Content area
Full Text
Following the controversial special issue of leftist art magazine Texte zur Kunst, Sarah James asks what happens when anti-anti-Semitism meets the alt-right.
The September issue of the up-until-now respected and widely read leftist art theory and criticism magazine Text zur Kunst, titled Anti-Anti-Semitism, purports to offer a nuanced and theoretically sophisticated critique of rising anti-Semitism. Its preface - edited by the magazines co-founder, Isabelle Graw, new editorin-chief Katharina Hausladen, Nadja Abt, art historian Sabeth Buchmann and the journalist Aram Lintzel - states that the edition takes a clear stand against any form of hostility toward Jewish people and seeks to critically reflect on the massive increase in anti-Semitic discrimination but also to focus on the complexity of Jewish art and cultural practices. Given the indisputable rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes and attacks around the world in recent years, as well as the concern that an increasing number of adults are, staggeringly, unaware of the Holocaust (a recent survey in the US showed that almost two-thirds of adults aged 18-39 had no idea that six million Jews were killed by the Nazis, almost a quarter of those surveyed stated that they believed the Holocaust was a myth and one in ten believed that Jews had caused the Holocaust), a TzK issue addressing anti-Semitism seems timely. In terms of its possible contribution, the stakes are high, in a political landscape that accommodates Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbáns flagrant anti-Semitism alongside his attacks on Muslims and migrants, President Donald Trumps dangerous incitement of a race war in the US, and the international dissemination of white-nationalist propaganda by figures such as Steve Bannon. Closer to home, there are the (contested) accusations of anti-Semitism against Jeremy Corbyns Labour, and the rampant racism and nationalism newly normalised by Boris Johnsons Brexit-fixated Tories.
Addressing this context, the late David Graeber has written brilliantly and compellingly about the dangers of weaponising anti-Semitism, arguing on openDemocracy in September 2019 that, exploiting Jewish issues in ways guaranteed to create rancour, panic, and resentment is itself a form of anti-Semitism. Yet the editorial line proffered in TzKs preface, Lintzels introductory essay and almost all the contributions contained within it make clear that the magazine was less motivated by the need to critically interrogate anti-Semitism and more...