Short Course: Zionism as an Antisemitism
Zionism as an Antisemitism
Jake RommSessions:Wednesdays, 8pm, Sept. 24 - Oct. 15
8pm EST, 5pm PST
Meets online.
Course Description:
Zionism is an antisemitism. Zionism is not an antisemitism in the sense of “hatred of Jews”—though to be sure it has also incorporated this hatred into its identity—because antisemitism is more than just the hatred of Jews. It is a personal and social pathology, a manner of thinking, a form of reactionary modernity—one distinct from other forms of racism or xenophobia, though they share a family likeness. Zionism is an antisemitism, first and foremost, because it internalizes and recapitulates the very same European antisemitism that sought the extermination of the Jews in the Shoah. It is not only the pathology transposed into a new context, but the continuation of its tactics as well. Because antisemitism is a mode of thought, however, it does not necessarily have a fixed target. The group which occupies the hated position is mutable. As Adorno and Horkheimer write, “depending on the constellation, the victims are interchangeable . . . so each of them can replace the murderer, in the same blind lust for killing, as soon as he feels the power of representing the norm.” Since the Nakba, it is the Zionist who represents the norm; the Palestinian has now taken their place as victim—the constellation has changed. In order to understand Zionism and its effort to exterminate Palestinian life, one must understand its relation to, and as, antisemitism. Unpacking the internal dynamics of Zionism that continue to deepen the catastrophe at every turn can help us to make sense of a present that seems increasingly moved by madness alone.
In this course we will seek to understand Zionism as both ideology and exterminationist regime by reference to critical theory on Naziism, fascism, antisemitism, and colonialism—and, in so doing, place Zionism within the continuum of antisemitic and/or exterminationist regimes past while also seeking out what is novel, and thus perhaps more pressing or frightening, in the ideology in its current manifestation. We will explore issues related to paranoia and false-projection, persecution mania, the logic of dehumanization and racial thinking, and other themes as they arise through the course of our conversation. More broadly, the goal of this course is to think our way into history as it is occurring, to reject thought which reifies history as a pre-given parcel of time or mere chronology in order to capture the still unfolding totality of the contemporary Zionist death-machine. The ideology is at its exterminationist zenith—though even this might be wishful thinking; history contains no guarantees. Theoretical intervention is necessary now—there may not be an after.
Jake Romm is a New York City based writer, the associate editor for Protean Magazine, and the US Representative of the Hind Rajab Foundation.
Full fee: $450, Reduced fee: $250.
Or contactpsychosocial.foundation@gmail.com for scholarship information.
Zionism as an Antisemitism
Jake RommSessions:Wednesdays, 8pm, Sept. 24 - Oct. 15
8pm EST, 5pm PST
Meets online.
Course Description:
Zionism is an antisemitism. Zionism is not an antisemitism in the sense of “hatred of Jews”—though to be sure it has also incorporated this hatred into its identity—because antisemitism is more than just the hatred of Jews. It is a personal and social pathology, a manner of thinking, a form of reactionary modernity—one distinct from other forms of racism or xenophobia, though they share a family likeness. Zionism is an antisemitism, first and foremost, because it internalizes and recapitulates the very same European antisemitism that sought the extermination of the Jews in the Shoah. It is not only the pathology transposed into a new context, but the continuation of its tactics as well. Because antisemitism is a mode of thought, however, it does not necessarily have a fixed target. The group which occupies the hated position is mutable. As Adorno and Horkheimer write, “depending on the constellation, the victims are interchangeable . . . so each of them can replace the murderer, in the same blind lust for killing, as soon as he feels the power of representing the norm.” Since the Nakba, it is the Zionist who represents the norm; the Palestinian has now taken their place as victim—the constellation has changed. In order to understand Zionism and its effort to exterminate Palestinian life, one must understand its relation to, and as, antisemitism. Unpacking the internal dynamics of Zionism that continue to deepen the catastrophe at every turn can help us to make sense of a present that seems increasingly moved by madness alone.
In this course we will seek to understand Zionism as both ideology and exterminationist regime by reference to critical theory on Naziism, fascism, antisemitism, and colonialism—and, in so doing, place Zionism within the continuum of antisemitic and/or exterminationist regimes past while also seeking out what is novel, and thus perhaps more pressing or frightening, in the ideology in its current manifestation. We will explore issues related to paranoia and false-projection, persecution mania, the logic of dehumanization and racial thinking, and other themes as they arise through the course of our conversation. More broadly, the goal of this course is to think our way into history as it is occurring, to reject thought which reifies history as a pre-given parcel of time or mere chronology in order to capture the still unfolding totality of the contemporary Zionist death-machine. The ideology is at its exterminationist zenith—though even this might be wishful thinking; history contains no guarantees. Theoretical intervention is necessary now—there may not be an after.
Jake Romm is a New York City based writer, the associate editor for Protean Magazine, and the US Representative of the Hind Rajab Foundation.
Full fee: $450, Reduced fee: $250.
Or contactpsychosocial.foundation@gmail.com for scholarship information.
Zionism as an Antisemitism
Jake RommSessions:Wednesdays, 8pm, Sept. 24 - Oct. 15
8pm EST, 5pm PST
Meets online.
Course Description:
Zionism is an antisemitism. Zionism is not an antisemitism in the sense of “hatred of Jews”—though to be sure it has also incorporated this hatred into its identity—because antisemitism is more than just the hatred of Jews. It is a personal and social pathology, a manner of thinking, a form of reactionary modernity—one distinct from other forms of racism or xenophobia, though they share a family likeness. Zionism is an antisemitism, first and foremost, because it internalizes and recapitulates the very same European antisemitism that sought the extermination of the Jews in the Shoah. It is not only the pathology transposed into a new context, but the continuation of its tactics as well. Because antisemitism is a mode of thought, however, it does not necessarily have a fixed target. The group which occupies the hated position is mutable. As Adorno and Horkheimer write, “depending on the constellation, the victims are interchangeable . . . so each of them can replace the murderer, in the same blind lust for killing, as soon as he feels the power of representing the norm.” Since the Nakba, it is the Zionist who represents the norm; the Palestinian has now taken their place as victim—the constellation has changed. In order to understand Zionism and its effort to exterminate Palestinian life, one must understand its relation to, and as, antisemitism. Unpacking the internal dynamics of Zionism that continue to deepen the catastrophe at every turn can help us to make sense of a present that seems increasingly moved by madness alone.
In this course we will seek to understand Zionism as both ideology and exterminationist regime by reference to critical theory on Naziism, fascism, antisemitism, and colonialism—and, in so doing, place Zionism within the continuum of antisemitic and/or exterminationist regimes past while also seeking out what is novel, and thus perhaps more pressing or frightening, in the ideology in its current manifestation. We will explore issues related to paranoia and false-projection, persecution mania, the logic of dehumanization and racial thinking, and other themes as they arise through the course of our conversation. More broadly, the goal of this course is to think our way into history as it is occurring, to reject thought which reifies history as a pre-given parcel of time or mere chronology in order to capture the still unfolding totality of the contemporary Zionist death-machine. The ideology is at its exterminationist zenith—though even this might be wishful thinking; history contains no guarantees. Theoretical intervention is necessary now—there may not be an after.
Jake Romm is a New York City based writer, the associate editor for Protean Magazine, and the US Representative of the Hind Rajab Foundation.
Full fee: $450, Reduced fee: $250.
Or contactpsychosocial.foundation@gmail.com for scholarship information.