The Story of American Antizionism - with Shaul Kelner

Is Antizionism a Soviet invention for persecuting Jews?

Dan is joined by Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Vanderbilt University, to examine the rarely-told history of Antizionism. Kelner explains how a framework designed to deny Jewish life under Soviet rule has resurfaced in the West long before October 7 and why many American Jews were unprepared for its scale and intensity.

In this episode...

08:00: The Soviet roots of Antizionism

15:00: How Antizionism entered the West

21:00 Marxism and ideological monoculture in American universities

28:00 Why American Jews are seduced by Antizionism

32:00: Stop debating semantics

This episode was sponsored by SAPIR: Sign up for the SAPIR journal at sapirjournal.org/CallMeBack

From the episode:

- Shaul Kelner’s book, A Cold War Exodus: How Americans Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews

- Read Shaul’s article on American Antizionism in the Shalom Hartman Institute's Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas

- Attend The State of World Jewry Address at the 92nd Street Y

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Credits: Ilan Benatar, Adaam James Levin-Areddy, Brittany Cohen, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Patricio Spadavecchia, Yuval Semo