives and libraries in Europe, Israel, and the US, and, in the course of his research, has located significant amounts of important, previously unknown, source material. Books by Wistrich dealing with subjects discussed in his latest volume include Revolutionary Jews from Marx to Trotsky (1976), Socialism and the Jews (1982) and Between Redemption and Perdition (1990).

Indeed: those who have read Prof. Wistrich’s earlier works are likely to find substantial portions of his newest book quite familiar. The chapters of From Ambivalence to Betrayal dealing with figures like Marx, Bernstein, Luxemburg, Kautsky, Trotsky, and Kreisky, for example, often rehearse material Wistrich has discussed at other points in his career. To be sure, Wistrich’s bibliography in From Ambivalence to Betrayal lists many works published after Wistrich released his first books, such as Enzo Traverso’s Die Marxisten und die Jüdische Frage (1995) and Lars Fischer’s excellent monograph The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Imperial Germany (2007). Wistrich, however, appears not to have been heavily influenced by these or other more recent studies, and does not seriously engage with their arguments.

Wistrich states his thesis clearly and explicitly: “A poisonous anti-Jewish legacy can be found in Marx, Fourier, and Proudhon, extending through the orthodox Communists and ‘non-conformist’ Trotskyists to the Islamo-Leftist hybrids of today” (xii). In general, Wistrich finds that contemporary leftist anti-Zionism entails contemporary leftist antisemitism, and argues that “whether intended or not, the ‘anti-Zionist’ campaign on the Left strikes not only at Israel but at the security and standing of all Jews” (470). Those anti-Zionists who are of Jewish origin, Wistrich suggests, regularly suffer from self-hatred.

It is certainly the case that there have been—and are—vicious antisemites on the Left. But, as Wistrich is well aware, there are also profoundly important examples of leftist leaders, including orthodox Communists, who were not antisemitic. Vladimir Lenin was wrong on many crucial matters. He was, however, not an antisemite. In a recording made at the end of March, 1919 (from which Wistrich quotes one phrase) Lenin proclaims that “only the most ignorant and downtrodden people can believe the lies and slander that are spread about the Jews. … It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. … Among the Jews there are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism.” Lenin’s strong condemnation of antisemitism, moreover, was not exceptional. In more recent times, for example, Fidel Castro—surely a major leftist—can and should be criticized for having dictatorial policies, but cannot be fairly criticized for his treatment of or statements about Jews. In other words: some leftists have been antisemitic, others have not. I do not agree with Wistrich’s contention that the legacy of the Left is (simply) one of poisonous antisemitism.

Wistrich argues that there are entire Western countries in which antisemitism is endemic. He claims, for example that in Great Britain “antisemitic sentiment is… a part of mainstream discourse, continually resurfacing among the academic, political, and media elites” (537). If so, isn’t it possible that those British leftists who are antisemitic are no different in this regard than their counterparts from other parts of the British political spectrum? Why single out antisemitic statements made by leftists if such statements are found among individuals of many different political persuasions?

I would also note that though Wistrich has read very widely and reads many languages, there are surprising lapses in this work. He begins his...