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Modern Antisemitism as Fetishized Anti-Capitalism: Moishe Postone's Theory and its Historical and Contemporary Relevance
Abstract
The enduring legacy of Moishe Postone's work in the fields of intellectual history, sociology, and social theory also finds expression in his influential theory of modern antisemitism and its role in the Holocaust. Grounded in critical reflections on Marxian thought yet unconvinced by Marxist functionalism, Postone theorizes antisemitism primarily from the perspective of (a critique of) political economy. He conceptualizes modern antisemitism as a fetishized form of anti-capitalism that reifies and personifies the abstract features of modern capitalist society. In so doing, Postone founded a new, revised critical theory framework for the study of modern antisemitism and the origins of the Shoah. For Postone, the Holocaust ought to be understood as the violent attempt to destroy “the abstract”—all actual and perceived evils of modern society associated with it—by way of annihilating the Jews. This article critically reconstructs Postone's theory of antisemitism and situates it in its multi-faceted intellectual context. Moreover, the historical and contemporary meaning of Postone's analysis is discussed against the backdrop of its broader reception and critique. It is argued that Postone, limits of his theory notwithstanding, contributes to understanding the relevance and attraction of antisemitic views across various modern political, spatial, and societal contexts—on the Right, the Left, and beyond.
... She argues that 'politics of identity' have to become self-reflexive and have to be if not replaced, then at least supplemented by a 'politics of non-identity' . In this and 2018b), Forrestier (1999), Geller (2020), König (2016), Krebbers and Schoenmaker (1999), Krebbers (2000), Müller (2002), Murphy (2018), Postone (2017), Rensmann and Salzborn (2021), Schechter (1999), Spencer (2016), Stoetzler (2018Stoetzler ( , 2019Stoetzler ( , 2021, Stögner (2017), Wheeler (2001), Worrell (1998), Ziege (2019. Adorjan (2014) only mentions antisemitism in passing but is very helpful in illustrating the Marxian side of the theory. ...
This volume provides a systematic re-examination of the Frankfurt School’s theory of antisemitism and, employing this critical theory, investigates the presence of antisemitism in 20th- and 21st-century politics and society.
Critical Theory and the Critique of Antisemitism uncovers how critical theory differs from mainstream socialist or liberal critiques of antisemitism, as it frames its rejection of antisemitism in the critique of other aspects of modern capitalist society, which traditional theories leave unchallenged or critique only in passing. Amongst others, these include issues of identity, nation, race, and sexuality. In exploring the Frankfurt School’s writings on antisemitism therefore, the chapters in this book reveal connections to other pressing societal issues, such as racism more broadly, patriarchy, statism, and the societal dynamics of the ever-evolving capitalist mode of production.
Putting the theory to practice, this volume brings together interdisciplinary scholars and activists who employ critical theory to scrutinise right- and left-wing manifestations of antisemitism. They develop, in their critique of antisemitism, a critique of capitalism, as the authors ask: why does modern capitalist society seem bound to produce antisemitism? And how do we challenge it?
At a time when the rise of populism internationally has brought with it new strains of antisemitism, this is an essential resource that demonstrates the continuing relevance of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School for the struggle against antisemitism today.
This essay offers an immanent critique of Moishe Postone’s theory of antisemitism. It argues that his account of modern antisemitism as a form of fetishistic anti-capitalism contains a decisive ambiguity. Postone oscillates between two distinct conceptions of anti-capitalism: explicit and implicit. These conceptions are conflated when Postone draws a line from his paradigm case of modern antisemitism to recent anti-imperialist criticism of particular nation-states. This conflation also allows him implicitly to suggest that anti-communism is a form of anti-capitalism. More attention to the differences between these senses of anti-capitalism could have led Postone to a richer theoretical account of the place of abstraction in the distinctively political dangers that obsessed modern antisemitism, which might, in turn, have drawn his attention in the present toward contemporary Islamophobia, rather than criticism of the US, as redolent of certain aspects of the modern antisemitic imaginary.
This article examines the current globalization of political antisemitism and its effects on the resurgent normalization of anti-Jewish discourse and politics in a global context. The focus is on three political spaces in which the “Jewish question” has been repoliticized and become a salient feature of political ideology, communication, and mobilization: the global radical right, global Islamism, and the global radical left. Different contexts and justificatory discourses notwithstanding, the comparative empirical analysis shows that three interrelated elements of globalized antisemitism feature most prominently across these different political spaces: anti-Jewish conspiracy myths; Holocaust denial or relativization; and hatred of Israel. It is argued that the current process of the globalization of political antisemitism has significantly contributed to antisemitism’s presence in all kinds of public spaces as well as the convergence of antisemitic ideology among a variety of different actors. Moreover, the globalization of political antisemitism has helped accelerate the dissemination and social acceptance of anti-Jewish tropes that currently take shape in broader publics, that is: the globalized mainstreaming of antisemitism. The article concludes by discussing some factors favorable to the globalization and normalization of antisemitism, and the resurgence of antisemitic politics in the current age. Keywords: conspiracy myths, globalization, Holocaust denial, Israel hatred, political antisemitism
This article questions the theoretical background to Jean-Paul Sartre's thesis, formulated in Anti-Semite and Jew, that antisemitism is “a free and total choice of oneself” by arguing against interpretations that emphasize the everyday meaning of the words “choice” and “responsibility,” which leads some to invoke Sartre as a key witness for the total responsibility of actors for their antisemitic attitudes. On the contrary, this article argues that antisemitism, if one takes Sartre's decisionist theory of freedom seriously, mutates into a blind, inexplicable, and incomprehensible fate, and that the alleged total responsibility for antisemitism as a mode of “bad faith” (mauvaise foi) turns into total unfreedom.
Marx notoriously claimed that Judaism was particularistic and must be sacrificed in the process of universal human emancipation. In the past few decades, some Marxists have responded to Marx's alleged antisemitism and attempted to rethink his work in relation to Jewish identity by supplementing his theory with poststructuralist critiques of universality. However, such methods risk ontologizing both Jewish identity and universal emancipation, being blind to how their conditions change historically. Moishe Postone's rereading of Marx's work enables us to avoid the political pitfalls associated with both the violent teleology of the universal and the radical indeterminacy of the particular by historicizing them in relation to capitalism. This article brings Postone's work into dialogue with other Marxists and argues that he presents a Jewish, nonteleogical reading of Marx's theory of history, which is especially relevant for us today.
By analyzing the interrelated approaches formulated in the late 1930s and early 1940s by Friedrich Pollock, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor Adorno, this chapter demonstrates that, in spite of the richness of their attempts to formulate a critical theory more adequate than traditional Marxism to the transformations of the twentieth century, these thinkers retained some of its political–economic presuppositions and, as a result, reached a theoretical impasse: in attempting to deal with a new configuration of capitalism, their approach lost its reflexivity; it no longer could account for itself as a historical possibility. This chapter examines the complex relation of classical critical theory to traditional understandings of capitalism in order to clarify the trajectory of the former and also illuminate the limits of the latter. In so doing, it points to a fundamentally different analysis of capitalism, one that—if integrated with the rich concerns of the Frankfurt School—could serve as the point of departure for a critical theory that could both be reflexive and elucidate the nature and dynamic of our global social universe.
Ziege’s book focuses primarily on the two main empirical studies carried out by Max Horkheimer’s Institute of Social Research during its exile in the United States in the 1940s: a relatively unknown and never-published study of anti-Semitism among American workers and the much better known, five-volume Studies in Prejudice. Ziege poses and successfully answers the question of why the Institute began to focus more on empirical studies and anti-Semitism in the 1940s. Her thorough archival research illuminates as never before the Institute’s relations to the main organizations that funded its ambitious empirical projects during this time: the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Labor Committee. She also provides the richest existing account of how the experience of American exile affected the Institute’s theoretical premises and empirical work. By distinguishing between the Institute’s ‘esoteric’ theoretical assumptions, which maintained a large degree of continuity with its earlier work, and a willingness to work at the ‘exoteric’ level with many scholars who didn’t share these assumptions, Ziege explains how the Institute made certain concessions to mainstream American academic culture without ever abandoning the radical intentions of Critical Theory.
in particular chapters seven and eight (145-194) on Postone's interpretation of Marx's value theory in Grundrisse and Capital respectively
- See Russell Rockwell
- Marx Hegel
- The Necessity
- Freedom Dialectic
See Russell Rockwell, Hegel, Marx, and the Necessity and Freedom
Dialectic: Marxist-Humanism and Critical Theory in the United States
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), in particular chapters seven and
eight (145-194) on Postone's interpretation of Marx's value theory in
Grundrisse and Capital respectively.
The journal Critical Historical Studies, of which Postone was a founding co-editor, has dedicated an entire issue of 13 articles to Moishe Postone's work and legacy
The journal Critical Historical Studies, of which Postone was a
founding co-editor, has dedicated an entire issue of 13 articles to Moishe
Postone's work and legacy. See Critical Historical Studies 7.1 (2020).
Threats to Modernity, Threats of Modernity: Racism and Antisemitism through the Lens of Literature
- Achinger
Achinger, "Threats to Modernity, Threats of Modernity: Racism and
Antisemitism through the Lens of Literature," in Christine Achinger
and Robert Fine, Antisemitism and Racism: Current Connections and
Disconnections (New York: Routledge, 2015), 50-68;
- Georgi See
- Verbeeck
See, for instance, Georgi Verbeeck, "Marxism, Anti-Semitism, and
the Holocaust," German History 7.3 (1989): 319-331.
- Viren Murthy
Viren Murthy, "Beyond Particularity and Universality: Moishe
Postone and the Possibilities of Jewish Marxism," Jewish Social Studies:
History, Culture, Society 25.2 (2020): 127-167, 137.
13. Ibid., 139.
14. Fine and Spencer, Antisemitism and the Left, 35.
15. Murthy, "Beyond Particularity and Universality," 127.
16. Fine and Spencer, Antisemitism and the Left, 41.
Antisemitismus als negative Leitidee der Moderne
- Salzborn
Salzborn, Antisemitismus als negative Leitidee der Moderne.
23. Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew (New York: Schocken Books,
1948), 13.
24. Ibid., 17.
The Anguish of Freedom
- Lars Rensmann
Lars Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason: The Frankfurt School and
the Origins of Modern Antisemitism (Albany: SUNY Press, 2017), 391.
26. Ingo Elbe, "The Anguish of Freedom."
27. Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, 16-17.
The Holocaust and the Trajectory of the Twentieth Century
- Moishe Postone
Moishe Postone, "The Holocaust and the Trajectory of the
Twentieth Century," 81-116.
- See Lars Rensmann
See Lars Rensmann, Kritische Theorie über den Antisemitismus
(Hamburg: Argument Verlag, 1998); and Rensmann, The Politics of
Unreason, chapter 6 (275-319).
The Politics of Unreason
- See Rensmann
See Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason, 495.
The "Marxian approach," argues Postone, "further developed by Lukács, the Frankfurt School and Sohn-Rethel, stands opposed to those one-sided reactions to traditional Marxism which have given up any serious attempt to ground forms of thought historically
- Moishe Postone
Moishe Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism" in Anson
Rabinbach and Jack Zipes, eds., Germans and Jews Since the Holocaust. The
Changing Situation in West Germany (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1986),
302-314, 311.
34. The "Marxian approach," argues Postone, "further developed by
Lukács, the Frankfurt School and Sohn-Rethel, stands opposed to those
one-sided reactions to traditional Marxism which have given up any serious
attempt to ground forms of thought historically." Postone, "Anti-Semitism
and National Socialism: Notes on the German Reaction to 'Holocaust'," 108.
35. See Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason, 495.
Anti-Semitism and National Socialism: Notes on the German Reaction to 'Holocaust'," 108. 41. Ibid. 42. For a first account, see Shulamit Volkov, The Rise of Popular Anti-Modernism in Germany. The Urban Master Artisans
- Postone
Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism: Notes on the
German Reaction to 'Holocaust'," 108.
41. Ibid.
42. For a first account, see Shulamit Volkov, The Rise of Popular Anti-Modernism in Germany. The Urban Master Artisans, 1873-1896 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).
For a good summary of this quotation, see T. S. Kord, Loveable Crooks and Loathsome Jews: Antisemitism in German and Austrian Crime Writing Before the World Wars
- Shulamit Volkov
- Jews Germans
Shulamit Volkov, Germans, Jews, and Antisemites: Trials in Emancipation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 86. For a good
summary of this quotation, see T. S. Kord, Loveable Crooks and Loathsome Jews: Antisemitism in German and Austrian Crime Writing Before the
World Wars (Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Co), 7-9.
epitomized that as well with his antisemitic turn toward the Right in 1878-1879; see Volkov, Germans, Jews, and Antisemites, 100. 51. Ibid., 100; and Shulamit Volkov
- Treitschke
Treitschke, who was previously not known for "blatant intolerance
towards Jews," epitomized that as well with his antisemitic turn toward the
Right in 1878-1879; see Volkov, Germans, Jews, and Antisemites, 100.
51. Ibid., 100; and Shulamit Volkov, "Readjusting Cultural Codes:
Reflections on Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism," Journal of Israeli History
25.1 (2006): 51-62. See also Kord, Loveable Crooks and Loathsome Jews, 8.
52. Shulamit Volkov, "Antisemitism as a Cultural Code. Reflections on
the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany,"
Yearbook of the Leo Baeck Institute XXIII (1978): 25-46, 39.
53. See Murthy, "Beyond Particularity and Universality," 135.
The same argument is more fully developed in chapter six of Time, Labor, and Social Domination
- Moishe Postone
Moishe Postone, "History and Critical Social Theory," Contemporary Sociology 19.2 (1990): 170-176, 176. The same argument is more
fully developed in chapter six of Time, Labor, and Social Domination.
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with the title "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism" in a collected volume
edited by Anson Rabinbach and Jack Zipes. See Moishe Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism" in Anson Rabinbach and Jack Zipes,
eds., Germans and Jews Since the Holocaust: The Changing Situation in West
Germany (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1986), 302-314.
And just as, depending on the constellation, the victims are interchangeable: vagrants, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, so each of them can replace the murderer . . . there is no authentic anti-Semitism, and certainly no born anti-Semite
- Barbara Fried
Barbara Fried, "Überlegungen zu einer Ideologiekritik des Antisemitismus" in Christina Kaindl, ed., Kritische Wissenschaften im Neoliberalismus (Marburg: BdWi-Verlag, 2005), 201-217, 203.
68. This is something the Critical Theorists Horkheimer and Adorno
seem to suggest, against the main thread of their argument, in the second
thesis of their "Elements of Antisemitism." They do so to support their
claims, similar to Sartre's, that antisemitism is a "blindness" directed
against those who are "unprotected" and has, as such, nothing to do
with the actual behavior of Jews but is a social problem. Horkheimer and
Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 140: "And just as, depending on the
constellation, the victims are interchangeable: vagrants, Jews, Protestants,
Catholics, so each of them can replace the murderer... there is no
authentic anti-Semitism, and certainly no born anti-Semite." For a critical
analysis, see Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason, 290.
69. Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism: Notes on the
German Reaction to 'Holocaust'," 106.
70. Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 305.
71. Postone, "The Dualisms of Capitalist Modernity," 47.
72. Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 305.
73. Ibid.
Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 309; see also Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason
- Postone
Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 309; see also
Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason, 254.
Beyond Particularity and Universality
- See Rensmann
See Rensmann, The Politics of Unreason, 254.
90. See Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 308.
91. Ibid., 311.
92. Murthy, "Beyond Particularity and Universality," 149.
93. Ibid.
94. Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 311-312.
95. Ibid., 313.
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid., 314.
98. Ibid., 305-306.
praises Postone for being "one of the few Marxists . . . who has shown how the Holocaust and other violence against Jews is inextricably connected to capitalism and how various forms of fascism and antisemitism will continue to exist as long as society remains capitalist
- For Murthy
- Instance
Murthy, for instance, praises Postone for being "one of the
few Marxists... who has shown how the Holocaust and other violence
against Jews is inextricably connected to capitalism and how various forms
of fascism and antisemitism will continue to exist as long as society remains
capitalist." Murthy, "Beyond Particularity and Universality," 159.
Verbesserungsvorschläge' für Juden? Eine gefährliche Hybris
- See Monika Schwarz-Friesel
See Monika Schwarz-Friesel, "'Verbesserungsvorschläge' für
Juden? Eine gefährliche Hybris," Hagalil.com, 19 May 2020, https://
www.hagalil.com/2020/05/mbembe-2/
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- Ibid
Ibid., 143-144.
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The Sociology of Modern Anti-Semitism
- Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons, "The Sociology of Modern Anti-Semitism" in
Der Antisemit und der Ödipuskomplex
- Béla Grunberger
Béla Grunberger, "Der Antisemit und der Ödipuskomplex,"
Psyche 16.5 (1962), 255-272.
Étude psychanalytique (Arles: Actes Sud, 1997), 299. 112. Moishe Postone
- Béla Grunberger
- Pierre Dessuant
- Narcissisme
- Antisémitisme Christianisme
Béla Grunberger and Pierre Dessuant, Narcissisme, Christianisme,
Antisémitisme. Étude psychanalytique (Arles: Actes Sud, 1997), 299.
112. Moishe Postone, "The Dualisms of Capitalist Modernity: Reflections on History, the Holocaust, and Antisemitism" in Jack Jacobs, ed.,
Jews and Leftist Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press), 43-66.
Kritische Theorie über den Antisemitismus; The Politics of Unreason, 21, 314; on "modernized antisemitism," see The Politics of Unreason, 355. 139. Postone
- Lars Rensmann
Lars Rensmann, Kritische Theorie über den Antisemitismus; The
Politics of Unreason, 21, 314; on "modernized antisemitism," see The
Politics of Unreason, 355.
139. Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism," 311.
Anti-Semitism and National Socialism: Notes on the German Reaction to 'Holocaust'," 115. 141. Ibid., 101. 142. Ibid. 143. Ibid., 102. Let us not forgot that Nazism was not a movement driven by Prussian national conservatives seeking to restore an old system
- Postone
Postone, "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism: Notes on the
German Reaction to 'Holocaust'," 115.
141. Ibid., 101.
142. Ibid.
143. Ibid., 102. Let us not forgot that Nazism was not a movement
driven by Prussian national conservatives seeking to restore an old system;
it was a revolutionary movement driven primarily by young men, from the rank and file to its leadership. This content downloaded from 80.255.5.197 on Tue
rather, it was a revolutionary movement driven primarily by young men,
from the rank and file to its leadership.
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Antisemitism Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (April 2021)
91. lars rensmann is Professor of European Politics and Society and the Director of the Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Rensmann has previously worked and taught at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
- See Raphael Schlembach
See Raphael Schlembach, Against Old Europe: Critical Theory
and Alter-Globalization Movements (New York: Routledge, 2016), 91.
lars rensmann is Professor of European Politics and Society
and the Director of the Research Centre for the Study of
Democratic Cultures and Politics at the University of Groningen
in the Netherlands. Rensmann has previously worked and taught
at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, John Cabot University
(Rome), Yale University, the University of California at Berkeley,
Haifa University, the University of Vienna, the Free University
of Berlin, and the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. His
books include The Politics of Unreason: The Frankfurt School and
Antisemitism (SUNY Press, 2017);