News
Momentum activists handed reissued book on left-wing antisemitism to avoid falling into same trap
500 free copies of the the book, written by Jewish Marxist on Steve Cohen 35 years ago, are being sent out
November 26, 2019 12:06
500 free copies of the the book, written by Jewish Marxist on Steve Cohen 35 years ago, are being sent out
November 26, 2019 12:06A classic study of left-wing antisemitism written 35 years ago by a Jewish Marxist named Steve Cohen has been reissued — partly as an attempt to educate activists associated with Jeremy Corbyn’s party on how to avoid falling into the same trap.
Steve Cohen’s book, That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Antisemitic, was first published in 1984 and has become a collectors’ item among political obsessives ever since.
The author had originally set out to write a critique of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 — but ended up stumbling across clear-cut examples antisemitism by self-described “anti-racists” within the left time and time again.
Mr Cohen, who died in 2009 and was a socialist activist primarily based in Manchester, wrote: “It is intolerable that the socialist movement has never been prepared to look at its antisemitism in a self-critical way.”
