Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Morteza Hajizadeh
Guest: Dr. Benjamin Balthaser, author of Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish Left (Verso Books, 2025)
Date: November 30, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Dr. Benjamin Balthaser on his book, Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish Left. The discussion explores the long history of anti-Zionism within American Jewish leftist traditions, challenging current perceptions that equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism or regard it as a recent phenomenon. Dr. Balthaser sheds light on the cultural, political, and moral frameworks undergirding Jewish leftist anti-Zionism, the intersections with other social movements, and the transformations of Jewish identity in the face of nationalism, imperialism, and contemporary crises.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Balthaser's Intellectual Journey

• Background & Motivation
  • Dr. Balthaser's expertise lies in multi-ethnic US literature and transnational radical cultures.
  • Inspired by his own family history of Jewish left-wing activism and experiences in early-2000s Palestine solidarity movements.
  • Noted the persistent and visible presence of left-wing Jews in contemporary and historic solidarity movements.
  • Sought to explore the "secret history" of Jewish anti-Zionism in America, paralleling work like Robin D.G. Kelley’s on Black leftist traditions.
  • (03:25): “Is there a story here that one can tell about the Jewish left in America … and the large and growing presence of a Jewish anti-Zionist movement in the United States?”

2. Anti-Zionism as a Historical Constant

• Challenging the Narrative of Newness

  • Contrary to popular belief, Jewish anti-Zionism has deep roots, especially before the mid-20th century.
  • In the early 20th century, Zionism was not the majority perspective among American Jews, particularly on the left.
  • The Jewish labor movement, exemplified by newspapers like The Daily Forward, was predominantly socialist or social-democratic.
  • Jewish American immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, were heavily involved in labor struggle and anti-capitalist politics.
  • (07:23): “Anti-Zionism or Zionism rather was not popular on the American left in the 1920s and 1930s and 1940s even, particularly in the American Jewish community.”

• Link to Broader Social Movements

  • Jewish leftists saw Zionism as an imperialist and nationalist project, often likening it to fascism.
  • Notable critics included Robert Gessner (“pink Nazis”), Nathan Zuckerman (“machine gun Judaism”), Albert Einstein (“fascists”), and Hannah Arendt (“Sparta on the sea”).
  • Zionism was strongly associated with British imperialism and seen as antithetical to leftist values of pluralism, anti-racism, and anti-fascism.
  • (09:41): “...they understood Zionism to be imperialism aligned with the British Empire... a nationalist movement. And if you were a leftist in the 1930s, nationalism was fascism.”

3. Racial Politics, Solidarity, and Multiculturalism

• Alliances Across Communities

  • Jewish leftists historically refused assimilation into “white America” and aligned with African American civil rights activists.
  • Modern parallels are drawn with today’s alliances between Jewish Voice for Peace and Black Lives Matter (BLM).
  • The 1930s-40s coalitions resemble current social justice alignments in cities like New York with diverse progressive bases.
  • (25:07): “The alignments that are constructed in New York City right now are very reminiscent of the alignments of the 1930s and 40s... You have a democratic socialist who is now mayor... and his coalition... are Jewish leftists, the black left, new immigrants.”

• Assimilation, Identity, and Pluralism

  • Jewish leftists in the 30s and 40s celebrated multiculturalism and civil rights, in opposition to ethnonationalism and assimilation.
  • Zionism’s vision of a Jewish ethnostate contrasted sharply with American Jewish leftist commitments to pluralism and anti-racism.
  • (30:00): “...for them, Zionism... was just anathema to the idea of a kind of multi ethnic pluralistic society based on social democracy, civil rights, justice, labor rights, et cetera.”

4. Evolution of American Attitudes Post-1948 & 1967

• American State and Public Shifts
  • Pre-1967, US support for Israel was less entangled with broader Zionism; pivotal change occurred after the Six Day War and Israel’s demonstration of military prowess.
  • Left-wing critique of Israel and embrace of Palestinian anti-imperialist struggle grew in visibility.
  • The concept of Palestinians as active agents, not mere victims, enters left discourse.
  • (31:29): “...this really changes the American political and military establishment. They become Zionists overnight... You start seeing the left, the new Left, the black left, start really shifting its analysis of Israel and Zionism.”

5. The Holocaust: Competing Cultural Meanings

• Memory as a Moral Framework

  • Public discourse often weaponizes Holocaust memory to suppress criticism of Israel.
  • The Jewish Left, however, drew on Holocaust remembrance as a moral imperative to oppose militarism, racism, and later, Zionism.
  • Holocaust survivors and their children (e.g., Norman Finkelstein) resisted the use of the Holocaust as a justification for Israeli policies.
  • (36:38): “One of the things that kept coming up in these interviews... was how the memory of the Holocaust inspired them to become leftists and also to engage in international solidarity and then finally to become anti Zionists.”
  • Notable quote: “We didn’t want to be good Germans or we couldn’t let it happen again… it being the Holocaust.” (from interviews, approx. 38:00)

• Statelessness and Historical Echoes

  • The statelessness experienced by Jews before and after WWII is compared to the situation facing Palestinians today.
  • (46:54): “Palestinians are literally being rendered stateless in the exact same way Jews were before and during and after World War II.”

6. Liberal Zionism and Its Contradictions

• Defining Liberal Zionism

  • Liberal Zionists support civil rights and democracy at home while endorsing a Jewish ethnostate in Israel—a contradiction increasingly recognized as untenable.
  • The post-1960s era saw liberal Zionism attempting to reconcile support for civil rights and for an exclusionary Jewish state.
  • Tony Kushner's Angels in America is analyzed as emblematic of these contradictions.
  • Peter Beinart is cited as a prominent former liberal Zionist who became an anti-Zionist.
  • (48:51): “I think one of the things we’re seeing in real time is a lot of former liberal Jewish Zionists becoming liberal anti Zionists because they realize that Zionism is not compatible, not even with leftism, but American Jewish liberalism.”

• Shift to the Political Right

  • Formerly liberal organizations like the ADL have abandoned liberalism, aligning with far-right or ethno-nationalist politics.

7. Role of Feminist and Queer Communities

• Transforming Jewish Anti-Zionism
  • Feminist and queer activists have played a key role in revitalizing Jewish anti-Zionism since the 1970s.
  • Jewish Voice for Peace is cited as a “feminist organization that has a vast queer membership.”
  • Queer and feminist critiques highlight Zionism’s masculinist, militaristic tendencies and advocate for diasporic, anti-nationalist approaches to Jewish identity.
  • (62:45): “Zionism itself was a masculinist project of basically reordering Jewish gender... [there’s] been a formulation of a kind of queer diasporic culture that is anti nationalist and then also anti gender normative.”

8. Lessons for Contemporary Leftist Organizing

• Resilience, Coalition-Building, and Adaptability
  • The Israeli war on Gaza and global crises highlight the necessity of international solidarity and flexible coalitional politics.
  • Jewish left traditions offer a model of identity and organizing built on relationality, remixing identities, and adaptive, conjunctural responses to crisis.
  • Historical examples include alliances and collective actions in Chicago and New York during the 1970s.
  • (68:12): “The left itself has no stable history, is a process without a referent, as Althusser famously said. And I think Jews... have always had to remake themselves in new countries... so there’s a long history of Jewish leftists kind of rethinking... identity not as an isomorphic presence... but as something that’s relational and in process.”
  • “One of the lessons... is that yes, capitalism continues to exploit people... and the left itself... is always in process. And Jewish Voice for Peace is a very different organization than the Communist Party... It’s rolling with it, you know.” (approx. 74:00)

Notable Quotes

• “Anti-Zionism is not new. In fact, actually in some ways the first, the title of my first chapter is When Anti Zionism was Jewish. Which is, you know, I mean, I’m being a little provocative, but Anti Zionism or Zionism rather was not popular on the American left in the 1920s and 1930s and 1940s even, particularly in the American Jewish community.” (07:23, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)
• “If you were a leftist in the 1930s, nationalism was fascism... ultra nationalism was racist, anti labor, and also again, implicitly aligned with conquest, violence, militarism, and imperialism.” (11:23, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)
• “Part of the kind of left of the 1930s in... front 40s was this kind of celebration of pluralism, multiculturalism and along with that, civil rights. And so for them, Zionism... was just anathema to the idea of a kind of multi ethnic pluralistic society based on social democracy.” (30:00, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)
• “The Holocaust for them is a metaphor basically for the machinery of... genocidal capitalism... and then you have as well Jewish activists describing Israel as engaging in a genocidal campaign against Palestinians.” (38:38, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)
• “Liberal Jewish Zionists are realizing... that Zionism is not compatible, not even with leftism, but American Jewish liberalism.” (48:51, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)
• “I think there’s been another acknowledgement too that beyond just kind of the practical questions of... feminist politics, there’s been a sense too that Zionism itself was a masculinist project of basically reordering Jewish gender.” (62:45, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)
• "The left itself has no stable history, is a process without a referent." (68:44, Dr. Benjamin Balthaser)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction and Author’s Intellectual Background – (03:09–06:19)
• Anti-Zionism as Historical Constant – (07:23–23:52)
• Racial Politics & Solidarity Movements – (23:52–31:06)
• Comparisons: Israel/US Imperialism & Apartheid South Africa – (31:06–35:41)
• The Holocaust as a Moral Framework – (35:41–46:37)
• Liberal Zionism and Its Contradictions – (48:06–59:00)
• Role of Feminist and Queer Communities – (62:01–67:02)
• Contemporary Lessons for the Left & Closing Reflections – (67:02–75:15)

Tone, Style, and Conclusion

The conversation is scholarly in tone yet direct and passionate, reflecting Dr. Balthaser’s deep personal and intellectual engagement with the material. Both the host and the guest draw on personal and historical experiences to complicate the mainstream view of Zionism, anti-Zionism, and Jewish identity.

Final Note:
Dr. Balthaser’s Citizens of the Whole World argues for understanding Jewish anti-Zionism not as a recent rupture, but as a vital tradition deeply embedded in the American left. The histories, alliances, and debates it chronicles offer guidance for current and future social movements confronting nationalism, fascism, and imperialism of all forms.