AI Summary
5 min read"Never defend": Ruth Wisse on antisemitism as a political strategy
In 1879, a German journalist named Wilhelm Marr founded the League of Antisemitism and published a book claiming Jews were taking over Germany. It sold twelve editions almost immediately. Marr insisted he was not reviving Christian anti-Judaism—this was something new. This was politics. And as Ruth Wisse explains, that distinction matters because it reveals what antisemitism actually is: not hatred, not prejudice, but a strategy for organizing political power.
Antisemitism as political organization
Wisse arrived at this view not through theory but through the Passover seder of her childhood. Her family fled Europe for Canada in 1940, and their table was filled with survivors. When the Haggadah declared "In every generation they rise against us to destroy us," the conversation turned explosive—because God had not rescued them. But Wisse noticed something else: it was not true that everyone hated Jews. Canadian law protected them. Discrimination against Black Americans in the 1950s was far worse. So the real question became political: why do some people organize their politics against Jews, while others do not?
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:04) **Introduction and Guest Welcome** - Haviv introduces Prof. Ruth Wisse, former Harvard professor of Yiddish and comparative literature, as one of his intellectual heroes.
- 2 (01:01) **Sponsorship Segment** - Club Z is introduced as a sponsor teaching Jewish teens their own history before advocacy, with a focus on college-proofing.
- 3 (04:02) **Patreon and Substack Invitation** - Haviv invites listeners to support the podcast and join monthly live Q&A sessions.
- 4 (04:27) **Opening the Thesis: Antisemitism as Political Strategy** - Wisse agrees to explain her central argument: antisemitism is not hatred but a strategy for political organization.
- 5 (11:12) **The Mechanism: The Politics of the Pointing Finger** - Wisse explains how antisemitism functions as a tool for grievance, blame, and deflection.
- 6 (16:22) **Antisemitism as Coalition Builder** - Wisse argues that the most important function of antisemitism is uniting disparate grievance groups.
- 7 (19:24) **Why the Arab World Chose Antisemitism** - Haviv asks why post-colonial Arab states organized politics around Israel instead of building competent societies.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
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Antisemitism is no mere prejudice. It's a potent political technology, perhaps the most effective negative campaign and coalition-builder in modern politics. Prof. Ruth Wisse, professor emerita of Harvard, now a senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund, joins the podcast to help us trace the “politics of the pointing finger” from Wilhelm Marr’s Antisemitenliga to the Arab League, from the Harvard campus’s grievance coalitions after October 7 to the rising figures on the progressive left and the populist right who find Jews the easiest, least costly villain on which to foist their anxieties and fears. Wisse argues that Jews cannot win this fight by trying argue with the charges being leveled at them; that Israel’s creation remains the great modern resurrection of a people; and that Jewish (and American) self-confidence is the only real answer to this challenge.
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This episode is sponsored by Club Z. I spend a lot of time on campuses talking to young Jews who call themselves anti-Zionist without being able to articulate what the word actually means — without knowing the basic history of how Israel came to exist. That's not their fault. Nobody taught them. Club Z is working to close that gap. Since 2011, they've been teaching Jewish teens their own story. They focus on identity and history before advocacy, helping to transform students' understanding of Zionism from a slogan into a real, explicable word that speaks of the survival and thriving of a nation. They run year-round programs in New York, New Jersey, Boston, LA, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and new cohorts are forming right now. You can find more info at http://ClubZ.org.
Here's the thing parents need to hear: You don't control what happens on campus. But you can college-proof your kid before they get there — give them the history, the confidence, the identity, so nobody can talk them out of who they are. That's what Club Z does for your child.
This Labor Day weekend, Club Z is bringing a hundred teens to Central Florida for The Rising, a national leadership gathering featuring speakers including Colonel Richard Kemp and Shabbos Kestenbaum. There are only about 20 spots left, and no teen is turned away for lack of funds.
Visit http://clubz.org/the-rising and use code ASKHAVIV200 for a listener discount.
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